I believe the lot of us were supposed to hang out this weekend but it seems plans have unexpectedly changed. Jenna and Cody went to their cousin's house for Genevieve's 4th birthday. The baby was born not too long ago so they now have 6 cousins. And Amelia and her family went away for the weekend to go skiing. She'll be back later tonight so I'll see her tomorrow at school. I was okay with staying in all weekend. It's nice having time to myself to just chill in my room and have some me time. Again, my parents went out to work but I don't care. I think they've started moving past whatever it was that made them angry because these last few months have been uncharacteristically civil around here. I'm not complaining though.

I texted Gerard over 3 hours ago a little after I woke up. He's finally responded back to me. -Hey-

-Hey, what's up?- I reply.

-Nothing much-

-Same. It feels like we haven't seen each other in forever lol- We didn't hang out after school on Friday and we didn't really talk on Saturday at all.

Gerard replies. -It's been like 2 days dude- Oh, okay. A part of me feels a little crushed at his response. Have I been annoying him lately? It seems like Gerard just doesn't care anymore. Well, not that he had cared about me in the first place. But not that he didn't not care about me either. I'm a contradiction. It just seems that something has changed in the way things are between us and I don't want that. Or I'm just overthinking everything. The usual.

I don't really know how to reply and it's been a few minutes already. Am I supposed to say something or is he saying something else? My phone goes off again and that answers my question.

-If you're not doing anything today, you wanna hang out after lunch?-

-Yeah, sure. You're place?-

-First of all: *your-

-Shut up, Gee-

-Second of all: yeah you can come over-

-Cool, I'll see you in a bit-

After idly scrolling on my phone, falling asleep after a while, and then eventually making Ramen, I head over to Gerard's. His house is empty as usual with just him. He's wearing pajamas it seems like. Baggy track pants and an oversized hoodie I haven't seen him wear before. "You look cozy," I say when he answers the door.

He glances down and gives a shrug. "It's Sunday and I'm tired so I really don't care."

"It's okay," I say, taking off my shoes. Gerard shuts the door and leans against it, scratching his head. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Drawing until I waste away," he sighs. "Glad you're here though. It's been like a day and I was having withdrawal from you."

"A healthy obsession," I joke.

Gerard glances at me. "Personally, I'd say unhealthy." He laughs to himself. "My parents left like 30 minutes ago...and they said they won't be back until very late."

"How's very late?" I ask.

He sways his head side to side. "In the past, very late has usually meant after 11 p.m. so like that."

I nod along. They don't work on Sundays. They're at the hospital. "How is...everything?" I ask gently.

Gerard tenses up. "I don't know. They don't know. Nobody knows at the point. We all just hope for the best." He trails off at the end and it falls quiet between us. Gerard doesn't like talking about his brother. He doesn't even like saying his name or acknowledging he has one. I don't think it's because he's ashamed or embarrassed but because it hurts too much to talk about it.

He lightens up, changing the subject. "So, I started this thing," he says.

"Very specific," I say.

"Totally. So in my sketchbook, I've been drawing like landscapes and lately, I've been doing like deserts and open horizons. Basically barren wastelands." He kind of pauses. "And I was thinking of like using it as a setting, I don't know."

"A setting for what?"

He gives an awkward smile. "Kind of like a story setting. I don't know."

"Really? Dude, that's really cool."

"You think?" he asks.

"Uh, yeah! That's like really cool to me. What kind?"

"Well, I'm thinking like post-apocalyptic/dystopian society people are rebelling against. And I don't really have much planned out but I think I'm gonna start doing this."

"I'm interested," I say. "So do you just have the setting or anything else thought out yet?"

"Mostly just the setting. I like the idea of fighting a society though. I'll probably expand more on that before I come up with characters or plot."

"Can I see said sketches of the desert?" I ask.

He smiles and gestures with his head. "Let's go."

We head upstairs to his room. I flop on top of his bed and he shuffles through his desk for his sketchbook. His room is a slightly messy but nothing out of the norm. A few jackets piled up on a chair, papers scattered on his dresser, a laundry basket in the corner with folded clothes that haven't been put away, a pile of water bottles on his nightstand and on the floor around the bed.

"Here," he says, walking over to me with the sketchbook flipped open. It's a very beautiful watercolor of a desert. The sandy colors with a vibrant sunset. There's a lot of different landscapes, very soft and beautiful.

