Two for Tragedy

Disclaimer: Same as always. I don't own the people. The situation never happened. And lessthanthree inspired me.

A/N: Thanks to silly_nut_case for the idea for this chapter. I was a little stuck, but that prompt (is that right) really helped.

Two for Tragedy
Part Four: "That was the day I couldn't find you after school, wasn't it?"

Beneath the candle bed
Two saddened angels - in heaven, in death

***Frankie's Point of View***

Gerard covered the receiver with his hand and a few seconds later he told me Mikey was sick and wouldn't need a ride today. I was getting sick of this.

"Is he standing right there telling you to say that to me?" I snapped. "Because if he really were sick you wouldn't need to check with him to see if he were." I slammed down the phone and crossed my arms.

"You're going to be late." Mom called from the living room.

"Okay, okay. I'm going." I grabbed the car keys and sighed, slamming the door behind me. I was really getting sick of this. Mikey hadn't been in school for the last week, he wouldn't answer the fucking phone, and there wasn't a damn rumor floating around the school. His boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend, didn't know anything either.

I backed out of the driveway, but turned left instead of right. Gerard had to go to work sometime, which meant that if Mikey weren't going to school I should be able to catch him at home. Gerard started work at nine, but he left at 8:30. Wait, he left at 8:30 so he could drop Mikey off. Aw, shit. Now I'm all screwed up.

So, I decided to go get a pack of cigarettes and do laps in my car until 9:00. And that was pretty much perfect timing because I was just far away enough that I could see Gerard's car leave, but he didn't see mine (thank God).

I think I banged on Mikey's door for at least five minutes before I saw him glance through the kitchen window at me. He stood there looking for awhile and I stared back, arms crossed. If he fucking turned around . . .

He nodded and went to the door, undoing all three locks and glancing around before he opened the door and yanked me in by my arm, shutting and locking it again. "What do you want?" he asked, pulling the blinds down.

"You afraid someone's stalking you?" I joked.

"Maybe." He wasn't joking. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Aren't you?"

Mikey shurgged and gestured at the box of cigarettes in my hand. I rolled my eyes and handed him one, lighting my own. He waited a minute before he answered me. "Gee doesn't think it's a good idea right now. He might transfer me out again."

"Wh-I mean, fuck, Mikey. You can't just let him transfer you out everytime something happens. What happened this time? Hair in the cafeteria food?" I hated Gerard's habit of transferring Mikey to a different school all the time. There were only so many times I could get expelled and transferred without my mom threatening to send me to military school and actually following through.

Mikey kind of laughed and then coughed and then waited a second before he said anything. "No. It's a little bit worse than that this time."

I leaned against the counter. "Is it that bad?"

Mikey kind of kicked at the floor and his eyes looked everywhere except at me. "Yeah. It is. Promise you won't hate me?"

"You know I won't." I said. When he continued to look at the floor, I spoke again. "Okay, I promise. I promise I won't hate you. Now tell me what's going on because you're scaring the hell out of me right now."

"Matt Summers been at school this week?" Mikey asked, going over to the sink and turning it on, washing his cigarette butt down the drain. I followed suit.

"No, Matt's been out." I gave him a look. "Why?"

"Matt's got a restraining order." Mikey said. "He's not allowed within so many feet of me. Like a hundred or something, so they said he couldn't go to the same school as me anymore."

"Why would he have a restraining order?"

"Because . . ." Mikey looked at me and then at the floor before he said anything else. "Because he raped me last Thursday."

"What?!" He . . . he got raped? And he thought I would hate him? I felt like I was going to throw up, but I just closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"He raped me." Mikey said again.

"Wait." Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. God dammit. "That was the day I couldn't find you after school, wasn't it?" God, dammit. This was all my fault. If I just would have looked a little harder for him. I knew something wasn't right. What the fuck was wrong with me?

"I walked." he said. "Got dressed and walked home."

"I-I'm sorry. Fuck, I should have looked harder. I'm sorry." I went to put my hand on his shoulder and then didn't. I didn't want to scare him. Hell, I didn't know if I would. What do you do when someone tells you something like that?

"Not your fault." Mikey said. "You were in detention. If you would have looked you wouldn't have found him. He was gone by then." He waved his hand around impatiently. Then, he looked at me.

I don't know how he could tell, but he could. He put his hand on my shoulder and I felt like shit then. Why the fuck was he trying to comfort me? "It wasn't your fault." he said. "Really."

"But I--"

"Would you shut up about it already?" he said. "I don't want to talk about it. It's bad enough with the fucking cops in here every other day. Just ask me whatever questions so we can stop talking about it, okay?"

"Where did he do it?"

"Guys' locker room. He was flirting with me after school, had me follow him. Then he raped me." He was talking in the same sort of tone you might use if you were reading a book, trying to make it sound like he was talking about someone else and not himself.

"Are you going to court?"

Mikey halfway shrugged, halfway nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know if it'll do any good."

"Want another cigarette?"

He smiled. "Fuck, yeah."

And he acted okay after that, so I did. He jumped a little bit if the door rattled or if a car was really loud going by the house, but he blew it off. I copied him. We were sitting on the couch watching People's Court or something and making fun of them when Gerard came home.

He knew I was there. We both knew he knew because we watched him get out of his car, walk over to my car, curse, and light a cigarette. And we both got that look on our faces and laughed. Like the 'oh shit, oh well' look when you think you might get in trouble.

"Any gossip at school?" Mikey asked me before Gerard came in.

"Don't you think I'd have been over here sooner if there was? Not a damn thing. You could come back, you know." I wanted him to come back. Him sitting here everyday was really bugging me. He should do something.

