The Crumbling Pyramid

Two weeks, three evenings at Anette's house, one hangover, and about a hundred hours of rehearsal later, it was finally, finally opening night. Everyone in the cast and crew was extremely nervous, Mikey included, but Gerard was going mental. When they had gotten home from final dress, Gerard had actually locked himself in the bathroom and thrown up and by the time Mikey had picked the lock to drag him out, he was weeping about how he couldn't fucking do this and why the hell had he even thought he could?, but Mikey just told him to shut up, put some Iron Maiden in his stereo, and dragged his ass into the chair in front of his art table.

"How do you think the rest of us feel?" Mikey asked him as he sat down on Gerard's bed that night to talk to him.

"Better than me."

"I have to work the fucking spotlight. And you know how I get when I'm nervous - the damn light is going to be bouncing all over the stage instead of stuck on your face."

"Mikey, you don't have to be on stage."

"Well, everyone's nervous. You'll be fine, you know the damn thing backwards."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Gerard took a deep breath and closed his eyes, like he was about to jump off a cliff. In a way, tomorrow night, he was. "I keep having anxiety dreams every time I sleep about me fucking up on stage, or falling off the stage, or a light dropping on me, or-"

"They're just dreams, idiot. You'll be fine, and afterwards you'll be hailed as awesome."

Gerard looked like he wanted to argue more, but he just stared at his messy floor instead.

"Gee, just go to sleep. You'll be awesome tomorrow, I promise."

And now so Mikey was up in the light booth, looking out over the stage. The house was full, very full. Hailey had said something about they were almost completely sold out all the nights, but Mikey didn't tell Gerard this because he thought he might throw up again.

"Alright Mikey, Seth, take positions," their crew head, Sarah, said over headset, and Mikey and Seth crept up onto the cat walk to take their positions for the spotlights, adjusting the bulky headphones on their heads as they went.

Mikey was just wondering when they were going to start when he heard Beth’s voice over the headset say, "House lights down, sound cue one," and the announcement Anette had recorded telling people to turn off their cell phones and enjoy the show started playing. "Break a leg," Beth muttered, and the show began.

Mikey was so focused on what he was doing he barely remembered the show. His spot was a little shaky at first but he grew more and more confident within the first fifteen minutes. He remembered checking Gerard when he made his first entrance, and he didn't look nervous at all. That was him, worrying like fuck and then hiding it all behind some façade, or in this case, the character of Danny. He sang awesome, and danced like hell, and Mikey felt a little proud that Gerard was his older brother and that he was up on stage kicking some ass. Plus he looked damn good in a leather jacket with his hair slicked back Greaser style.

Anette was really good too. Mikey spotted her most the time, and her stage presence was good. She sang beautifully too, even if Mikey hated to admit it. During the intermission, there were a lot of high fives passed around the booth, Seth got a Band-Aid for where he had burned his finger on the light, and then the show resumed.

During the drive-in scene, Mikey got the weirdest sensation in his gut while Gerard and Anette were kissing. He had no clue what he was thinking, or feeling, for that matter, but something about it made him mad at both of them, like Gerard needed to stop feeling Anette up and Anette needed to keep her lips to herself, but Mikey dismissed the feeling as stupid. After all, it was just a show.

Then it all ended, way too soon for Mikey to even believe it. The audience was on their feet, cheering and clapping and whistling as the cast took their bows. Anette, Gerard and Hailey especially got roars of approval. "And… curtain," Beth muttered, and Mikey caught her grinning.

Ten minutes later, everyone went to greet what audience had stayed behind to congratulate everyone, which was a lot of people. They cheered when everyone entered, and Mikey went to go find Gerard. But Frank had beaten him to the punch, and was squeezing him screaming, "YOU FUCKING DID IT GERARD OH MY GOD YOU DID IT!"

Gerard just hugged Frank back and swung around with him, yelling, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I FUCKING DID IT!"

Mikey decided this was the perfect moment to strike, and tackled them both, yelling, "I TOLD YOU, YOU ASSHOLE! YOU KICKED ASS!"