"This is really good," I mutter. Gerard sits next to me quietly. I flip through his book and each one never fails to impress me. After several pages, I come across a sketch done in a purple color pencil.

"No-" Gerard grabs it back with his cheeks slightly red.

"Wait, is that me?" I ask. He takes it out of my hands and stands up.

"It's just a little doodle," he mutters.

"Of me?" He doesn't respond but the look he gives me admits it is. "You don't have to be embarrassed." I smile gently at him, trying to get him to ease up.

"It's just...It's better if you don't know. I don't want to weird you out," he says.

If I hadn't gotten a good look at it, I may be slightly curious about what he did. But it was just a sketch of me looking off to the side and smiling downward. I didn't see the other half of it but it looked like I was sitting on a curb or something. "I don't think it's weird, you're my friend. I'm flattered."

He smiles softly but he's still not reluctant to show me the other half. "Thanks," he says.

He sets it down behind me and it's going to get quiet again. Why does this keep happening? Well, it wasn't my fault that's for sure. "So which movie are we watching today?" I ask. Not that we agreed on watching TV but we always do. It's basically implied now.

He strolls back over to me. "What kind do you want?"

I lay back on his bed and sigh. "Well, the last few days, we've been watching cartoons-"

"Anime..." he mutters.

"Watching anime," I correct, "so maybe something live action." Gerard rests his face on the bed thinking. "Ha, do they have live action anime?"

He winces. "Yes...but it's insulting and white-washed." He glances down at his blanket. "Want something scary-ish? Eh, not really scary but more like a thriller?"

"Hit me."

"Have you seen World War Z?" I shake my head but I give him a look. "No, it's actually kind of good. Like if you look past the nontraditional zombie things, like it's a good watch."

"I heard there's a lot of stupid people in the movie," I say.

"N-well, yeah. There are a lot of idiots but not the main character. And if you think about it, how many idiots are at our school or in the world in general? A lot so it's technically realistic."

"Fair point."

The two of us head downstairs to his living room and Gerard leaps over the couch in some Spiderman style. He didn't take into account his momentum and flies forward and falls on the floor. He lets out a small yep when he smacks....something into the coffee table. I don't know where he got hit but suddenly, there's a loud bang.

"Dude, what the hell was that for?" I ask, going around to his side. He's chuckling to himself slightly out of breath. "Gee?"

He sits up, holding his temple. "Well, that was a fail," he mutters through laughing.

"When you were talking about idiots, I think you were included," I say. He playfully whacks my shoulder, leaning back on the base of the couch. "Why did you do that?"

"I felt like it," he says. He stands up and looks around. Well, he's not holding his head anymore so he should be fine. "Where is the remote?" I pick it up off the table and hand it to him. "Ah, thanks." He falls back on the couch. Thankfully, it's a soft landing. He sets up the movie and puts the remote on the table next to him. "You going to watch it from the floor?" he asks.

I hold my hands out to him. "Up." He takes them and pulls me onto the couch next to him. "

Halfway through the movie, Gerard's phone starts buzzing but he ignores it. "You need to get that?" I ask.

He sets his phone on the table without looking at it. "Nah, it's fine," he says, switching it to silent when the call ends. I catch a glance at the screen. Missed call from Mom. He sits back and adjusts his head on my shoulder.

The scene where they're in the viral control. The two of us are leaning forward on the couch watching it. The zombie is standing outside the door waiting. In the corner of my eye, I see a hand behind us reaching for Gerard. I let out a small gasp and glance at him and half a second later his jumps up screaming.

His mom stands behind him laughing. "Why would yo-what are you doing here?" he cries out, searching for the remote. He snatches it off the table and pauses it. "Oh, god! I'm having cardiac arrest," he says, clutching his chest. "Something just died inside me."

His mom is still laughing and Gerard sends a death glare at her. "Watching World War Z?" she asks, resting her hands on the back of the couch.

"Yeah, and we're almost done," he says. "Man, I'm not going to make it. I'm having a stroke."

"Oh, such a drama queen," she says. She smiles and looks at me. "Hi, Frank. How're you doing?"

"Oh, I'm good. Kind of startled from him freaking out but that's fine."

His mom laughs again and pauses. "Gerard, I need to, uh, come here," she says, tapping on his shoulder.

