the world is ugly - mikey way

| two |

"My pleasure"

His soft-spoken words lingered in the air for a moment. But soon enough, the silence was broken by a series of buzzes. Gerard digged into the jeans of his pocket and took out his cell phone, before looking over to me.

"I have to take this, sorry", he said. I just nodded and quietly sipped my coffee as he picked up the call.

"Mikey, hey, what's up?". Mikey. Must be a friend. Pretty cool name, like an edgy version of Mike, and a chilled-out version of Michael.

My thoughts were quickly interrupted, however, from the words that came out of Gerard's mouth. I tried my best not to eavesdrop, but my curiosity got the best of me.

"FRANK DID WHAT?!" exclaimed the black haired man, rage written all over his pale face.

"Fucks sake, ugh, I'll be right over", he said into his phone before sliding the small device back into his jeans.

I looked into his eyes, worried and dying to know what the hell that phone call was about. He must have sensed what I was thinking, because he opened his mouth to speak, however the words that came out didn't answer my question at all.

"Pack up your shit, we're leaving". He cleared his throat and threw on his black leather jacket.

"We?" I asked.

"Is that a problem?". He had an irritated tone in his voice. I muttered out a "no" and bent under the table to pick up my bags. Gerard's leg was shaking at a rapid speed. I didn't think he wasn't in the mood for any questions so I calmly picked up my stuff and slowly stood up from my seat. I nodded at Gerard, signalling I was ready to leave and we made our way out of the cafe.

I followed him in silence until we reached his car, a black Volkswagen Beetle. It was pretty clean, except for the few bits of mud at the bottom of the car. Gerard got out his keys and turned round to me.

"Quick, get in and chuck your shit in the back seats. We have no time to lose!".

I didn't want to piss him off so I did what he said and got in the passenger seat. Gerard put his keys in the ignition and started to drive away from the small café. There was no conversation, and the radio wasn't on. We were just sitting in silence, so I decided to break the tension.

"Why are you hurrying home anyways?" I asked. Something bad had clearly happened, and I needed to find out.

"Oh, sorry ahah, I completely forgot to tell you", a light laugh lacing his tone of voice as he spoke. "My friend Frank thought if would be a good idea to make a mug brownie but he used a metal mug and now my apartment is on fire-"

"Oh god, um, shit-"

"- and you're coming with me because I need all the help I can get. He's literally crazy" Gerard told me.

I replied with a simple "cool" and we continued our journey back to Gerard's apartment. By the time we got there, there were already two fire engines and the entire building was standing outside. Gerard hurried out of the car and ran over to who I assumed were his friends. I followed after him, bags still in the back seats, and just stood there awkwardly.

I looked at the four men in front of me.  Of course I already knew one of them, Gerard. To his left there was a taller boy with a brown afro. He was trying his best to calm down the screaming match going on between Gee and who I assumed was Frank - he was the shortest out of the group, pale with dark hair and  tattoos covering his body. He had a can of beer in one hand, which he would occasionally sip throughout the argument. On the right of Frank was a boy about the same size as me, maybe a bit taller. He was covering his face with a black hood, and kept his head down. I couldn't help myself from staring at him - something about him was intriguing.

I wanted to make conversation, but he looked like he wanted to be left alone. He hadn't said a word so far, and seemed to be trying his best to avoid any form of communication with anyone. So instead, I kept my head down and minded my own business as the boys continued to scream at each other in front of their burning building.