Out There

I waited out the front of the school under the giant oak tree for my friend Mikey- hopefully he would come soon, rain was absolutely pissing down and the bell would be ringing soon. We met at this tree every morning before school, no matter what the weather. A black car drove past and parked in the staff parking lot, but my gaze never shifted from the strip of road out the front of the school. This wasn't a good start to the beginning of the school year, nearly soaking under a tree, and I directly blamed Mikey for that. I heard two car doors slam, which was unusual because no teacher carpooled at my school, I turned my head to see Mikey muttering to Mr. Way, while stepping out of his car, a wave of uncertanty washed over me as I watched Mikey get his bag from the back seat, and Mr. Way put out his cigarette and toss it into a bin.
Mikey looked around, assumably looking for me- and we made eye contact, he gave me a small smile, shut the car door and quickly jogged over to me- trying to protect his long messy hair and glasses from the rain with his right hand. Mr. Way looked over to us, raised an eyebrow then vanished behind a building, to what I think was the staff entrance.
"Hey." Mikey greeted me, slightly out of breath and damp.
"Hey loser." I smiled, punching him in the arm. "Thanks for making me wait." I joked.
"Any time, nerd." he shot back with a wink, turning to the student enterance of the school.
"So, any reason you just got out of our English teacher, which you constantly complain about's car?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. We ran to shelter in the hellhole they call school.
"Oh right. He's uh, my brother." Mikey replied nervously, running a hand through his hair to try and dry it.
It took a moment for me to make the connection, and it suddenly made sense.
"And you never told me? Gosh Mikey, I thought we were friends." I teased.
"You know how the girls would get, they're so obsessed with him. I don't want any part in that." Mikey laughed, approaching our lockers.
"Yeah, yeah. Imagine Emily. D if she found out." I chuckled. Emily Dacey was possibly the most obsessed in the Mr. Way fan club, if you watched her during classes you could see her taking photos of him on her phone, or staring at him. There was a rumour that she had photos of him stuck on the inside of her locker, and that she doodled his name, 'Gerard' all over her textbooks. Other girls did that too, but what really topped it off was how she acted around him. Every time he makes a statement which is remotely humorous she bursts out laughing, she would ask if he was available for after school tutoring and often act out so she would receive detentions with him. It was disgusting.
Mikey being pushed into snapped me out of my train of thought. It was Brett, possibly the biggest douche alive. Brett constantly hassled Mikey and myself- I don't know why. We weren't in 6th grade, this was our last year of high school, I would have thought people would have snapped out of their 'I'm insecure about myself so I'm gonna bully others' mindset after 8th grade but apparently not, Brett. "Faggot!" Brett called from down the hall.
"Last year we were fucking each other, now I'm a faggot? Brett's really indecisive." Mikey joked, but he did look sad and tired of being pushed around all the time.
"Why don't you tell your brother…" I began asking.
"What would he do about it? Tell Brett off? We've tried that Aeida, those jerks just don't care if they get in trouble." he hissed angrily.
I resisted the urge to argue and shrugged, knowing how stubborn Mikey was. I opened up my locker and checked my timetable and got the appropriate books. The bell rang and I was off to biology, I was… friends, I guess with a girl named Jessica in that class. Since Mikey wasn't in my class for biology, I had been forced to sit alone. Luckily, there was a fellow outcast- Jessica, she was one of those incredible artsy types- and we sat next to another. I sat down at our table and greeted her with a quiet 'hello.' before cracking open my books and diving right into study.
Eventually the bell went, and I gave a parting smile to Jessica and headed over to music, where I'd be reunited with Mikey.
On my way there, I passed Mr. Way. I supposed I stared at him, comparing his face to Mikey's. He gave me a polite smile- probably used to girls gawking at him and then that was the end of that. I walked into the music classroom and sat in my seat, waiting for Mikey to join me. Our teacher began welcoming everyone to another year of music, and briefly going over what we'd cover this year when Mikey came in. He apologised for being late to our teacher and took a seat. He looked pretty pissed off, and he was soaking wet- dripping onto the table. After the teacher stopped talking I gave him a concerned glance, asking what had made him so wet, and late.
"Brett." he muttered, and that's all I needed to know. Brett would always grab Mikey and abuse the water fountains so he'd be covered, and with the rain the way it was- I'm assuming Brett had used that to his advantage. Brett needed to be stopped, and if Mikey wasn't gonna do something- I would. I just didn't know how yet.
Mikey was teaching me some song on the electric guitars when he abruptly stopped and looked up at me. "You won't tell anyone, about Gerard being, y'know…" he trailed off. It took me exactly 7 seconds to put together that Gerard was Mr. Way, and Mikey wouldn't want me to tell anyone that they were related. I sometimes count things, weird habit.I smile spread across my face and I laughed, but Mikey's pleading expression remained unchanged. "I don't have anyone to tell, you loser." I giggled. His expression softened and a gave a giggle too. It was rare I saw Mikey genuinely happy, and sometimes that really scared me. It was times like this when it was just him and I, playing guitar and giggling that his eyes looked truly happy. He looked okay. I knew Mikey was depressed, one night on our school camp, I had opened up to him about my eating disorder- which I've kicked, by the way, and he spilled everything about hating himself, and how Brett made him want to die, and how unhappy he was with his life. He promised me he was doing better, but a part of me knew he wasn't.
"See you've got it! Do it again." Mikey cheered, as I copied the pattern of chords he was teaching me. Mikey began screeching out the words to the song.
"Die, die, die my darling! Don't utter a single word. Die, die, die my darling! Just shut your pretty mouth!" I joined in at this point. "I'll be seeing you again, I'll be seeing you in hell!" and we continued jokingly rocking out to the song, with my playing the best I could to The Misfits. Before we knew it, the bell had rung and we slowly made our way out of class. "Good work today, you two." our music teacher said to Mikey and myself. I felt my face heat up with embarrassment, but Mikey let out a laugh and slung his arm around my shoulders.

