Roommates

I can't do this anymore.

"Brie?"  A raspy voice called out in a whisper.  "Awake.  What's wrong Mikey?"  There was silence for a few minutes.  "Mikey?" I whispered.  "Brie..." He trailed off.  I sat up on the bed and faced Mikey.  "What's wrong?"   "I don't think I can do this anymore." He whispered.  "W-what?" I whispered almost breathlessly.  "The band.  I don't think I can be bassist anymore." He said in a small voice.  I frowned.  "Why not?"  "I just can't."  I didn't know what to say.  Does this mean no more My Chemical Romance?   "That's okay Mikey, I'm sure Gerard will take it fine." I told him trying my best to make him feel better about things.  "I hope so."    "He's your brother, and he's Gerard.  He won't be mad."  "You're right." He whispered.  I scooted closer to him and hugged him.  "Of course I am."  Mikey laughed.  "You're not always right though."   "Pfft.  I will be this time."  "Hope so."

"Psst."  "Go away."  "Psst."   "Go away."  "Psst!"  "Oh my god what the hell do you want?" I asked rolling over to the person interrupting me from my sleep.  "I need to talk to you." Gerard said with a saddened look on his face.  I sat up and rubbed my eyes.  "About what?"  "Mikey."  Oh no, here we go.  "He said he wants to quit the band."   "I know." I said quietly.  "You do?" He asked sounding shocked.  "Yeah, he woke me up last night and told me he can't be in the band anymore."   Gerard closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead and sighed.  "What does that mean for you guys?" I questioned.  Gerard shrugged.  "We could get another bassist or we could just....quit."   I looked to my side to see a picture of my dad.  "Don't quit." I said.  "What?"   "Keep the band going.  You guys are great, people love you.  Yeah they might be upset if Mikey isn't in the band anymore but that doesn't mean you will fail."  Gerard stared at me.  "Mikey will even support you.  You're his friends and you're his brother, he loves you and I'm sure he'll support you no matter what."  His mouth was slightly open.  "Um, where did that come from?" He laughed.  "Is this your dream?"  "Well..not really but I love being in a band." He said.  "Then don't give up."  "That still doesn't tell me where that all came from."   I pointed at the picture of my dad.  "He always told me and my sister that if we have a dream or we have something we love, never give up on it if things get hard or frustrating."  Gerard look at the picture then back at me and smiled.  All of a sudden Gerard was hugging me.  Tight.  I slowly hugged him back and heard him say,  "Maybe if we still keep the band going it will show Mikey that he can do it."   "Yeah, you'll just have to keep writing songs and making music to find out." I smiled.  He pulled away but still held on to me by the shoulders.  "Thank you so much Brie."   "I don't know why you're saying thank you but you're welcome."  He laughed and shook his head.  "I'm thanking you for that little speech."  I turned my head to my dads picture.  "You should thank him." I said.  Gerard look at the picture and thanked it which made me laugh.  "I'll leave you alone now." He told me.  "Wait, where's Mikey?" I asked.  "He's on the couch."   "Oh, okay.  You can leave now."   "Okay sassy."  "You said you were going to anyway."   He smiled and left my room without a word.  "Ok then." I mumbled to myself.  Might as well get out of bed. 

"Hey." I whispered to Mikey when I sat down beside him.  "Hey." He whispered back.  I leaned my head over to see his face.  "You okay?"  He shrugged.  "Oh, I'll shut up." I softly laughed.  "You're fine."   I looked down at my feet not knowing if I should speak or not.  I felt Mikey's arm wrap around my shoulders and pull me closer to him.  Looking over at him I gave him a puzzled look.  "What?" He asked.  I shook my head.  "Nothing." 
"So uh Gerard talked to me about the band.." I said a little awkwardly.  "Okay."   "He said they'd still keep the band going." I whispered.  Mikey nodded.   What am I supposed to say know?  Mikey leaned his head on mine.  The silence between us was awkward but it was better than talking about the band.  "Mikey?"   "Hmm?"   "I love you."   "I love you too."  

Silence. 

