That Kid

“I HATE YOU!” Gerard screamed at his parents as he ran into his room. He walked back and forth with clenched fists while breathing heavy.

“Gerard, open up!” his father called. “NO! GO AWAY!” Gerard cried out and kicked at the door hard. “Sweetie, we understand that you’re upset, please come out.” His mother called.

“Upset? UPSET?! FUCK YOU, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SHIT!” Gerard screamed back and grabbed a vase that he threw to the floor. “Gera..” “NO! JUST.. go.. GO.., please.. just go away…” Gerard leaned against the door and slid down to the floor with his face in his hands. He could hear his parents sigh and then their footsteps walking away.

He sucked in a deep breath and noticed that he was shaking. After a few hours he still hadn’t moved from his spot in his room. It was getting dark and he could hear his parents yell at each other down stairs. Before they just fighted about whom fucked up the other’s life, but now they were yelling at each other for being bad parents.

“HE’S YOUR SON, GO TALK TO HIM!” “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO YELLED IN FRONT OF HIM!” “THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE A BACKSTABBING BITCH!” “I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH HIM!” “PROVE IT YOU FUCKING WHORE!” “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” “YOU HAVE NO RI..” “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE BEFORE I KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS OUT THE DOOR! AND DON’T YOU DARE COME BACK!” “WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?! THEY NEED ME!” “THEY DON’T NEED A PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A FATHER!”

Gerard felt tears slid silent down his cheeks and jumped up when there was a gentle knock on the door. “Gee?” he heard his little brother’s scared voice. He sighed and stood up and unlocked the door. When he opened it he saw Mikey stand with red, puffy eyes in his pajamas and his unicorn teddy bear hugged tightly against his chest. Gerard opened his arms that his little brother crashed crying into.

“Shh, Mikey, it’s gonna be okay..” he said into his younger brother’s hair. “You promise?” Mikey sniffed. “I promise.”

Gerard lifted his little brother up though he wasn’t exactly little any more. He kicked the door closed and their parent’s screams became a bit lower. Mikey wrapped his legs around Gerard waist and nuzzled his face into the crook of his neck. Gerard carefully laid Mikey in the bed and grabbed his iPod from the night stand. He crawled under the covers together with Mikey and put an earbud in one of their ears and pressed play on a random song that he knew Mikey liked. It drowned out most of the noise coming from downstairs, you could only hear very muffled low voices in the background, so they just pretended it wasn’t there.
Gerard wrapped his arms around Mikey and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Not long after the younger Way fell asleep, but it took Gerard a while longer because right before he had fallen asleep he had heard a crash. He was too scared to go see what it was, and he didn’t want to move away from Mikey so he just stayed in bed and tried to ignore the tear sliding down his cheek.

The next day Gerard’s dad was gone.

“Mama, where’s dad?” Mikey asked while pushing his glasses further up his nose. Donna clenched her jar, but forced a smile on for her son, “He’s out at Uncle Jerry.”

“Why?” Mikey asked making Gerard give him a nudge in the shoulder to say ‘shut up’. His mother closed her eyes tight and hissed, “Just because he is, Michael!”

“Mom!” Gerard announced when Mikey flinched. She opened her eyes and sighed, “Sorry babe… Well, because of what we told you yesterday, hunny.” Donna said. Mikey nodded and looked down at his feet. Gerard narrowed his eyes at his mother and shook his head.

There was a knock on the door and Donna stood up fast an almost ran to the door. “Oh poor darling, I’m gonna help you through this divorce!” Gerard’s aunt announced as soon as the door was open and she flung her arms around Donna.

Gerard sighed deeply and walked pass them, outside. “Oh Gerard, dear… Where are you going?” he ignored his aunt’s welcoming and stomped his way to the nearest playground. It was cold outside so there was nobody on there. He walked over and sat on a swing. He hated his parents so much for putting him and Mikey through all this, but mostly he hated that.. man. The one who was the reason his parents didn’t want to be together anymore.

His thoughts were interrupted by a small voice coming from behind him. “Gerard?”
He stopped the swing with his feet and turned his head to see no other than Frank Iero stand there awkwardly. Gerard narrowed his eyes at him, “What do you want?”

Frank looked shyly up and fiddled with his hands, “I wanted to talk to you…Y’know..” “No. I don’t.” Gerard hissed and jumped off his swing.

“Gerard, wait!” Frank grabbed his arm and Gerard turned around sighing. “Frank, I don’t want to talk to you.” “Why not?”

“Because this is all your fault!” Gerard cried out making Frank flinch and tilt his head confused, “What do you mean?”

“If you had been nice your daddy wouldn’t have to leave for work all the time and miss your mommy! Then he wouldn’t have to sin with my mother! Your dad should have minded his own business instead of ruining mine and Mikey’s lives!” Gerard shouted and turned away to run away. Frank stared dumbfounded after him and started shaking hard. He tried his best not to, but couldn’t control when the tears rolled down his little chubby face.