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

Glasses Up!

~ POV: Mikey ~

            I knew I had to stop for a few seconds. I could hardly breathe. My legs ached and I was sweating like hell. Shaun was running way faster than I was. Neither of us dared to turn around. I could hear their footsteps and that really scared me. It’s almost as if I could feel them catching up with me every second. It’s like they could reach their hands out to grab me anytime. They could pull me backwards or tackle me to the ground and strangle me. Well, whichever way it was, death seemed to be written everywhere. But let’s look on the bright side, even though there’s not much… Their guns had jammed and they had to throw it away. I wondered who those two black guys were. Usual robbers, thieves or whatever they are would have given up on us right now. They would have killed everyone in the pizzeria, take all their money or do some other shit. But here they are, chasing two boys for no good reason!

            I saw Shaun’s figure turn round the corner and I ran a little faster to keep up, and keep away. Suddenly, I heard a loud crash. That distracted the two black guys for a few moments. I ran round the corner and saw Shaun on the ground. There were trash cans everywhere. He was clutching his knee – which, much to my horror – was bleeding. He groaned in pain. I was breathing heavily and I didn’t know what to say, really. I just stood there staring in shock. Someone grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around. It was the black guy. “Oh, looks like you’re in trouble now, little Mikey.” He sneered. Wait, I knew that voice! What the fuck was he doing here? How dare he show up with a gun, threatening to kill people? I used to be so scared of this guy. I knew Shaun couldn’t save me now.

            “Not really,” I muttered, summoning my courage. I pushed his hand away from my shoulder and kicked him in the stomach. “Fuck you!” I slammed a fist into his face. “And that’s for my brother!” The other guy saw me and tackled me to the ground. Oh yay, he was going to strangle me, just like I thought. I couldn’t really breathe anymore and I forced myself to keep my eyes open. I pushed him off me and he hit his head against the pavement, real hard. I took a look at Shaun and he just looked at me, totally surprised, with tears in his eyes. I slowly helped him up. “Come on, we better hurry before they kill us.” I told him.

            We both walked a little fast towards his car. I pointed out the directions back to my house. As soon as we got into the living room, I told him to sit on the couch while I went around looking for the fucking first aid kit. I found it hidden somewhere in the kitchen, for no reason. I looked at Shaun and I just felt horrible. I shouldn’t have invited him with me. I put him in danger. I stared at his wound for a few moments. And for the first time – just this once, I pushed my glasses up as I began dressing his wound.

            ~ POV: Gerard ~

            Let’s put it this way: I’m not very good in my sense of direction and the lady at the desk of Eyeball Records wasn’t very friendly – or helpful, for that matter. And all this resulted in me walking around the building for at least twenty minutes, before turning round a corner and bumping into Frank. He was holding Pansy as he looked up at me. “Oh, hey Gerard,” He grinned. “Nice to see you again, how are you? And how’s Mikey, by the way?”

            “I’m fine, Mikey’s fine too, he heard you got a new bassist.”

            “Yep,” Frank nodded, walking past me. I just followed him. “I hope he’s not too upset.”

            “Mikey isn’t the kind to get upset over that sort of thing,” I chuckled. “Actually, I wanted to ask you something. Mikey’s birthday is coming up – 10th September – and we’ve decided that we’re going to invite you, along with two other friends you’ve never met.”

            “You came out all the way from home, knowing you would risk getting yourself killed, just to invite me to a birthday party?” He asked dramatically, wiping an imaginary tear out from his eye. “I’m touched, dude.” I punched his arm. “Ouch!”

            “Shut up, that didn’t even hurt!”

            “Yes, it did,” He glared, rubbing his arm. Then, he placed his hand on his heart. “It hurt me here, Gerard. It hurts me on the inside because my friend just punched me for no good reason.” He wiped another imaginary tear. God, this kid was either the Drama King, or Comedy Conqueror. And that’s when I realized what he had just called me. He noticed the way I was staring off into space and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Yep, you’re a pretty awesome guy, even for my standards. I’d say you’re my friend.” He patted me hard on the shoulder before walking off again. “Oh, about that birthday party, I think I’ll try sorting it out with my band mates. I’ll sort out rehearsal time so it doesn’t get in the way. Now, if you’d excuse me, I have a song writing session to get to. See you again, Gee. Tell Mikey I said hi.”

            “Wouldn’t it be easier if you just give us your number?” I asked.

            “Uh…” He paused in his tracks, turning around to look at me. “Good point…didn’t think of that.” He fished out a pen from his pocket, picked some piece of paper from the ground, scribbled something on it and handed it to me. “Okay, now I seriously got to go. Bye!” He flashed a quick smile, turned on his heels and disappeared round the corner. I rolled my eyes. He was such a funny, energetic little kid. I swore silently as I tried to find my way back to the car. Luck was (finally) on my side. I drove home, got inside the house, just to see a dishevelled Mikey sitting on the couch, looking incredibly pale. But here’s the weird thing – his glasses weren’t on the edge of his nose like usual. “Mikey?” He looked up at me. It was then I noticed Shaun lying on the couch. There was a bandage around his knee and it was soaked red. “What the fuck happened to you two?” I asked.

            “We got held at fucking gunpoint, dude!” Shaun screamed, slapping his forehead. “There were two guys in black. They ran into the pizzeria and threatened to kill everyone if Mikey didn’t give them his money. Apparently, your little brother grabbed me and we ran out of the place. We thought they weren’t going to chase us down but guess what? They fucking did! I fell down, et voila!” He said, pointing to his wound. “Oh, and your brother kicked their asses. He punched the dude.” I turned to look at Mikes in disbelief.

            “I knew who they were,” Mikey muttered, his eyes narrowing. “It was John and one of his minions.”

            “John?” I repeated that name. “You mean that guy who knocked me out at your graduation?” Mikey nodded. “He had a gun? What the fuck? Mikes…just…what the fuck?” I didn’t know what to say. I was freaking out. Some 18-year-old kid who just graduated from high school owns a gun. “Are you going to tell the police or something?”

            “I think that was the last lesson he got,” He grinned, cracking his knuckles. “I don’t ever want to see his face again.” Mikey turned to Shaun. “Hey Gee, can you send him home? I think I need to…calm down. His dad can come take the car home tomorrow.” I nodded without hesitation. Shaun slowly got into a sitting position and I put his arm around my shoulder. He was limping pretty badly. After a bit of stumbling, we reached the car. I looked at Mikey, who was standing at the door. He waved at Shaun. Something tells me that he was going to do something. Mikey wasn’t a violent person, was he? He could hardly kill a fly, let alone take someone’s life. I shook that thought out of my mind and focused on driving instead. I felt like I had forgotten something at that time. I couldn't really remember what it was.

It wasn't until I had got home when I realized what it was - that sharp razor blade in the washroom.

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Hey motorbabies :)

Yeahh, this chapter's pretty short - sorry! Thanks for reading it all this while. It means olot - like seriously - OLOT to me. :') This fan fiction has hit over 1,000 reads so far and I thank you all for that! I love you. <3 Next chapter would (probably, just probably) be up in less than a week. So...until then!

XO

Adrenaline Joker