The Only Hope For Me Is You

Chapter 11

"Mikey!" I yelled, "What are you doing here?!" I was looking everywhere but at him. I silently cursed Gerard because I just needed someone to blame for this embarrasing situation.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here!?" he yelled back. He tried vainly to cover up his undies with the little blanket he was using. But to no avail for his legs were just too long. "You know what? Forget it! Just think of them as speedos!" He stopped struggling and stood tall with his arms crossed over his chest. We had a fleeting second of eye contact until I reflexively looked down. I yelped.

"Eeeehhhh!" he shuddered and ran up the stairs.

"Curse you Gerard!" I said while rubbing my eyes.

"What? Why me?" he answered. I didn't realize he was lauging the whole time! So he found this amusing!

"Why didn't you tell me Mikey was here at your house practically naked! I could've gone the rest of tenth grade without seeing that." I made a weak attempt at crossing myself like a Catholic. This predicament required these necessary measures.

"So you don't know. Mikey hasn't told you. Maybe he figured you problably had good common sense like a normal person would and that you could've figured it out all by yourself." Gerard replied coolly.

"Stop making me sound like such a freak and tell me. What? Are you and Mikey having some sort of secret love affair we shouldn't know about? I'm sorry but common sense doesn't tell me to suspect someone's gay just by meeting that person. It's not prejudice or homophobia just logical statistics. The odds that I'll-"

"Wait woaah! Gross. Fran, stop or my ears will explode." he quickly interjected. "Mikey's my brother, braniac. Jesus, how could you think we were gay?"

"Oh... I knew that." After an uneasy pause, I asked,"Do you think he'll come down?"

"Not for a while now." He seemed hesitant as he asked,"Do you wanna look around? It's not much of a big house but it's got a lot of useless junk lying about." He realized what he said a second too late. "Wait, what I meant was-"

"I get it." I said with a smile. I made my way towards a small table containing a bunch of picture frames. Little Gerards and Mikeys looked up from the pictures. Memories from old ball games to first days of school to Thanksgiving with the whole family to many other important moments in life filled the table and lined the wall adjacent to it. "Who's this chubby adorable baby?" I asked while making a belittling voice.

"Uhh..that was me.." Gerard answered awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.

"You were so adorable! That was probably before Mikey came. Then you got all ugly and became the man you are today. Aww!" I teased as I pinched his cheeks. He gently grabbed my small wrists and set them down.

"Don't do that again or I'll give you the wettest wet willy ever." He warned.

I sighed exaggeratedly and said,"Fine. Just let go of me." He did as I said and I rolled my eyes. Then I pinched his cheeks yet again and set off on a run. "Get away, I have a gun!" I said as he chased me.

"You really shouldn't have done that!" he said as he wet his finger. Oh my, disgusting.

"Aaaagh! Get away! Mikey! Mikey!" I ran up the stairs in desperation for cover. I tried opening the first door to the left but it was locked. I knocked frantically as if my life depended on it. "It's occupado!" someone yelled from within. I made my way two doors down and luckily found it open. I quickly went in and locked the door behind me. Could you believe I was actually panting and out of breath? I turned on the light switch next to the door and crouched to a defensive position if anyone were to knock down the door.

Immediately, I stared in wonderment as I registered the room I was blessed to be in. Every inch of the walls were covered with drawings. Drawings of such beautiful dexterity I counted myself lucky for being able to behold them. All around, drawings of people, comic book heroes, sceneries, cartoons..anything anyone could possibly imagine was up in a drawing. And it was all very good. Whoever's room this was must have a passion for art. I walked around admiring every single art piece.

"Where did you go?" I barely heard Gerard say as he cunningly unlocked the door. "Oh."

"This is beautiful..." I murmured. I couldn't take my eyes off them. He even drew his own dark version of Starry Night by Van Gogh. I love Starry Night! "Who did all this?"

I continued to gaze and I hadn't noticed him standing a couple of feet closer. "I did." he said softly. I whipped my head in his direction to see if he was kidding but there was nothing but grave seriousness on his face. "You're really talented. I wish I could be able to express myself in this way." I admitted.

"Thanks." he said simply and shrugged his shoulders. I'm glad he didn't try to deny it. It made it feel all the more real to me. His expression was that of humble acceptance.

"Hey, Gee, mom says you gotta make your guest something to eat." Mikey said when he boistered into the room. Thankfully he was fully clothed. And yet I was somewhat disappointed for the interruption but savored the reminder. If Feely wasn't already home I must at least try to get there before she does.

"Dude, can't you knock?" grumbled Gerard, obviously visibly pissed too.

"Why? So I won't can't you standing around doing nothing?" he snickered,"Poor Frannie must be dying. Just cause you're a vampire and you don't eat doesn't mean you should make your friends suffer too."

"No, thanks for the offer but I really gotta get home. I've done enough for the day, trust me." I said and winked at Gerard. I couldn't help it and immediately regretted being so bold. What is wrong with me?

"Do you want us to walk you home? A girl like you can't be seen walking these dark streets by night all by yourself. Please, let a man go with you." Mikey pointed to himself. I rolled my eyes. 

"Wait, walk? Can't Gerard just drive me over there?" I asked. Mikey started laughing and nudging his brother in the shoulder. Gerard kept his eyes to the ground.

"Of course not. As much as we'd love to, Gerard doesn't have his license. Cause he faaailed." Mikey made fun of. "I know it's not much of a big deal but you should've seen him the day he turned sixteen. All he did was brag and how 'bout them apples? He failed. Never took the test again." He shook his head in make-believe disappointment.

"Walking's better.."he said in a low voice.

"You can't give an opinion on that since you don't know the difference." I said sticking my tongue out at him. "So if you go on dates, the girls drive you?" I giggled. Mikey laughed along and Gerard forced a chuckle.

"Well...uhh...get out of my house if you're going to start making fun of me."

They accompanied me all the way to my house. All I had to do was say the address of my house and they knew exactly which direction to take. If it were for me, we would've been going in circles. We talked during the whole walk. I learned about things they do at school and a little more about them. They've been living here in Belleville, New Jersey for as long as they could remember. They had their entire childhood in this town. Gerard and I recounted our adventures of the day and Mikey was sad he wasn't there to partake in them. I enjoyed every second I could with these guys. They may not admit it to each other but their more than just brothers from what I've observed. They're best friends. We reached my house in a matter of minutes. I could bike from my house to theirs in less than 10 minutes.

Saying goodbye to them was rather tedious. I didn't know how to react so I just stood in my doorway while I stupidly waved goodbye with my hand. Contrary to my thoughts this very morning, I said quietly to myself, Oh how I don't really hate that much at all Gerard Way.  ...Yeah, pretty much. And I raced to slump on my bed which was calling my name.