Glades and Playgrounds

“Frank?”

I couldn’t recognize the voice, so I looked up and I have to say that I didn't like what I saw.

“What?” I snapped and put my feet down in the sand to make the swing move. The screeching sound was even louder now than the last time I had been at the playground.

“Al, can I call you later? I have to…” Mikey’s voice trailed off and I suspected he had just been simply nodding my way. I looked up just in time to see him kiss a girl on the cheek and she walked off, sending Mikey a smile. Mikey on the other hand didn’t return it, he actually almost looked nauseous.

“Hi…” he said and carefully sat down on the swing next to me, almost as he was afraid it would break under his weight. “Uhm… Fr-“

“Does she know?”

He looked at me with eyes looking even bigger than they normally would thanks to his glasses, but he didn’t make a sound.

“Does she know, Mikey?”

“Alicia?”

My turn to simply wait for him to continue.

“Know what?”

“Forget it,” I told him, annoyed, and got up from the swing. He let me walk for a few metres before I heard him mumble a ‘no’.

“Are you gonna tell her?”

“I… Frank…”

“Maybe I should tell her?”

He stared defiantly to his left without responding to my threat.

“You know,” he said after a while, “He’s crying.”

“Who? Gerard?” I asked and Mikey glanced quickly at me.

“Yeah.”

“No, he’s not.”

“Yeah, I think he is.”

“Think?” I mocked and took a step back, “You can keep your thought to yourself, I’m gonna go home. Give him a kiss from me! Or wait. Don’t.”

“Wait!” he pleaded and I turned around.

“What?”

“Frank…” he said, then sighed deeply, “Come on, man, it was just for fun.”

“Fun? This isn’t fun… it’s fucking hilarious, really fucking hilarious,” I said, then going straight to the point. “Did you fuck?”

“What?”

“Did,” I started and walked closer to him, “you and your brother,” I sat down on the swing next to him, “have intercourse?”

“Ew, no!”

“So what do you do?”

“Do? It’s did.”

“Whatever.” Good to know that Gerard's too upset to molest his younger brother.

“We,” he started and then laughed lightly, nervously, “It doesn’t matter…”

I looked at the boy sitting next to me, my former friend, and wished I had someone to talk to. Mom and I weren’t comfortable around each other, Mikey was a part of the problem, Gerard as well and Bert was on Gerard’s side.

“Don’t you miss him? At all? He misses you a lot… Not that you care,” Mikey said and started swinging. He seemed to have noticed my disinclination to leave; maybe he could tell I actually wanted to talk about it. On my conditions, that was.

“Of course I miss him,” I mumbled, “But he fucked up.”

“By not telling you?”

“By doing what he did!”

“Does it disgust you that much?”

I snort which shortly turned into a joyless laugh.

“So it does, huh…” I heard him say to himself and I force myself to calm down.

“I’m sorry, Mikes,” I chuckled and got up from the swing, “But I have to go. You should tell Alicia. You don’t deserve her.”

“Hey-“

“Bye!”