Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Untrustworthy Brother
I was nine when Gerard first went to prison. It started off like any normal day. I knew Gerard had gotten into trouble but usually he’d spend one night in a cell or get let off with a warning. It wasn’t usually a big deal. So I went to school, talked to my friends Lucy and Taylor, paid attention in lessons, all the normal things… I didn’t realise anything was up until I left school.
Normally I’d walk up the hill with Taylor and meet our child minder Faith and then she’d take us back to her house. But when I got to the top of the hill my Mom and step-dad Mark were talking to Faith. Even then I didn’t think anything was wrong. I don’t know I thought. I just guessed the both of them had gotten time off work or something.
Mom didn’t look too upset and neither did Mark. I guess now they were just putting on brave faces for Faith or something. Anyway, they told me we were going to have a drink because they had something to tell me. I gave Taylor a hug goodbye and walked with Mom and Mark to the Priors Lodge which was about two minutes away from my primary school.
They brought me a diet coke and sat opposite me at the table. I was starting to feel a little uneasy. They didn’t look so happy now. Had I done something wrong? Was I in trouble? I was going through every possibility in my head when Mark said “Gerard’s gone to prison. He’s been given one and a half years.”
It took me a moment to process this. Then I guess out of shock, I giggled. Mark shook his head at me “It’s not funny Abbie.”
The walk home was silent and depressing. I walked behind Mom and Mark whilst trying to hold back tears. Surely this couldn’t be happening to us. My brother wasn’t a criminal. Not really. He’d done some bad things but he couldn’t possibly have done anything that bad.
But it was true. The next day when we read the paper there was a small article about it. They didn’t mention his name but it said something along the lines of ‘Seventeen year old boy from Telford gets one and a half years for-‘ And that’s where my memory goes blank. I didn’t know for a long time why he’d gone to prison or what he’d done. I just knew that he was there and not here. Which really upset me.
It didn’t seem to affect Mikey. He sat on the sofa watching Scooby-Doo, not even noticing that his older brother wasn’t home. I watched it with him for a while but watching TV with my brother is not easy when he keeps laughing really loudly for no reason and making loud strange noises. In the end I got fed up and went upstairs into my bedroom.
I can’t really remember how long Gerard was in prison before we first went to visit him. I remember a police officer searching me in case I was trying to sneak something in. We all had to take off our shoes and put them through an x-ray in case we were hiding something in there. It was only me and Mom who went to visit him while Mark stayed home and looked after Mikey.
The visiting room was cheerier than I expected. I guess I’d expected a lot of scary looking criminals wearing those orange jumpsuits, sitting behind those glass screens talking through a telephone like you see on TV. But it wasn’t anything like that. There were a lot of coffee tables and chairs all in long rows. On one side there was one chair for the person you were visiting and three chairs the other side for visitors.
The prisoners didn’t look scary and they weren’t dressed in orange jumpsuits. They were wearing a black and white striped long-sleeved tee shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of normal trainers. None of them were doing anything remotely creepy. They were just spending a few minutes with their families. A few minutes that they only got once every so often, when they got a visiting order.
Mom put her hand on my shoulder “Do you see your brother anywhere?” She asked me.
I scanned the room trying to find my brother amongst all these scarily similar people. The thing I looked for was his jaw-length black hair and his half smirk. But I couldn’t see either of these things anywhere. What I did see was a guy who looked a bit like my brother except he wasn’t smiling… And he didn’t have any hair anymore.
“There he is.” Mom told me, pointing at the guy who looked a bit like Gerard but with no hair.
I shook my head “That can’t be him.”
“They shaved off his hair when he got here Sweetie. That’s your brother.”
At that moment, the boy turned and looked at us and smiled. He smiled that half smirk that my brother had always used. I blinked back tears. This stranger was my brother after all.
Mom and I stood there for a moment before I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran over to him and threw my arms round his neck “I missed you so much!” I cried.
Gerard hugged me back and laughed “I missed you too.”
