Gerard Way is a man of habits. It’s Sunday night, and he’s painting something that vaguely resembles a giant white fluffy bunny with tentacles and vampire teeth busy devouring the entire city of New York starting with Wall Street brokers. Gerard is in his Batman pajamas – the ones he’s been wearing for more than ten years and that have holes at strategic spots between his legs, a bowl of dry Cheerios on the coffee table in front of him and the latest episode of “Robot Chicken” on tv.
Gerard usually records “Adult Swim” on his Tivo so he can have something to watch on the weekends when he’s alone in his tiny apartment that smells increasingly too strong of coffee, cigarettes and paint. Opening a window would probably help getting rid of the smell but it's November and it’s too cold outside, besides, Gerard is used to it by now. It smells like home. The tv is there to maintain the illusion that Gerard is not alone and to make him feel like his social life isn’t that pathetic after all. It’s a reassuring voice covering the suffocating silence of his weekends.
He could call his brother and talk to him about “Clone Wars” like they always do during the week, but today Mikey is not home. Gerard doesn’t like bothering his brother with his stupid phone calls about “Star Wars” when Mikey is having a real weekend with his family.
Unlike Gerard, Mikey is happily married and has been for almost ten years. Alicia is an amazing woman who understands her husband’s strange fascination with comic books and horror movies. She even shares most of it with him. She takes care of her husband and of their seven year-old daughter, Juliet, and also finds the time to work a nine to five job. Gerard always wonders how Mikey managed to find the perfect woman and actually make her love him. It will always be one of the world’s greatest mysteries.
Since Gerard doesn’t seem to be able to form a lasting relationship with anyone, Mikey keeps pushing him to meet single women and men and sets him up on blind dates with pretty much everyone he meets, hoping Gerard will finally join the ranks of the happily unavailable men. Gerard wants to meet new people. He wants to fall in love and spend his boring Sunday afternoons curled up on his couch with someone who won’t judge him by the giant posters of monsters plastered in his bedroom or won’t be turned off by his smelly pajamas or his ridiculously extensive comic book collection.
*
Even though Gerard is thirty-five, he is not a big fan of grown ups. It’s probably why he decided to work at an elementary school. As the principal, the only adults he has to deal with, besides his staff who he can’t call “real” adults, are the parents and he tries to avoid them as much as humanly possible. Every morning, Gerard watches them from his window, up in his office, a cup of coffee clutched in his hands and he is glad he doesn’t have to pretend to be one of them, one of the boring adults who gossip about their neighbors or who gloat about how perfect their kids are.
It’s always the same faces and always the same conversations. Gerard doesn’t need to hear them anymore. He just sips on his coffee and tries to spot the single parents who struggle to get their kids to school on time. He watches as few of the mothers kiss their children goodbye and slowly walk away, not mingling with the rest of the crowd that occupy most of the sidewalk in front of the school gate.
Gerard feels lucky to have Ray as part of his staff. Gerard met him when they were in high school and they still share an unhealthy love for zombie video games. There’s nothing better than a discussion about brain splattered walls at lunch break. The rest of the staff usually avoid their table because they aren’t big fans of blood and gore while they’re enjoying their tuna sandwich.
The kids love Ray. Even the ones who aren’t technically part of his class love him. Maybe it’s because he’s something of a gentle giant for the younger kids. Ray towers most of the staff. He likes to pretend he’s a lion and shake his mane, an impressive mop of ginger frizzy hair, and roars. Ray loves the kids.
