I See Your Face in Everything

They were new, and unlike your typical situation with new students where they’re instantly popular because of the fact that they were ‘new’, they weren’t treated with that friendly hospitality. They weren’t jocks, nor were they the ‘it’ clique type of material. Their Iron Maiden shirts automatically assigned them to the ‘freaks’ but they didn’t seem to mind. In fact people thought they were freakier than the freaks, if that was even possible.
They were brothers, one a Sophomore, and the other a Senior. The youngest, Mikey was the social one, who almost immediately had fit into our small group of friends. The oldest was Gerard, and even though both of them acted strangely, he was the worst of the two. To everyone it was like he chose not to associate with the other students. It wasn’t that people ignored him, on many occasions I had watched guys, more so girls, go up to talk to him and if he didn’t walk away, he would ignore them until they did. He always sat in the very back left corner of the room, its not that I was a stalker, I had him in five of my classes and the others he had with Ray. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if he could even speak, he never answered Teacher’s questions, and whenever I would ask Mikey about it he would simply say that its just how he is.

Needless to say he became the so called ‘bad ass’ in the school, and it didn’t take long for his ‘freak’ status to seem nonexistent with the popular students that were trying to get to know him. It wasn’t really a surprise, with his unruly black hair, black jeans that had been worn so many times they were starting to fade into a dark grey, the thick layers of eyeliner that would surround his clear hazel eyes, his numerous forms of band shirts, and his signature leather jacket that looked like it was at least thirty years old. To top it all off he had that dark aura that hung around him much like his brother, unlike Mikey his gave him a dangerous vibe that all the girls began to fall for. None of them succeeded in getting in his pants though, at least that’s what Mikey would laugh about. Was I grateful? Hell yes. Was I interested? Must I even answer?

But the strange thing was the inherent absence of Mikey ever mentioning the word ‘parent’ the entire time we had known him. They lived down the street from Bob and I, but never had we seen any form of parental figure entering or leaving their home. We never brought it up, because we didn’t know if it was a touchy subject, but that didn’t mean that we weren’t curious.

So if you haven’t gathered, as a couple months went by Mikey became like family with all of us, he would spend the night over at one of our houses yet we never went to his. My so called ‘crush’ on Gerard only deepened and the fact that was so unattainable only made it worse, because it only made me determined. However when I found out that I was going to be doing the biggest project in our English Honors class with him, I expected the usual ‘I’m not here, nor do I care’ Gerard. Imagine my surprise when I found out just how wrong I was.