The Photo Album #1 - Before It Happened (My Chemical Romance)

Matt Pelissier

Matt just stared at us in silence, waiting for a response. Mikey and I just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. It was pretty fucking obvious what the answer would be, wouldn’t it? I mean, we were all alone and shit like that, so why not we get someone else to join in our so-called ‘fun’? And then there was the fact that we could probably get free beers at the pub. But we weren’t gonna say yes just for that. We needed friends, and for once, we got one. But before I could say anything, Mikey answered. “No!” He hissed at Matt. I stared at my brother in confusion. Wasn’t he…? Oh boy, I tapped him twice and he turned around. I put an arm around his shoulder and led him to the kitchen.

            “What’s wrong, Mikes? Don’t you want a friend?” I asked him in a soft whisper so Matt couldn’t hear our little discussion.

            “Gee, you know I do, it’s just…” Mikey paused, taking a glimpse at Matt, who was drinking his coffee. “We just met him, and I get the feeling like he’s not a very good ‘friend’.” He just did open and inverted commas in the air. “I don’t know for sure, but I get this feeling like our friendship with him probably wouldn’t last very long. Call me your freaky, weird, spiritual little brother, but really, that’s how I feel.”

            “Maybe we should give Matt a try? I doubt he could be that bad. He looks like a lonely guy, that’s all. Please, Mikey? Maybe he really could be our friend.” I pleaded with him. He hesitated for a few moments, but nodded and went back to Matt.

            “Sorry about that, Matt,” Mikey apologized, running a hand through his hair. “I was just really surprised.” Hmmm, smooth liar, Mikes. “But yeah, sure we can.” I saw Matt’s face brighten up.

            “Cool,” he smiled. “Does that mean we can hang out tomorrow? You guys could come to the pub if you want; all drinks are on the house, no worries! We could get to know each other, do stuff or something. So, what do you say?”

            I saw Mikey about to give a retort, so I punched his arm and glared. “Sure, that sounds great. But we’ll give the pub a skip; you can come by our house at 1 o’clock tomorrow afternoon.” Matt nodded and went to the door after saying goodbye to us. I just turned around to look at Mikey. He raised an eyebrow.

            “What?” He asked. I sighed and shook my head as I grabbed my cup of coffee. “Hey, is that for me? Thanks.” Before I could even say anything, Mikey snatched it out of my hand and ran upstairs.

            “MICHAEL!” I yelled from the bottom of the stairs. I rarely used his real name; it’s always been ‘Mikey’ or ‘Mikes’. Well, it started when we were both little kids. I was only 2 years old then, when my mom told me that she had named my little brother ‘Michael’, I tried saying out his name. It ended up sounding something like ‘Mikerrr’ or ‘Moikell’ or maybe… ‘Maikei’. And that’s when I started calling him ‘Mikey’ or ‘Mikes’ instead.

            “Go make another one, jeez.” That’s what I heard him say. Damn you, Mikey. And I did as he said, I went to the kitchen and made more coffee. To be honest, I was looking forward to going out with Matt tomorrow. Hey, don’t get it wrong, I’m perfectly S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T! It’s just; I haven’t had any company (other than Mikey) for a long time now. So, as I sat on the couch thinking about tomorrow, my thoughts couldn’t help wandering off to what Mikey had just said about our friendship with Matt. I gulped. If Mikey’s right – which, for some weird reason, he often is – then we’d both best watch what we’re saying. And slapping Mikey or whacking him in the stomach when he’s saying some wrong shit doesn’t work every single time.

~ The Next Day ~

            It was around 1 o’clock. Mikey and I were having lunch in the kitchen – just coffee and some ice-cream. Yep. That’s the Way brothers’ menu for you. It’s the best fucking lunch we’ve ever had. Mikey attempted to put a scoop of vanilla ice-cream into his coffee. “You know, Mikes, you’d be wasting a good cup of coffee there.” I smirked. He just looked at me and he paused for a moment, and then stuffed the scoop of ice-cream into his mouth. I laughed when he accidentally smeared ice-cream all over his cheek. If that was strawberry ice-cream we were having, he’d look a lot like Joker. I supposed he got a little pissed off, because the next thing I knew, he scooped this huge ball of ice-cream and just stuffed it into my mouth. Well, thank fuck that I managed to swallow it down, the cold piercing my throat. “Fuck it, Mikey, that was so not funny.” I coughed. He grinned at me.