"Yeah, well." He shrugged. "I guess I could try it. I'll have to talk Gee around, though."

"Talk me around to what?" Gerard asked, appearing in the doorway. "Hey, Frankie." He gave me a look like half 'I'm going to fucking kill you' and half 'Well, I guess it could be worse'. I rolled my eyes. Gerard didn't like me all that much. Thought I was a bad influence or something.

Mikey's a bad enough influence to himself.

"Hey, Gerard." I used that innocent voice that works on no one except my mom. "How was work?"

"School get out early?" he asked pointedly.

Mikey decided to be a smartass there. "Well, Frankie was sick too, Gee, so I told him he could come over and then we spent all day being sick."

Gerard seemed to struggle with himself for a minute, trying not to laugh. "Well . . . you both seem fine now." He pointed at me. "Call your mom and see if you can stay for supper."

I rolled my eyes and went to the kitchen to use the phone. I knew Gerard just wanted to talk to Mikey alone. I called my mom who said it was fine as long as I didn't have homework. Well, I obviously didn't since I hadn't gone to school that day.

They were still talking when I hung up the phone. "I'm going outside for a smoke." I called.

"You are not." Gerard yelled back. "The last thing I need is someone finding out I let minors smoke. Get in here and use an ashtray like a civilized person."

Mikey snickered as I walked into the room. Gerard 'pretended' he didn't see me hand Mikey a cigarette, just like he 'pretended' he didn't see Mikey smoke it.

"How many classes do you guys have together?" he asked, as I lit my cigarette.

I thought for a minute. "Five." Mikey and I said at the same time.

"Eight classes?"

"Six." I said. "Mikey's in Advanced Biology and I'm working on flunking General Math again." Mikey elbowed me and gave me a look. "But the rooms are right across from each other." I added, even though that was bullshit. They were on opposite sides of the hall.

"I don't like this." Gerard said finally.

"Please, Gee?" Mike asked after he exhaled. "Please? You said it wasn't my fault, so I should be able to go to school."

I put my hand on the side of my face and looked the other way after I saw the look on Gerard's face. Since I was the only one between me and Mikey who hadn't been hurt in the last two weeks, I was the one in major fear for my life at the moment.

"It wasn't your fault." Gerard said through gritted teeth. "But that doesn't mean you have to be stupid about it."

"But Matt's not at school." Mikey said. "And Frankie says there aren't any rumors." Did he have to say my name? "And I'm sick of sitting in the fucking house and jumping everytime the wind blows, okay? I just want things to get back to normal."

Gerard sighed and I guess he looked at me. I don't know because I was still not looking at him. Mikey poked me and then I dropped my hand, turning. "Yeah?"

"Can you drop him off everyday?"

"Didn't I anyways?"

"No detentions." Gerard said. He looked kind of upset when he said that. "At least until something happens."

"No detentions." I said, as if I didn't hear the last part. "Yeah, cool. I'll behave myself." I said, the last part making Mikey laugh and lean his head on my shoulder, smiling.

"See? We're perfectly innocent teenagers, okay?" I leaned my head on his to complete the look.

Gerard finally laughed. "All right, all right. You can go. Home by 4:30 everyday."

*

"Gerard talked to the teachers." Mikey said as we walked into the school. "So I don't think I have to make up my homework.

"Lucky you." I said. "I've got a lab assignment due in Chem tomorrow."

"You finished?" Mikey asked, smirking at me.

"Hell, no. I maintain my record of barely passing every year. You think I'm going to blow that just for Chem?" I laughed as we walked to the side of the school, lighting cigarettes and keeping a lookout for teachers.

Greg found us there. Or rather, Greg found Mikey and I just sort of came with the set. Buy one, get one free. He looked at me and then at his ex. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Mikey looked at me and then at Greg. "You've got a minute." he said, taking a few steps away from me. "What's up?"

"Look, I'm sorry about that fight. You scared the hell out of me when you disappeared. What happened?" Unfortunately, Greg did sound really sorry.

Mikey took another drag off his cigarette. "I just hand some family problems, you know. And I'm sorry about the fight, too. But maybe breaking up was for the best." The first bell rang and Mikey put out his cigarette. "I gotta get to class. Talk to you later."

I put mine out and followed him up to the school, a bit shocked. That hadn't sounded like Mikey at all. The whole confident, lying, I've got a million other guys waiting thing. Wow. I almost kissed him.

There was one good thing about Mikey missing for so long. The gossip about him and Greg had died down a bit. There were still a few 'queer boy' and 'fag' statements being thrown around, but for the most part that was over. There was a pregnant freshman and the only three possible fathers were seniors, so that was kind of a hot topic now.

Mikey pulled his English book and my English book out of his locker. That had been and interesting excuse for Mrs. Carton. "Sorry, my book's in Mikey's locker and he's not here, so I guess I'm kind of screwed." And then I had to explain that all my books were in Mikey's locker otherwise I just didn't bring them or they got something spilled on them or they ended up being thrown at people's heads in the hallway and/or cafeteria.

That's a better use for schoolbooks.

"What are we doing in English?" Mikey asked, handing me my book which I glared at. I hadn't missed it all that much.

"How the hell should I know? I've been sleeping in her class without you there to poke me."

"In that case, I'd better sharpen my pencil, huh?" Mikey teased.

Things really seemed to be getting back to normal.

Of course, that was all going to be shot to hell after school that day.

---

Don't you love me? A cliffhanger. And unfortunately, no Waycest. Just decided that. I think it would be sort of wrong in this story. It just doesn't fit. And I'd tell you something else, but it would kill the purpose of a cliffhanger, but hang in there okay? I promise it's good.