Giving Up the World

Frank
September 1995
My eye lids slowly opened again. I didn't know what time it was but I knew I had slept for quite some time. As my eyes adjusted to my room, I noticed it wasn't light out anymore. I had slept through the day. I'm glad I did too. I felt weak and tired and heavy; like something was weighing me down.

Finally I sat up in bed and groaned, rubbing at my crusted eyes. That's when I finally noticed and realized that when I fell asleep, I was not alone.

I turned my head and found Gerard sitting in a chair next to my bed. He was sleeping. Arms crossed, head down, and slouched against the chair. So this was the ticking time bomb next to my bed. Gerard Way. It was amazing to me that he had just stayed there the entire time and watched after me. I was very thankful. But what about my mom? Hadn't she come home and found me yet? The beer cans were still all over my room. Surely someone found them other than Gerard. All I knew was that I would soon be in deep trouble.

A yawn came from Gerard and his hands went up to his eyes, rubbing at them as he began to wake up.

"Gerard...?" I spoke quietly, just in case he wasn't actually waking up.

His eyes opened and he yawned again before sitting up and looking at me. "Hey Frankie... How're you feeling?"

The question struck me and I wanted to throw a fit right there but I stayed calm and took a deep breath. "Better than before. I'm still tired though." Gerard just nodded. "Did.... Did you just sit there and watch me?" I asked.

He once again nodded his head. "I couldn't leave you.... I was afraid of what you'd do alone." He whispered. "I mean, you got drunk Frank. You drank an eight pack of beer all by yourself." Anger was slowly building up in him. His voice was raising. "Y'know you could've died! You could've gotten alcohol poisoning! Or you could've done something more stupid than just call me up and hit on William!" I furrowed my eyebrows at his last sentence but decided not to ask at this time. I didn't remember what happened when I was drunk. "Frank, you really had me worried. Especially when you were screaming at yourself. Why were you hurting yourself Frank?" His voice softened again. "Don't hurt yourself, please. You don't know how many people would be hurt if you did something to yourself." A frown fell upon his lips and he looked away from me.

"I'm sorry..." I looked down and frowned. "Did my mom find out...?" I asked, looking up at him a little.

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, she did. She's so upset with you that she can't even talk to you. She said she didn't want to. Not yet. You really upset her Frank. You're her only son and you pull this shit?" He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Get up and get dressed." He ordered.

"What for? It's night time." He looked out the window and nodded.

"After you go to school tomorrow, I'm picking you up and you're coming with me."He decided.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "But why? I was gonna go over to Annabell's house tomorrow."

"Well you're not anymore. You should've thought about that before you went and drank yourself drunk." He stood up from the chair.

"Where are we going then?" I asked.

"A rehabilitation center."