A Tale of Two Hearts

You and Mikey waited for Gerard to come pick you up, he was already 1 hour late. You were starving so you took out of your backpack the sandwich you stole from the cafeteria earlier that day. You started eating but something was bothering you, Mikey was staring at you awkwardly.
“What?” you asked him.
“You are really pretty when you eat” he commented. That was cute but in some way it was disturbing that he saw you eating.
“Ugh!” you groaned and kept eating your sandwich.
“You’re so cute when you say ‘ugh’” You tried to show you were upset but you failed. In that moment you smiled and he softly pecked your lips. What could you say, you loved the guy.
He hold you in his arms and pressed his lips against your forehead.
“Aww, I’m sorry to disrupt you, love birds, but I think it is time for us to leave” You heard Gerard’s voice saying from the back. You both stood up, you put your messenger bag on your shoulder and started walking towards Gerard’s car with Mikey holding your hand.
When you two were already in, Gerard started the engine and headed home.

On your way home, he apologized for being one hour late explaining he had found a dog and assumed that it needed a home. So he took the dog to the veterinarian, and sold it to a pet shop.
Gerard and his love for animals.
We were almost home when Mikey asked “Wanna go to the movies tonight?”
“Deal, I’ll ask my mom if I can go out” You would do anything to spend more time with him
“So what are we doing tonight?” Gerard yelped.
“I don’t know, we are going to see Alice in Wonderland, what about you?” he joked, you saw Gerard giving him a deathly glare thru the rearview mirror.
As soon as you got to your street you saw your mom running out of the house.
“What’s wrong with your mom?” Gerard questioned worried. You looked thru the window and your mom was in a nervous crisis.
“I don’t know” Gerard pulled over in front of your house and immediately your mom opened Mikey’s door, she pulled him out of the car… What was wrong?
“C’mon guys get in the house” She said anxiously while running with Mikey. You and Gerard running behind them. She got into the house and closed the door behind you. You were scared; your mom has never been like that before. You wanted an explanation.
“We have to hide you” she whispered to Gerard and Mikey.
“Did they find us?” Gerard mumbled. Now you were even more confused than before.
“What are you talking about?” Mikey said exasperated. Your mom nodded sadly. Gerard plonked himself in a chair while covering his face with both hands.
“Sweetie, I think we should leave them alone” Your mom cooed and placed her hand on your back.
“No, I’d like you to stay… If you are going to help us, you should know the truth” Gerard stated. You stood stiff. Mikey was shaking; he opened his mouth to take a deep breath before speaking:
“Where are mom and dad?” Your mom approached to him and made him take a seat.
“The migration police came for them today, they are being reported back to Italy” she informed.
“What?” he asked while tears started appearing on his eyes… you felt weak… you were as confused as Mikey was. You took a seat as well.
“We are living illegally here, Mikey. And we have been doing that since the first day we got here” Gerard burst in tears. Mikey lose all control off his body and laid there motionless.
“Now I get it. The reason why you didn’t go to college, why dad was never in a permanent job and why mom fell in depression” You unconsciously started sobbing; your mom embraced you with her arms. You wanted to have enough strength to make Mikey feel strong as well, but you couldn’t. You had so many feelings gathered in your body.
Gerard explained Mikey the reason why their parents decided to move to the US. They were a wealthy family back in Italy until he got involved with drug dealers. They had to leave the country as they were being chased by the Italian government, especially his dad. That’s why they couldn’t go back, it was obvious that his dad was going to jail and maybe his mom too; and if they go back there it would be dreadful. The next hour it was all crying and tears and feelings of hopelessness. Your mom had leaded the guys into your old tree house, it was provided with everything they needed to survive that awful situation.

After a week, things started to settle down. Mikey was feeling better but Gerard wasn’t. He was really pessimist about the situation and would tell Mikey over and over again that they were going to be surely found. One afternoon Gerard had left to his girlfriend’s house to say goodbye, you both tried to stop him but as stubborn as he was, he went anyways.
You and Mikey stayed in the tree house as always. Enjoying every moment like if it was going to be the last… it might be the last.
You were cuddling up in Mikey’s arms, your hands intertwined, you playing with his fingers.
“Oh, I almost forgot” he yelped letting your hand go and searching his pocket. “Here!” he said handing you a piece of paper.
“What is this?” you asked as you unfolded it.
“It’s a poem… A poem I wrote for you” he sounded a bit ashamed. You turned around and pecked his lips softly.
“It’s perfect. Thank you” You pecked his lips for the last time before speaking again. “When did you write it?”
“Well, when you are not around… it is kind of… boring” he scoffed. “And I try to forget about all this shit, and the only thing I do to isolate my mind away from this place… is to think about you” his cheeks painted a light pink. You laughed at him blushing… he was so cute!
You started to unfold it when suddenly you heard someone knocking the door really loud.
“That has to be your mom with our sandwiches” Mikey slightly pushed you away so he could go to open the door. Knocks again but louder and stronger this time, you even thought that the person knocking was going to bring the door down because you perfectly knew that your mom didn’t used to knock like that.
“This is not your mom” Mikey commented as he started unlocking the door.
“Open the fuck up!” It was Gerard…
Once Mikey opened the door Gerard entered the tree house abruptly and felt to the floor.
“What happened?” You asked worried. He went back to his feet and took his backpack that was in the corner next to him. He said nothing and took Mikey’s backpack as well.
“Gerard!” You yelled to catch his attention. “What happened?”
He swallowed hard before answering your question.
“They found us” he let out in a whisper.
From that moment everything was confusion, you just remember Mikey looking at you with the saddest look.
“No! You can’t leave…”You said as Gerard took him by an arm. They had to escape but how…
When you were finally in the ground and they tried to ran away, two police officers entered and started shouting something you didn’t listen
“Michael, here!” Your mom shouted, but it was too late. One of the officers tackled Gerard to the ground and the other was coming for Mikey.
“Baby, don’t worry” Said Mikey to you as the tears continued coming down your cheek unstoppably. “I’ll find a way to get back to you” You nodded feeling your life was coming to an end.
Trying not to faint, you gave him your favorite bracelet, He took it and gave you the last kiss; the officer took his arms and started conducing them both to the patrol.

You hated the way it made you feel. You hated that he had to leave so you could live again. You hated that because of this you gave up on love. But if you had had a chance you had never let him go.