Just Off The Key Of Reason (Pete Wentz/Mikey Way)

4: I Thought I Loved You; It Was Just How You Looked In The Light

"Stop smiling." I shivered as Gerard's voice seemed to protrude from nowhere, his words interrupting my general procrastination and wasting my life away. "It's annoying."

I lay curled up on the sofa with the TV on mute in the background. There was some modelling show on that I wasn't quite gay enough to be interested in entirely, leaving me to resort to scrolling through Twitter on my phone and ignoring the copy of Pride and Prejudice that lay on the table, with a page curled and a tatty bookmark hanging out the top of it. It was painfully unread to the point it was rather obnoxious. 

"You're annoying." I counteracted, my voice resonating poorly due to my visibly sleep deprived tone of voice. I hadn't sleep in what... forty eight or so hours now, and despite being as knowledgeable in medical practition as a chipped coffee mug, I still knew that this wasn't exactly the healthiest of things to do.

I couldn't get to sleep, though, so it wasn't entirely my fault. Well, I was tired as heck and it was showing in the way I was slouched out on the couch like some sort of dopey zombie, but the caffeine hadn't quite left my bloodstream yet, leaving my veins buzzing and rushing with sugar, even if the rest of me wanted to slowly drop off.

"My best quality, I know!" He smirked manically as he gave my body a gentle shove, allowing him to inhabit half of the sofa at the very least. His voice had remained in a sort of permanently sadistic tone ever since the incident with Frank; he just couldn't be happy, and for once I could understand as to why.

Gerard was never the most optimistic or happy go lucky of creatures, and spent a great part of his years before Frank in a depressed and mildly suicidal state, which was horrible to watch especially when it was someone you really cared about, and especially when you were fifteen - five years younger than Gerard, and five years too young to do anything about it.

I was just eternally glad that Frank came along when he did, because I don't know quite how he managed it, but Frank did do something about it. He did a lot, actually... in fact, he pretty much fixed Gerard, coming to think of it, but those pieces only seemed to stay together when he was around. And now he wasn't, Gerard was shattering like bad pottery, his legs forever stuck and slowly sinking into a monstrous pit of quicksand.

"I wouldn't say it was my best-" Gerard let a smirk lap over the corners of his mouth like a gentle tide going into shore. It was a strange kind of calm, and almost didn't fit in place with the rest of vengeful, chaotic and restless Gerard. He was strange sometimes- a lot of the time. Frank didn't seem to mind, though... but now he did. I was confused as to what could have possibly changed his mind, because Frank was too strong willed for it to be just Ryan Ross.

"Yeah, well you're wrong." I was hit with a snappy tone out of nowhere - Gerard was either PMS-ing, or this was a result of the rift between Frank and him.

"Sorry." I guess he noticed what impact his words had had, for once. That’d be a first.

"It's okay." I mumbled, the corners of my smile slowly faltering, especially as my eyes met with my copy of Pride and Prejudice lying suspiciously on the coffee table. Mum had definitely planted it there, but I couldn't exactly blame her - I wouldn't want to have both of my sons fail in life. Well, if I’d even make it beyond this prolonged state of adolescence that had somehow leaked into my twenties.

But despite mum's efforts, it really did look like Gerard was going to be stuck in the basement for years, and I... in Pete's basement, most likely. Considering the amount of kidnap that had occurred involving a Mr Pete Wentz recently, I wasn't even exaggerating at all, and that fact concerned me far too little for my sanity's liking. Again, I blame Pete's coffee, and candles... and kissing.