CHAPTER 4
It was the day of the formal, and I was as nervous as hell. We didn’t have school that day, as it was a Saturday.
‘Mikey, can’t you sit down for five fucking minutes!’ Yelled Gerard. ‘What are you so worried about? The formal isn’t for another 3 hours.’ I had been walking up and down from my room to the lounge room for the past half an hour, and Gerard was starting to get annoyed.
‘I’m sorry. I really don’t know why I’m worried.’ I sat down on the couch and stared at the ground. I then stood back up and slowly walked toward the hallway. ‘I’m gonna go have a shower.’
‘Yeah alright.’ I went to the bathroom and turned the shower on. I grabbed some clothes from my room and dumped them on the floor and locked the door.
After my shower I went and got out the tuxedo that I had gotten for the night and changed into it.  I went back to the lounge room, to where Gerard was standing in his tuxedo.
‘So Frank’s wearing the dress then?’ He laughed.
‘No. He’s not. We’re both wearing a tux.’ He stared at me.
‘What? Do I have something on my face?’ He smiled and shook his head
‘No, I was admiring you.’
‘Uh… Thanks?’ He laughed.
‘You look very handsome.’ Then there was a knock on the door. I went to answer it, but Gerard held me back. ‘It’d be my date, so I have to answer it.’ I laughed as Gerard answered the door. ‘Hi Frankie!’ I looked at the clock on the door. It was seven thirty.
‘Crap. I’ve got to go get Krystal!’  I ran to my room to grab my phone and put my shoes on. I ran past Frank and Gerard and walked to Krystal’s house, which conveniently was only a few blocks from my house. She had written her address down on a piece of paper and given it to me the day before.
I turned on to Krystal’s street and walked down it looking for number seventeen.
Thirteen, fifteen, seventeen. I ran up the drive way and stood on the front porch. I flattened my hair and knocked on the door. The door opened almost instantly, and there stood her mother.
‘You must be Mikey!’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh, come in, come in.’ She stood back and let me inside and closed the door. ‘I’m just going to go check on Krystal.’
‘Okay.’
‘Make yourself at home’ She disappeared up the stairs and I sat down on one of the chairs just inside the door.
Just a few minutes later Krystal’s mum came back down the stairs, looking very happy indeed.
‘She’s coming now.’ I stood up and walked to the foot of the stairs. Krystal walked around the corner and I felt my jaw drop.  She looked absolutely beautiful.
She was wearing a short black dress that had some purple layers at the bottom, and black knee high boots and she had straightened her hair. I smiled at her as she got to the bottom of the stairs.
‘Hi.’ She stood on the bottom step, smiling at me
‘Hey. Ready to go then?’
‘Yep.’ I grabbed her hand and walked towards the door. We looked back at her mum. She was beaming.
‘You two look so adorable together’ I smiled.
‘Thanks mum.’
‘Well, Mikey, make sure she’s home by midday tomorrow so I can at least know she’s okay.’
‘Will do’ She walked forward and kissed Krystal, then kissed me on the cheek.
‘Have fun.’ We walked out the door and started walking towards the school.
‘You look beautiful.’ I told Krystal. She giggled.
‘And you look very handsome.’ I smiled. ‘So Frank and Gerard are actually going to the formal together?’
‘Yeah, Frank turned up just before.’ She laughed.

When we arrived at the school, it was decorated with lights and flowers that were leading to the hall. We walked up the path to the hall and entered.
There was tables and chairs around the hall and there was a large area in the middle that was obviously the dance floor. I spotted Frank and Gerard sitting at a table in the corner.
‘Wanna go sit with Frank and Gerard?’
‘Yeah sure.’ We walked over to them and they looked up as we approached them.
‘Hey guys.’ We sat down.
‘Hey. How’s it going?’
‘Pretty good. Just sitting here, talking.’
‘How interesting.’
‘I know eh.’
‘Hey look who just entered.’ Frank pointed toward the door and we looked over and saw Ray walking over to us with Hannah.
‘Hey, the new lovebirds.’ Ray and Hannah sat down between Gerard and Krystal.
After a few minutes, the principal stood up on stage and welcomed us to the formal and said she hoped we had a good evening.
After that, they started playing music and people wandered to the dance floor and started dancing.
‘Would you like to dance?’ I asked her. She looked at me.