[A/N] - The ending was a bit sudden but I don't really remember much of what happened after that and I didn't wanna make it up :L ANYWAY this story is probably gonna be memories mixed with in what's going on today and then... YEAH. I'll be posting a note in a second as a sepearte story about future updates so yeah :)
Normally I’d walk up the hill with Taylor and meet our child minder Faith and then she’d take us back to her house. But when I got to the top of the hill my Mom and step-dad Mark were talking to Faith. Even then I didn’t think anything was wrong. I don’t know I thought. I just guessed the both of them had gotten time off work or something.
Mom didn’t look too upset and neither did Mark. I guess now they were just putting on brave faces for Faith or something. Anyway, they told me we were going to have a drink because they had something to tell me. I gave Taylor a hug goodbye and walked with Mom and Mark to the Priors Lodge which was about two minutes away from my primary school.
They brought me a diet coke and sat opposite me at the table. I was starting to feel a little uneasy. They didn’t look so happy now. Had I done something wrong? Was I in trouble? I was going through every possibility in my head when Mark said “Gerard’s gone to prison. He’s been given one and a half years.”
It took me a moment to process this. Then I guess out of shock, I giggled. Mark shook his head at me “It’s not funny Abbie.”
The walk home was silent and depressing. I walked behind Mom and Mark whilst trying to hold back tears. Surely this couldn’t be happening to us. My brother wasn’t a criminal. Not really. He’d done some bad things but he couldn’t possibly have done anything that bad.
But it was true. The next day when we read the paper there was a small article about it. They didn’t mention his name but it said something along the lines of ‘Seventeen year old boy from Telford gets one and a half years for-‘ And that’s where my memory goes blank. I didn’t know for a long time why he’d gone to prison or what he’d done. I just knew that he was there and not here. Which really upset me.
It didn’t seem to affect Mikey. He sat on the sofa watching Scooby-Doo, not even noticing that his older brother wasn’t home. I watched it with him for a while but watching TV with my brother is not easy when he keeps laughing really loudly for no reason and making loud strange noises. In the end I got fed up and went upstairs into my bedroom.
I can’t really remember how long Gerard was in prison before we first went to visit him. I remember a police officer searching me in case I was trying to sneak something in. We all had to take off our shoes and put them through an x-ray in case we were hiding something in there. It was only me and Mom who went to visit him while Mark stayed home and looked after Mikey.
The visiting room was cheerier than I expected. I guess I’d expected a lot of scary looking criminals wearing those orange jumpsuits, sitting behind those glass screens talking through a telephone like you see on TV. But it wasn’t anything like that. There were a lot of coffee tables and chairs all in long rows. On one side there was one chair for the person you were visiting and three chairs the other side for visitors.
The prisoners didn’t look scary and they weren’t dressed in orange jumpsuits. They were wearing a black and white striped long-sleeved tee shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of normal trainers. None of them were doing anything remotely creepy. They were just spending a few minutes with their families. A few minutes that they only got once every so often, when they got a visiting order.
Mom put her hand on my shoulder “Do you see your brother anywhere?” She asked me.
I scanned the room trying to find my brother amongst all these scarily similar people. The thing I looked for was his jaw-length black hair and his half smirk. But I couldn’t see either of these things anywhere. What I did see was a guy who looked a bit like my brother except he wasn’t smiling… And he didn’t have any hair anymore.
“There he is.” Mom told me, pointing at the guy who looked a bit like Gerard but with no hair.
I shook my head “That can’t be him.”
“They shaved off his hair when he got here Sweetie. That’s your brother.”
At that moment, the boy turned and looked at us and smiled. He smiled that half smirk that my brother had always used. I blinked back tears. This stranger was my brother after all.
Mom and I stood there for a moment before I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran over to him and threw my arms round his neck “I missed you so much!” I cried.
Gerard hugged me back and laughed “I missed you too.”
[A/N] - The ending was a bit sudden but I don't really remember much of what happened after that and I didn't wanna make it up :L ANYWAY this story is probably gonna be memories mixed with in what's going on today and then... YEAH. I'll be posting a note in a second as a sepearte story about future updates so yeah :)
Sign up to rate and review this story