Tower Over Me (Waycest)

Chapter Two: New Message: Frankie

Gerard's POV

Feeling rejected by Mikey, I took a few more sips of my coffee and poured it down the drain. He said we'll see but that was probably his polite way of brushing me off.

I don't blame him. I would have brushed me off too, I'm his older brother, not his mom, I don't have to give him rides and watch over him. He probably just wants to do his own thing.

I mentally slap myself. I need to stop trying to convince myself that he's probably just not in a good mood. I shouldn't be trying to persuade him to spend time with me when he obviously doesn't want to.

I need to be focused on my life, he's in highschool and I have an amazing boyfriend.

I turned the coffee pot off and started to head across the house to my room in the basement. I need to work on my art, I need to email businesses, I need to be an adult.

I see Mikey standing in the hallway looking down at his phone. "Have a good day," I say blankly and he nods in response, not looking up at me.

I pretend it doesn't hurt my feelings and open the basement door at the end of the hall, the wooden stairs staring back at me.

I see my lamp light glaring across the room, the only small window had been covered and my lights were only ever on if I was cleaning or doing personal things.

I hear Mikey's footsteps above me and then the front door closing. He was walking to school in the middle of a New Jersey December, but I offered him a warm ride.

I head down the stairs to the basement and pick my phone up off the bed.

One message:

From Frankie
Text me when you can. We should hang out today, I'm off work.

Frank is a music producer, well sort of.  He does all of the paperwork behind copyrights.

I smile, he hardly ever gets a day off. Hanging out with Frank sounded like a fun idea, it would get my mind off of my disgusting obsession with Mikey and remind me of my real life before I can slip off into some twisted fantasy.

Outgoing Message To: Frankie

Mikey just left for school, come over whenever you'd like. I'm in my room.

I set my phone down on my desk next to a draft sketch of a character for a comic I've been working on for several months.

The image is of a girl looking at her own reflection in a knife, a man behind her holding a video camera as she prepares to do horrid things related to the plot line.

I walk over to my wardrobe and pull out a grey flannel and a pair of jeans to replace my pajamas. After getting dressed I walk over to my mirror and run my fingers through my shoulder length hair a few times, getting it to fall into the right places.

My friend Brendon says I should get it cut, that I look like a girl, but Frank likes to run his fingers through it. It was his idea to allow it to grow out, and my friend Jude's idea to dye a few parts of it greenish blue.

I smile at myself and head back over to my drawing to see my phone screen showing an incoming message.

From Frankie

I'll be over in about ten minutes.

Smiling, I pick up my pencil and add another outline to the woman's eyes to make them look teary. The comic was going to be sent to Pages Inc, the partnering business to Havoc Inc, the music business Frank works with.

He had encouraged me by mentioning the recent death of one of the companies best selling writers, he said he could put in a good word for me as long as I turn in good work.

Frank gets to read the comic once it's finished so he can approve before turning it in for me. When I told my mother about this she seemed excited, but she was tired, so it was hard to tell.

I admired my mom for her work, and I was happy that I got to brighten her day a few weeks ago, its nice that she still shows support for us even though she's not really around much.

I put down my pencil and look at the picture in front of me, it's nice. I hadn't disliked much of the work I did for this story, and I usually despise everything I've ever created. I guess it's different for me than the way others see my work, because I know where every mistake is because I made it, but onlookers don't see that small out of place mark or that ever so faint tear rolling down the girls face that I had decided to erase.

I hear the front door open and close, the footsteps too confident to be my brothers. The basement door opens and I don't bother to turn around. Frankie lets himself in, he doesn't need me to greet him, he's gonna start a conversation with me all on his own because that's how it works.

Sure enough, I hear him pace down the stairs and then I see his hand placed on the table next to mine carelessly.

"Frankie," I say smiling and turning to him. I stand up and wrap my arms around his waist and he lays his head against my chest.

"Hey." He says and places a small kiss into the nape of my neck. "Hey," I said back faintly and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"Its been so long," He complains and I laugh. "One week and four days, and because of your job." Frank smiles at me and pulls away, he looks down at the pictures on the table, "Looks like you'll have a job too. If all of the art in here is this good." I smile and turn the paper over, "No peeps until I'm done." I say and he sighs loudly.

"Come on, let's have some fun." He says warmly and pushes me back down into my chair.

Mikey's POV
I shivered as the cold air of Jersey invaded my warmth and killed all remaining traces of drowsiness. I groan and start the trudge to school, I should have taken Gerard up on his offer.

I pull a cigarette from my pocket and light it with a match, letting the menthol allude my insides with a different cold feeling. Gerard didn't like that I smoked, but it stopped me from going insane.

I think about Gerard a lot, strange amounts but I'm sure it's nothing. Me and him used to be a lot closer, but when dad died and mom got a new job the entire routine changed and Gerard became depressed.

I began to struggle with EDNOS but it went away about three years ago.

Gerard and me grew apart at great lengths when I came home from the hospital. I was held for two weeks in a therapy unit and within six weeks of treatment I was feeling better.

It was like Gerard didn't know how to talk to me when I came back home. He seemed afraid and that upset me, so he backed off entirely and kept himself downstairs almost constantly for a year.

Then he started dating Frank, he started his senior year, and he got a car for his 18th birthday.

Life went on for him, and I'm still waiting on it to take off for me, I'm already behind where he was at my age.

It sucks, not only is he doing much better in the world than me, he's also romantically fulfilled, he's so happy with Frank.

He's never going to look at anyone else like he looks at Frank, my small and horrific feelings for Gerard are deeply buried inside of me.

I get so mad at him sometimes, it's like I'm angry that he's so happy, and he didn't need me to be that way.