Mikey watched my bite out of my sandwich, like he always did before taking a bite out of his. I knew he was just looking out for me, but sometimes it bothered me how he'd always make me eat, sometimes I just wasn't hungry. "So do you wanna come round to my house after school so I can teach you the rest of that song?" Mikey asked, with his mouth half full. "Sure." I said. "Why don't I ever see Mr. Way when I'm at your house. I'm always there." I added, speaking my mind, something I only felt comfortable doing with Mikey. He paused for 13 seconds before replying. "I tell him to stay in his room because you're over." I muttered, and I felt my face drop. "Why? That's a bit confining. It wouldn't weird me out, Mikey." I asked, and Mikey just stared at his sandwich. "I don't know, okay? Just drop it." he said. I put my sandwich down and grabbed my phone out, our conversation was over. I folded my arms and scrolled through my twitter. The bell went and I Mikey groaned, I shot him a concerning glance then instinctively scoped out the area, incase Brett had thrown something at us. I looked back to Mikey to see he was just checking his timetable. "We have English." he explained, folding his timetable then sliding it back in his pocket. What a drama queen.
Mr. Way was already inside. We shuffled into English and Mikey and I sat down in our usual seats, and I pulled out my book and got ready to take notes. "You're a nerd." Mikey mutterd, poking me in the cheek. "Shut up, loser." I retorted, but I couldn't help but grin at him. The rest of the introduction lesson went well, except Mikey would groan and complain about Mr. Way being cocky and arrogant whenever he spoke, and Emily D and the rest of the Mr. Way fan club giggling from the back of the classroom.
The class was quietly taking notes, even the fan club had stopped giggling- and the bell went. "Mikey, can I see you after class for a minute?" Mr. Way asked, not looking up from whatever paper he was reading. Mikey let out another groan and I promised to wait for him outside. I waited by the door, but I could hear everything they were saying.
"I know you wouldn't willingly take my class, Mikey." Mr. Way sighed, probably turning to look up at Mikey.
"Only my friends can call me Mikey, Gerard. You call me Michael." Mikey snapped, sounding disinterested and bored.
"Why are you taking my class, Michael? And if you call me Gerard, I will call you Mikey. I am your teacher, you call me Mr. Way." I'd never heard Mr. Way sound so serious before, he sounded… well, like a teacher. I found it odd that the only time Mr. Way sounded professional was with his own brother, obviously they had some issues between them.
"You know why, sir." Mikey sighed. It was silent for 9 seconds and then Mr. Way let out a sigh.
I fell forward when the door of the classroom opened, falling straight into Mr. Way. My face started heating up again, and I fumbled to regain my composure. "S-sorry, sir." I apologised, grabbing onto the door frame. Mr. Way seemed flustered too, and didn't say anything. Mikey emerged from behind him, grabbed my arm and led me to general maths, out next class.
"What did he want?" I asked, pretending like I hadn't heard their brief argument. My mind wondered to why Mikey was actually in that class. Was it because of me?
"He was just letting me know that mum wouldn't be home tonight." Mikey replied, casually. Why was he lying?
"Oh." Was all I said.

