Cherry Bomb - Frerard

Chapter 8 - Finding Mikey

"Hey Gerard..." My mom said. She sounded sad. This wasn't her. 
"Hi?" "Where's Pete and May?" I asked. Something wasn't right with my mom talking to Frank without me. Did she know I was dating Frank? She couldn't know. I'm sure she knew I was gay, I never came out to her but she could probably suspect it. 
"Oh they ended up not coming over May had to go to her little brother's baseball game or something like that..." Frank bit his lip, that wasn't the reason and I knew it. I simply just nodded. 
"Gerard, your brother isn't here." I nodded again. "He won't answer his phone either." She started to cry. No, not my mother. I couldn't stand to see her cry. I got up to go sit by her. 
"Mom, it will be okay." I rubbed her shoulder. Mikey never leaves the house, he never even hangs out with his friends that often anymore. 
"Mom, I think I know where Mikey is..." "Just I need Frank's help." They both nodded. "I think he's with his girlfriend." My mom's eyes grew big. 
"His what!?" "My baby boy has a girlfriend?" I nodded. 
"But I think I made him mad earlier..." "Mikey is my little brother and its weird to see him with someone. I yelled at him, he probably just left." I felt bad, I ran off my little brother. The person I swore on my life to protect. No matter what he does to me...but I broke that promise. I had to leave the room. I got up and left. Frank came after me. 
"Baby you didn't run him off." He wrapped his hands around my waist. Warm tears rolled down my cheeks. I sniffled. "Yes I did." "Frank, I ran off my baby brother." This was all my fault. 
"No you didn't, promise me Gerard that you didn't" He pulled me into a tight hug. 
"I can't, because I did." I cried even harder. I hate that I'm such an emotional person. "You don't understand." I cried even harder. 
"Your right I don't, I don't have a brother but I can only imagine the pain you are going through." He said softly, in a gentle voice. I knew he cared about me. I really appreciate that. 
"All I am is the weird older brother." I hated that about myself, people didn't ask how I was. They didn't even talk to me. I loved Mikey to death but he is always the center of attention. He makes good grades, he's happy and know he has a girlfriend. He's happy with himself, I'm not . 
"No you aren't, you are amazing and just as good as Mikey is." He wiped a few tears away with his hand. I nodded and gave Frank a long hug. "Now, let's go find Mikey." We walked back into the living room. My mom was making calls to everyone. We were going to find Mikey.

"I still have Bethany's number, I'll try calling her." Frank said pulling out his phone. He put the phone up to his ear. "Uh hey, this is kinda weird but are you with Mikey?" Frank tapped his foot. 
"That's okay, do you know where he could be. He won't answer his phone and we can't find him." I took a deep breathe. I was worried, I needed my little brother back. "Yeah, just try calling him and call me back." He hung up the phone. 
"She's not with him, and she doesn't know where he is." He bit his lip ring and sighed. "But we'll find him, don't worry." I could tell Frank didn't feel right, I hated pulling people into drama. 
"Maybe he's out getting coffee!" Frank lit up. 
"Maybe..." Mom said. "Hey why don't we have Bethany come over and help us." Frank nodded and pulled out his phone.
"Did Mikey answer?" He looked down at his feet again. "Oh, uh well do you just wanna come over to Mikey's house and help us find him?" "See you then." He hung up the phone. 
"She's coming over, me and Gerard can go look at the coffee shop." We both headed downstairs to go get shoes on. 
"Hey, we will find him." Frank put his hand on my shoulder. 
"I know we will, I'm just nervous that's all." After all I was a nervous wreck all the time, but especially this time. 
"Now let's go find Mikey." Frank smiled. We headed outside, Bethany would be over soon. 

-

We got out of the car and headed inside the coffee shop. He hung out all the time here. We looked around. He wasn't in here. My heart started to skip a few beats. 
"Maybe he's upstairs in the library and lounge area..." Frank suggested. I nodded and headed up the stairs. We probably looked very suspicious. He wasn't up stairs either.
"Let's just go downstairs and ask the barista." I tried to look happy, and I tried to think positively. But it was really hard, when my little brother was missing.  The barista looked like some hipster, he looked an awful like Mikey. But with a bob ross fro going on.  
"Have you seen this boy." I pulled open a picture of him on my phone. 
"Oh yeah!" "Mikey, he's a regular!" At least the barista knew who he was. That's a start. "He was just in here." "Anything wrong?" Of course, I wouldn't be asking you if everything was okay. 
"He left the house, no explanation." The barista sighed.  
"He did seem a little down when he ordered his coffee. Now to come to think about, he ordered straight up black coffee. He never does that." I nodded. "My name is Ray, I'll give you my phone number, text me if you need anything." He scribbled down his number on a napkin and handed it to us.
"Thank you, we'll give you a clue if we find anything." We walked outside.
"What's with hipster barista's" I laughed a little.
Frank called Bethany.
"Hey, we just went to the coffee shop he wasn't there, but the barista told us that he was just there." He hung up the phone.