"As much as I used to like silence I've gotten used to not having it much so I don't like it." I told Mikey.  "Then talk about something."  "I don't know what to talk about." I mumbled.  He let out tiny laugh.  "What?"  "You want to talk but you don't know what to talk about." He told me.  "Unless I'm arguing with Frank or someone keeps talking to me I can talk." I said.  "I heard my name!" Frank called from his room.  "I didn't say anything about you!" I called back.  "Yeah right."  "You should stop being nosey!" I told him.  "You shouldn't talk about me!" He said, coming out of his room.  "I wasn't!"   "Then why did I hear my name from your mouth?"  "Because I was telling Mikey that I can't keep a conversation going unless I'm arguing with you or someone else is talking to me." I said in a very mad tone.  Frank looked at Mikey.  Mikey nodded calmly.  "Fine.  But don't talk about me." He told me.  I crossed my arms and grumbled, "I wasn't."  "I know that but don't do it ever."  I stared at him until he went away.  "What was that?" Mikey laughed.  "Me and Frank arguing over something stupid again."  "Can you two even get along?"   "Sometimes." I mumbled.  "When?"  "When he's not being such an asshole."  "He's not always an asshole."  "Well he is to me!  Does he not like me or something?"  "I don't know, ask him."  "What am I supposed to say, hey Frank me and you get into a lot of fights. Do you not like me?"  "Something like that." He shrugged.  "You're no help." I said grumpily.  He chuckled.  "What now?"  "You're cute when you're mad."  "Shut up, no I'm not."  "Yeah,"  "Ha!"  "You're adorable when you're mad."  "Mikey!"  "I'm just being honest." He defended.

"Hey Brie."  "Sup Ray."  "Whatcha doing?" He asked.  I looked up from my book.  "Uh... reading."  He laughed.  "Yeah, that was a stupid question."   "You okay?" I questioned.  "Yeah I'm fine just...bored."  "Well I don't really know how to help you."  "Um, can I ask you a question?"   "You just did." I said. Ray rolled his eyes. That's rare.  "Can I ask you three questions?"  "You just- wait..never mind.  Yeah sure." I sighed.  "Has Mikey talked to you about quit-"  "Yes he has. I was the first person he talked to." I interrupted.  "Oh, okay." Ray nodded.  "I told Gerard that if you guys keep going and making songs that maybe it will make Mikey see that he belongs in the band."   "Yeah, hopefully." Ray sighed.  "Is that all you came in here for?"   "Pretty much."  "Okay, well if you don't mind I want to at least finish this chapter so...if you're not going to do anything, please leave." I told Ray, trying my best not to sound rude.  "Yeah of course, thanks for the small talk though." He said, exiting my room.  I smiled and continued reading my book. 

"Looks who's emerged," Frank said as I walked out of my room.  "Thought you were never going to come out of there.  What were you doing?"  "Reading." I sighed, sitting down beside Mikey who was asleep on the couch.  He jumped awake when I leaned over on him.  I smiled up at him and he smiled back but fell back asleep quicker than I've ever seen.  "Where's Ray and Gerard?" I asked.  "Working on some songs." Frank told me.  "You're not helping?"  "Obviously not," he said.  "They're working on the lyrics and stuff."  "Oh."  "How long has Mikey been asleep?" I questioned.  "I dunno, maybe twenty minutes or so?" "Oh okay."  I heard Frank sigh then I saw him walk over to the couch and sir down.  "What's on tv?" Frank mumbled either to himself or just out loud.  He turned the TV on and the news was showing the place where I get blood from people.  It showed the woods where I left the dead bodies the other day.  Panic flared up in my chest.  "Oh god." I whispered.  There were four dead, blood drained bodies, some of their body parts missing probably from animals.  "What the hell?" Frank asked.  "Those are the people I killed." I said quietly.  Frank looked over at me with wide eyes.  "I've done this for years. How are they now finding the bodies?"  "Hell if I know."  "Will they know it's me?  My finger prints can be left on the bodies and they can find me. What the fuck am I going to do?" I asked.  Mikey was awake now.  "What? What's going on." "They found the bodies.  I'm gonna die." I mumbled.  "What?!" He looked up at the TV.   "What am I going to do Mikey? They could find me.  They could think you guys were apart of this!"  "Whoa whoa whoa, Brie calm down," Mikey said.  "We'll figure something out, right Frank?"  "Yeah."  "We just need to let Ray and Gerard know and we'll do something.  We'll keep you safe." Frank told me.  "How? You guys have a life. You're a band! You can't just drop everything and help me!" I said.  "Brie. We can do something.  It will take a while before they find out who killed those people, they might even get the wrong person, but until then we can try to figure something out."   I stared down at my knees.  Mikey pulled me into a hug.

This can't be happening.