Until We Meet Again

January 3rd 2000

Gerard leaned against the kitchen’s island, already finishing his breakfast when his brother joined him.

No words were exchanged as Gerard’s feet shuffled from the island to the sink and then toward the kitchen’s door. He stopped before reaching it, turning to the fridge and opening only enough to get a bottle from its inside.

A vodka bottle.

Mikey’s brows furrowed. “Shouldn’t you be at work?” He decided to ignore the fact that it was only a few minutes past ten in the morning and Gerard was already about to start his drinking routine.

“I took the day off.” He shrugged, casually waving with the transparent bottle on his hand.

“Aren’t you going to talk to Jordan? She leaves tomorrow.”

Judging by the way Jordan had stormed out of the house and the chain of swear words Gerard had muttered under his breath, he knew things hadn’t ended up well between them back at the New Year’s party. But he knew Gerard wouldn’t want her to be mad at him, so it was only a matter of time until he apologized to her.

He stopped at the door. Mikey knew that that question would make him get his attention, and possibly make him think twice before drinking today. Gerard placed the half empty bottle on the counter before finally disappearing from the kitchen, something that resembled to a smug look plastered on Mikey’s face. He never drank when he knew he was going to see Jordan.

“You should talk to her about your problem,” Mikey spoke as soon as his brother reappeared from his bedroom, now fully dressed and ready to leave the house. There was no question he was going to meet Jordan, and Mikey felt somewhat relieved for that.

“What problem?” Gerard blinked at him, trying to act clueless, but his brother could already see the tension brewing bellow his calm features.

Mikey’s eyes darted to the bottle that still rested on the counter and then back at him.

“I don’t have a problem.” Gerard grabbed the car keys, shoving them into his dark jacket.

Mikey sighed. “I thought you and Jordan were close friends.”

“We are.” He could feel Gerard’s impatience grow by the second.

“Then if you don’t want to talk to me about it, why don’t you talk to her?”

“About what?” He still acted clueless.

“About your problem.”

“I don’t have a fucking problem!” Gerard suddenly yelled, his fist colliding with the granite counter and making the vodka bottle wobble. Without giving his brother a chance to speak, he turned around and stormed to the front door.

Mikey frowned at the loud sound of the door being closed. Gerard had a drinking problem; there was no other way of putting it. But what Mikey didn’t understand was the reason why. What had happened that made him suddenly need alcohol so badly?

He sat on the sofa, his right hand messing up his already messy hair. The tv was turned on, his eyes following the images on it, but without paying attention to them as he tried to recall the first time he had seen his brother act differently. His mind immediately jumped to the night of his birthday and the way he had gotten wasted. At the time Mikey hadn’t made a big deal of it, people get drunk hard when they party hard, but ever since that night, Gerard’s “partying” began to occur every weekend. Now that he thought deeper into it, his drinking had only escalated into happening almost every day, during summer, a few days after he had gotten back from visiting Jordan in London. Why?

And then there was Katherine. He didn’t knew much about her, expect that one day he had never heard a thing about her and then the next day she was his brother’s girlfriend. Mikey never really got the chance to talk to her that much either, he only seemed to see her when they were about to leave the house or at mutual’s friend party. But what he knew was that she didn’t care about his brother’s reckless drinking behavior. As a matter of fact, she only seemed amplify that side of him.

Mikey decided to turn the tv off, resigning himself to do something productive instead.



Jordan smiled at the mug in front of her, her hands covering it whole as an attempt to provide them some warmth. Her mother was still by the stove, finishing the last set of pancakes while her father joined her side with a mug full of coffee.

On a regular day, back in London, Jordan would be drinking coffee too, but today she wanted to get a taste of her childhood memories by drinking a big mug of hot chocolate.

Her mother placed a plate of pancakes in front of her, earning a smile. Jordan watched the syrup slide down the warm pancakes, her mouth getting ready to finally taste them, when the knock on the front door made her fork stop its course halfway.

“I’ll go get it,” Jordan spoke, her lips pursing with discontent as she already guessed who was at the other side of it.

She grabbed her big coat from the wall hanger, bracing herself for the outside cold before opening the door.

“Hi Gerard.” She closed her coat tightly against her body, covering the blue pajamas partially. Her eyes showed no sign of surprise upon seeing his face.

“Hi.” His eyes trailed off from her to the not fully opened door she was leaning against, her hand probably still clutching the door knob and ready to close it on his face if the conversation went sour. “Can we talk?”

Jordan decided to take one step forward, closing the door behind her. “Sure.”

Suddenly, Jordan’s front door mat seemed much more interesting that the actual conversation they were about to have, but she waited for him to speak, knowing he was struggling to find the right words to say.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I was such an asshole.” He looked up to meet her eyes but found her staring down the road.

“No,” Jordan said, obviously meaning yes. In her mind, she wanted to scream at him, but most of all she wanted to ask him why. Why had he reacted the way he had when she had told him about Logan, why had he started ignoring her more and more? Why? Why was he dating Katherine and why did Mikey sound so worried about him? Why?

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I… I had no right to say those things.” He bowed his head again.

“It’s okay.” Jordan sniffled, the cold weather starting to get to her nose. She didn’t want to start another argument before going back to London. That would only leave them in the same situation they were before she got home.

There was a moment of silence, and she suddenly felt an intense need to fill it. She opened her mouth, gaping like a fish out of water, but no words came from it.

“So you’re leaving tomorrow?” Gerard was the one to break the silence.

“Yes, first thing in the morning.” She shifted the weight of her body from one foot to the other.

“And how’s work? You said you wanted to find a better paying one.”

Jordan raised her eyebrows in an almost imperceptible way, a twinge of annoyance stinging her. “I’ve already found another job. I’ll be starting it next week.” She had already told him that on their phone conversations. Twice.

Gerard smiled and nodded, not seeming to realize her hardened demeanor. But she was going to go back to London next morning, so she pretended that it didn’t bother her and smiled back.

The cold air was starting to make her shiver and only now she realized he was too. “Do you want to come in?” She didn’t want to sound rude by sending him away.

Gerard took a while to react, but finally shook his head. “I actually got some things to do… I’ve got to go meet Katherine.” She watched him run his fingers through his long hair, something he did whenever he felt uneasy.

“Oh, okay.” Jordan tried to, once again, pretend that it didn’t bother her. “Well, it was nice meeting her the other day, tell her I said hi.”

“I will.” Gerard nodded. Both smiled. But neither believed the other.