The Kids From Yesterday

I nudged Mikey silently. He looked up, confused, and I rolled my eyes. He really was clueless...
"Erm, excuse me?" I looked around to see the shorter guy approaching the front desk.
"Hi. What's up?"
"Well, I was just wondering, how much is the Epiphone?" He smiled, a cute half-smile, which made me smile a little.
"Er, I don't know, to be honest." I said, which made him laugh a little. "Lemme go check."
"Okay."

MIKEY'S POV

Gerard turned and went into the store room behind him. The guy at the desk smiled again. It was kind of a lopsided smile.
"So, do you play an instrument?" He asked. He sounded and just, well had a friendly air about him.
"Er, I kimda play bass a little. I don't have one though, I've just played around with one at my school a couple of times."
"Oh, cool. I play guitar. So does Ray." The other guy - Ray, apparently - smiled and approached at the sound of his name.
"I heard my name?" He smiled. I grinned back.
"Oh I was just telling - er - what did you say your name was?" He laughed. It was a high pitched, yet somehow rough laugh, like he had a cough or something.
"Mikey."
"I was just telling Mikey that we play guitar. I'm Frank my the way." We shook hands, and I noticed again how short this guy was. Like, seriously tiny. I may have been a little tall for my age, but I was like a whole head taller than him. "Mikey plays bass."
"Oh, cool," Ray said, and he genuinely seemed impressed.
"I'm not very good," I could feel my cheeks blushing ever so slightly. I hoped it wasn't noticeable.
"Well, people always sound better than they think they do." Ray reassured me.
It was then that Gerard came back out of the store room.
Smiling, he said, "Um, so according to the register, it's pretty expensive."
Frank laughed.
"I can take it."
"So yeah, it's four hundred dollars, but it is brand new and has recently been re-strung, and comes with an amp, so it's not too much of a rip-off." He grinned.
"Well, put it this way, I'll have to save up for it," He smirked back.
"Do you play?" Gerard asked.
"Yeah, I have been for a while now. Since I was ten, I think."
"He's really good." Ray added, nodding.
"Er, Gerard, this is Ray and Frank. They both play guitar."
"Awesome. Who's been playing longest?"
"Me," said Frank, "But Ray's better."
"Nah, I reckon we're the same expertise level." Frank rolled his eyes, and we all laughed.
It was at that moment that an old couple walked into the shop, and Gerard was suddenly in work-mode again. "Well, looks like we've got more customers," he said, wiping off his shirt. "Look, I gotta go, but you guys can stay as long as you want, and if you need anything, just gimme a shout, 'Kay?"
"Cool."
"See ya."

It was quite empty in the store today. There was always someone that Gerard needed to be helping, but I think the most people that entered at once was a group of three kids. Me, Ray and Frank spent the whole of Gerard's shift chatting about, well, anything really. Music, TV, but mostly music. We all had pretty similar taste. Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins, Blink 182, Nirvana, Metallica, and loads more - too many to count. Gerard added something to our conversation whenever he had the chance to, and I could tell he really liked them both, just as much as I did. I don't think they were planning on staying six hours, but they they did. Frank helped me with the coffee rounds, and gave me money to get him and Ray coffee too. We all really hit it off. At the end of Gerard's shift, we had an extra hour before me and Gerard had to be home, so we wondered around the town for a while. We went to another music shop - "the rival's store" Gerard called it (there were only two music shops in town, and that one was slightly more popular) just so Gerard could see how much better it was. Me, Frank and Ray reassured him that it was "not even worth looking at", which didn't convince him at all, but made us all laugh.

We ended up getting loads of junk food and going up to a small park at the top of town. Me and Gerard liked it here because it was the smallest of the two parks in Belleville (the biggest was enormous and seemed to have every piece of aparatus that could ever have existed there). This meant that there was literally never anyone here because it was just a set of two swings, a slide and a bench. We all sat at the picnic bench, Gerard and Frank on one side, me and Ray on the other. We had a little too much. Twinkies, Doritos, energy drinks, chocolate bars, Reeses ... And a lot more. I was surprised at the amount that Frank ate. He may have been short, and also very skinny, but boy, he sure did have a huge appetite. Gerard ate a little more than usual, but didn't over do it. I knew he was still cautious about his weight. It took him so long to lose the weight he had, now he was constantly watching what he ate. It made me kind of sad every time I saw him checking a label. He had struggled with weight his whole life, and now he was finally the size he was comfortable with, he was terrified of ever putting te pounds back on. He went to the gym three times a week, always after his work shift, but today wasn't his gym day.
Frank was still trying to the the joke he'd started telling five minutes ago, because he couldn't stop laughing about it. The only actual word I'd heard him say about it was "well," and then he just burst into a fit of cackling and couldn't stop. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Eventually, he calmed down, and just said "nevermind" with an intentional sigh, which made us all laugh.

When we'd all finished eating, Gerard and Frank went on the swings and me and Ray talked about Star Wars until Gerard checked his watch and announced that it was time to go. I didn't hear what Gerard and Frank had been talking about, but I heard a lot of laughing, and they both seemed pretty happy afterwards.
"Wait," I said before we left the park. The others looked around, curious. "Before I forget, we need to give each other our numbers and addresses." We all agreed, and exchanged details. Gerard seemed even happier after that, which made me really happy too. About two years ago he started to struggle with anxiety and depression, and over the last 6-12 months he had been a lot happier, but never this happy. It made me happy, too.

On the way back to our houses, we walked in twos : Gerard and Frank in front, me and Ray behind. We stopped at each other's houses as we went, and every now and then had to take a little detour. Ray's house was closest, so we said goodbye to him and watched him walk down a narrow alleyway to his house before we continued walking. Me, Gerard and Frank talked about comics until we got to Frank's house. It was very small, and very old and run-down. There was peeling fences surrounding the front yard, and a small dog barking madly waiting for him. He and Ray had both agreed to meet tomorrow, which made us all very happy. Gerard was silent as we walked back to our house, and I didn't talk. I knew he was really happy, because these were the first friends he'd had in too long, and the whole way there he wore the same small smile.

Notes

Hi killjoys! ^^ hope you liked it. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I decided to write it while I'm feeling positive myself. Some of it is slightly personal to me, and it might not be hard to guess which parts, but all in all, a good chapter (I hope) . Enjoy!