Everyone Learns Faster On Fire

Mikey almost jumped out of is skin when Gerard opened the front door. He had only just rung the bell a fraction of a second ago, and had barely taken his finger away from the small plastic button on the wall, before all of a sudden the door flew open.
He had received a rather mysterious and frantic call from Gerard the previous evening, just as he was about to go to bed. It had been worrying him all night. He could still remember the way his brother had said ‘I need to see you about something important’, and it made his skin crawl. There was something undeniably desperate about the way he had said it, but Gerard would not reveal any more information over the telephone.

“Oh! Hey Gerard, what’s up?” Mikey said when he realised that Gerard was standing there. “Is everything okay?”

He seemed distant. Mikey had stepped into the hallway and was in the middle of hanging his jacket up on the hooks on the wall before he answered with a preoccupied “Yeah…I’m fine.”

Gerard walked into the living room and Mikey followed. He was surprised to see that the décor had changed very little since he had moved out a year and a half ago. He could have sworn the empty Coke bottle on top of the television had been there when he was packing his things up to leave.
Gerard didn’t sit down like Mikey had expected him to, he just stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, like he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Gerard, what do you want to talk to me about? You’re not ill or anything, are you?”

“No, no. It’s nothing like that.” Gerard said, fiercely shaking his head. “I wanted to talk to you about me and Frankie….I need to tell someone about it.”

Of course it was that. Everything in Gerard’s life recently seemed to revolve around Frank Iero. Mikey had barely seen his brother since they had come off tour. Especially in this last month when Gerard had been seeing a lot of Frank and it had been pretty obvious that they had stayed over each other’s places a couple of nights, or spent all day in bed together. His brother had even stopped texting or calling him every day to see how he was. So what was wrong? They seemed perfectly happy together.

“It’s just eating me up inside.” Gerard continued to talk in desperation. “I know he’s been lying about her. I know that he can’t tell her and neither can I! If he really loves me then he should just listen to me! I just wish that he would-”

“Shh, slow down!” Mikey interrupted while trying to comprehend what he had just said. “Come on, sit down and we’ll talk this through. I don’t have anywhere I have to be, so you can take as long as you like.”

The older sibling sat on the sofa which was opposite the large beanbag Mikey had collapsed in. He noticed that Gerard was much paler than usual, without wearing his infamous stage makeup, and had dark circles under his eyes indicating loss of sleep.

“Now, what’s going on? What’s Frank been lying to you about?”

Gerard cleared his throat and told Mikey everything about the promise Frank had made and how he still sneaks around Jamia. He even told him about the way Frank reacted to her almost catching them in the act. Mikey listened intently and answered at the appropriate times. Gerard felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his back when he had finished telling his tale around fifteen minutes later. He knew that Mikey would be able to help him out, he always did.

When he had finished, Mikey really didn’t know what to say. How could he have lied to his boyfriend like that? And Jamia? He had always thought that Frank was an honest person and always told the truth however much it would hurt. Mikey leant forward in the beanbag twiddling his thumbs, and tried to think of what to do. In all honesty, it was going to hurt someone whatever happened. That was what love was all about in the end - pain and heartbreak.

“I mean, how can he do that to her?” Gerard continued. How ever much he hated her, he couldn’t help feeling sorry for Jamia. “It’s pretty obvious that he’s only marrying her because it’s what everyone expects of him. His parents no nothing about our relationship. Only you and the guys know. He’s always to damn afraid of letting his family down.”

“I wouldn’t knock him like that.” Mikey said. “Frank’s a good guy. I know he is. I’m sure he’s thinking of a way to tell her. He’s just got to find the right time I guess.”

Gerard sighed. “But don’t you understand the right time is now? The longer he leaves it, the worse everything is going to get. And I can’t tell him. I’ve spoken to him once before, and he said he would definitely tell her. But that was months ago! She’s going to go ballistic when she finds out he’s been cheating on her all this time….Y’know, I wish someone would catch us at it. Post pictures all over the internet or something. I want the world to know along with her.”

They took a time out for a couple of minutes. Gerard went out into the kitchen to get some cold drinks. On his way out, he checked his mobile phone for any text messages from Frankie. Not one since last weekend. It wasn’t a surprise to him. He was probably wary of Jamia looking through his outbox.
It was when Gerard was pouring lemonade into Mikey’s glass that a sudden thought struck him. It hit him with the force of a freight train.

‘Of course!’ he thought and a smug grin appeared across his face. ‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’

Gerard returned to the living room and put the two glasses of soda on the cluttered coffee table, balancing on top of a pile of dated magazines. Mikey was admiring the framed picture of his brother and his boyfriend on the ledge above the fireplace.

“Aww, how sweet.” Mikey cooed, putting the picture back down. “I can tell Frank really loves you by the look in his eyes.”

Gerard wasn’t listening. He sat back down in the same position as before. “Mikey, do you still know that guy who spies on people for money?”

Mikey frowned and sat down next to him. “Who? You mean Steve?”

Mikey had known Steve for years. He was a few years older than him, maybe about five or six years elder, and was a private detective. The type of person that hangs around outside people’s houses, hiding in bushes laden with Polaroid cameras and notebooks, ready to spring out and take a picture of someone’s cheating partner through the gap in the curtains. Steve was also a very talented drummer, who used to play in a band with Mikey when he was in high school.

“Yeah him.” Gerard smiled deviously. “Maybe if you begged and pleaded with him, I dunno, reel off some story about thinking I was sleeping with your girlfriend, he could catch me and Frank and then get him to tell her!”

Mikey seemed uncertain. “I dunno. I haven’t spoken to him in a while. How are we gonna convince him to tell Jamia about this? That sort of thing is kept pretty confidential between him and the one who’s paying him. It seems like a bit of a waste of money to me.”

But Gerard’s mind was already made up. “We’ll work something out. Pass me your phone. I wanna take his number down.”