Early Sunsets over Monroeville

The second I got out of the elevator on the fifty fifth floor I knew it was an inappropriate time to wear my Iron Maiden tshirt. It was the only one not covered in paint and only smelt vaguely like it was washed In a coffee pot.
Mikey knocked on the door for me as my arms were filled with sample sketches and bits of art that don’t look like they’d summon the antichrist.
“Hello,” the young lady smiled after opening the door. She was about ten years younger than I’d expected and about four years younger than me. I had been expecting some thirty five year old nun like figure on some early twenties girl who should not have a master’s degree or husband yet.
“Hey, my name is Gerard, nice to meet you,” I say as calmly as I can.
“Katelyn Iero, would you like to come in?” I nod and begin my awkward shuffle into the pale hall randomly dotted with bits of fancy ass art and gold borders.
Mrs Iero leads us through into a grand sitting room. The chandelier Mikey put in over powers the room making everything feel cramped and weird. Like this is a fucking apartment in New Jersey not Buckingham palace. If I was designing this room I’d leave it out. Against the window where you see low hanging February clouds and piercing skylines it looks fucking stupid.
“Admiring your brother’s handiwork?” Mrs Iero says, calling back to attention.
“Yea how… grand.”
“I think it really gives a classical glow to the urban jungle,” she says standing beside me. She smells like an expensive perfume.
“Yea the contrast is quite strong…” I don’t like it.
“Anyway. This is the wall in need of art,” Mrs Iero turns us to the back wall. Completely empty and cream in colour, like everything in the room. The skirting at the bottom is gold, trimming the walls. Everything here is trimmed in gold, the couches, the coffee table… What is even the point in trimming shit?
“Well the cream of the wall and the gold of the trim-skirting board leaves you with a very limited pallet for the painting. For example it rules out the use of oranges and yellows which would completely clash with the gold,” I explain this with various hand gestures awkwardly made around the bundle of art.
“What a pity,” Mrs Iero sighs, “I was hoping to commission a sunset scene.”
“Well not all sunsets are yellow. In fact a red one would complement the uh gold and make the room seem warmer,” I rub my chin trying to the figure out if pinks would throw the whole room off balance. “Would you like to see some things I’ve done?”
“Indeed.”
I lay out my papers on the fancy coffee table. Mikey who had been hovering at the edge of the room is now drifting along the windows which stretch the length of the wall.
“Oh this is beautiful,” Mrs Iero says picking up a painting I only half-finished of the view from a hospital window. “You can really paint landscapes.”
“Oh thanks!” I try not to look to proud.
“Wait right here,” she says before turning on her heel and dashing off through a closed door. Mikey swings around and winks at me. He returns to staring at the rich side of the city before Mrs Iero returns with some photographs.
“This is Monroeville. I grew up here,” her voice goes slightly southern with Nostalgia. “Mr Way, do you think you could paint something like these pictures for me?”
I breathe in sharply, “Yea, yea sure. You can call me Gerard by the way.”
“Okay Gerard. For the two I’d like them to be about this size,” she walks over to the wall and marks out portrait rectangles, “one of the dawn and one of the sunset. I’m prepared to pay you twenty five thousand dollars for each, assuming they come framed.”
I hear Mikey choke a bit behind me and I feel like choking myself. Fifty grand. Fifty thousand dollars. I can probably fix my oven with that. And buy a load of new pencils. And pay some bills. “Yea. Sure. That would be perfectly okeydokey Mrs Iero.”
“Okay…” fuck, no one says okeydokey this side of the century, “You may call me Katelyn then. If you want to take measurements or anything…?” By the “may” I think I better keep calling her Mrs Iero.
“Uh shit I didn’t bring my measuring tape or anything,” I cast a glance at Mikey. I never thought I’d get the job so I never thought I’d need to measure anything.
“Well that is okay, you can come back tomorrow any time after four; either my husband or I will be here. Now, let me get you an envelope for these photographs.

“Fucking hell bro!” Mikey says as soon as we sit into his car. “Fucking fuck! I’ll drive you over tomorrow. Fuck it, I’ll drive you everywhere for this job as long as you buy me a drink that doesn’t taste like piss.”
“You want some kind of cocktail?” I scoff as we pull into an awkward junction.
“Yep. If my brother is earning big cash like that I want to only drink the fanciest of alcohol and fuck women with gold trimming.”
“You noticed the trimming too?”
“Who wouldn’t? It was a fucking weird amount. Also I may need you to spend all that money on bailing me out of prison.” He stamps hard on the breaks as the car in front stops. “Bastard.”
“Wait, what? Why would I need to pay for your bail?”
“Because I drive you everywhere and you’re about to have more money than me.”
“No, why will you be in jail?”
“Oh yea,” he laughs a bit. “Uh, you know the way I said I electrocuted my ex, well that wasn’t a joke…”
“Mikey!”
“I told her when we were together to not use the hair straightener so much, it may blow the fuse. Now that isn’t actually true but I wanted her to stop running up the bill when we were together.” He presses down hard on the accelerator as we start moving again. “So her new boyfriend called my company and I was sent out Saw her hair straightener while I was working the fuses and may have altered the resistor to a much lower one while I was in the room.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means that when she turns on the straightener the fuse will blow and probably mildly shock her.”
“You evil bastard!” I can’t help but laughing.
“Thanks.”

I knock on the door alone after leaving Mikey sitting in his ’05 ford focus surrounded by brand new BMWs and Mercedes’. The door opens and Mrs Iero is standing in a fancy navy suit. “Hi Gerard come in and measure yes?”
“Yea, if that’s okay,” I say as she turns to walk back into the main room. I close the door behind myself.
“All I’m saying is they aren’t bangs and are perfectly acceptable in the working world!” a guy calls out from somewhere in the main room. I hear a silencing whisper probably from Mrs. Iero.
I walk into the gold trimmed room to find a guy in a shirt and slacks standing near the window. He does indeed have bangs, but he also has a good few tattoos so I don’t see how his hair could really matter all that much.
“Frank, this is the artist, Gerard Way. Gerard this is my husband, Frank,” Katelyn says as she desperately smoothens a wrinkle on a throw over the couch.
“Hi,” I say. When Katelyn stands up I see she is several inches taller than her husband. I must say they make an odd looking couple, the husband being far better looking. I shouldn’t think like that in such a catholic apartment I might go on fire. I shouldn’t think like that either. Fuck it I was never a good person.
“Hey,” Frank says, smiling.
I nod awkwardly before walking toward the wall. I fumble a bit with the measuring tape and in the back of my vision I see both Iero’s leave the room. I could theoretically take the gold trimmed crucifix and run but that would be a really stupid idea.
Katelyn returns after a while smoothing down her skirt and saying, “Everything, er, okeydokey?”
I wince. “Yup. Um, I can probably get a good canvas this wide,” I gesture outward, and anything more would be difficult to get in Jersey.”
“Yes that will be perfect, thank you Gerard.” That would be my queue to get the fuck out I guess.
“Okay, I’ll keep you up to date then?” I say starting for the door.
“That would be excellent, thank you. Bye now.”
“Bye.” As I open the door I realise there’s another gold trimmed crucifix I could easily take and run. Again I think that’s frowned upon by literally everyone.

Notes

Hey :) sorry for changing the name like that just this one fits better i think. Well maybe i don't know. Thanks for reading and i promise there'll be more Frank next chapter as well as Mikey Chapman from Mallory knox. I thought there'd be too many Mikey's but you can never really have too many...
Right so let me know what you think and i'll update promptly :*