FicWad

With Mikey in the shower, Jamia busied herself tidying up the slightly messy apartment. After about ten minutes the phone rang.

"Hello"
"Hey, err, who is this?" A smile played on Jamia lips as she recognized the voice on the phone.
"Gerard! It Jamia"
"Hey Mia. Where is my poor excuse of a brother?"
"He's in the shower, but i'd rather not take him the phone of you don't mind"
"Ha. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to that torture. So how is the most attractive employee of eyeball records doing?'
"Such the charmer. You know me, surviving. How's the next Picasso doing?"
"Oh please. I'm the next Pollock darling. And I'm good. How did the NLF launch go? And did Mikey hook up? I've been trying to get hold of him all day"
"He hasn't told you, has he?"
"He did hook up!"
"Frank got beat up real bad on the way home from the launch. He's in the hospital still"
"Shit, what happened? Did someone call him short again?"
"He really does have a complex doesn't he? And no he wasn't called short. He got drunk so he left early. Some guy dragged him into an alley and beat him up when Frank wouldn't hand over his wallet. Mikey's really beating himself up over it. Mikey made him go home early before he bankrupted the company with his bar tab, and Frank refused to get a taxi"
"He is such a dick. How bad is Frank?"
"Mikey said a few cracked ribs, lots of bruising. But this morning he was in a state as his meds wore off and he was all shaky from what I could get out of Mikey. It shook him up more today than when we found him"
"You found him?"
"Yeah. Mikey wanted to introduce me to Frank when he was sober, and let me crash here. But on our way back I saw some weird guy coming out of an alley. Mikey was a total girl and I had to drag him over. And Frank was there by a dumpster"
"Shit. That's the last thing he needs. Err, look. Tell Mikey my classes finish at lunch on Friday so i'll grab a train home"
"Yeah no problem"
"Write it down, I know what your like!"
"I'll tell him, ok?"
"Alright, chill. And make sure to come round. We need to catch up properly"
"Will do, bye Gerard"
"It's Gee! Bye"

As Jamia waited to Mikey to finish his shower, she took in the apartment. Beige walls, striped wooden floors and Ikea pine furniture. Shelf's covered in hundreds of cd's lines one wall, whilst a desk littered with disks and a computer sat in the corner. The walls were covered in Gerard's art and various band posters. As she walked to the cd shelf's a particular piece by Gerard caught her eye. It was 3 black and white shots in a silver frame. Each picture was a focus of various tattoos. They were incredible. One was a jack-o-lantern which looked to be on someone's back. The second was of a man crouched, the pictures focal point Halloween on his knuckles, which obscured a bowed head from view. The third was of a scorpion high up on someone's neck. The contrast and focal points brought the ink to life. Jamia stared so intently at the breathtaking human canvas she failed to hear the shower cut of, or Mikey padding across the floor behind her. He got up close behind Jamia, his lips to her ear.
"Perv"
"FUCK" Jamia spun around to find a wet haired Mikey wearing checked plaid pajamas, as well as a large smirk. "Don't you ever scare the crap out of me like that again Way"
"I see you weren't joking about your tattoo fetish"
"It's not a fetish. I was just looking at all of Gerard's artwork" Jamia could feel her cheeks burning at being caught
"So you weren't just ogling Franks tattoo's then?"
"That's Frank?"
dam he really is hot
"Yeah. Gerard did a photography project on expressionism. And Frank uses his tattoos as an expression of himself and the things that are most important to him"
Jamia turned back to the photos, mesmerized.
"What do they all mean?"
"Ask Frank yourself"

Mikey and Jamia spent the rest of the night sat on the sofa watching American idol, mocking all the bottle blond wanna be's who would just as eagerly sleep their way to the top as sing.

Mikey woke up to find his DVD player flash 3.15am. Groaning he shifted his numb leg from under him, careful not to disturb a sleeping Jamia who rested on his shoulder. Thoughts of Frank and Gerard crept into his mind. He could have stopped them getting hurt. But he put himself first. Whilst Gerard slowly crumbled under the pressures of his talent and potential, Mikey was to busy smoking weed with his so called friends to notice. If he had just talk to Gerard more and offered him support, maybe he would never have resorted to a cocktail of alcohol and drugs. And with Frank, he was too worried about paperwork to make sure he got home ok. If it weren't for Mikey, both his brother and his best friend wouldn't have suffered.

X

Images of scorpion's and slick skin flashed trough her mind. Licking, biting, tasting the ink as hands explored the jack-o-lantern of his toned back. She could almost feel the lines trough her fingertips.
Jamia woke with a start, eyes instantly finding the 3 black and white photos on the wall. Glancing to her side she found Mikey staring intently at nothing. She didn't need to be psychic to tell what Mikey was thinking.
"Morning"
"Sorry, did I wake you?"
"No, your ok. How you doing?"
"Fine"
"You know what that means?"
"Yes I have seen the Italian Job"
"It wasn't you fault. And neither was Gerard. You can't stop bad things from happening. All you can do is try your best to fix them and carry on. You're over thinking"
"Since when did you start being so old and wise?"
"I was always wise. And as for old, I'm 2 months younger than you!"
"Ok kid, whatever you say"
Jamia gave Mikey a playful smack as he went to get ready for the day ahead.