"Hey Gerard, I listened to your CD," Mikey said. The Way brothers were having dinner at their parents' house, and somehow, the conversation had shifted to My Chemical Romance, much to Gerard's chagrin.

"So?" Gerard said. "What did you think?"

Mikey took a while to answer, and while Gerard waited for him to say something, he became more and more convinced that his brother had hated it. Maybe it was to be expected: Gerard, Ray, and Matt had recorded it in Matt's attic over the course of a few afternoons. The sound quality wasn't great, especially in comparison to most of the bands Mikey listened to, and some of the songs were still a little rough around the edges. Maybe giving those demos to everyone he knew wasn't a good idea after all.

"I loved it," Mikey said. "Between the drumming, the guitars, and your singing, it was just incredible. Are you ever going to record more songs?"

"I don't know," he said. "I really think there's something missing from our sound right now. It's probably because we don't have a bassist yet."

It was December already. All of the leaves had fallen to the ground, the first frost had come and gone, and My Chemical Romance still didn't have a bass player. They'd held auditions a few times, but they hadn't found anyone who clicked with the rest of the band yet. Sometimes, Gerard worried that his band would die before it had really gotten started just because they couldn't find a bassist.

"I'll do it," Mikey suddenly volunteered.

"Do you even know how to play the bass?" Gerard asked.

"Kind of," Mikey said as he adjusted his glasses. He didn't know how to play at all - in fact, he had only ever touched a bass guitar once before - but Gerard didn't need to know that.

Gerard shrugged. "I mean, I'll talk to Ray and Matt, but that's probably good enough," he said. "They both know you already, and we are kind of desperate right now."

"Thanks, Gee," Mikey said, smiling. "I really can't wait to be a part of My Chemical Romance. You guys are such a great band."

"Don't get too excited yet," Gerard said. "We're probably just going to have you come to our next practice, and then we'll decide whether this is going to work or not. Also, you're going to have to get better at playing the bass."

"I can do that," Mikey said.

"Great," Gerard said. "I'll see you at band practice then."

All of a sudden, Gerard and Mikey's mom jumped into the conversation. "Mikey, it's great that you want to be in Gerard's band, but school comes first."

"Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that," Mikey said.

"What is it, Mikey?" his mother asked.

Mikey went quiet and put on his best poker face. After a few minutes, he finally said, "I dropped out of college."

There was an awkward silence at the dinner table. Both of Gerard's parents looked furious, like they might snap at any moment, while Mikey just looked like he wanted to disappear. Gerard sat quietly and ate his dinner, glad that it wasn't him that they were mad at this time.

"You dropped out?!" Gerard's dad screamed. "We invested so much money and time into our education, and this is how you repay us?"

"Listen, it's not that big of a deal," Mikey said. "I was failing most of my classes anyways, and now I can pick up some more shifts at Barnes and Noble..."

"Do you want to work at Barnes and Noble forever?" Gerard's dad shouted. "Because if you want to be stuck in a minimum wage job for the rest of your life, then keep doing what you're doing!"

"Can I be excused?" Gerard asked, but when nobody answered, he got up and left. As his parents continued to lecture Mikey about why he shouldn't have dropped out of college, as if anyone could do anything about it now, he grabbed his sketchbook and went down to the basement. When he got there, he put on a pair of headphones to block out the noise, and he opened up his sketchbook to the latest draft of T-shirt designs.

After meeting every week for over a month, Frank and Gerard were almost done with the My Chemical Romance T-shirts. All that was left was for Gerard to draw the final version, and then Frank would get them printed. As it turned out, the two of them worked great together. They would talk for hours, bouncing ideas off of each other, thinking of clever puns and cool images, and gushing over how great the shirts would look when they were done.

Sometimes, they got distracted. One week, they watched a horror movie marathon instead of working on the T-shirts. Another week, they went on a walk through a cemetery. "It's so peaceful here," Gerard said that day.

"You're the only other person I've met who thinks that," Frank said. "Everyone else thinks it's creepy."

"Why would it be? Everyone dies eventually."

"Sure, but it's still sad," Frank said. "I mean, if you just dropped dead right now, I'd be devastated."

Gerard didn't say it then, but he felt the exact same way about Frank. Seeing him was always the highlight of his week. In his short life, he'd never felt so appreciated, so understood. Already, he didn't know what he would do without him.

He turned back to his sketchbook, and he carefully drew the designs that he and Frank had agreed on. There was a simple one with just the name of the band on it, a few more with cryptic slogans, and a few more with complicated drawings of knives, vampires, and Ferris wheels on fire. He was still pretty sure that they'd lose money on these T-shirts, but he'd promised Frank that he would make this happen. He would make his birthday wish come true, no matter what it took.

After he was done, he called Frank. "I finished drawing the T-shirt designs," he told him.

"That's great," Frank said. "Maybe you could give them to me at your next concert?"

"I don't know when that's going to be," Gerard said.

"Why not?" Frank asked.

"Mikey joined the band, and we have to teach him how to play the bass before we can do any more shows."

"Why did you ask him to join the band if he doesn't actually know how to play?"

"I didn't ask him. He volunteered," Gerard explained. "Besides, he's kind of in a rough spot right now, and we really need a bassist, so I didn't want to say no. It's okay. I think he'll pick up the bass pretty quickly."

