“That was my mum...” Mikey sighed as he locked the keypad on his cell and put it back into the pocket of his jeans. “She was asking about Gerard again.”
Frank and Ray looked at Mikey with worried expressions, neither man saying anything as Mikey sat back down and laid his head in his hands. He breathed a quiet sigh that shook on the exhale, his fingers pushing into his hair. He was clearly distressed, but that was a regular thing recently.
“I just don’t know what to tell her anymore.” Mikey whispered, his voice strained from the effort of trying to hold back his tears. “Even dad has been calling me almost every day. Everyone’s so worried about him and I just don’t know what to do.”
“Hey...” Ray was the first to move to sit beside Mikey, laying his arm around his shoulders and tugging him to rest against his side. “We’re gonna figure this out okay?” He whispered, the same thing he had been saying for days though they were all still stuck in the same mess. “We just... Just as soon as he accepts he needs help it’ll get better...”
“But he isn’t going to accept that.” Mikey whimpered, his tone a little snappy, his head still in his hands. “I’ve been trying and trying to make him see that he needs help and he just gets angry about it.”
“He’s just in a hard place right now Mikes.” Ray mewled, Mikey scoffing and shaking his head.
“We’re all in a hard place right now. I know I need to be understanding but for God’s sake, why is he doing this to us!?” Mikey tensed up and Ray sighed, hugging him close and just closing his eyes sadly. He wanted to comfort Mikey but there was nothing he could say that could make this better. They were all hurting, they were all scared... They just needed Gerard to come to his senses but nothing they did seemed to work.
Over the other side of the room Frank remained silent, his elbow resting on the dressing table and his chin on his knuckles. He was staring blankly at the dressing room door, lost in his own thoughts. He vaguely knew he needed to be comforting Mikey too but he just couldn’t think of anything he could say to him.
Frank sighed as he tried to remember when things had become like this. They had always been big on drinking, all of them had. When they first started the band and started getting popular the alcohol was just an obvious added extra. What rock band didn’t drink? What band didn’t enjoy a party? But how did it suddenly turn into something more? When had the hard drugs appeared? When had being sober become such a rare occurrence? Frank couldn’t remember, he couldn’t remember when it had all started to fall apart.
Gerard had always drunk more than any of them, but that was because of his stage fright. A few beers before going on stage just made it easier for him. It had never been a problem to any of them, it was just what Gerard did...
Frank felt a stirring of anger swirl in his stomach as he thought back on it all. He felt so stupid for not having noticed things becoming like this, why hadn’t he seen this coming? Now it was too late and there wasn’t a day that went by when they weren’t worrying over what Gerard was doing. How was it that a bit of harmless drinking had become an addiction? How was it that a few parties on tour had led Gerard down the spiralling path of drugs?
“He won’t come out.” Frank jumped and looked up in surprise to see Bob in the doorway, his face saddened as he closed the door. Bob had joined the band as their tour drummer for the Murder scene tour, but Frank got the feeling he’d probably become a permanent fixture. They all loved him.
“I tried talking to him but he’s completely wasted. He said he’s not doing the show tonight.” Bob sounded exhausted and Frank looked at him sympathetically as he walked to the couch to sit beside Mikey.
