I'm Glad I Met You

Chapter 17

"I still don't think we should've brought Lainey." Ray yells over the loud music of the bar, "I mean, it's one thing for us to be sneaking in, but she's 16."

"She'll be fine!" Mikey argues, lightly holding on to her shoulder. "No one will know." I look at Frank then Gerard, who both have a similar look of worry as I do.

Mikey fought for Lainey to come with us to the bar, eventually we got sick of arguing and just gave in. We shouldn't have though, no matter what Mikey says, she still looks and acts like a 16 year old.

The topic changes as we approach quite a large booth, I end up in the middle of Mikey and Gerard, Lainey to the right of Mikey and Ray and Frank to the left of Gerard.

***

"The bassist was so ugly!" Lainey exclaims as the first band leaves the stage. "I mean, they're never really that cute anyway, but still."

"I think you're wrong" I tell her, "the bassist, in my opinion, are generally the cutest members."

"I play bass..." Mikey mumbles, looking at the table with a slight red tint over his cheeks.

"I didn't mean..." Lainey starts, but doesn't finish her sentence. I look at Gerard, Ray and Frank who are all grinning and obviously trying not to laugh.

I bite the inside of my lip awkwardly as the next band comes on and everyone's attention drifts to the stage. Mikey grabs my hand under the table, making me jump slightly, I look at him and he shrugs. I can't help but smile, making a small smile appear on Mikey's face too.

***

After seeing six bands preform, taking hundreds of pictures and waisting all our money on soft drink, we decide to start heading home.

"I kind of wanna walk home." I tell them, pushing some of my fringe behind my ear.

"Not alone you're not." Ray immediately shakes his head.

"But muuummmm!" I stomp my leg in a childlike manor.

Gerard stifles his laughter slightly, "as much as I hate to agree with Mummy Ray, he's got a point."

I jokingly pout, crossing my arms. Frank stops laughing long enough to say, "why don't you ask your daddy then?" We all start laughing except for Lainey who looks extremely confused.

"It's an inside joke." Mikey tells her, his cheeks bright red. Lainey raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything.

We all pile into Gerard's car, well everyone but Lainey, who decided to take a taxi home, not saying anything but a quiet goodbye.

***

"You should stay at our house tonight." Gerard says after he drops Frank and Ray off.

I look at Mikey, "you should! I mean, if you want to."

I smile, looking down at my lap, "yeah... I just need to double check with my parents." I shrug, pulling my phone from the back pocket of my jeans. I quickly text them before laying my phone on my knee, waiting for a response. I make eye contact with Gerard in the rear view mirror, who smiles at me. My phone buzzes and I skim the message, "they say it's fine." I grin, once again pushing my fringe out of my face.

We drive in silence, a sudden tiredness overcoming me. I must've fallen asleep because the next thing I know Mikey opens my door, making me jump. He comfortingly smiles at me as I unbuckle my seatbelt and climb out of the car, rubbing my eyes.

"I'll get you something to change into." Mikey tells me as we get inside, he leads me to his room and begins digging through the draws. Mikey passes me a pair of tracksuit pants and a black shirt. "You can get changed in here, I'll be in the kitchen with Gerard." He says, backing out of the room and closing the door.

I quickly get changed into Mikey's clothes before walking out of his room and making my way to the kitchen.

Gerard grins at me as I walk through the doorway, he passes me a can of Coke, "I told you making Mikey jealous would work." He says smugly before taking a sip from his own can.

I roll my eyes at him, "I'm gonna sit next to Lindsey on Monday." I announce.

Gerard's eyes go wide, "really? That soon?" He gulps slightly.

"You'll be fine, relax." I tell him and he nods. "Where's Mikey? He said he'd be in the kitchen with you."

"Oh, someone was messaging him so he moved to the living room." Gerard shrugs, "go join him, we're gonna watch some movies, so we'll need popcorn."

I smile slightly at his at his lame excuse to give us alone time, but appreciate it anyway. "Hey Mikey." I smile and sit next to him on the couch, putting my can on the side table next to me. He turns his head and smiles at me, but goes back to looking at his phone as it dings. "You alright?" I ask.

"Yeah... Lainey is just messaging me. She apparently didn't feel very included tonight." He sighs, sounding annoyed. I reach over and grab his phone, taking it away from him, "hey!" He yelps, trying to grab it.

"You're not getting it back till after we watch a movie!" I declare, leaping off the couch and turning to face him. Mikey stands up and grabs at his phone, having a height advantage. I hold the phone further beside me, just out of his reach.

"Give it back" he laughs, wrapping one of his arms around my shoulders so I can't move my arm further away. Mikey grabs his phone, trying to pry it out of my hand.

We both start laughing, I grab onto his shirt to steady myself and my other hand falls to my side, still clinging onto the phone. Mikey smiles at me as our laughing dies down, his eyes flicker from my eyes to my lips. He opens his mouth to say something, but get cut off by someone clearing their throat. Gerard stands in the doorway, holding a few bags of popcorn.

***

"I can't believe he fell asleep" Mikey grumbles, looking at Gerard, who fell asleep half way through the movie. "He's been talking about seeing this for weeks and the night we finally watch it, he falls asleep.

"Should we wake him, or?" I ask, watching Mikey turn the TV off.

"Nah. He sleeps out here all the time." Mikey turns to me, "do you wanna sleep in his room then?"

"Uh yeah, I guess." I shrug and Mikey nods.

"Okay, you can go to his room if you want, I'll finish cleaning up out here then come say goodnight."

"Are you sure? I can help."

"I'll be fine, it's only a small mess." Mikey tells me and I nod before turning around and walking into the hallway that leads to the stairs.

A little after 5 minutes later Mikey walks into the room and sits on the edge of the bed, "I had fun tonight." I smile.

"I did too... I feel like we haven't seen each other in ages, well not alone at least." He admits. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." I smile, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Okay, I should let you sleep." Mikey sighs, standing up. "Goodnight" he leans in and kisses me on the cheek.

Because I hit 500 reads and 50 votes, I decided to put the next chapter out earlier. The next one should be out sometime next week.
Thanks for reading!
-Oli