            There was a knock on the door and Mikey went to answer it while I wiped ice-cream off my mouth. Soon, he returned to the kitchen with Matt trailing behind him. I waved and held up a scoop of ice-cream. “Uh, no thanks,” He said, stepping away from it. I shrugged and ate it instead. “So, what do you guys want to talk about? We can’t really do anything now, since you’re both…occupied.”

            “Ooh,” Mikey smiled. “We should talk about rock bands. You know any, Matt?’

            “Yeah, a few, I suppose. I’ve heard of Green Day, Metallica, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana…you know, the usual downright awesome ones.”

            I nearly choked on my um…food. I ran up to him and high fived him. “Fuck yeah, I love the Smashing Pumpkins.” I muttered through a mouthful of ice-cream. Matt nodded, pointing to my shirt. Oh, I hadn’t realized I had pulled on a black Smashing Pumpkins shirt. This was my favorite. We went on and on for what seemed like an hour, discussing and debating about the bands. Soon, we switched to topics such as comics, and then back to the bands again, and finally…we settled on a topic that we loved the most…STARTING A BAND. “You ever wanted to start a band?” I asked Matt.

            Surprisingly, he nodded. “Yeah, of course I do. I can play drums, so……yeah.”

            “Oh cool, I play bass.” Mikey chimed in.

            “I…uh,” I ran a hand through my black hair. Hmmm, that just reminds me that I haven’t brushed it for the whole morning. Oh well, look at the fucks I give: zero. “I don’t play anything, actually. So I’m not really talented at all –”

            “He’s being a modest fucker, like he usually is,” Mikey scoffed. I rolled my eyes. Me? Are you calling me modest, Mikes? Oh, hell no. “He may not realize it, but he’s a superb singer. His voice…I don’t know, it’s not that kind of hard, heavy metal, deep, scream-ish voice. His is more soothing, calming. I don’t know if you remember this, Gerard, but you used to sing me to sleep back when we were kids. I used to be shit scared of ‘monsters’ lurking underneath my bed or something, but you always sang me to sleep. And it didn’t matter what song you sang back then – it didn’t matter if you were singing some creepy, scary song or an unknown lullaby – I just fell asleep.”

            I blinked. I never knew Mikey was this…I don’t know, caring? I don’t even know what the right word for this situation is. It just feels like Matt’s been completely sucked out of my little world. In my little word, it’s just me and Mikey staring at each other. He was honest about this. I couldn’t do anything but break eye contact and look at the ground. “Uh, thanks, Mikes,” I muttered. “By the way, my brother’s also a great bassist. He’s a complete pro at it, so if anyone thinks about fucking his bass skills, they’re gonna drop to their knees hailing my little brother.” I smiled at Mikey.

            “Aw, your brotherly love for each other is adorable!” Matt slapped on a fake 5-year-old girl’s voice. “I could just squish you two right now.” We both laughed.

            We talked, and talked, and talked some more. Soon, 4 hours went by and Matt left. He told us he had to get home and he wasn’t planning on spending tomorrow at our house. He needed some rest. After we left, Mikey and I had a short discussion about him. Matt was a nice guy and we liked him. We were pretty sure that he was going to be a great friend. We decided to end the day with a nice, scary horror movie – which, apparently, wasn’t very scary. Mikey kept dozing off on the couch. I stopped the movie and we both went up to our rooms. It was time to sleep.

            As I lay on my bed, I thought about that idea of starting a band. But my thoughts only lasted for a short moment because suddenly, I thought about Mikey’s graduation. Oh, that’s on Friday night. Ugh, the idea of going back to the high school that ruined both our lives made me feel like throwing up. Well, at least when I’m there with Mikey, nobody’s going to pick on him. I’m gonna protect Mikey on his last day in that blasted school. I turned off the lights, pulled up my blankets and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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Hi crash queens!

Sorry it took so long to upload this chapter. I was super busy with my final exams. And now it's over, so, hopefully, I've got more time to write. Hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Leave comments, or vote or...I don't know, just read, I guess. Sorry again though...and thank you for reading it up 'till now. :) It really means olot to me.

XO

Adrenaline Joker