The fear of falling apart (Frerard)

Chapter 2

"So, this is your first day at school, and you've already been invited to a party?" Mum asked, sitting on the couch next to me.

"Apparently." I didn't move my eyes from the television screen.

"Who invited you?" She took a quick look at the TV before locking her eyes on me again.

"This kid called Mikey, I was paired up with him in Science class, we hung out for the rest of the day." I said, still not looking at her.

Mum kept interrogating me for about the next fifteen minutes, asking questions such as, ' How many friends have you made today?' and 'what are they like?'. I eventually made the excuse so we could go to the party,

--

we drove for about half an hour and we finally arrived to a nice house surrounded by flowers.

''What kind of party is this again?'' Mum asked me right before I rang the doorbell.

''A dinner party'' I said annoyed and rolled my eyes so she couldn't see. I rang the doorbell not knowing what to expect. To be honest, I was scared. I was scared of people, scared of what they can do. I was scared of the fact that Mikey was a homophobic bully and if I ever do anything he might not like I know the world would end for me.

"Hey Frank! Glad you could make it!" Mikey answered the door smiling. "Come on in!" He moved away from the door letting us in.

I entered his house and took a look around. The walls were painted in a calming pale blue. Family pictures on the walls and the smell of prepared dinner filled up the place. I could hear people talking, laughing and walking around. the echo of their footsteps was annoying and calming at the same time.

''Hello, you must be Frank'' A tall man made eye contact with me. ''My name is Donald Way'' He pressed Mikey's head against his shoulder. ''I'm Mikey's dad'' He smiled at me.

''Um... This is my mum'' I broke the eye contact and looked at my mom. They shook hands and gave each other compliments. Of course she was flirting with a guy who has a house like that. 'Way' The name sounded familiar to me.

*

''Dinner is ready!'' Mikey's dad announced after five minutes of me being awkward as hell and following Mikey around the place. ''Mikey'' His dad called him from the kitchen. ''Call your brother downstairs.'' He ordered and Mikey nodded.

''You have a brother?'' I was surprised.

''Yeah... He had some girlfriends before, but I'm pretty sure he's a faggot, so just ignore him'' He said and sent a text to someone, who was his brother I guessed.

''Why don't you just go up to his room and tell him dinner is ready?'' I was confused by his way of communicating.

''We don't really like each other'' He said sitting at the big table. I didn't reply. I sat down by him. Everybody was already excited for dinner. I saw my mum sitting and sucking up to Mikey's dad and the view of that made me wanna throw up. Can't she just take a break from flirting with every guy who's good with money? She disgusts me. There was a free chair on my left and I was okay with it until I realized Mikey's brother needs a place to sit. I heard footsteps coming from the stairs and looked up. Holy shit. It was him. The guy who told me to shut up in the hallway. He spotted the empty chair and silently sat down with those eyes similar to Mikey's.

''Dude, you cool with him sitting next to you?'' Mikey half whispered to me. ''We can switch if you want''

''No it's fine'' I didn't want to complicate things.

''Let's eat shall we'' Mikey's dad raised his glass and everybody did the same.

I filled my plate with vegetables and threw a look at my mum. She was fake laughing at probably unfunny jokes and making friends while I just sat there wondering if I should look at the boy on my left or not. Fuck it. I turned my head and our eyes locked. Was he staring at me this whole time? He quickly looked at his plate and kept poking his steak with his fork and I turned my head back to my food. I wasn't hungry at all but I ate what I had on my plate. I threw another gaze at Mikey's brother. His black hair buckled behind his ear and his AC/DC shirt still on. I couldn't read his emotions and that was weird. I took a quick look at his plate and noticed he hadn't taken a single bite. Something was definitely wrong. His eyes were focusing on his stake and for a second I couldn't hear anyone around me. I managed to look away from Mikey's brother and focus my vision on people around me. There were too many faces, too many voices for me to handle. I could hear my mum laughing at jokes and people I didn't know throwing questions I didn't want to answer at me. My palms were getting sweaty and I couldn't breathe. I tried to calm down, looking at my lap, but it didn't help at all.