“I lay up in a bed of resistance, chained to either side...” My cell phone was ringing. I answered.

“Hello?”
I immediately recognized the voice. Gerard. I tried to say something but I couldn't.
“Frank, you there? It's Gerard.”
“Oh, hi Gerard. What's up?”, I finally said.
“I'm at the hospital”.
“What happened?”, I immediately asked. “You okay?”
“Yes, I'm okay. But Mikey's not okay.”
“What happened to Mikey?!”, I asked, almost yelling.
“Well, yesterday he went to God-knows-where, like at 4:30 pm, and...”
“And what?!”, I asked, desperate.
“Well, you know Alicia, right?”, he asked me.
“Alicia?”, I replied, confused.
“Yes, Alicia. Alicia Simmons. Mikey has always liked her, but hadn't dared to ask her out. Apparently he finally did, because Matt Good, her ex, followed Mikey and beat him up”, he said.

Alicia Simmons... her name is familiar to me... but from where? Oh, now I remember. Ronnie's classmate. I remember classes started at 9 am but I arrived at 7:30 am so I decided to wander around the campus. I had an hour and a half to find my way if I got lost anyway. I found Ronnie, sitting on the stairs of the back entrance, smoking. We started talking about random stuff and then this girl Alicia arrived. She has long brown hair with white chunks. She was wearing a white Halestorm t-shirt, a navy blue skirt, black leggins and navy blue Vans. She's pretty, I have to admit it.

But I digress... I asked Gerard the hospital's address and room number. I took a quick shower. My original plan was to take the first clothes I saw and put them on but then I remembered Gerard was gonna be there so I chose my outfit more carefully. A For Today t-shirt, blue ripped jeans and, of course, my only pair of Converse. I tried to make my hair look acceptably messy, whatever that means. I took my backpack and I ran to the garage.

Oh, I forgot. I don't have a car... not anymore. I crashed it. Fuck.

So I had to enter the house again, leave through the front door and go to the bus stop.

And wait. Half an hour. At best. As usual.

Dammit.

My Darkest Days' show is tomorrow. Three blocks from here. If it was today, I'd have time to attend and stay until the end and then leave and I'm sure not one fucking bus would have showed up during my absence. Ha. Or rather, fuck.

I sat down and I started thinking of other options. Taxi? No, payday hasn't arrived yet. It's the day after tomorrow. Go on foot? No, the hospital is on the other side of the city. Ask a friend for a ride? But which friend? Let's see... Oliver? No, he's gone for the weekend. He went to Atlanta, I think. Sonny? Of course not! He fucking crashed his car too! Ronnie? He hasn't bought one yet, he still doesn't have enough money. Andy?

I immediately took my cell phone out of my backpack. It slipped away from my hands and fell down. Oh, no... Wait, it still works. Thank God. Well, let's call Andy then.

Notes

I bet you didn't expect this. I didn't, either.
Poor Mikey...

Thanks for reading, tell me what you think.