Once he was changed out of his gym kit, Gerard made his way to the front of the school where he met up with his younger brother ever day to begin the long walk home together. He purposely walked the long way round, passing the pastoral support office just in case Frank was there. He wasn't.
"What took you so long?" Mikey asked when Gerard finally got to their meeting point.
Gerard nervously bit his lip and pointed down to his badly tied shoe laces. Mikey nodded and crouched down, retying his older brother's laces so they wouldn't come undone during the walk home. Then they set off toward home, Gerard happily skipping in front of Mikey the whole journey back. Neither of them noticed that Nell wasn't in Gerard's bag until they were all the way home.
Mikey paced up and down the hall, running his had through his hair ever few steps. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten to double check that Nell was in his brother's bag before they left school. Gerard was sat on the sofa, his paci in his mouth, colouring in a picture of a princess in a castle happily. Mikey hadn't told his older brother that they'd left Nell at school yet.
Gerard finished colouring in his drawing. He had coloured the princess dress in purple and pink, his favourite colours. He carefully wrote at the top, in the neatest handwriting he could, 'To Frankie, Love Gee.'
Then there was a knock on the door. Mikey stopped pacing and walked over to open the front door. To Gerard's surprise and Mikey's relief, it was Frank and he was holding Nell.
"Is Gerard here?" Frank asked awkwardly and Mikey nodded gesturing for Frank to come inside. They made their was to the living room where Gerard was making finishing touches to his drawing for Frank.
"You, um, you left this in the pastoral support office earlier," Frank said holding the stuffed animal out in Gerard's direction. Gerard gratefully took Nell from Frank and pushed the drawing across the coffee table toward Frank. Frank made a confused face.
"He's been colouring you a picture since he got back from school," Mikey explained and Frank nodded picking up the drawing and smiling.
"Thank you Gerard. It's beautiful," Frank said with a genuine smile. He had been tempted to add 'just like you' onto the end but ended up deciding against it. Gerard smiled back from behind his paci.
"You can stay for dinner if you want, it's just gonna be pasta and sweet corn," Mikey said to Frank. Gerard pulled a face, he hated sweet corn, always had.
"Sure," Frank replied. "Just let me call my mom."
Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket and Gerard looked at him in awe. Of course Gerard had seen a phone before, Mikey had a phone and his father had one too, but they both had cheep brick phones from the corner shop down the road nothing like the high end smart phone Frank had. Gerard had never needed a phone so they'd never spent the money getting him one, Mikey only had one in case of an emergency when their father was deployed. Frank could tell that Gerard was intrigued by his phone but concentrated on the conversation he was having with his mom.
Mikey had moved to the kitchen where he was cooking the pasta and serving it into two china bowls for himself and Frank and a small plastic bowl with Winnie the Pooh on for his brother.
"Gee," Mikey called through to his brother. "Put Nell in your room and then put some mats on the table!"
Gee nodded and ran off towards his room to tuck Nell into his bed before rushing back and putting three mats on the dining table. He put his and Mikey's in their usual spots and then set another place next to his seat. Then he went over to Frank and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the table and pointing to the seat next to his. They began to eat in silence.
"So," Frank began desperately trying to start a conversation with the Way brothers. "Where are your parents?"
Gerard stopped eating and began to push his pasta, well mainly sweet corn, around his bowl. Mikey knew that his brother wouldn't answer so he finished chewing his mouthful, stabbed another piece of pasta rather aggressively and then answered Frank's question.
"Our mother's dead. Our father's a marine." Mikey replied. "Gee eat your sweet corn."
Frank felt slightly guilty for bringing up their parents, he didn't know their mother was dead. Gerard groaned and reluctantly raised a spoonful of sweet corn up to his mouth before dumping it back in his bowl and dropping his spoon. Mikey sighed. Frank reached over and picked up Gerard's spoon and putting some sweet corn on it. He moved the spoon through the air like an aeroplane.
"Here comes the choo choo train, open up the tunnel!" Frank said and Gerard giggled slightly before opening his mouth. Frank moved the spoon into Gee's mouth and continued to feed him the sweet corn using the same method until there was none left in his bowl. Then Mikey cleared the table while Frank and his brother sat at the table in silence.
"Bath time Gee," Mikey said checking his watch. "If you're good and wash yourself, I'll sew up that hole in Nell's back."
Gerard whimpered slightly, repeatedly shaking his head from side to side.
"Gerard. I have twenty minutes to wash you and put you to bed before I have to leave for work. If you don't wash yourself I'm not going to have time to sew up Nell," Mikey explained running his long thin fingers through his hair again. He had completely forgotten that Frank was still there.
"Why don't you sew up Nell and then get to work and I'll sort out Gerard?" Frank suggested and Mikey nodded and let out a relieved sigh.
"Thank you so much Frank. Just don't let him go to bed with his paci and don't feel like you have to wait for me to get back from work. I could be out until about two or three in the morning, it depends what mood my boss is in," Mikey said and walked of to sew up Nell and get ready for work.
