We're Going Live

We had to take the back route tow Mikey's house, me walking behind Mikey to try and conceal his limp. Gerard hadn’t washed his hair in so long he was able to slick it back like some hot shot business man. He had also put on his only dress shirt and his black skinny jeans, even though he had a massive stain on the front of his thigh.

“Mikey speed it up will you?” Gerard asked, giving us both a hefty slap on the backside to get us moving.

“If you haven’t noticed I have a letterbox in my calf,” Mikey replied contortedly, his face strained. He leant against the side of his house, sweat dribbling down the side of his jaw and to tip of his chin. I felt sorry for him, I really did. He hadn’t let me or Gerard see his leg all that morning, saying it was ‘fine’ and he hadn’t wanted to be fussed over, “The keys in my pocket,” he ground out, hissing a little.

I bounced Charlie on my hip, watching as Gerard shoved his hands into the jean pockets of Mikey’s trousers. We all agreed that Gerard should go in first, well, Gerard agreed he should go in first and refused to let any of us until he did.

“Fuck, Ren… this hurts so badly,” Mikey whimpered, letting his head fall back against the brick of his house, “Fuck me, my god… I’m gonna chuck,” he whimpered, leaning over with his palms pressed against his thighs. I rubbed up and down his back, feeling his shirt had stuck to his back from sweat.

“Mikey!” Gerard said, coming back with a grin on his face, “Steve’s inside, Steve’s here!” Gerard said, tugging him along by the arm.

“What?” I asked, running in before both of them. I was surprised to see Gerard was right.

Steve was by one of the counters, his face brought into one worry. He smiled when I bounded in with Charlie. I grinned at him and lunged forward wrapping my arms around his neck and his waist. Charlie started twitching and stretching his arms out towards Steve happily, squealing when I let Steve hold him.

“What’re you doing here? Is Donna with you?” I asked, letting Charlie plop into his awaiting arms.

“No… she’s not. I used the spare key we have at our house. I just wanted to see if you’d left anything… oh my god. We’ve been so worried,” he muttered, “Hi Charlie, hi…” he murmured, tucking Charlie’s hair behind his ears, “Where are you staying?” he asked as Gerard brought Mikey in, muttering under his breath.

“Mikey you got that?” Gerard asked, obviously trying to say it quietly enough.

“Okay, okay I got it,” he hissed back, looking shifty as Gerard dropped an arm around his shoulders.

“I’m gonna go help Mikey into the shower –then I’ll come get Ren? Okay?” Gerard smiled, “Doll could you make sure Bubs gets everything together? Give him a quick bath or something?” he continued, I nodded and watched as both of them walked towards the bathroom .

“What are they up to?” Steve asked as I turned around and put the plug in the sink, “Actually scratch that Gerard is always up to something,” he sighed, “Boy did you go on a ride when you met him,” Steve chuckled.

“Tell me about it, I’m sure everything should fall into place soon though,” I murmured. I new I was lying to myself, but, I always found having to talk to Gerard's parents about it a little weird.

“Yeah,” Steve smiled, making sure the water was the right temperature as I undressed Charlie. I was never too good at giving Charlie baths, he always fidgeted to much and continuously screeched if the water wasn’t damn right perfect. Gerard always seemed to do everything perfect though, Charlie didn’t even snivel once, “Gosh is he always this fidgety in the bath?” Steve chuckled, rolling his sleeves up whilst I tried to lather Charlie’s hair up with hand wash.

“Daaaa! Daaa!” Charlie squealed, his face turning pink.

“Charlie come on, shut up please,” I begged, opening all of Mikey’s cupboards until I found a half empty jar of Nutella, “See look? It’s Nutella? Come on, yummy see?” I said, poking my finger in it and eating it myself, deliberately making a over exaggerated face.

“Daa…” Charlie murmured, staring at the jar of Nutella whilst Steve managed to wash his hair off. Once Charlie had realised his hair was being washed he started fidgeting again, splashing the water everywhere.

“Charlie!” I scolded, grabbing his wrists even though he had started bawling loudly, “Gee! Can you come help me?!” I called, trying to keep my voice down but loud enough so he’d hear me.

“Come in here then!” Gerard said back. I let go off Charlie’s wrists and jogged into the bathroom. Mikey was standing in the bath, under the shower head and Gerard was crouching beside him with a balled up piece of tissue and a jug of boiling water, “Just clean his leg up and don’t be afraid to dig deep because I’m gonna stitch it up alright? There’s uh…” Gerard stopped and clambered out of the bath tub in his boxers, “And there’s like Q-tips in the cupboard so just dig around in there until you get the nasty stuff out,” he nodded.

Before I could answer he ran back out, cooing like an old lady to get Charlie to quieten down.

“So Mikey…” I began, opening the cupboard above the toilet, “Having fun?” I chuckled, turning him around to get at his leg, “God help me if I look up,” I joked.

“Shut up, when you have a shower, you shower naked, I can’t help it that you and Gerard find it amusing to dig around in my leg with fucking ear cleaners,” he said, growling as I dabbed at the cut, “Can you sew my leg up? Gerard’s too rough, I want it done neatly as well,” he said, “Not something that looks like its come straight from a horror movie-“ he stopped and yelled loudly as I took the chance to try and get rid of all the disgusting stuff, “Son of a bitch!”

“Sorry, really I am, but I need to get all the puss out so it doesn’t get into your blood stream,” I told him, my face scrunching a little when he fisted my hair, “Owh Mikey leave off,” I warned, “You’re worse than Gerard,” I muttered, slowly dabbing at his leg.

“Yeah, well,” Mikey began, muttering a rigid curse word, “I bet Gerard was getting a lot more pleasure from you being on your knees,” he seethed. I chuckled and hit his ankle, “Sorry, that was mean, I’m just in…. god!” he hissed, “Fucking agonising pain right now,” he spat.

“It’s okay, we’re almost done –turn the shower off okay? I need to keep it dry,” I told him, hearing him fumble around to turn the shower off, “Put your leg up, so the water doesn’t go in it,” I murmured, making him prop his leg up on the side of the bath. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, apologising again.

I looked at him sympathetically, wiping my hands on my jeans to get rid of the water.

“Where’s the first aid kit?” I asked, “Mikey?”

He turned to me, his teeth gritted and his eyes drooping a little, like he was about to pass out. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him lightly, jumping a little when he hugged me back tighter. I patted his back, rubbing his spine. I swallowed, feeling his shoulder shake lightly, like he was crying. I didn’t want to pull back in case he was crying.

It turned out, he wasn’t crying at all, he was laughing. Turned out Mikey wasn’t all there either.