Forever is a Long Time . . .

My next class passed slowly. Not only was it Spanish, the most torturous subject on the planet, but it was my last class before lunch. My lunch block was really the only part of the day I looked forward to at all. I mean, sure, Frank and I had physics together and Ray was in my math class but that was different; you actually had to do work there.

The moment the bell rang letting us out, I jumped up and raced out of the classroom. I couldn’t wait to get out of the school, even if it was just outside and only for an hour. I’d felt like I hadn’t seen the guys that much lately so every moment with them counted.

On my way outside I spotted Mikey looking lost.

“Hey Mikey.” I greeted him as he turned to me, flashing a huge, kiddish grin.

“Hi Paige.” Mikey and I didn’t really have the closest relationship but I still considered him to be another one of my brothers and I liked to think that he viewed me as his older sister. At least that’s what I told myself.

Since Mikey was three years younger than the rest of us, he was still a freshman and hadn’t really learned his way around the school yet. I didn’t want to think of what would become of Mikey when we all graduated at the end of the year, leaving him all alone in this big bad school. We were his protectors and guardians, and although we were sure Mikey would be able to hold his own come next year, we were still sad to have to leave him.

“You gonna sit with us today?” I asked nonchalantly instead of straight up asking him if he was lost, which I was certain he was. Mikey nodded back to me and we walked together to the big oak tree on the side of the building. We had kind of claimed it as our own over the years and no one else really tried to take it from us; I guess they figured it had already been contaminated with our outcast-ness.

When we turned the corner I saw that Ray and Bob were already there. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” Ray asked before we even had the chance to sit down.

“Pretty good, yourself?” I replied, setting down my bag beside me on the bench while Mikey scooted over, leaving a space for Gerard. They always sat next to each other; as if they didn’t live together or anything.

Ray and Bob confirmed that their days had been going, well, as average as it gets. Nothing really interesting happened at school; it was always at Frank’s or Gerard’s house where we’d have any real fun.

Speak of the devil, Gerard and Frank came waltzing over, noses buried in a comic book, a few minutes later. Thanks to Gerard and Mikey, we’d all acquired a love of comic books, though mine wasn’t nearly as strong as the rest of the guys’.

“Hey you two. Better watch where you’re walking,” I joked to grab their attention before they mindlessly ambled into the side of the table. They looked up from their book and smiled at all of us. Gerard marked the page and put away the comic before sitting down at the spot next to his brother. Frank came over to my side of the table and sat himself next to me.

He put his arm around my shoulder, giving me a half-hug greeting. I smiled at him and put my arm around his waist as best I could given my current, somewhat squished, position. After a moment of uncomfortable hugging, we returned to our normal, non-contorted postures.

“So,” Gerard started a conversation. “You’re all coming over for movies tonight, right?”

Every few weeks, we all liked to get together and watch scary movies. We all loved horror films more than the average teenager should, but then again, we were far from average.

We really weren’t so different from the other kids in our school. We hung out, watched movies, made music, and joked around; all pretty normal stuff, but most kids in our school never saw that far. They’d give us one look and automatically, they’d judge us. They’d see us walking into school in our dark clothes and skinny jeans and we’d hear them mumbling under their breath to each other names like ‘emos’ and ‘freaks.’

There was really nothing too weird about us; maybe except for the fact that Bob and Frank each had their lips pierced, but I mean, everyone’s got to have a personality. It’s like the other kids in our school thought it was wrong to express yourself. Stupid, I know.

As for me, I had naturally straight, longish brown hair with bangs I’d cut myself swooping to the side. This was weird, considering almost everybody else in my family, including Joshua, had super curly, super thick hair. My green eyes were my most notable feature being a pale, almost jade color. That was also bit odd because everybody else in my family had really, really dark brown eyes that some might say looked almost black. Sometimes we'd make jokes about how I wasn't actually related to them but it was just a dumb story; aside from our hair and eye colors, I did look just like Josh after all.

Despite my tiny figure and the fact that I've never been fat in my entire life, I still somehow ended up with huge chipmunk cheeks. When I smiled, my cheeks were the first thing people would notice. Speaking of smiles, mine was relatively average. I’d had braces for four agonizing years, so my teeth were pretty straight, but since I never bothered to wear my retainer, I had a slight gap between the two front ones. I didn't mind it though, it gave me character.

“Ugh, no, not again.” Mikey complained to Gerard.

“Oh come on, Mikey. It’s not that bad.”

“Yes, it is.” Mikey was notorious for absolutely hating scary movies. He’d sit in the basement with all of us, hiding behind a stack of pillows, torturing himself by watching the blood and the gore on the screen. The only reason he stuck around was to hang out with us and his brother, otherwise he’d be as far away from the basement, and the horror movies it housed, as possible.

“God, sometimes I wonder how you’re even my brother.” I laughed a little at the Way boys’ bickering. Though they were best friends, they still knew how to argue like brothers.

Mikey finally agreed to put himself through another round of scary movies and probably another sleepless night, earning him a smile and tousling of his hair by Gerard.

I was excited to spend some outside-of-school time with my boys. School wasn’t terrible for us, but if it wasn’t already obvious, it wasn’t pleasant either. We weren’t necessarily bullied, but we weren’t the most popular kids at school and the occasional, sideways comment wasn’t exactly unusual. It’s nice to just get away from it sometimes.

We set the plans to go over Gerard’s house later that night and when the bell rang, prompting us to head off to our next class and ride out the rest of our boring day, we all said goodbye to each other. I told the guys I’d see them later then walked off with Ray to go to math.

At the end of the day I grabbed my books from my locker and went outside to meet Frank by his car. I could have caught a ride home with Joshua, but I’d much rather sit in the car and converse with my best friend than endure the inevitable, awkward silence between me and my brother.

We were never super close, in fact we were polar opposites, so conversation never came easily between us. He’d probably be driving some cheerleader home and I’d most likely just end up going over to Frank’s house anyway.

When I met Frank in the parking lot, he was leaning against his car, smoking a cigarette and looking down at a rock that he was kicking back and forth. He hadn’t seen me coming up and he got a little startled when I suddenly kicked the rock away from him.

“Hey, you ruined my game.” He faked being mad before smiling at me and taking another pull of his smoke. I laughed and replied sarcastically, “Woops, sorry. You ready to go?” He nodded his head and took one last drag in before tossing the spent cigarette remains away and releasing his breath, letting out a white cloud of smoke. He got into the drivers’ side and I walked around and opened the passenger door before slipping in.

Frank started the car and turned on the radio, the Misfits playing through the speakers. We didn’t really talk much on the way to Frank’s house because he always complained that talking made him lose his focus on driving, yet for whatever reason, Glenn Danzig never distracted him.

Notes

Me again, and yes, I am aware that it is, in fact, a NOT-Friday and that I've already posted yesterday, but I'm also aware of how ambiguous and introductive the first chapter was, so why not put up another one? I don't normally post on not-Fridays so, y'all should feel special. Hope you enjoy the reading and let me know whatcha think!!

P.S. I don't own the Misfits or Glenn Danzig