The Difference Between You And Me {Petekey}

Chapter nineteen

As the weeks went by and Mikey got to know Bob a little better, he started feeling less and less lonely. Bob ate lunch with them often, and Mikey could tell Gerard was relieved to have someone to talk to that wasn't him.

Of course, it was a little awkward between Gerard and Bob at first, since they didn't really know each other, but once the ice was broken, they hit it off pretty well.

Bob seemed like the kind of person that you could trust. And having people you could trust was crucial, especially when you were firing guns every single day, training for armed combat in another continent. 

Not that he and Bob would be fighting at the same time as each other, Bob was too new for that. But knowing how to form trustful friendships with others was a good skill to have, since you never know who will have to carry you aside to the nurses to treat your wounds and it's usually a good thing if the person carrying you cares about whether or not you actually die or not. Plus, things could get a little boring if you're all alone. 

But then there was always the possibility of your friends dying on the battlefield as you watched, which couldn't be a pleasant experience. Some soldiers, Mikey had heard, completely swore off getting into any friendships with fellow fighters, since it was easier to not have any bonds with anyone lest they be broken. Personally, Mikey figured that he could deal with his friends dying, but not with the numbing loneliness that must come with the no-friendship rule. What were even the consequences of Gerard dying? Hew was an alternate version of someone Mikey already knew back home, so what would happen if Neo-Gerard died? 

It seemed to Mikey that it would just cause a huge paradox. If this Gerard died, would the other one, Mikey's brother, still exist? Would he change at all? Or has he been different since the conception of Neo-Gerard? Did Neo-Gerard exist before Mikey arrived in the past, or was he brought into reality with Mikey's arrival?

There was absolutely no way to find out, which frustrated Mikey. There were just so many things that didn't add up, and Mikey was supposed to know things about time travel. He was supposed to be the one who made it add up, who found out the answers to those questions and then fix them until they made sense. 

Maybe playing God like that, the way he had been given the power to do, had really fucked with him. But he didn't feel that way, he felt like it gave him a better outlook on the world. Until now. But this was an unforeseen circumstance - there was no way anybody could have predicted this.

In any case, Bob only thought they were a little bit weird, which was a definite plus. He didn't seem to catch on to anything Mikey didn't want him to, for which he was very grateful. He did get confused at Mikey's references and lingo from the future, but he let Mikey tell him it was just a cultural thing. Bob didn't seem to mind that Mikey was from another country, either, which was another plus. He knew that Mikey was undocumented and earning his right to stay in the country by fighting, and he still respected Mikey as a person. Mikey supposed it was because he had already fought in a war and knew it didn't matter why you were there, since there was a high chance you wouldn't even make it out alive. In a normal person's life, their service could only account for a small portion of who they are as a person.

The idea was completely foreign to Mikey. Everything that happened since seven or eight months ago all seemed monumental - meeting Lindsey, joining the Army, meeting Gerard for the second time in his lifetime - there was no way he would ever forget. 

He wrote a few paragraphs about Bob in his letter to the future, for his own benefit mostly. In order to categorize his thoughts. Sometimes he wished that he could hand the letter to someone and they could read it and give him advice, but there was absolutely no way he could ever do that with someone here. If they knew about where Mikey was really from...