The Only Way

"Hey mom." Gerard said as soon as the door opened.

"Hello Gerard!! I'm glad you came! Oh Mikey! Come give a kiss to your old mamma."

Mike hesitated then the woman walked towards him and gave him a hug then kissed him on the cheek.

"My baby boy, how much you've grown! You both look so handsome!" She said looking at her sons, which indicated me that that they must have seen each other a long time ago.

"Oh and you must be Frank, right?" She said, looking at me. I noded. She was looking fairly young for a woman her age. I would've given her 55 year old, tops. She was dressed way too slutty to be a mom tho. Her bleached blonde hair and the cleavage that she desperatly wanted to show made her look a bit trashy. She smelled like a mix of vodka and cigarettes buds that she had tried to cover up with cheap perfume.

"Nice to meet you mam." I told her, as I shaked her hand in the most awkward way possible.

"Call me Connie, sweetheart. You look so young tho." She told me, checking me out.

"That's cause he's 21 ma, remember?" Gerard said as both me and Mikey looked at him surprised.
Gerard was ashamed of my age. If he didn't care about his mom like he had repeated a zillion times, why would he lie about my age?"

"Ahh yeah, yeah you told me, I remember. Well you're pretty handsome too." She said, winking at me. Did she really took a look at my ass?

We entered the house as I looked at Mikey who was struggling to take off his shoes as his hands were trembling. Gerard seemed pissed and I asked him what was wrong under my breath.

"Did you smell it? 11 am and she's already trashed." Gerard snarled.

Mikey looked at him white as a sheet shouting "fuck" as he threw the shoe that was in his hand on the floor. Gerard patted his shoulder trying to calm him down.

"I knew this was a bad idea, Gee..I don't wanna see her like that." Mikey said, losing composure.
At that moment I realised how much their mom had ruined their childhood. Mikey seemed to be more affected by it as if he was conflicted between love and hate.

"Come on, let's go." Gerard said, holding Mikey by the shoulders, pushing him forward.

We arrived in the kitchen and Gerard's mom was sitting at the table where three coffee were served.
"Come sit next to me, Mikey. It's been forever since I've seen my baby." She said, looking at him like he was still 10 years old.

We all sat down and began to drink our coffee awkwardly.

Gerard was the first to break the silence, he spoke about Mikey's life, not mentionning anything about his own like if he knew what she really wanted to hear. Then, seeing how ridiculous that was that they were talking about him like if he wasn't there, Mikey joined the conversation. He mentionned Suzanne and the fact that I was living with them. Never once in the conversation did she asked about Gerard and his job, or his daughter or even his divorce. It was all about Mikey and it had probably always had been that way.
After an hour, Connie seemed more tipsy than before. Gerard took her coffee and smelled it.

"What the fuck ma? Did you really have to add that much whiskey to your coffee?" Gerard asked, pissed off.

"Ah don't fucking school me Gerard, I have an important announcement and I couldn't do it sober." She said.

"What can you do sober? " Mikey asked under his breath.

"What's that, my baby?" Connie asked, slurring her words.

"What's the big news?" Mikey said, like a little boy who was afraid of being caught talking back.

"I'm getting married." She said, smiling and giggling like if she had told us a naughty secret.

"With whom?" Gerard said, suprised.

"Paul, my baby Paul, he finally asked. After all these years." She said, like she still couldn't believe it.
Mikey and Gerard's face went from white to red in seconds. They obviously knew who was this Paul and it didn't seem like they approved of him.

"He got out of jail?" Gerard asked, puzzled while Mikey was shaking his head in disbelief.

"Yeah last month. He had nowhere to go. He learned his lesson this time, he promised."

"Of course he promised, he has nowhere else to go." Gerard answered, disappointed.

"I knew you'd react this way. That's why I needed to drink." Connie said, taking another sip from her coffee which was getting more irish by the minute.

"What about the restraining order you had on him?" Mikey asked, concerned.

"Ahh I..baby I made that up." She said, laughing like if she was proud to have fooled them all.

"Why am I not surprised?" Gerard said, as I saw Mikey, shaking his leg under the table like if he was going to explode.

"Come on, it's all in the past. Paul has learned a lot, people can change."

"Of course, and now you'll promise me that he'll never hit you again till the day I get a call from the hospital. Why won't you ever learn mama? Why would you do this to yourself, why would you go through all that pain again?." Gerard asked.

"People change, Gerard, I don't fucking owe you nothing. My job was done the day you move out."

