Everyone Learns Faster On Fire

I need to speak to you. Alone. Don’t tell anyone. Meet me by the docks.

Mikey looked over the text message again. He knew that Gerard meant the spot that they used to sit in as children, watching the boats come and go with their father. Since then, it had been their place. His mind was filled with memories of times they had shared there, from the time that Gerard almost fell in the water, to the time that they tried their first cigarette together. All were jovial memories, and Mikey hoped that whatever Gerard had to say to him wasn’t going to ruin the run of good times.
He had told Alicia that he had left something at the practise studio. He got in his BMW car, drove for twenty minutes, and arrived at the desired meeting place. The area was deserted. Nothing but the desolate sound of the wind playing with the trees and the waves crashing up against the dock.

Alone. Don’t tell anyone.

Suppose something bad happened. They had argued the day before, and suppose Gerard tried to do him in? Push him off the pier? No one would have any idea where he was or who he was meeting. He hated thinking ill thoughts of his brother, but Gerard just wasn’t acting like Gerard lately. There was the slight possibility that he had decided to get him out of the way in order to continue with his plan to corrupt Jamia without any obstacles.
He sat down on the bench that they considered to be theirs. He had thought wrong about the place being deserted. There was homeless man sleeping on the bench a few feet away from him. Maybe he would wake up to see Mikey being shoved and plunging into the cold grey water below.

“Mikey Way!”

He turned around as soon as he heard his brother’s playful cry and saw him jogging towards the bench. He didn’t look murderous or angry at all, and Mikey began to relax a little when he saw the smile on his face.

“Aw, you got our favourite spot!” Gerard said and handed him a Starbucks. “I got your favourite!”

Mikey looked down at the paper cup. “Trying to bribe me? You know it’s not going to work.”

Gerard was silent. He sat down on the seat beside the younger brother and looked out into the open ocean. Eventually he spoke with a voice full of regret. “I came to say I’m sorry. Yesterday I shouldn’t have reacted in the way that I did….I guess that I’m just too caught up in my evil plan to think about what it’s going to do to the people that I care about.”

Mikey looked up at his brother. “So…you’re not going through with it then?”

Gerard sighed and was silent once more. Maybe Mikey had thought too soon. Gerard took a huge gulp from his coffee and Mikey looked out into the seemingly endless space of water before them.

“…I said I don’t want to involve the people I care about, which means you.” Gerard repeated, not daring to look at the man sitting beside him. “Tomorrow I’m giving the pictures to Jamia. I know you don’t want me to, but I don’t know what else to do! If you can think of a way to make Frank see that he needs to break up with her, then please tell me!”

Mikey toyed around with the warm drink in his hands. He didn’t know what to feel. He sure as hell wasn’t happy about Gerard doing this, but he had never heard that type of desperation in his brother’s voice before. He sipped his coffee and looked up into the hazel eyes that were identical to his.

“Gerard, I want you to be happy.” he said finally, finishing the drink and discarding the paper cup in the water. “Which is why I want you to do it. I know in my heart I would do the same to get the person I love.”

Gerard looked at his brother in disbelief for what seemed like a lifetime. He was expecting Mikey to go crazy at him. He smiled warmly and wrapped Mikey in a bone crushing brotherly embrace, nearly squeezing all the oxygen out of his thin body.

“Mikey, I promise that you won’t end up hating me for this. It’s going to work out.” Gerard said. “Even if it kills me I will get Frank to be all mine and no one else’s.”