‘I can’t dance to save my life.’
‘You’re not the only one.’ She smiled. I stood up and grabbed her hand. ‘I think we should go dance anyway.’ She stood up and we walked to the dance floor. I put my hand on Krystal’s hip and started dancing the way I knew how.

After the song Krystal and I went and sat down at the now vacant table.
‘I’m gonna go get us drinks.’ Said Krystal
‘Okay.’ I kissed her and she stood up. She walked towards the drinks table.
Just as she’d disappeared into the crowd of people, another girl came and sat in Krystal’s vacant chair.
‘Hi Mikey. My name is Hannah, and I would have to say you look absolutely gorgeous in that tuxedo.’
‘Uh. Thanks.’ She sat there staring at me for a few seconds. ‘Why are you sitting here, don’t you- ’ Before I could finish my sentence, she pulled my face towards her and kissed me. I tried to push her off, but she wouldn’t budge.
When she finally let me go, I stood up and moved away from her.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ I looked away from her and saw Krystal standing a few feet away. She looked like she was about to cry. ‘Oh no.’ I muttered. She dropped the drinks she was holding and ran towards the door. I ran after her and by the time I got outside, she was nowhere to be seen. I walked around for a bit, trying to find her, but it was no use. I sat down on a nearby bench and put my face in my hands and started crying.
‘Mikey?’ I looked up and saw Gerard and Frank walking towards me. ‘Mikey, what’s wrong? Where’s Krystal?’ They sat down and looked at me.
‘Some random ch-chick came up to me and kissed me, and K-Krystal thought I was ch-cheating on her.’ Gerard hugged me and I sobbed into his chest.
‘Who was that chick, did you know her?’ I shook my head. ‘What was she wearing?’
‘A-A pale blue d-dress and she had her hair up in a b-bun.’
‘Okay. Me and Frank are going to go find her. After that we’re going to go home okay?’ I nodded. Gerard stood up and he and Frank walked off into the hall to find the girl. I leant back against the wall and stared at the ground. I should have told her to go away. This is my fault.
Would she ever believe that I wasn’t cheating on her? Probably not.
‘Mikey, come on we’re leaving’ I felt someone grab my arm and drag me up. We walked out of the school grounds and down the street towards home.
Just a few blocks from home we ran into a group of guys standing on the corner of a street. When they saw us coming, they came over to us. I looked at them and noticed the girl that kissed me was standing with them.
‘You’re the guy that kissed my girlfriend aren’t you.’ Said one of them. He looked really pissed off and looked ready to punch someone.
‘No. She kissed me.’
‘Don’t try and blame her. She would never do that.’
‘Yeah, well believe it because that is what happened. I lost my girlfriend because of it and I would never cheat on her.’ That only seemed to make him even angrier.
‘Don’t blame her’ He stepped towards me and raised his fist, but Gerard stood in front of me.
‘He did not do anything so piss off. It was your fucking girlfriend that kissed him. And if you ask me, I’d say she did it on purpose.’ The guy stared at him for a minute before turning to his girlfriend.
‘Is this true?’ She looked shocked.
‘No. I never kissed him.’
You’re fucking LYING!’ I yelled at her, stepping out from behind Gerard. ‘I love Krystal and would never do that to her. When she went to get drinks, you came up to me and sat in front of me and then you kissed me. Don’t deny it’
‘Look, I believe her, and believe that you are trying to blame her for what you did.’
‘I didn’t-’ He then turned around and punched me in the face  and I fell to the ground. I sat up and felt my face. Nothing seemed out of place. I looked up to see Gerard, Frank and the five other guys all fighting. Gerard and Frank were outnumbered, but were doing a good job at fighting the others off.  I stood up and joined the fight. I started fighting the guy who was arguing with us before. He went to punch me, but I ducked and punched his stomach. He grabbed me by the throat and forced me to the ground and tightened his grip on my throat, choking me.  I tried to punch him, but I couldn’t get a good hit in since he was on top of me.
I looked over at Gerard and Frank, hoping they would notice, but they were too busy fighting four other guys. Then everything was starting to go blurry. Gerard had to step back to avoid getting hit, and I grabbed his foot. He looked around and saw I couldn’t breathe and went to help, but was tackled by two of the guys. Then everything faded to black and I passed out.

