We're All Just Victims of a Crime

Mikey’s POV

I felt like I was stuck in the aftermath of some disaster. Like the past few days had been a tornado, or a hurricane and now I was standing by myself amidst all the wreckage. I had my best friend who was laying in a hospital bed in a coma, and a brother who if it was even possible was even more closed up than before. I couldn’t go to my parents, they would only tell me that Frank would be fine in the end, that he would wake up and everything would be okay. I knew that it wasn’t very realistic, but anything was better than having no clue as to what was going on.

After Gerard read the letter that Frank had left him, he had run off. To do what? I was clueless, he just up and left while I waited there by myself in the quiet room worried sick. It had been two days since he left and I had only heard from him once, and all he could tell me was that he was busy and that he was going to ‘fix the problem’. I had asked him what he meant by problem, but by the time I finished with my question there was the dull tone on the other telling me he had hung up.

Fix the problem.

In all honesty, that didn’t sound like it was going to be very good.

It wasn’t long before my thoughts of my Brother’s obscure message was pushed to the back of my mind. There had been questions of the bandages on Frank, the white gauze that seemed so out of place on him. The Doctors at first didn’t think anything was wrong, apparently they were wrong. They had taken him back in for surgery just a few hours before and the tension in the small room had filled. His Mom was worried, pacing back and forth and I had no idea what to say to try and comfort her. I would ask her every now and then if she needed something, she would always give me a sad smile and tell me ‘no thank you’ before her nerves would take back over again.

When they had finally finished they pulled her from the room, not bothering to shut the door so I tried to listen. The only problem was with what I could hear, I didn’t understand what it meant. But I could see the look on her face, her hand clasped over her mouth and I could see what looked like tears filling her eyes. Right after he left she walked in to collect her bag, no words were exchanged but for some reason I felt like I knew. Nodding sadly I grabbed my jacket and followed her out going our separate ways. While she headed to the recovery room I headed home to tell Gerard what I knew.

The walk wasn’t that long, but it wasn’t that quick either, by the time I was home the sun was setting and both Mom and Dad were home. Walking in I was greeted with an empty livingroom, the smell of food being cooked flowed from the kitchen and I heard their hushed conversation. Heading downstairs I saw Gerard’s door wide open, it was strange seeing as he was so adamant on his privacy. I walked into the door way, my hand stopping mid sway on knocking.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, my eyes landed on the boxes that were partially filled on the ground. Gerard stopped what he was doing from the far side of his room, his hands full of comics.
“Packing,” he stated before walking over and dropping them in a random box.
“Uh yeah, I can see that, but why? Are you moving back up to your old room or something?” he looked back at me before shrugging.
“Or something.” he answered and continued. I walked over to the boxes and looked down in them.
“I’m leaving Mikey.” he stated as if I hadn’t already picked up on it.
“I can see that too, but why the hell are you leaving? Where are you going to go huh? You do have school.”
“No, I have enough credits to graduate and I already got in to Art College.”
“So you’re just going to leave?” he nodded.
“Are you seriously that stupid?”
“I’m only trying to fix things Michael, I know you don’t understand but this is how I see it.”
“Ok, are you the one that’s blind now? How can you fix things by just leaving? Even if you do, its not like everyone is just going to forget about you. Frank needs you right now Gerard, he’s in intensive care, you can’t just leave him.” I stated, my anger showing through my tone.
“I caused this Mikey, I’m only trying to prevent more shit from happening so lay off.” I started to tip over his boxes which only pissed him off.
“What the hell are you doing? Stop acting like a fucking kid Mikey.”
“Me? You want me to stop acting like a fucking kid? Who is the one who is running away from his problems? Who is the one who for years moped about how nobody likes him, how nobody cares? Yet when someone finally cares about you, all you do is push them away or run away from them? You’re so fucking selfish Gerard! You’re the one who needs to grow up.” he looked at me for a few moments, his face stoic as he bent over and began to shove his things back into the boxes.
“You’re not changing my mind.” he stated sharply.
“Ok how about this? Are you really going to leave Frank when he’s in a god damn coma, and when he wakes up, if he wakes up the only thing he’s going to find out is that he’ll never see again?” his head shot up, his face contorted in confusion.
“What do you mean never see again?” I nodded.
“Glass went in his eyes or something, I just know that he’s blind Gerard. Can you honestly let him wake up, and when he’s scared and lost in darkness asking for you... can you really leave him alone? Just like that?” the silence that followed my question only angered me, because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to change his mind.