The World Is Ugly

Mikey’s POV

Gerard drove me home; he asked me the same questions a mother would.
“How was your first day?”
“Good,”
“Did you meet any new friends?”
“Yeh, one…his name is Frank and he’s…amazing,”
“Does Mikey have a crush?”
“NO!!! I’m not gay like you,”
“Ouch! Harsh…but the correct term is bi!”
“How come I’ve only seen you with men?”
“Because you find men attractive and only notice me with men?”
“Gerard, I’m not gay! And you’re not bi!”
“I know…”
There was silence…this was unusual for us, we always had something to talk about.
“Have you kept your promise?” he asked me quietly.
“What?”
“Have you told mum or dad?”
“Oh…no…I would never!”
“Thanks,” he whispered
There was more silence, Gerard was nervous about a parents finding out about his sexuality because they are homophobes. He hated silence so he tried to build up a conversation.
“So tell me about this friend of yours,”
“His name is Frank Iero, he’s the school outcast and he doesn’t trust anyone,”
“Why’s that?”
“Everyone in the whole school calls him gay and they shove him into lockers,”
“That’s terrible!”
“Yeh, he warned me that it would start happening to me if I became friends with him, but I don’t care…I could just get you to beat them up”
“You can’t just rely on me,”
“I know…”
The car fell silent again…it was really awkward. We arrived home and silently walked up to his room. His room was a mess, there was paper everywhere and the floor was littered with broken pencils, clothes and comic books. We sat on Gerard’s bed reading comic books, like we did in New York.
“It’s your birthday soon,” Gerard stated
“Yeh…I’ll be 17!”
“You should invite Frank over…”
“Why?”
“You should celebrate your birthday with a friend…plus I want to meet this amazing Frank that you have a crush on,” he said smiling at the last bit to let me know that it was a joke.
“I might invite him over…only if you don’t freak him out with all your weird ‘bi’ stuff,”
“What? How do I scare people?”
“Well…you wear all black…black makeup, black hair and your gay…pretty creepy,”
“And I was going to buy you a coffee…”
“I LOVE YOU!”
“Fine!”
He drove me to Starbucks and I had delicious coffee…I couldn’t ask for a better brother…he lets me borrow comics, listens to good music and most of all…he buys me coffee.

Sitting in his room reading comics…again, the topic of my birthday came up again.
“So…what do you want for your birthday?”
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“Fine…I’ll get you a new coffee machine,”
“WOO!!!” I yelled dancing around his room, “You’re the best brother EVER!!!”
“I’m going to bed…you should too…its like 1 in the morning!”
“NIGHT!” I said running out of the room and into mine. I jumped onto my bed and surprisingly I was overcome by tiredness straight away.