Their mom was there, teary-eyed, saying, "Your dad wanted to be here so bad. Gerard, you were fantastic, honey!" She hugged her eldest son, and then her youngest. "And Mikey, your first show! It was wonderful, I'm so proud of you both!"

"HEY, QUIET PLEASE!"

"THANK YOU!"

Beth had silence the whole crowd, and she grinned. "Okay, cast and crew, load up, we're going to Denny's!"

There were various shouts of approval among the drama geeks, and they all headed for backstage or the booth to get their things. But before the two could quite get away, one more person greeted them.

"Gerard, you were amazing!" Anette cried, flinging the arm that wasn't holding flowers around Gerard's neck. Her makeup was smeared from crying, but she didn't seem to care. "I knew you could do it!"

"Anette, you were fantastic! I never would have been so good if you hadn't helped me," Gerard said, swinging her around like he had done to Frank. She laughed joyously, and Mikey felt a tiny bit of jealousy.

"You coming to Denny's?" she asked as Gerard set her down.

"Yeah, you need a ride?"

"Nah, Hailey's giving me one. See you there!" she beamed, and she ran off for backstage.

"Ready to go, Mikey?"

"Let me go get my bag," Mikey said, and he went up to the booth to retrieve his bag. Then he and Gerard went to his car and drove to Denny's.

The parking lot was nearly full by the time they got there, and the diner even more crowded. There were a few people near the front who were there for a midnight meal, and the other, more secluded area was filled with theatre kids.

"Gerard, Mikey!"

Anette was waving them down from the booth she was sitting in with Hailey and a guy who looked about Gerard's age with short blonde hair and a beard. Gerard sat down next to Anette, and the two shifted over to give Mikey room.

"Finally," Hailey said. "We thought you were never going to get out of there."

"I had to get my bag," Mikey muttered, looking down at his silverware.

"Oh, by the way guys, this is Bob Bryar. Bob, Gerard and Mikey Way," Anette said, introducing everyone. "Bob plays drums in the pit and enjoys kissing Hailey in his spare time."

"Shut up Anette," Hailey laughed, blushing. "So what that we're dating?"

"It's awesome," Anette said, flipping through the menu. "We gonna get milkshakes?"

"We can't," said Gerard. "We don't have money."

"Oh posh, we'll pitch in for you guys," said Hailey, waving her hand at him.

"Yeah, you can't miss out on opening night milkshakes," Anette said. "I have enough to pay for a couple people."

"We'll pay you back," Gerard promised.

"How you folks doing tonight?" asked the waiter that approached them. "You here with the theatre troupe?"

"Yeup," Hailey, Anette and Gerard all replied at once.

"Cool. You made up your minds yet?"

"We'll take five chocolate milkshakes," Anette said promptly, handing him her menu.

"Alright, I'll have those out for you in just a little bit," said the waiter, collecting their menus and putting his notebook in an apron pouch.

"Can't back out of it now, huh?" Gerard asked.

"Nope. Hey Anette, how was eating Gerard's face in front of three hundred people?" Bob asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Awesome," she replied, making a face at him. She paused for a moment while everyone laughed, then put her face in her hands and laughed herself. "Oh god, Hailey, guess what I just had a flashback to?"

"What?" Hailey asked, tying up her long brown hair so it would stay out of her face.

"Kindergarten."

Hailey thought about it for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Wait, what happened in kindergarten?" Bob asked.

"You kissing Frank?" Gerard offered to Anette.

She tried to control her laughter to answer him. "Oh, that was just the tip of the iceberg. How do you know about that?"

"He mentioned it."

"Great. Did he tell you it was our wedding kiss?"

Gerard's jaw dropped a bit. "No!?"

"Oh yeah," Anette said, unwrapping and rewrapping her silverware. "We got married in kindergarten."

"It was the biggest to-do on the playground," Hailey said, nodding. "I was her Maid of Honor."

"Yeah, and Dalton was the Best Man," Anette said, dreamily. "I still remember when he proposed to me. He said I was pretty and gave me a Ring Pop."

"Ring Pops are the shit," Bob commented, tracing some pattern into Hailey's hand.

