The Thing About Pain

Mikey Way stood in front of us, his bass in hand and a grin across his face. His hair was styled in a more or less slightly emo fashion, but his geekiness stuck to him, and there was no stopping it. His Anthrax shirt hung off his frame as if it were two sizes too big for him, and his jeans hung off his hips. His awkwardness beamed from him and you could tell he was a little nervous. He walked up the the centre of the room and cleared his throat, while pushing his glasses up. He emit a nervous chuckle and addressed us all. His voice was extremely quiet and mouse like. I couldn't tell if he was too afraid to speak, or just intimidated by some of the people here.

"Hi, I'm Mikey." He made an effort to wave at half the creeps, and sociopaths in the room. Some were even psychopaths (like Bert for example). "Uh.. We'll be playing some Joy Division... And uh... The Pixies." Mikey finished. There were murmurs across the room about the given bands, speaking about how great they are, or how someone doesn't know it. "Uh, preferably, She's Lost Control by Joy Division, and Dead! by The Pixies. If everyone could pick up their instruments, then we'll begin." Gerard grabbed a microphone, I kept my Les Paul. Alex, took a guitar, while Hayley and Bert took microphones. Bob set himself up with percussion. We were about to begin, when Ray walked in. He stumbled on a few cords, and wires, but after it was fine.

"Hey, sorry. I just got transfered to this group and-" He looked up at Mikey, and a blush fell across his face. It crept up from his neck, and finished by burning itself onto his cheeks. His pupils were dilated and his heart rate had greatly increased. I noticed that his palms started to become a little sweaty, as he wiped them on his shirt, and somehow, he managed to pull the biggest lopsided smile I've ever seen. "Sorry, I uh... I'm Ray." He looked down at his Converse and went to pick up a guitar. So he played? We'll find out how good he is.

"It's okay." Mikey lightly smiled. "We were just about to begin. She's Lost Control by Joy Division, and Dead! by The Pixies are my choices. I'm Mikey by the way." And he winked. Mikey. Winked. At. Ray. He then turned to the whole group and spoke. "Okay, let's begin. Frank, you're the main distortion guitar, I'm bass, Ray, you're the second distortion guitar. Frank plays part one, and you play part two. Bob, you do what you can with the shit percussion they gave you. It's nothing like it should be, the rest of you, just sing." With that we all began to play the song She's Lost Control and it sounded pretty damn good. As everyone began to sing along it got so much better, but to me, nothing really mattered as long as I got to hear Gerard's voice.
We finished off soon enough and we all cheered because, despite the fact that this was a room of majorly fucked up people, we were all talented, and thanks to Mikey, we were brought together in a new way. Next we moved on to Dead! by The Pixies, and I couldn't help but smile at how enthusiastic everyone was to actually play this song. Once we finished off, we had an open jam session, meaning we could all do whatever we wanted with the instruments, as long as we didn't destroy anyone, or anything.
Gerard and I chose a corner in the far end of the room, farthest away from people and we began to compose, and just get into a deep conversation about the bands we listen to.

"We could be in a band when we get out of here, Frankie." Gerard told me, causing me to blush. I wasn't objecting, because I knew that every record label would want his talent.

"We could, Gee." I smiled at him sheepishly. "Which is in a month or two." A grin sprawled across my face. I couldn't wait to go outside. To actually be able to see something outside of this facility.

"Yeah." He breathed and began to lose himself in my eyes, and I in his. And without breaking eye contact I asked him something, that came to mind.

"Gee, how are these lyrics?

The mirrors show distortions,
All they show is lies,
But when reflections talk,
It's hard to say goodbye,*" He was agape. Trust me, not even I knew where this came from. The details were a little hazy, but I think I was begining to piece together some part of what was once my reality, my living nightmare.

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