Chapter 2
“So I’ve been noticing a pattern.” Mikey began. Frank sat further up against Mikey’s bed.
“What?”
“Every time I get a girlfriend, she always dumps me to try and get with you.”
Frank laughed. “Are you serious?”
Mikey nodded. “Angela seriously just broke up with me today. She even said she was only dating me so that she could meet you. That makes the fifth girl this year.”
Frank shook his head. “I think you should start a business. They could pay you to meet me.”
Mikey laughed. “Yeah, I’d be rich. But no, I’m still broke from Angela. They have no issue with me buying them presents at all. You know, she didn’t even tell me that she wanted to break up until after I gave her that birthday present.”
Frank rolled his eyes. He was too used to Catholic school, where all the girls thought themselves to special to date, and where no girl would even think of looking twice at him. But for some reason, Mikey’s girlfriends all loved him, and he, ironically, couldn’t stand any of them.
“All right, enough of my shitty love life problems. Are you gonna teach me the guitar or what?”
Frank nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
They had no sooner been practicing for five minutes (with Mikey persistently saying ‘stop yelling at me!’ with Frank saying through clenched teeth ‘I’m not yelling.’) when Gerard came in. Frank nearly did a double take. Gerard had a busted lip and bruises along his face, and dried blood on his shirt. Somehow, though, he managed to keep on his usual lopsided smirk.
“Holy fuck, Gerard, what happened?” Mikey exclaimed. He jumped up quickly, tossing the guitar aside and ran to Gerard’s side. Gerard bounced down onto the bed, wincing as he gritted his teeth, before looking back up.
“Mikey, you’re my little brother, and I know that you know that I would do anything for you if somebody hurt you. So if you ever killed anybody as a response to them attacking you after school, you know that I would help you hide the body, and-“
“Gerard, no.” Mikey said. He tossed Gerard a bandana, and Gerard pressed it against his lip. Frank inched away from Gerard. There was something about Gerard that scared him, besides the fact that Gerard seemed to hate him.
“Come on, Mikey, as a brother.” Gerard asked. “I mean, I just need to know you would help me if I needed it.”
“And what’s gonna happen when you get suspended for fighting again and Dad finds out?” Mikey countered.
The room grew deadly silent. Frank shifted uncomfortably as Mikey and Gerard stared at each other, their eyes saying something that Frank couldn’t see. Frank felt like an intruder, an outsider. He knew he didn’t belong there.
“Frank, could you please leave for a minute?” Mikey asked. Frank nodded, jumping up, too quickly and left. He waited in the hallway, but suddenly, he just wanted to know what they were talking about. He leaned against the door, pressing his ear against the space.
“You got suspended three times already, Gerard. You know how dad will react to this.” Mikey said slowly.
“Yeah, well I didn’t fight back this time and look what happened. And I know, I know.” Gerard added. “The school sees me the exact same way that they see me- the crazy weird emo art fag. Everyone seems to think that I deserve it.”
“You’re not, though and you don’t.”
"Yeah, and you're the only one that thinks that, Mikey."
"Come on, Gee."
There was a pause. Then Frank could hear some voices again, but they were too low to understand what they were saying. Finally, Frank walked back in. Gerard and Mikey were sitting closer together on the bed, but as soon as he came in, they both stopped talking.
“You know, maybe you oughta just…” Frank began hesitantly.
“Save it.” Gerard said coldly. He got up and started to leave. “I don’t need the lecture.”
He turned back to Mikey. “Forget I said anything, Mikey. Nobody gives a shit besides you. And I can handle it. You know I can.”
“I don’t know anything.” Mikey responded. They stared at each other again. Gerard broke the silence first.
“Come to my room later, after your little friend. We’ll both just avoid him.” And then Gerard shoved past Frank and left.
Mikey was quiet, his eyes darting past the door again. “Maybe you should go home. I mean, I think I should be with Gerard right now.”
“Why does he hate me so much?” Frank suddenly asked. Stupid! He thought suddenly. Now he just sounded whiny and annoying. The guy just gets beat up at school and this is all I think to ask? Stupid!
Mikey looked away. “He doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t trust you.” They both didn’t say a thing and then Frank got up. “You go talk to him. I’ll just go home. We can hang out tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Mikey said a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes on his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Notes

I'm really bad at descriptions, I'm sorry