The Paper Kingdom

Chapter Eight

“So what kind of food do you want?” I asked Mikey, walking out of the apartment.

“I know you want pizza. There’s a place just down the street.” Mikey lived in a really nice apartment in a better part of town than I did. I wondered what he did for a living. “I’m a lawyer, by the way.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s boring.”

“I thought so too, but it’s surprisingly awesome. And I have a really nice cottage in Canada where I go in the summer. I’m single and crap, so I don’t need a house or anything. Apartment is all I need.” Mikey smiled. God, he was cute, but a bit annoying and not that appealing to me.

“So you like your job because you make money? That sounds pretentious.”

“At least I’m open about what I do? What do you do? It feels like one big secret, I can’t even find out from your face. You a hooker or something? Cause if you are, that’s kind of awesome and a little gross-”

I wanted to claw my own eyes out of my face just to shut Mikey up. “I’m not a hooker.” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m a computer hacker.”

“No way.” Mikey said, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, I mean, I learned how to hack when I was a teenager. My parents used online banking so if I ever needed money, I’d just steal some shit from my dad. Then I got hired by this Swedish guy and we Skype and I write detailed profiles of people by hacking into your computer. And then he sends me enough cash that I’ll never have a problem.”

“Wanna just hack away all my fucking credit card debt from my twenties?”

This was so typical and I wasn’t in the mood. I slapped him across the side of his face.

“I was kidding!” Mikey said, a little red mark on the side of his face. It matched the one Gerard had given me just a little while ago.

“I know.” I said and we kept walking, a bit more quietly now, into the restaurant.

We got a table for two, which reminded me of the sushi I’d had just a day ago. It wasn’t by the window, it was near the kitchen. I could smell the pizza oven.

“Sorry about.” I hinted to his face.

“Sorry my brother’s a psycho.” He said, looking at the darker mark on my face. I shrugged my shoulders. “He’s not a bad guy, he’s just inconsistent. I guess if you stick around, you’ll notice that. He’s so talented you know. A real artist and a good singer too. He just goes from being really quiet to like taking way too many of his anti-depressants and running down the street singing The Smiths.”

I chuckled a bit, the thought of Gerard high was sort of strange. I saw him as a pretty clean cut kind of guy, at least compared to me. But I suppose most people were more clean cut than me.

“I guess most people are pretty inconsistent.” I said, browsing through the menu. Quattro Fromagio with capers, Pizza Bianca. I was out of my element. This was some sort of restaurant for foodies. I seriously just wanted a slice of pizza, with maybe some black olives. “That’s what keeps us from being robots, our inconsistencies.”

“You are so right.” Mikey said, flipping through the menu as well. “You’ll like the Pizza Marina. Goat cheese, olives, and apricots. It’s good.”

“Wanna split it?” I closed my menu and made eye contact with Mikey.

“Yeah sure.” Mikey said, closing his menu as well. “Wine, beer, or soft drinks?” I contemplated it for a minute. Wine was kind of a dinner thing, beer reminded me of high school, and I wasn’t a soft drinks person.

“Let’s get like, Cosmo’s or something.” I teased.

Mikey raised his eyebrows. “Cosmo’s are awesome. Not knocking that.” He looked at me for a few seconds. “Does Gerard know you’re a grade A junkie.”

Of course he could just tell. I seriously wish someone could just kill this guy. He can literally get inside my head.

“No. Of course he doesn’t.” I said, staring at the flickering chandelier on the ceiling. “But, if he were to somehow, acquire that information, how would he react?”

Mikey thought about this for a while. “Depends on which Gerard you’re talking to. If he actually likes you, he’ll try to help you. He’s pretty protective. Almost killed some guy who was teasing me in high school. Our mom had to pretty much suck the principal’s dick to get Gerard out of that mess.”

“Your mom sucked the principal’s dick?” I laughed, a little confused.

“No. No.” Mikey shook his head. “It’s an expression.”

The waiter approached us. A tall, tan man with a bit of stubble and short brown hair. A ten, and me and Mikey both took notice. “Hello, I’m Jimmy, and I’ll be your waiter today. Can I start you guys off with something to drink?”

I looked up at him. “Two Cosmo’s.” It was the middle of the day. He looked confused and I raised an eyebrow as if to say not to fuck with me. He just walked off to get us our alcoholic beverages.

“I’m calling bullshit on Gerard actually being okay.” I said, wanting a cigarette pretty badly. “He’s going to do something stupid.”

“Probably.” Mikey mumbled. “He’ll probably just get shit faced and come crying to one of us at two in the morning. He’s a thirty-seven year old baby.”

“Hopefully he doesn’t kill anyone.”

“Unless it’s drunk driving, Gee couldn’t kill anyone.” Mikey said.

“You just said he almost killed someone when you were in high school!” I exclaimed. Why did it feel like everyone was hiding something?

“That was a long time ago. He was super teen-angsty. He sure as hell isn’t really teen or angsty anymore.”

Jimmy came with the drinks in their fancy cups with a lime wedge on the drink.

“Cheers, to not dealing with the aftermath of your brother till way later.” I said raising my glass and Mikey raised his, the glasses hitting each other and making a small sound. It sounded like an unspoken promise. I didn’t know if I liked Mikey, and most people really didn’t like me but we were going to deal with Gerard at least.

Two more Cosmo’s, a few more of those stolen Valiums, and a massive pizza later, me and Mikey stumbled out of the restaurant. That sexy fuckhead Jimmy kicked us out for being too drunk but we’d already finished eating so fuck it.

My phone rings. It’s the default beep. I never had the chance to change it to some song that I cared about. Music tastes change so often and so quickly for me, by the time I’d set a song as my ringtone, I already hated that fucking song.

“Hey.” I said, trying to stick to one word sentences because with the pills and the booze me and Mikey have shared, I was pretty wasted.

“Juliet?” It was Gerard but his voice seemed different. Higher pitched and a bit more manic. Or that was just the drugs.

“Gerard?” I answered.

“Want to, hang out maybe?”

“Sure.”

“Get Mikey to drive you to my place, kay?”

“By hang out you mean-?” He meant sex right? Or was he sad? Or both?

“Whatever you want it to mean.” I don’t know what I want.

“See you soon.” I said, a little smile on my face.

“Bye sweetheart.”

After forcing Gee’s address out of Mikey, neither of us in any state to drive anywhere, I got a taxi to the address.

Gerard lived in a very residential, safe, boring neighborhood. I guess he never moved after Bandit died, which makes sense, I suppose. He actually lived just about 20 minutes away from Helene’s place. Interesting.

I rang the doorbell and was greeted by a black haired, wide-eyed, shirtless, Gerard who was wearing flannel pyjamas and smoking a cigarette. He had a black eye and a cut on his lip. What a character. He looked so fucking insane, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I know, I look like shit.” He said, nervously kissing my cheek, before pulling away. “I guess we’re all just bruised and ugly but at least we’re together darling.”

That was his monologue before leaning in for a kiss, and if it wasn’t unsettling enough, there was a small splatter of blood behind his left ear and there didn’t look like there was a cut there.

Who’s blood was that?

Notes

this is literally a long filler, just to see what page juliet and mikey are on with gerards actions

do you ship juliet and gerard? like am i making them shippable or are they both too...crazy?

anyways, comment if you want to make my day :)

xxxx