The rest of the day flew by, Brett made no more appearances, but I was acting skeptical towards Mikey, still confused as to why he had lied to me about what himself and Mr. Way had discussed. The last bell rang, and Mikey and myself made our way out. I didn't bother texting my mum to let her know I was going to Mikey's, she couldn't care less, so we just began walking, when another questioned popped up. "Why doesn't Mr. Way drive you home?" I paused. "And why did he only drop you of this morning and not any other morning for the passed years?" I questioned. A frustrated expression grew upon Mikey's features. "What part of 'I don't want anyone to know' don't you understand?" he snapped. "And it was raining to hard this morning, and I would be late- Gerard wouldn't let me walk. He's such an ass." he added. That was hardly ass-y to me, but I kept quiet, I figured their relationship was complicated, and I didn't want to get in the middle of it. I thought about asking why he was actually in my class for English, but I didn't say anything on the ground of not wanting to be suspicious. So instead, Mikey and I just talked about the new Mexican fast-food place opening up in the mall. We arrived to the Way residence in no time, to see Mr. Way's car was already there. "That speedy bastard." Mikey muttered to the shiny black car.

"Race you to my room?" Mikey asked, his eyes wide. "You're on." I remarked, and dashed up the stairs, eager to beat Mikey. He was right beside me, and just as I reached the door of Mikey's room, about to claim victory, other door opened. "Mikey, can you please-" Mr. Way stood shirtless about 3 metres away from me. "Oh, hello Aeida." he greeted. I gave him a nod, as I felt Mikey sling an arm around me. "Put on a fucking shirt." Mikey hissed, then pulled me into his room. I took my usual seat on his bed, and he plonked down on his desk chair. "He's such a douche, he totally know you'd be over." he sighed, seemingly exhausted. I decided not to acknowledge what he had said and teased him. "I won that though, I was at your door first." Mikey's head perked up and a grin spread across his mouth. "You so did not. Nerd's don't win races." he teased, getting up and sitting next to me on the bed. "Correction, nerds come first, and losers lose- in this case, the race." I taunted. He shook his head, smiling at the floor when Mr. Way made an entrance, again. This time, with a shirt. "Mikey, can you please go down the store and pick up the stuff off the list mum left us?" he requested, sounding much like he did in class- casual.
"Why can't you? Aeida's over." Mikey sulked.
"Because I'm busy with work, and yes I can see- even without my glasses." Mr. Way chuckled. I felt Mikey tense, he was getting pissed for no reason.
"Y-y'know Mikey I needed to go down to the store anyway." I said. I wasn't lying exactly, we did need food at home, but I didn't need to go. Mikey shot me a suspicious glance.
"See, problem solved. The list is on the counter." Mr. Way smiled pleasantly, shutting Mikey's bedroom door.
"Could you please not be a dick for one day in your fucking life, Gerard!?" Mikey shouted at the door, totally uncalled for. I suddenly felt sick, queasy at Mikey's obvious disrespect for his brother. I would kill to have a sibling, someone who cared about me. "We don't have to go." Mikey said, looking at me. "I have to get stuff, for my mum." I lied again. "No you don't. You don't even talk to your mum." He sassed, and I felt even more sick. Mikey knows he can't bring my mum up, that's sensitive for me, extremely sensitive. "Oh sh- sorry. I didn't mean to, I just-" Mikey began to apologise. "Forget it, I might just go- I have to study anyway, I'll see you tomorrow." I said, making my way to his bedroom door. "Please don't go, I'm sorry Aeida I didn't mean to piss you off, it's just he was being such a dickhead." Mikey whined. I turned to him, with my eyebrows furrowed, he was standing pretty close to me now. "He was being a dickhead? Mikey, he asked you to go down to the store! On behalf of your mum, he has a job and no doubt is swamped with work from the first day! You can't blame everything on your brother Mikey!" I lectured, folding my arms. "It's just… ah shit." he sighed. "It's just he knew I didn't want him to interrupt us today."
I shook my head at his rudeness, and he continued talking, staring at the carpet. "Because, I wanted to ask you something, specifically today." he finally looked up to me. "Aeida, I've liked you for ages- y'know, I'm sure you know that-" I did not know that. "-and I didn't want to spend my last year in high school just not knowing. I was thinking-" I was starting to feel sick again, knowing what was about to happen. I started to feel oddly happy. "Would you be my girlfriend? If you wanted to?" he finally asked. There was a 6 second silence, then I gave him a hug. "Sure, you loser." I felt happy, but I also felt so wrong. He was my best friend, I just felt off. Maybe it would just take some getting used to.


A/N: Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you enjoyed :) also this is a Gerard fic, but Mikey plays a big part in it. (>.>) wowowooooo.

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