Unholyverse

~Part 19~

"All but one," Bob said.

"We really ought to make the trip to see your shop one of these days," Mr. Bryar said, pouring himself another glass of juice. He tilted it at Gerard and said, "What about you, son, do you work there too?"

Gerard looked completely panicked, and Mikey almost choked trying to swallow his mouthful of food so he could garble, "He's my big brother," and pray that Mr. Bryar left it at that.

Luckily, Brian was there to distract both of Bob's parents with his managerial experience and entrepreneurial spirit. It was pretty clear that they both thought he was the best thing Bob had ever brought back to the house, and Mikey was content to stuff himself with as much of Mrs. Bryar's cooking as he could possibly fit in his body, and listen to Brian wax lyrical about investments and real estate and all the other crap he loved that made Mikey suicidal with boredom. More than anyone Mikey knew, he thought that Brian deserved to get rich someday, if only because he seemed like he would actually know what to do with more than fifty bucks.

"Well," said Bob when they were on their way back to Pete's house. "Apart from the part where we had to lie about everything, I thought that went pretty well."

"I'm sorry," Gerard said immediately.

Bob gave him a weird look. "Hey, it was my decision to do this. I'd tell them if I didn't think they'd worry all the time."

Gerard made a face. "I just feel bad that you're away from them."

"But I'd be away from them anyway," Bob said patiently. "I haven't lived in Chicago for years."

"Dude," Mikey interrupted, because otherwise this was going to go on forever. "He wants to feel guilty. Just let him."

"I don't want to," Gerard grumbled. He pulled his collar out of his pocket and slid it back on. "You could have stayed, you know. You don't have to come back to Pete's."

Bob looked at Gerard for a minute, then said, "Did you want to stay?"

"No," Gerard said guiltily. He looked away.

"Hey," said Ray, "Don't feel bad, man. I would have moved in if they'd let me."

"Me, too," Brian said.

Pete and his guys came over later, to talk to Brian about security arrangements and pack some stuff for Pete to take to Patrick's house. Mikey was sitting in the den with Gerard and Frank when Andy came in, got a chair, turned it backwards, sat with his arms folded along the top of the backrest and fixed Gerard with a stare.

"Uh," said Gerard.

"I wanna ask you stuff," Andy said. "But Pete says not to because you've been nice to him. Will it piss you off?"

"I don't know until you ask me," Gerard said reasonably. He closed the book he was reading and folded his hands in his lap. "Shoot."

"Okay." Andy moved around, making himself comfortable – as comfortable as you could be sitting backwards on a wooden chair, Mikey thought – and opened with, "Do you believe in God? I mean, really?"

Mikey could respect that; someone who didn't dance around and just got straight to the point. But he was impressed when Gerard managed to limit himself to bugging his eyes out and giving a slightly strangled, "Really."

Andy nodded. "What about people who believe in God but they're not Catholics, or Christians even. Is it a different God? How does that work?"

"I believe that there's only one God. But I think there's lots of different paths to Him. Catholicism is the one that I'm on, but I don't think God really cares," Gerard said, stretching his linked hands out in front of him. "Probably he doesn't care if you believe in Him at all, as long as you're a good person."