The Name of the Game

Chapter 5

Gerard tied his towel around his waist and turned off his bathroom fan. He walked into his bedroom, and had barely closed his door before Mikey was knocking on it.

"Can I put some pants on, please?" Gerard asked.

"Please do!" Mikey said.

"Well, you know I was in the shower two seconds ago!"

"You spent forever in there after you turned the water off, I didn't know!"

Gerard rolled his eyes. He searched through his dresser drawer until he found a suitable pair of underwear. He quickly pulled them on and grabbed some black jeans from his closet. As he pulled those on, he hopped over to the door to open it. Mikey was standing there, leaning against the doorframe and on his phone.

"It's about time," Mikey said. He slipped his phone into his pocket and walked in, then flopped onto Gerard's bed.

Gerard rolled his eyes. "You are so impatient sometimes," he said. "How is Ray gonna deal with you?"

"He likes me! I know because he told me." Mikey grinned. "And he's not joking, either."

Gerard laughed. "I'm sure he's not," he said. He started rooting through his closet for a suitable shirt.

"What're you looking for?" Mikey asked.

"A good shirt," Gerard answered. "Why, do you need to borrow something?"

"I don't think so." Mikey shrugged. "Maybe." He laid back against Gerard's pillow. "Besides, I don't ask when I take your clothes."

"I noticed. Hey Mikes, don't you have your own room?" Gerard asked. He took a shirt off of a hanger and threw it at his brother. "Why are you always in here?"

"You got the bigger room."

"I came out first!"

Mikey threw a pillow at Gerard, hitting him directly in the head. Gerard returned the gesture.

"Ow!" Mikey cried.

"Oh, it's a pillow!"

Mikey wrapped his arms around the pillow and sighed. "Gee?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm getting initiated Friday."

Gerard nodded. "Mhm."

Mikey sat up, still clutching the pillow. "W-What's it like?" he asked. "Is it scary? Do you have to hurt yourself?"

Gerard sighed. He abandoned his search for a shirt for a moment and sat down next to his brother. "No, you don't have to hurt yourself," he said. "It's essentially just a party in your honor."

"I thought there would be more people there."

"There will be," Gerard said. "'Your' isn't always singular."

"Is the party fun?"

Gerard shrugged. "It's like a business function," he explained. "It's okay. You're going to get a lot of people coming up to you and introducing themselves and congratulating you."

"W-What actually happens?"

"Well, we'll be in a restaurant. There's going to be a little stage set up, and you're going to be lined up with the other people up there. Sir is gonna be standing on one end of the stage, and he's going to have the handbook. You're going to take an oath, and he's going to explain to you that the oath is binding, and that if you break a rule, you'll be 'punished accordingly.'"

Mikey shivered. "What does that mean?"

"Well, for example, if you gave up the identity of a member, you'd lose a limb of Sir's choice. If you gave up Sir's identity, you'd be killed."