Gerard gets up and hands me the remote. "Here, you can finish it," he says. I press play as they walk out of the room and to the kitchen.

The movie ends shortly after and Gerard is still in the kitchen. I turn off the TV and sit on the couch. It's quiet in the living room without the TV on and now The door to the garage opens and there's rustling coming from behind the wall.

Gerard comes over to me. "Hey," I say.

"Hey, um, want to go to my room?" he asks.

"Sure." Gerard takes my hand and we run up the stairs. Before we get to the threshold of his room his dad starts calling him from downstairs. "Ugh, sorry," he says.

"It's okay, take your time." He smiles then heads back down. I go over and sit on his bed. I take out my phone and go through my apps. It's been a while, every now and then I glance up and Gerard still isn't back. I wonder what's going on. I thought he said they'd be back later. Doesn't really make sense what they're doing now.

10 minutes pass. I glance up again but someone is there. "Oh," I mutter. The...I don't know if it's a boy or a girl...there's a person standing there. They're completely bald, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, very pale, transparent skin, very skinny. They're wearing jeans and a black jacket that zips diagonally. "Um, hi," I say. Their appearance takes me aback and something drops inside me. We make eye contact and I break away, looking down.

"Hi." I think it's a boy since their voice is rather deep. I'm assuming this is Gerard's brother. I knew...what he said when he told me about him but this-this is very surreal. "You must be the famous Frankie," he says.

"Um, yeah, I guess," I say awkwardly. Gerard's the only one who calls me Frankie so probably got that from him. "I wouldn't really call myself famous though."

He chuckles to himself, stepping into the room. "Yeah, but I've heard a lot about you," he says. He leans against Gerard's dresser.

"You...have?" I look up at

He cracks a smile. "Oh, definitely. See, when you're all Gerard talks about, I tend to hear about you." He pauses, glancing at me. "I'm Mikey...by the Way."

"Was that a pun?" I ask

Mikey cracks a grin. "Yes. Yes, it was," he says proudly. I smile at him, fixing my eyes on the ground. "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

I look up at him and open my mouth but the words fail me. "Um...I-"

He smiles grimly at me. "It's okay," he says.

"I'm...sorry," I say.

He shakes his head. "You don't have to be. I'm used to it." I look at him to say something but he cuts me off. "You're not the only one either. Most people either shower me with sympathy or pity. Some just constantly wear a brave smile and speak gently as if I'm fragile. Other can't look at me. And I've learned how to tell a lot about a person based on how they react to me."

"And...what do you have on me?" I ask.

"You feel bad. But not for me, for Gerard." I nod my head. "I'm surprised he mentioned med to you," he says. "He can't bear to talk about me. He's always so sad."

"He loves you. Very much."

"I know that. But only Cody knows about me. The others don't even know Gerard has a brother because he knows they'll ask why they haven't met me. And Gerard hates telling people I have stage 4 cancer."

I sit tightly. Well, I didn't know that about him. "I mean, he didn't really have a choice. I was with him when the ambulances were outside your house. He kind of had to tell me."

Mikey shakes his head. "Nah, he would've lied if he really didn't want to know. He always resorts to lying before telling the truth." I sit still, unsure of what to say.

Gerard steps into the room and he glances at Mikey. "What are you doing?" he asks.

"Oh, hey, bro," Mikey says overly casual. Gerard stares at him warily. "Que pasa?"

Gerard shifts, glancing at him. "That's a new one," he says. "Mom wants you downstairs."

"Can you tell her I'm asleep?" he asks.

"What? No, go downstairs."

"Ugh, fine," he sighs, swaying out of the room.

Gerard looks at me. "So you've met my brother, hope he didn't disturb you."

I snap my head at him. "What? No, Gee, I'm not dis-"

He holds up a finger. "Not because of his condition. Mikey has a very...nihilistic sense of humor and that is what tends to put people off."

"Oh, well, no. He's very nice, down to earth."

Gerard nods. "They um...well, they're home early. Things aren't...working so they don't need to be at the hospital." His voice starts shaking at the end. "Um, we're going out to eat later, you want to come with?" He looks at me and his eyes are very soft.

"Yeah, I'd love to."

"Awesome," Gerard says. "Um, at school...don't say anything. Not even to the others. Please?"

"I won't. I promise." Gerard smiles at me and nods his head.