Attention's Like a Fire

Watching Mikey run offstage like that worries me. I mean he just handed his bass over and left. We finished the set, went backstage and sent nurse Bob off after him.

“You okay Frank? You look a little funny.” Ray said sitting on the worn out sofa of our dressing room.

“You always say I look funny Ray so what’s your point?” I retorted sitting next to him.

“He means you look a little worried.” Gerard interrupted fixing his eyeliner in the small mirror.

My Goodness, look at the lips on that boy.

And to think that only minutes earlier he kissed me. Me, Frank Anthony Iero. And for a couple of seconds, my heart leapt into my throat.

“Well of course I’m going to be worried Gerard, your little brother ran offstage and puked. Aren’t you the least bit worried too? The last time that happened was when we all got food poisoning.” I pointed out standing next to him.

Is there even one imperfection in this boy? He makes me fucking weak just standing here. Harboring even the slightest shred of hope that maybe, just maybe he has even the slightest bit of feelings for me.

“Nah,” he shrugged “Mikey always had a bit of a weak stomach. Once Bob gets him to calm down, he’ll be fine.”

I nodded feeling it irrelevant to argue with him on this subject.

After all he knows his brother better then anyone right?

Right after our conversation ended, Bob walked in followed by a slightly wobbly and pale Mikey.

“Hey man what happened out there?” Ray asked from next to me as he rested his soda on his knee.

Mikey’s eyes flittered around the room before making eye contact with me and quickly breaking it.

“Nothing, it was only something I saw in the audience that made me sick. Don’t worry about it.” He said going to slip on a clean shirt.

I glanced over at a worry free Gerard.

He never fails to make me feel like a real pansy. I mean look at me, I worry over little things and never forget to accidentally make myself look like an idiot, always hurting myself on stage. I am so inferior to him. He’s like a god compared to me.

I mean honestly, he’s looked up to by thousands of fans all around the world as a hero. He’s never afraid to put his flaws out to the whole world and frankly doesn’t give a shit what everyone thinks about him.

I wish I could be like that.

“Okay guys, let’s go back to the bus.” Bob said pulling Ray and Gerard out the door.

Now it’s just me and Mikey.

“Mikey, I think it’s about time you tell me what’s really wrong with you. You can’t really expect me to believe that audience bull shit right.” I demanded blocking his exit.

“What do you mean what’s wrong with me? I was just feeling a little bit queezy is all. Come on Frank we don’t have time for this, we’ll get left behind.” He said trying unsuccessfully to push past me despite my being so small.

“They’ll come back. Remember when we left Ray? We came back for him.” He sighed at this and sat on the ground at my feet leaving me smirking.

“Come on Frank we really don’t have the time for this.” He whined as we heard the bus honk.

“Well then you had better get talking.”