Glades and Playgrounds

“Lights out,” Mikey declared, getting out of his bed and flicked the lights off. I wiggled further down under the warm duvet in Gerard’s bed, relaxed and content, only a bit nauseous from the amount of sugary things I had eaten the last couple of hours.

“What’s her name?” I heard Gerard ask and had no idea what he was talking about.

“What?” Mikey asked from his bed on the other side of the room, clearly just as confused as I was. “Who are you talking to? And about?”

“You.”

“Who’s you? Me or Frank?”

“You!” Gerard laughed, “Micheal fucking Way!”

“Oh… What, who?”

“What?”

“What girl?”

“What?” Gerard laughed harder, content with how he had managed to make us all confused.

“You asked what her name was! Who’s name?” Mikey asked, bemused by his brother’s antics. I guess after fifteen years of living with Gerard, his jokes aren’t quite as funny they are for me.

“Oh… Right! The girl you like. What’s her name?”

Mikey sighed, “I told you I’m not telling you. Good night…”

“It’s not that Mary chick, right?” Gerard’s voice dripped of disgust when mentioning the girl’s name, “She’s so… too much. Plus, Mikey and Mary… It doesn’t sound good. Too much M’s and Y’.”

“’Night, Gerard…”

“Frankie?” he asked, turning his head to look where he knew my face was, “Who is Mikey in love with?”

“I’m not telling…” I yawned, “You should stay out of your brother’s love life…”

Gerard went silent, sighed and relaxed into the pillow.

After a night of bizarre dreams, consisting of a dancing Gerard and chips, I woke up thanks to a light beam of sunlight hitting me straight in the face. Squinting my eyes, I brought a hand up in front of my face to block out the light and then noticed that Mikey wasn’t in his bed. What time was it? Nine? Ten? Too early to be up, anyway. A lazy yawn emitted from my lips and I turned around in the small bed, both to avoid the sunlight and to look at Gerard. He was still sleeping, with a frown on his face, lips pouted. I bit my lip to hold back a grin and then draped my arm over his body.

Without realizing that I had fallen asleep once again, I woke up for the second time that morning. I found myself looking into a black mop of hair that smelled of apples and Gerard. My arms were hugging him tightly, and it surprised me that I had managed to get us into such a close position without waking either of us up. Or maybe one of us had been awake…

“You sleepin’…?” I mumbled tiredly into the black hair and felt Gerard stir. “Didn’t think so…”

“Mmh.”

He moved closer to me, nearly pushing me out of the bed. Strangely enough, he wasn’t lying with his head on the pillow. Instead he was lying further down, his face pressing into my neck, well, throat and arms around my waist. I closed my eyes momentarily and felt so extremely content and relaxed with having Gerard so close and the sunlight hitting my back and the comforting silence in the house. At least it was close to being silent, anyway. The TV was on downstairs and I could hear Mikey moving around stuff in the kitchen, but it was comfortable none the less.

Gerard shuffled around and tilted his head back to look up at me, “You hungry?”

I shrugged, indicating that it didn’t really matter whether we ate now or later.

“I think Mikey’s making us breakfast,” he said as he, too, noticed the slamming sound of plates from downstairs.

“Or he’s just making breakfast for himself…” I suggested, “I think we should stay here for, you know… a couple of more hours…”

“It’s 11.30am,” he laughed and sat up, the duvet only covering him from his waist and down. He was topless, and I have to say he looked pretty nice in the yellow light from the window that the room was bathing in. “If we stay any longer, we’ll just have to skip breakfast and make dinner right away.”

“You won’t hear me complaining,” I mumbled and hugged my pillow while nestling my head further into it. He laughed and allowed his torso to fall backwards where it hit the mattress. Smiling in victory, I placed my hand on his chest, fingers outspreaded and gently caressed his skin.

He closed his eyes, enjoying my touch for a second, then looked at me and asked: “What do you wanna do today?”

“Stay in bed,” was my immediate answer and as punishment for not giving him an acceptable answer, he rolled on top of me.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said with his face close to mine and I wrinkled my nose at the smell of his morning breath. He noticed this, so with a grin, he instantly began to blow air in my face, then continued with his question. “What do you wanna do today?”

“Motherfucker…” I whimpered, thrashing my head from side to side to avoid his mouth, “I don’t know! I’ll do anything you want if you’ll just eat a fuckin’ Tic-Tac!”

“Awesome!” he laughed, “Then let’s go and get some breakfast, shall we?”

Mikey was, just as we’d heard, in the kitchen. He was sitting at the kitchen table, looking as if he was going on a date, with nice clothes and neatly done hair. There was a faint scent of cologne in the air as well.

“Good morning!” he said brightly as we entered. I think that was the happiest voice he had ever used when talking to Gerard.

“Did you eat a fluffy little bunny for breakfast or what?” was Gerard’s reply to his brother’s cheerfulness and Mikey frowned for a second.

“No.”

“Alrighty then. What’s for breakfast?” Gerard asked and walked over to the fridge while I sat down next to Mikey.

“Are you going somewhere?” I asked and he nodded, smiling.

“Yep!” He brought his cup of coffee up to his mouth and downed it. He then got up, standing straight like a soldier, still smiling. “I’ll be home at six, Gee.”

Gerard finally took notice in his brother’s strange behaviour and tore his eyes from the fridge.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Oh, nowhere…” Mikey said, starting to walk out of the kitchen, “I have my phone with-“

“Ah ah ah!” Gerard said and Mikey stopped.

“What?”

“I asked, where are you going?”

“Just out!”

Gerard’s left eyebrow lifted into a perfect arch, and the two brothers seemed to have a staring contest, challenging each other to look away. Getting bored, I got up from my chair and walked over to the coffee machine while listening as they continued talking.

“Mom and dad left me in charge, and you’re not leaving this house until I know where you’re going,” Gerard said with a tone that could’ve just as easily been used by his mother.

“I’m just going to a friends’ house! Jeeze…” Mikey said and rolled his eyes á la teenager.

“What friend?” he asked, his eyes scanning Mikey, taking in his appearance, “A girl?”

“Maybe. Can I go now?”

I poured myself a cup of coffee, heaved myself up to sit on the counter and watched them, slightly amused. I liked Gerard when he was being serious and over-protective. It made him look so handsome.

But he didn’t stay serious for long. His stern face turned into a teasing smile and he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Mikey is in love,” he sang, laughing as Mikey flipped him off, “What’s her name?”

“I didn’t tell you last night, and I won’t tell you today.”

“So, basically, what you’re saying is that you wanna spend the day with me and Frank.”

Mikey let out a frustrated noise and stomped his foot in the floor, “Her name’s Gerard-is-a-fucking-asshole, alright?!”

“Pretty,” Gerard commented and got back to looking through the fridge in search for something edible, “So anyway, the bathroom upstairs needs to be cleaned, and there’s laundry-“

“Her name’s Alicia, can I GO now?!” Mikey snapped.

“Certainly,” Gerard said with a sweet smile, “Be home by six,” he added as Mikey, furious as hell, stomped out of the kitchen.

“You’re quite a bitch,” I said calmly, taking another sip of my coffee. “If you ever try something like that on me, I’ll kick your ass.”

He laughed and pulled something out of the fridge. “We’ve got milk and cereals and uh… well, that’s pretty much everything we have.”

“I think I’ll have milk and cereals then.”