‘Mikey! Mikey, wake up.’ I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was blurry, so I blinked a few times and everything came into focus. I saw Krystal kneeling over me, she was looking worried. ‘Are you okay?’ I sat up and looked around. There was no one in the street except for me and Krystal.
‘Where’s- where’s Gerard and Frank?’
‘I don’t know. They ran after the other people they were bashing before. I don’t know where they are now.’ It then registered in my head who I was talking to.
‘Krystal. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. That girl just came up and kissed me. I would never cheat on you.’
‘I know. I heard what you said before. I believe you.’ She then hugged me. As she wrapped her arms around my body, I felt a stabbing pain in my chest
‘Ah.’ I winced. She let go of me and looked at me.
‘What?’ I felt my ribs.
‘I think one of my ribs is broken.’ I then felt a rib that felt like it was sticking out at a weird angle
‘We should take you to a hospital.’ I nodded and Krystal helped me up. ‘We’ll go to my house first. We’ll get mum to drive us.’ We slowly walked back to Krystal’s house and most of the lights were still on, so her mum was still awake.
When we went inside, Krystal’s mum came rushing to greet us from the lounge room.
‘Oooh, how did it go, I- Mikey what happened? Why are you bleeding?’
‘He got beaten up, mum, can you drive us to the hospital. We think that one of his ribs is broken.’
‘Yes, of course.’ She grabbed a set of keys from a bowl near the front door and rushed out to the car. Krystal and I got in the back and we sped to the hospital. Within a few minutes we were at the hospital. Krystal and her mum had to wait in the waiting room while they checked what damage had been done.
‘Well. You have a fractured rib and a slight concussion, but other than that, you’re pretty good.’ He then grabbed a clip board and started writing down some things. ‘What was your name again?’
‘Mikey Way.’
‘Way… You’re not related to a Mr Gerard Way are you?’
‘Yeah. He’s my brother, why what happened to him?’
‘Well. He got beaten up pretty bad. He’s in surgery at the moment. He was stabbed in the leg and he was thrown down a hill.
‘He was picked up a few minutes before you. He and a guy named Frank.’
‘What happened to Frank?’
‘He wasn’t beaten as bad. He’s in room 31 recovering.’
‘Can I go see him?’
‘Yeah, after I wrap your chest up. You need to reduce the amount of movement you do with your chest while that rib is fixing itself.’ After he wrapped up my chest, I rushed to room 31 to see Frank. I opened the door and saw Frank sitting on the bed, holding an ice pack to his head with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and looked up when I closed the door.
‘Mikey! Are you okay? I’m sorry we left you.’
‘Nah it’s okay. I’m still alive aren’t I?’ I sat on the end of his bed. ‘What happened to you?’
‘Oh, they smashed my head against the ground and kicked me in the stomach but nothing too bad.’ He looked down ‘But… uh, did you hear about Gerard?’
‘Uh, yeah.’ The door opened and Krystal walked in.
‘Hey Frankie. You alright?’ She sat down in one of the chairs next to the bed.
‘Been better. So you realized Mikey didn’t cheat on you then?’
‘Yeah. That chick now knows never to do that again though.’
‘She does?’
‘Yeah. I punched her in the face and told her to get fucked.’ Frank laughed and I smiled. The door opened again and a doctor walked in, followed by two other doctors pulling a bed with Gerard on it. I heard Krystal gasp and my jaw dropped when I saw him. There were cuts and bruises all over his face and probably on his body too.
They put his bed next to Frank’s and left the room. I got up and walked to Gerard’s bed and looked at him. Krystal came over to me and hugged me.
‘At least he’s alright.’ She said. I nodded.
‘He’ll live.’ The door opened and a nurse looked in.
‘Only family from now.’
‘Alright.’ She left and I took a last look at Gerard before turning to leave.
‘I’m gonna go home. If Gerard wakes up let me know.’ I told Frank. He nodded and Krystal and I walked home. ‘Do you want me to take you home?’
‘Can I come back to your place?’
‘Sure.’
Once we were home, I removed my jacket and put it on the table in the kitchen and sat down. Krystal removed her shoes and sat down opposite me and stared at me.
‘What?’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘For what?’
‘For earlier at the formal.’
‘Oh. That’s okay.’
‘I never knew you liked me so much.’
‘Hey, I don’t like you. I love you.’ She giggled.