"You never took your job serioulsy ma, look at Mikey, for fuck's sake, you fucked him up so bad, you destroyed everyone who loved you." Gerard said, his eyes full of tears, his voice filled with anger and pain, forgetting that I even existed.

What a fucking great first meeting, I thought. Anxiety came creeping up on me. I just wanted to disappear into my chair.

"Mikey, baby, you know mama's right. She wants you to be there at the wedding. She wants her baby to stand right next to her. That's all I'm asking." Connie pleaded, taking Mikey's hands and sobing.

"Na..mama. Not this time. I won't. I can't watch you destroy your life once again." Mikey answered, head down like if the words he was speaking were against all of his beliefs.

He got up and started picking up the cups on the table and washing them on the sink. Gerard was looking the other way, lost into space while Connie was trying to add whiskey to her coffee that was probably cold now.

"Paul is coming to apologize in a few minutes." Connie finally said, after a few minutes of silence that seemed like eternity.

"Oh fuck no, ma I don't wanna see him here." Gerard said, in disbelief.

"You're gonna see him anyway and fucking hear him out you fucking ungrateful shit." Connie said, pissed off.

I frozed. How many times had I hear those words come out of my own dad's mouth? UngratefuI shit. I couldn't count anymore. It was engraved in my mind, scarred on my heart and on my skin. My thoughts were spinning out of control. I had to calm down or else I knew what this meant, where this was leading to, straight road to a panic attack and god knows how suffering that was.

Mikey dropped a cup on the floor and it broke into pieces on the ceramic floor. And that was it. I remember him, saying things like "I'm done with you mom.", to never call him back and I felt Gerard's arms around me, dragging me outside. We encounter a man on our way out while Connie was screaming in the background, throwing things at us, missing her target every single time.

Mikey was already at the car, struggling to open it with the keys while Gerard was exchanging a few words with what seemed to be Paul. He told me to join Mikey to the car in an angry tone of voice I had never heard before. I crawled to the car, lost between two worlds that were collapsing. I didn't know how much of this I could take before fainting.

It had escalated so quickly. Next thing I knew Gerard was punching the man in the face with all the strenght he could find inside himself. He added lots of regrets, pain, unresolved issues and made an explosing mix. He had knocked him out in a single punch. He jumped in the car, realising how far he went and started the engine screaming at us to buckle up.

His fist was all bloody and he couldn't drive with both his hands. He was still shaking and no one in the car had the courage to begin to speak.

"Let's just pull over, we all need to calm down, I can't drive." Gerard finally said, slowing down when he saw that he was scaring me more than he had ever dreamed of.

"Alright, Frank, look at me." Gerard said, as he stopped the car on the side of a residential street.

I couldn't turn my head, I was too dizzy. I just kept on staring at the dashboard, breathing heavily.

"What the fuck Gee!! You scared the shit out of us. We should've leave, hell we shouldn't even went there in the first place. Why did you punch him!!" Mikey yelled on the back seat.

"Frank, look at me babe." Gerard said, ignoring Mikey.

"Fuckk Gee. He knows people, he's from a bad crew, you're gonna get your ass kicked." Mikey said, still freaking out.

Gerard put his hand on my heart that was pumping loud, massaging my throath and turn my head on his side.

"Look in my eyes, baby, concentrate on my voice, breathe with me." Gerard said, looking deeply in my eyes.

I followed the rythm of his breaths, focussing on his gorgeous hazel eyes. I was gonna make it. Sounds in the background were coming back slowly, everything started to make sense again. Slowly. I was calm now.

"You back with us baby?" Gerard asked, smiling.

"Yeah I'm okay. Sorry I.."

"Don't need to. That was not how I wanted things to go down. I wanted us to have a great time. I'm the one who should be sorry."

"Fuck Gee what are we.."

"Not now Mikey." Gerard said, calm but firmly. Mikey stopped to yell as soon as the words came out of Gerard's mouth.

"Okay babe, now we're gonna go back home and I'm gonna have a talk with Mikey while you go lay down alright?" Gerard said, sliding his hand through my hair.

I nooded and he started the car. The ride home was silent and awkward but I was starting to get used to it. I even fell asleep at some point but woke up when Gerard shouted.

"Fuckk! What's he doing here?!"

I jumped and looked in the driveway only to see Vincent standing there, looking right at us.

Notes

Sorry if it's been so long guys. I'm back on track.
I broke up with my bf and..euhm..well since this is a love story I wasn't really in the mood.
but no worries. I didn't forget you xoox