Let The Flames Begin ✓ | Mikey Way

Chapter Seven

Dedication to Geerard_BlackParade. Thanks for reading, commenting, voting, and supporting the story!

Darren, a character introduced later in this chapter, is on the side. He's played by Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter (puberty hit him like a truck, god bless this boy).

"Hey."

I shifted my focus from the splintering wood floor of my treehouse to the entrance. I was in the same position that I had been in on Thursday night, 2 days ago. The only difference was that now, Mikey was standing in the entrance to the tree house, knocking on the inside wall, as if he needed to ask for permission to enter.

"Hey." I sniffled, not looking him in the eye.

He crawled into the treehouse and sat next to me, shrugging his bag off of his shoulders and into his lap. "I brought you a coat, and a larger blanket for the two of us to s-share." He pulled the items out of his back as he spoke. "And I got a couple of candles, seeing as it's cold and dark."

"Fire in a wooden house in a tree? Smart." I tried to laugh.

"Would you rather freeze in the dark?" He grabbed the coat and put it on for me, and laid out the blanket across our laps. He began to place the three candles in front of us and lit them.

"Dude, you forgot the two more candles and chalk." I was trying to make myself laugh more than Mikey, and this time, I just ended up choking on the tears I was trying to hold back.

"Hey, c'mere." He set down the lighter and wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his body. Despite the heat that was produced by the candles and his body, and held to us by the coats and blanket, I still shivered. "Don't cry. Please."

I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. "Sorry," I whispered.

"No need to apologize." He rubbed my shoulder, and I swear to God, this boy might have just as well set my arm on fire instead of the candles. Despite his awkwardness in social situations, when we were alone, he was just himself, he hardly stuttered, and rarely got nervous. He was just... relaxed. And extremely good at comforting people, probably because of his own experiences. "Same thing happened as Thursday?"

I nodded. "Yeah, It's just-" I sniffled, shaking my head.

"Go on."

"It's just, it's not like I hate my mom, ya know? I love her. I just understand she's overprotective, she always has been. It's never really been a problem, but she's kind of still a teenager at heart, and s-she's just really judgmental. God, I sound like a whiney brat right now."

"No you don't." He pulled me even closer, if that were even possible, and I rested my head on his shoulder. "Continue."

"I don't know how to say this without sounding like a stuck-up kid who didn't get what they wanted for the first time." I sighed.

"Just say it. Just let it all out, and just rant. Trust me, you'll feel a million times better."

I sniffled and pressed my hands to my eyes again. "Okay, I mean, I've always looked up to my parents. Before I met Cassey in elementary school, and Forrest in middle school, they've been my best friends. And I just feel that we've lost that connection. We've all changed, me probably the most, but that's normal, right? I'm a teenager. I just feel like I'm starting to lose their trust, I mean, if I were a mom and my daughter came home with pink hair and started listening to metal music in contrast to her regular jazz, I mean yeah, I would be concerned too."

"And it's just, the things she's starting to say about you and Gerard. I just, I can't take it. I'd rather not repeat what she's said, but they definitely weren't nice things.  But she doesn't like my friends, I guess I know where she's coming from, her daughter is growing up, and she doesn't want to lose her daughter, but God, I'd just wish she'd express it in a different way."