Diseased [Frerard] [Petekey]

Chapter 11

Gerard-

Frank and I went to his cubicle. It was bare. All that was there was a picture of him and a little boy.

"Who is that?" I pointed out.

"That was my son", Frank smiled.

Frank didn't seem too much older than me. He could have been younger. His son was really young though. He probably just learned to walk around the time that picture was taken.

I caught the "was".

My heart panged for him. I didn't know what it was like to be a parent, but I'm positive it hurt to lose them.

"Oh, are you married?" I asked.

"No, he was adopted. I really loved him though", Frank smiled.

Loved.

I just nodded, smiling, pretending like I didn't catch his allusions to his child being dead.

"So, how long have you been working here?" I asked him.

"A couple of days", he laughed. "I just moved here from Montclair. I grew up in Belleville though".

"Are any of your childhood friends here?" I asked.

"I don't know, I was so young", he shrugged.

For the next two and a half hours, him and I made small talk. We got to know the basics of eachother. Just enough to make us acquaintances. He was pretty interesting.

I was worried where Mikey got off to, so I decided to call him.

"Give me one second Frank, I need to see where the hell Mikey is", I excused.

"That's fine, I really need to get some work done to be completely honest", he bit his lip and looked down.

"Okay, I'll be back in a few and help you with whatever you need", I smiled.

"Thanks, but I'll zoom through this work. It won't take that long. Then we can talk some more", he smirked.

He seemed really interested in talking, and I was too. He was extremely cool.

I went into the break room where the supervisor Dallon and assumably one of the workers were conversing over coffee.

Dallon smiled at me and I returned the favor. I sat in the corner of the room, trying to get ahold of my brother.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Where the hell are you?" I asked.

"Sorry, I kinda zoned out. I'll be back soon, alright?" he asked. "Do you like it so far?"

"Yeah, Frank is really cool!" I exclaimed.

"He is, isn't he?" he giggled. "Well I'm checking out here and I'll be right over".

"Alright, see you in a bit", I bid.

"Bye", he said before hanging up.

I clicked off and Dallon and his friend were looking at me.

I smiled nervously.

"Gerard, meet my friend Spencer. Spencer, this is Mikey's brother", Dallon introduced.

"Oh, that's really funny actually", I tried to make conversation.

"What?" Spencer prompted.

"Yeah, this pizza guy came to my house the other day and called me Spencer. He was like crying over this dude at Starbucks and then when I told him I wasn't Spencer, he called me Dallon", I told.

Spencer and Dallon looked at eachother, smirking and holding back their laughter.

"Was his name Ryan?" Dallon asked.

"Yes, actually", I laughed. "Do you know him?"

"Yeah, we're all best friends. We moved here from Vegas to try and make it big as a band", Spencer explained.

"Oh, what do you all play?" I asked.

"I mean, we're pretty confused with it. We're all pretty good at a variety of things", Spencer shrugged.

"Well best of luck to all of you then. I hope Ryan gets this Beebo guy", I smiled.

"Thank you", they said at the same time.

I left and tried to find Mikey's or Frank's cubicle but I quickly got lost.

I searched for someone who was vaguely familiar. When I couldn't find that, I went to the outside of the cluster. I found a door that would help me.

When I saw "Mr. Wentz: "Boss" Room 334" I decided to knock.

"Come in", a familiar voice chimed in.

I opened the door, and got a glimpse of black hair before I received a gasp and the "boss" slammed a binder against their face.

They cleared their throat before talking.

"What can I do for you?", a deep altered voice asked.

"Umm, I need to find either Frank Iero or Mikey Way, but Mikey isn't back yet so-" I began.

"Mikey isn't back yet?" the voice interrupted.

Oh no, would he get in trouble if he were late back? I didn't know. But I didn't want to risk anything.

"Umm, I don't know, maybe", I shrugged.

"Don't lie to me", his firm voice sounded.

"No, he's not, but don't get him in trouble", I pled.

"He won't be. Frank Iero is cubicle 639, and Mikey is 430. There should be prompting signs to show you where they are", his deep voice said.

I didn't understand why he was covering his face and changing his voice, but it was extremely odd. I decided to question no further and just look for one of the two cubicles. I quickly found Mikey's and plopped myself in the rolling chair. I got a pad of sticky notes and began to scribble down sketches on them out of boredom.

After a bit, Mikey showed up looking flushed.

"Sorry I'm so late. I'll actually get to work now, sorry", he apologized.

"It's fine, I talked to Frank. Like I said, he's extremely cool. And I met Spencer and Dallon and the boss acted weird when I was trying to find your cubicle and everything here is so confusing", I ranted playfully.

"You went into Mr. Wentz's office?" he questioned.

"Yeah?" I was confused.

"Okay", he shrugged, but I could tell something irked him.

He was salty until his lunch time when I confronted him.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing", he responded defensively.

"It's definitely something. We're talking about this at home", I told him.

I sounded like a mom now, but I was worried for my little brother.

"Everything's fine", he forced a smile. "I'm okay".

"We're still talking about it", I informed him. "Now let's find some food. I'm starving".