"Yeah, and they used to mean something, you know?" Anette said.

"Yeup. And then he kept blushing when you tried to kiss him, and I finally had to pull his arms behind his back to make him hold still?" Hailey giggled.

"And that was the first day I ever wore a dress to school. I remember I asked Noel to curl my hair, too," Anette added, smiling. "We used to be the most hardcore tomboys," she said to Gerard.

"I can't picture that," he said. "You've been fancy way too long."

"Hey, I still am!" Hailey said, pointing first at her own clothes and then Anette's.

"Order up!" came a voice, and the group stopped talking to receive their milkshakes.

"Thank you!" they all said together, and there was about a minute of silence as everyone tackled their shake according to their own sacred approach of eating a milkshake.

"Remember when Andrew put a worm in your hair?" Hailey said, licking some milkshake off a spoon.

"Ugh, yes," Anette replied. "I got him back though, I put one in his lunchbox."

Everyone laughed but Mikey, who said quietly, "I wonder why he's such an asshole?" Everyone stopped and looked at him, and he blushed. "Sorry, thinking out loud," he muttered before beginning to stir his shake with his straw again.

"No, that's actually a good question," Bob said. "'Cuz people only hang out with him to avoid being on his bad side."

"He's always been a jerk though," Anette said, frowning. "Ever since, what, third grade?"

"Yeah," Hailey agreed.

"And he's a raging homophobe," Gerard added.

"Oh, I have a theory on that," Hailey said before eating another spoonful of shake. "See, I think he's only mean to gay people, or people he thinks are gay, 'cuz he is one himself, but he doesn't want anyone to know. I mean, he's Christian and all, so it's kind of against his religion to be gay."

"That... actually wouldn't surprise me," Anette said, eyebrows raised. There was silence again until she asked a question. "Hey Gerard, are you gay?"

"Bi, why?"

"I just saw you and Frank making out at Homecoming, and wondered. Are you two...?"

"No, we just like to piss people off," he answered, tipping the ends of his shaking into his mouth.

"You're damn good at it, too," Mikey added.

"Yeah. It'd be funnier if we didn't have to worry about assholes like Andrew trying to beat us up."

"Someone really, really needs to put him in his place," Anette muttered. "I wish Chase would."

"Chase is too chicken to really do anything about Andrew," Bob said. Anette frowned at him, but didn't say anything.

Before they knew it, it was almost midnight, and people were starting to leave. Anette, Bob and Hailey put enough money on the table to cover everyone's milkshakes and the tip, and they all walked outside.

"Hey Bob," Gerard said as they started to walk away.

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever played in a band?"

Bob paused, thinking. "No, but I'd like to."

"Well, our band-" Gerard mentioned to himself and Mikey, "-needs a drummer. We meet Sundays at our house on Fifth Avenue."

"Sounds sick. What time?"

"About eleven."

"I'll be there," Bob said, and he and Hailey left for his car.

Anette started to walk away when Gerard caught her. "Hey, do you need a ride home?"

"Gerard, that would be wonderful," she sighed, and followed him and Mikey to his car.

"No problem. Front seat's still off-limits though. Frank puked in it a few weeks ago and I'm still not sure if it's clean yet or not."

"That's fine," she said, and she got in the back with Mikey, who tried to keep as much space between them as he could in the small car.

They were half way there when Anette said, "Don't forget we gotta do it all again tomorrow."

"Yeah. That's gonna be hard," Gerard agreed.

"Hopefully not too bad though. You both were fantastic," she said, smiling.

"Thanks. Here we are." Gerard pulled up next to the sidewalk just outside Anette's house.

"God, thank you. I didn't want to walk the whole way."

"Like I said, not a problem."

"Alright, well, night," she said, opening the door. "Oh, and Gerard?"

"Yeah?"

"If you try and stick your tongue down my throat tomorrow night, I will seriously kick your ass offstage. It's bad enough you're groping me."

"You like it, Anette."

"I mean it."

"Fine. Night."

"Night."

Anette shut the door and walked into her house. As they drove away, Mikey couldn't help but burst out, "You did what?"