The Name of the Game

Chapter 9

Mikey opened the left side of his closet. He reached in and touched the bag that held his suit for the night. His father had given it to him several weeks ago after they had gotten his measurements a few days beforehand. He had sat down with his son and told him that it would be his initiation suit, and that it was going to be the most important suit in his life. Sure, he would have more suits, but this was his first. It was symbolic, in a way.

Mikey took the suit down and lifted the plastic that covered it. It was a fairly simple black suit with off-white pinstripes. Even though Mikey had never worn it before, it made him feel like a stereotypical mobster.

Mikey let the plastic fall back down and laid the suit on his bed. He looked up at the clock on his wall to find that it was already four o'clock. There were only three hours until his life was going to be changed forever. His parents and Gerard had been preparing for things all day. Donna was making drinks and writing the recipes for the restaurant staff at Il Segreto. Donald had been on the phone, making sure that everything was going to be in order for the night. He was being assisted by Gerard, who had been going through people and papers all day to see who would be attending and why. Mikey's only job was to make himself look nice and calm.

He sighed and opened his bedroom door. He could hear all the commotion around his house; a distant hairdryer, Donald talking to someone in a somewhat threatening manner, papers shuffling as if they were being thrown all over, and Gerard's faint voice coming through his cracked door. Curious, Mikey walked down the hallway and pushed his brother's door further open.

"...Nothing," Gerard was saying. He held his phone between his cheek and shoulder, as his hands were occupied by papers he had just torn in half. "I'm just going out with them around..." He trailed off. Mikey came up beside him, head tilted in confusion. "Frank," Gerard mouthed, gesturing towards the phone. Mikey nodded in response.

"Well, there's no set time," Gerard continued. He reached out to hand the papers to Mikey. "It'll be in the evening, though."

Mikey took the papers, not really knowing what to do with them. He was going to ask Gerard, but Gerard had already turned back to his desk. "I'm not sure yet," he said. "We haven't decided. We just decided we should go out as a family, and that's as far as we've gotten."

There was a sudden bang in the house, followed by shouting. Mikey grabbed his brother's arm, alarm in his eyes. "Fuck, I gotta go, baby," Gerard said. "I'm sorry. I'll text you as much as I can, okay?" After a moment, he hung up the phone. Without care, he threw his phone on the bed and dashed down the steps. Mikey was close behind him.

"What the hell was that?!" Gerard cried. He looked into the kitchen, where Donna and Donald were standing on the edges of a black puddle.

"Nothing, darling," Donna said. "Don't worry about it."

"What's that puddle?" Mikey asked.

"I just spilled a drink," Donna said. "It's no big deal. But... It might be acidic, so don't touch it."

Gerard sighed and turned around, retreating back up the steps. Mikey followed him. "This whole day has been a mess," Gerard said, rubbing his face. "It's better than my initiation day was, though."

"What happened on your day?" Mikey asked.

Gerard sat down on his bed. "Well, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Half of the invited people didn't show up, and out of those that did, half of them were spies. It ended up being a big shoot-out. But even before that, Dad broke a lamp because he got mad at someone  on the phone and shot it."

Mikey nodded. "Sounds like Dad," he said. He looked down at his hands, realizing he was still holding the torn papers. "Hey, Gee?"

"Hm?"