"It's great that you have a bass player now," Frank said. "You guys are going to be even better than you already are, even if I'll miss seeing you for a little while."

"We'll miss playing for you, Frank," Gerard said. "Anyways, maybe I'll just drop the designs off at your house or something."

"Yeah, that sounds great," Frank said. "See you soon."

Frank hung up, and Gerard sat in the basement for a while. Mikey and his parents were still fighting, but for Gerard, there was some hope. He and Frank were making some neat T-shirts, My Chemical Romance had a bassist now, and it really felt like the band was going somewhere. For once, everything felt like it was going right.

The next practice came sooner than expected. Ray and Matt both agreed to let Mikey come, but they gave Gerard the task of teaching him how to play the bass. The two brothers holed up in Matt's attic for a while, and Gerard gave Mikey something that could charitably be called a bass lesson.

"So you hold the bass like this," Gerard said. He took Mikey's instrument, slouching as he held it horizontally against his body.

"That doesn't look right, Gerard," Mikey said.

"Shut up, I'm trying to teach you," Gerard said. "Then...uh...I think this one's the B string?" He plucked the string and then handed the bass back to Mikey. "Here, you can try."

Mikey plucked a couple of strings and then carefully passed the bass back to Gerard. "When am I going to actually get to play something?" he asked.

"Here, I'll teach you the bass line for Skylines and Turnstiles. So you start here..." Gerard strummed on the A string for a few beats, pressing his fingers to the third fret. "Then you move to the fifth fret, and then you shift down to the seventh, and then you go back to the third. Why don't you try?"

Mikey took the bass, and he tried to play. For his first try, it wasn't bad, but he didn't shift properly and ended up on the wrong pitch. "Come on, Mikey," Gerard said. "I said the seventh fret, not the sixth."

"Sorry, Gerard," Mikey said. "I'm still learning."

"You'd better learn fast. I need to be at Frank's house in an hour."

"Is it just me, or have you been hanging out with Frank a lot lately?"

"We're working on merch together."

"Working on merch? Is that what you're calling it?"

"Shut up, Mikey!" Gerard exclaimed. "It's...it's not like that!"

"I mean, he is your type..."

"For the last time, I don't have a type."

"Yes, you do," Mikey said. "You only ever date people whose names start with F."

"It's just a coincidence," Gerard insisted. "Let's get back to work. Try playing the intro to Skylines and Turnstiles again."

Mikey played it again, and this time, he got it right. "How was that?" he asked.

"That was pretty good," Gerard said as he held the bass again. "So now you play on the fifth fret for a while, and then you shift up to the first, and you do this." He alternated between two notes for a few bars, and then he handed the bass to Mikey. "It's your turn now."

Mikey played it well, but he was under tempo. When Gerard tried to tell him that, he complained, "You never told me how fast I was supposed to go."

"You've been to our shows. You've heard this song before. You should know how fast to go."

"You're kind of useless as a bass teacher, you know."

"Do you want my help or not?" Gerard asked. When Mikey didn't respond, he stormed out of Matt's attic and headed to Frank's house.

As for Mikey, he got a better bass lesson from Ray at their next band practice, and he went home and practiced hard until he was good enough to play with the rest of the band. It didn't take long for him to pick up the bass. That same weekend, he played his first show with My Chemical Romance.

Gerard was almost at Frank's house. He knew he was early, but Frank probably wouldn't mind. As he stepped onto his driveway, he thought about what Mikey had said. In a way, his brother was right. Sometimes, he thought that he and Frank would be better off as lovers. Frank was easily the most beautiful person he'd ever met, inside and out, but he wasn't sure that he felt the same way, and he was too afraid to ask.

All of a sudden, Frank's car swerved into the driveway. He rolled down the windows and shouted, "Gerard! You're just in time!"

"In time for what?" Gerard asked.

"I just picked up the T-shirts!" Frank exclaimed. He opened the car doors, jumped out, and sprinted to the trunk, where there were several huge stacks of My Chemical Romance T-shirts. "Don't they look awesome?"

"They do look nice," Gerard said. "Do you need any help carrying them?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Frank said.

They each took an armful of T-shirts and brought them into the house, where they were greeted by Frank's dogs. Gerard smiled as he watched Frank play with each and every one, desperately trying not to get dog slobber on the shirts.

Eventually, the dogs left, and Frank ran off to try one of the T-shirts on. He came back a few minutes later wearing a simple black T-shirt with the words "My Chemical Romance" on it. Gerard didn't think it was possible for Frank to be even more attractive than he already was, but this proved him wrong. In that shirt, he was irresistible.

"How do I look?" Frank asked.

"You look amazing," Gerard said. "Happy belated birthday, Frank."

"Thanks, Gerard," Frank said. "By the way, I've been meaning to tell you that I listened to your CD."

"So?" Gerard said. "What did you think?"

"Okay, maybe I should clarify a little bit," Frank said. "By 'listened to your CD,' I mean that I listened to it 42 times and memorized all the lyrics. It's one of the best things I've ever heard."

"That seems like an exaggeration."

"I swear it's not. Are you ever going to record more songs?"

Frank looked so happy whenever he talked about My Chemical Romance, and Gerard knew that he would do anything to make him smile like that again. He looked straight at Frank and said, "Yeah, I think we will."