Mixtape For The End of the World

32. Gabe refers to himself as Gabriel Baberiel in front of Sexy Stranger #4.

32. Gabe refers to himself as Gabriel Baberiel in front of Sexy Stranger #4.

In the dead of night, I took Exit #7 and drove the DeLorean into Belleville while Gabe and Brendon, both having obviously consumed far too much coffee for their own good, were dancing and screaming along to my mixtape. We raced through the city until I finally found the Ways' house. A gangly, bespectacled teenager was waiting in front of the house, and he waved when he saw us, although he managed to perfectly maintain his poker face as he did so. "That guy is so hot," Gabe said, while Brendon and I rolled our eyes.

Mikey looked exactly like he did in all of those pictures that he had sent me, but it was still crazy to see him in the flesh. I smiled and waved back to him as I pulled into the driveway, and after I had parked, I ran out of the car and hugged my friend. "Mikey!" I exclaimed. "I don't even know what to say. It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you too," Mikey said. "I didn't expect you to bring the DeLorean though."

"My dad let me borrow it for the trip," I said.

"All of our neighbors are going to be wondering if we built a time machine out of a DeLorean," Mikey said. We both laughed, and he asked, "How was the trip here?"

"It was fine," I said. "We got a little lost in New York City though."

"Why did you go anywhere near New York?" Mikey asked. "That's not the way here."

"As I said, we got lost," I said. "We made it here though."

Mikey smiled and said, "I'm glad you did. Mom and Dad kept telling me to go to bed, and I was worried that I wouldn't get to see you until tomorrow, or worse, that something had happened to you. Where are Gabe and Brendon, by the way?"

"They're still in the car," I said. I opened up the car doors, and Gabe and Brendon climbed out.

"That's so cool," Mikey said as he saw the doors open and close. "I wish my car did that."

"Me too," Brendon said. "Pete has the best car."

"Gabe, Brendon, this is my pen pal Mikey Way," I said. I gestured toward Gabe and said, "Mikey, this is..."

"Gabriel Baberiel, but you can call me Gabey Baby for short," Gabe interrupted, making Brendon and I groan.

"Mikey isn't Sexy Stranger #4, right, Gabe?" Brendon said, hoping that Gabe hadn't just made the vision come true. Gabe didn't answer, which told us everything that we needed to know.

Brendon turned to Mikey and said, "His name isn't really Gabriel Baberiel..."

"I know," Mikey said. "His name is Gabriel Eduardo Saporta, but everyone calls him Gabe for short. He's eighteen years old, he was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and his birthday is on October 11th. He speaks both English and Spanish fluently, which is a skill that he mostly uses to hook up with anyone who's willing. He moved to the east coast when he was four, and then to Shermer, Illinois in middle school, which was when he met you and Pete. Gabe and Pete briefly dated two years ago, but they've been best friends ever since then. At the beginning of the summer, Gabe started having psychic visions, and he's been trying his best to stop them before he dies in an explosion with the song he wrote playing in the background, although he hasn't been very successful so far. He's a mediocre bass player and a terrible writer, but that somehow hasn't stopped him from ending up on MTV somehow. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that came here to make you dance tonight."

"How do you know all of this?" Gabe asked, pale as a ghost.

"Pete told me in his letters," Mikey said.