Bob woke up early and fixed breakfast, pancakes, the way his father always did. While he was at it he brought his laptop into the kitchen and messaged Frank, Gerard, and Mikey to check up on Ray. Hopefully the guy was okay, just a rough night. Soon Danielle was awake and she floated into the kitchen and looked at Bob. He greeted his little sister with a friendly 'good morning.' She stayed silent as she shuffled over to him and trapped him in a hug. He hugged her back breifly and placed a kiss on her head.
"Alright kiddo," he said. "What will the pancakes resembole this morning?" Bob asked.
Danielle tapped her chin in thought. "How about hippos?" she mused.
"Just hippos? Won't they get lonely?" Bob asked as he poured batter into the shape of a hippo on the skillet.
"And unicorns," Dannielle added.
Bob broke into a smile. "Perfect," he said. Then he had a thought. "Danni, you really ought to meet a friend of mine. He's fifteen and in my band, but he has this strange obsession," Bob paused for effect, leaving his sister on the edge of her seat, "with unicorns!"
Danielle squealed in delight the way Bob had expected. She reminded him a lot of Mikey. He'd have to introduce the two.
!
Ray woke up and groaned in pain. Why the fuck did he hurt so much? What had he done last night? He realized in a panic that he wasn't in his own room. He sat up in such a rush that he rolled off the bed and onto the floor. The wood was hard along with a stack of cd's he bounced off of. Frank's room was a wreck. Oh yeah! That's where he was. Frank's room.
He didn't remember a hell of a lot from the previous night after they left the party. They were there, and then they were at Frank's house where Ray woke up, threw up, and fell asleep in Frank's room. He figured he didn't especially want to know all that had gone down last night. Ray knew he shouldn't have been intoxicated and he was ashamed of himself. If he got drunk, just for fun, then he was no better than Ed.
Ray pried himself off the floor and sat back down on the edge of the bed immediately. He'd stood up to fast and was dizzy. The walls were not supposed to move like that. Just then Frank walked in and laughed, too loud. It didn't help Ray's splitting head ache.
"Morning sleeping beauty," Frank smirked at Ray, who groaned miserably. "Hard night?"
"Ha-ha," Ray responded sarcastically. "Never let me touch a drop of alcohol, ever again," Ray requested.
"No problem," Frank agreed. "It wasn't a walk in the park taking care of your shit faced ass," Ray didn't exactly understand Frank's vocabulary but he got what Frank was saying. He was loaded, he must have been a handfull.
"How bad was I?" Ray asked.
"When you were unconscious it was fine," Frank offered. Then he grimaced. "When you weren't you were a mess,"
Ray sighed and lay back, just to hit his head on the wall and release a string of curse words.
Frank chuckled, even though he felt bad for Ray. "I feel like shit," Ray muttered.
"No doubt, you were pretty wrecked last night. Did you know you cry when you're drunk?" Frank asked, his face obvious that he received some amusement from that.
"Shut up," Ray said, pushing up to stand again and brushing past Frank to go to the bathroom.
"You have an extra tooth brush I can borrow?" he asked, searching through the bathroom drawers.
"Don't open the next one down, that's where Mom keeps her tampons," Frank said, now leaning agianst the bathroom doorjam instead of his bedroom doorjam.
"Ew," Ray carefully left that drawer in peace. He'd grown up with brothers, and his mom didn't really share her womanly business with the testosterones.
"Bottom one,"
"Thanks,"
"You threw up like ten times," Frank added.
"I can feel that,"
"I think you threw up on Gerard," Frank smirked again. Once again he was amused. Ray turned a shade of red in embarrassment. Oops.
"Like I said, never let me drink ever again," Ray demanded with a mouth full of tooth paste.
"Why did you anyways?" Frank asked. "I'm used to Gerard drinking, but not you,"
"I don't know," Ray admitted after spitting out toothpaste and rincing his mouth. "I came home and found Ed shit faced again. He said he was done, but I knew he didn't mean it. I guess I still had an adrenaline rush from earlier, felt invinsible," Ray shrugged. "I just thought, nobody else has to be responsible, why did I?"
