Don't Tell Me You've Gone Astray

"So you apologized and he didn't take it very well?" Mikey asks, repeating my story back to me as he tries to comprehend everything.

I nod.

"Y'know that there's really nothing you can do, right? Just give him some time and space. He'll come around one of these days." He advises me.

"Yeah." I sigh, taking in Mikey's advice.

Sometimes I wonder if I should even take relationship advice from Mikey. It hasn't worked so far. I hate not knowing whether or not Frank will forgive me.

"Why don't we go out and do something? You've been moping around all afternoon."

"No thanks." I reply, turning down his offer.

"Come on. We're going to go out for drinks this evening."

Why can't he take no for an answer?

"I don't drink, Mikey."

I think it's a lovely excuse.

"I don't care. You can get a Coke or something. Let's just get out of your house for a while."

I eventually give in, hoping it won't be so bad.

The bar isn't crowded. It looks like one of those old biker bars you see in movies. Mikey tells me that this is the best place to go because it's deemed "lame" by the college-aged crowd. I look around. Most of the people here are in their late 40's or early 50's.

"No one really shows up here besides the older people so, it's pretty quiet." Mikey explains, sitting at one of the tables. "We don't have to deal with all the college kids trying to get laid."

I'm grateful for that. It's not so bad here. I was expecting a crowded bar with people snorting cocaine and hanging all over each other. We get a few looks from the patrons, who I am assuming are regulars here but, other than that, no one pays us any mind. The server asks us what drinks we want. Mikey and I both order Diet Cokes and Alicia orders a Seven Up. None of us are drinking tonight. Mikey decided that if I don't drink, no one gets to drink. It's only fair.

"When is Bert going to show up?" Alicia asks Mikey.

What is she talking about?

"Bert?" I ask.

"Yeah. I invited him." Mikey says, sounding quite proud of himself.

"But...I don't want--"

"Gerard, listen to yourself. You need to get over Frank. You liked him before so, why not now?"

I have no explanation so, I bury my face in my hands. We didn't have an actual relationship we were more like fuck buddies. It was just a side thing. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. Mikey doesn't need to know this.

"Mikey. I know you're just trying to help, but bringing him back into this is gonna make things worse."

"No. It won't, I promise."

"I just cut off all contact with him when I moved to Miami. He probably hates me just as much as Frank does."

Alicia sits quietly, sipping her drink. I think she regrets bringing it up. I'm glad she did. Did Mikey really think I would be okay with Bert showing up? He could have at least warned me.

"Call him and tell him not to--" I start.

Too late.

This isn't going to end well.