KISS: In The Band

Ch 50: Breakfast (Gene)

I knocked on the door, hoping Bruce would answer. But Lisa was the one who pulled open the door, giving me a sad smile. "Hey Gene," she murmured. "Hey Lisa. How's--" She shook her head. "He's not good. He's completely shut down since the funeral. He hasn't said a word. Please, try and talk to him," she said, opening the door all the way and motioning for me to come inside.

Bruce was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the floor, looking absolutely dead inside. I sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. We're going to go to JJ's in honor of Eric and just sort of remember all the good times. Please come with us." He shook his head. "I can't," he said hoarsely. "Bruce, please. He wouldn't want you to be like this, you know that. Please, just come with us."

"You don't understand. He's...he's gone. Oh fuck Gene, he's gone." "I know. It hurts. But I also know he wouldn't want you to be like this. Please, just come with us. It'll help, I swear." To my relief, he looked up at me, taking a shuddering breath. "Okay."

The seven of us sat around the table, unsure of what to say, before Paul finally broke the silence by lifting his mug of coffee. "To Eric Carr, who could eat more sushi than anyone I've ever met." Peter nodded, lifting his own mug. "To Eric Carr, who gave me the worst advice for a first date but still managed to set me up with my husband." Ace raised his mug. "To Eric Carr, who was Frankie and JoJo's favorite brother." I raised my own mug. "To Eric Carr, the sliest fox I've ever met." "To Eric Carr, who was too good for Devereaux," Tommy said, raising his mug. Eric raised his mug next. "To Eric Carr, who was easily the better Eric."

We all turned to look at Bruce, who slowly lifted his mug. "To Eric Carr, my first wife and my best friend," he said with the faintest ghost of a smile.

In unison, we all clinked our glasses together. "To Eric!"

The coffee was straight black and subpar, and if he had been there, Eric would've drank at least a dozen cups. We all sat around the table, eating his usual breakfast of a carnivore omelet and a waffle with ice cream while swapping stories of Eric.

"Fuck I mean it was like a month or so into school and it was Eric's first party at Casablanca and oh man the poor kid! We all got absolutely fucked up. Paul was drunk off his ass, Gene was high, I was high, Ace was drunk, and he somehow had to drive us all back to my place. And of course because it was Gene's piece of shit car one of the lights was busted or something and we got pulled over by the fucking cops! Eric was a month into our friend group and we had already almost gotten him arrested!" Peter said while the rest of us burst into laughter.

"Oh my gosh I remember that! I was at that party! Me and Eric were talking that night when all of a sudden he goes 'oh fuck Tommy I gotta go my friend just jumped off the roof' and then he was gone and I didn't see him the rest of the night!" "Yeah that might've been me," Paul mumbled sheepishly.

"Eric just received an absolute beating being in our group, to be fair. I mean what was it, our first tournament that you almost broke his nose?" I teased. Bruce raised an eyebrow, giving me a grin. "What was it, our second practice that you almost broke his ribs?" he countered. "He was just such a sweet person, man. Like I was freaking out about going on a date with Ace but he was willing to come with," Paul said, smiling fondly. "And I was nervous about being a part of the friend group when I first starting dating you but he was super friendly and welcoming," Eric said with a smile. "Or when Vinnie was being a bitch so Eric just punched him in the face. Damn, that's one of my favorite memories," Bruce said.

"And I mean we can't forget that the only reason this is happening is because Eric got drunk one night and decided we should all take a road trip to find Gene," Ace said with a laugh. "Ah, Eric did a lot of things drunk. Some of them were great, like taking a road trip to find Gene, and some of them were really great, like marrying Bruce," I said, nudging Bruce in the ribs. He laughed, shaking his head. "Gosh, he was such a mess when he was drunk. Such a goofy, happy mess. Damn, I miss that."

"You remember the microwave ham?" Paul asked abruptly, and the four of them burst into laughter while Tommy and Eric and I exchanged confused glances. "Oh my gosh the ham! He was so fucking determined to have that thing!" "You should've seen him in the store, man! Giving me the biggest puppy dog eyes ever and begging me to buy him that stupid ham!" "The worst part is, it tasted so good!" I just shook my head, wishing I knew what they were talking about but also easily able to picture Eric doing exactly that.

"Bruce you were roommates with him for years, you've gotta have some good Eric stories," Peter said. Bruce grinned, rolling his eyes. "Oh my gosh. So we got a dog like a few months after moving in together, and by we, I mean Eric walked into the apartment carrying it, so I was like, okay fine. We have a dog, that's whatever, just tell me next time we pick up pets. But of course, in a few more months, I come home to find him holding a fucking iguana. He went out and bought a fucking iguana without telling me!"

We all burst into laughter as Bruce took a sip of coffee. "And we'd have movie nights where we'd switch off who got to pick. I like horror movies so I'd try and pick those, but he'd always get too scared to fall asleep and would end up keeping me awake all night. And almost every single fucking week he'd pick Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I don't know why he loved that movie so much, but he made me sit through it so many times I'm pretty sure I have it memorized by now."

As we kept going, eating breakfast and drinking way too much coffee and sharing a ton of stories, I knew that Eric was somehow with us, even if we couldn't see him or feel him or anything like that. He was still there.

After we paid our checks, Bruce rose to his feet, leaving one last full mug of coffee untouched on the table. Before I could get into my car, he grabbed my arm, pulling me into a hug. "Thank you," he whispered. I nodded, hugging him back tightly. "You know it's what he'd want." "Yeah. It is what he'd want," he said, and for the first time he looked happy.