Frank didn't say anything about that. Ray thought he must have hit a nerve or something but he didn't have anything to apologize for, so he simply ruffled Frank's hair as he headed for the kitchen. Gerard was cooking bacon. Ray almost threw up again, but he held it in.
"Where's Mikey?" he asked.
"Still sleeping," Gerard responded. "How are you feeling?"
"Shitty," Ray plopped down at the table and rested his forehead on the cool wood. "You don't look so hot either,"
"You're not the only one with a hang over," Gerard said. "Surprisingly I think Frank was the most sober of all of us last night!"
"Nah, I had two," Frank called from the other room.
"Scratch that, Bob was," Gerard restated.
"I didn't think Mikey drank," Ray said.
"That kid is high off life," Gerard smiled happily. Frank walked into the kitchen a minute later and glared at the stove.
"Ew, dead pig flesh," he commented in disgust. "You can keep that skillet,"
"Calm down, Franky," Gerard rolled his eyes. "It's tofu bacon. Vegan friendly," Franky smiled and ate a peice. He'd gone vegan two years ago after watching an online video where some animal activists broke into a pig place and video taped everything. It made Frank ill. He refused from then on to eat meat, since it was tortured for life before made into food. If he ate meat he could hear pigs squealing in torment. Not appetizing. So not appetizing.
!
Gerard knew something was wrong the moment he set foot in his house. It was far too quiet, too peaceful. He didn't hear the tv or radio anywhere, no sound of dishes or talking. Just quiet. Unless his parents were up in their bedroom, but they were too conservative, sex was a night thing... So something had to be wrong.
"Mom?" he called out, slipping off his jacket and hanging it up. Maybe he was still in deep shit for yesterday, maybe that accounted for the awkward silence. Maybe his parents had got in a fight again, but no, they hadn't fought for years.
"Gerard, honey," his mother's voice came from the kitchen. "Is Mikey with you? Come into the kitchen please," her voice was too nice. Too gentle. What was going on?
Gerard lead the way and Mikey followed him into the kitchen, where his mother was sitting at the table, her eyes a bit red, and his father stood leaning against the counter, face stone and hands in his pockets. Yup, something was wrong.
"What's up?" Gerard asked, grabbing a pop from the fridge and popping it open. The can was too loud in the silence.
"Darling, why don't you sit down?" she was addressing both Mikey and Gerard, who threw each other nervous glances and sat.
"What's going on?" Gerard asked slowly, suspisciously. Under the table, Mikey's hand reached over and grabbed his. He was nervous. Gerard gave it a gentle squeeze.
"The nursing home called this morning," Mrs. Way started and Gerard's heart stopped. No. No no no that wasn't good. She must be getting bad again. Elena must have gotten sick again.
"What did they say!?" Gerard demanded, and he felt Mikey's hand tighten in his own.
Don and Donna exchanged a nervous glance, neither sure how to continue.
"Your grandmother..." Don started, then cleared his throat. "She passed away last night," he finished. And that's when the world stopped moving. Gerard stared straight at his parents without speaking at all. Next to him Mikey's face contorted suddenly and he burst into tears. His mother started crying as well. Mikey squeezed his brother's hand, but Gerard dropped it, standing from the table so fast his chair fell back.
"No," he said in a stern voice, which soon escalated. "No, you're... you're LYING!" he screamed.
"Gerard, calm down," Mr. Way instructed.
"Calm down? Calm down! No! You calm the fuck down! You're LYING!" Gerard yelled, then stormed from the house, grabbing the car keys and bounding out the door.
"Gerard Arthur Way! Get back here young man!" he heard his father yell, and he also heard Mikey crying. But he didn't stop. He didn't go back. He sped away in the car as fast as he possibly could, not especially caring if he wrecked or got pulled over. He would have been delirious to anything that happened. He had to get to the nursing home. He had to get there, because he knew his dad was lying.