Crash Into My Arms

“As if you just beat me!” Max cried as I won our fight in The Warriors; an old Playstation 2 game based on the 1979 film of the same name.
“You’re slipping, clearly.” I teased. “Been outta practice on this game have you?”
“I don’t play Playstation 2 games anymore.” He laughed. “I upgraded; it’s all Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 now.”
“Well, I don’t have the money for new Xboxes and Playstation’s so I have to make do with what I have; hence I’m not rusty on my Playstation 2 games.”
“No; you’re just too busy wasting money on useless shit.”
“Oh fuck up.” I slapped his arm.
“Typical impulsive-spender of a woman.”
I rolled my eyes; “Screw you.”

My phone buzzed on the coffee table and I picked it up. It was a message from Mikey;

Miseria, get in touch, please

I rolled my eyes and pressed delete; Gerard was probably moping around at home and Mikey; being his typical empathetic self would have decided to message me to try and make me come and see him. Nice try Michael; but that plan just failed.

“Who was that from?” Max asked.
“Mikey, Gerard’s brother.” I answered. “He wants me to call him.”
“Do you mind if I ask again; what happened with you and Gerard?”
“I told you before, I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Miz.”
“No.” I held up my hand to silence him. “I’m not going to talk about it.”

***

I awoke in the middle of the night to my message tone blaring from my phone. As I began to roll over; Max shot up and leaned over me. He opened the message himself and read it to me aloud;

“Miseria, seriously, get in touch. Gerard’s not doing so good, he needs you.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “He just doesn’t give up, does he?” I grumbled.
“Miseria.” Max spoke sternly, putting my phone back down on his bedside table. “Tell me what the hell happened.”
“Max, I--”
“No, I’m not gonna hear any of that “I don’t wanna talk about it” shit!” He snapped. “What happened?!”
I breathed in deep and exhaled. “Gerard lied to me.” I spoke.
“How?”
“He said he would always be there for me… But he won’t be.”
“Why?” Max asked.
“Because he has Cancer, and it’s terminal.” I finally confessed.
Max looked at me with disgust. “That’s disgusting, Miseria.” He said. “You’ve left Gerard in his time of need, you’re fucking heartless.” He threw back the covers and got out of bed. “I can’t even look at you right now.” He grabbed his pillow. “I’m sleeping in the lounge, goodnight.”

With that he opened the door and closed it behind him; leaving me alone in the dark…