summary: Mikey doesn't know if this is a date or not, but he really likes Little Joe Gould's celloist.
Mikey had been interning at Eyeball for three weeks before his first Little Joe Gould show. They were easily his favourite band on the label, and Mikey was sure Gerard was sick of hearing about his crush on their celloist. He’d seen her around the studio and at a few parties, and she was always smiling, and she just seemed nice. His mom was constantly saying, “Well, ask her out, then!” and Mikey had tried - three times - but every time he’d pulled the classic movie character and walked away without saying a word.
Her name was Sarah (Frank made a huge scene about how many Banthas died to get Mikey this information, but it turns out he had just overheard her introduction to Heath from Midtown) and Mikey was pressed against her side of the stage. She was wearing a dress, as always, and her bare toes were only a few inches away. Mikey tried to keep his eyes on the rest of her band, listen to the bass line and the deep vocals, but he was constantly drawn to Sarah’s cello. He was watching her fingers, the bow across the strings - until he realized he probably looked like a perv, so he lifted his gaze to her face, and.
Well.
Sarah wasn’t particularly pretty or “hot.” She was plain, and seemed perfectly happy with that fact. Mikey was used to seeing her eyes bare, her hair down and around her face, and a smile on her lips- but tonight, her hair was up, with only a few strands around her face casting shadows over her decorated eyes. Her lips were tight with concentration, and she was breathtaking.
Mikey forced himself to take his eyes away, and didn’t look back for the rest of their set because he was worried his brain would melt out of his ears.
The next day, Mikey almost considered calling in sick. But he didn’t, because Gerard snickered when Mikey mumbled the idea into his pillow, and because he was pretty sure faking sick three weeks into an internship was not a good habit to get into.
So Mikey took more calming breaths then he could count on the drive in, and stared at the building for three minutes from his car before entering. He almost peeked around the first corner to see if she was in the hall, but couldn’t imagine what that would look like to his co-workers. So he tried to walk casually around the corner, did a quick sweep of the main hall, and almost sang when he didn’t see her.
He was able to distract himself with his Discman and all the crap jobs he was helping with, and once lunch rolled around, he forgot to be on the lookout for Sarah. He grabbed his lunch from the fridge and sat on the lawn, reluctantly turning off his Discman to save the battery. He was stuck listening to the sound of traffic and the faint bass line of one of the practicing bands, and got lost in thought.
“Hey.”
He found himself looking at bare legs, and he looked up to find Sarah blocking the sun. He swallowed thickly and used every ounce of his willpower to not look, or run, away.
“Hi,” he said lamely.
“Do you want to come to a movie with me tonight?” She asked, and Mikey was tempted to pinch his arm.
“Um. Uh, which one?” He asked.
“A.I. My band are all douchebags without emotions, so they won’t see it.”
Mikey knew her words had no weight, because it was quite obvious Sarah loved the guys in her band quite a lot. And Mikey was temped to ask what made her think he was any more emotional than they were, but instead, nodded.
“Great! Meet at the theatre at seven?”
Mikey nodded, and she smiled before walking away. Mikey watched her retreating back and prayed she meant the theatre closest to Eyeball, because he couldn’t find his voice to ask.
Gerard choked on his coffee when Mikey told him.
“I’m sorry, Mikes, but. A date?”
“It’s not a date.” Mikey defended.
“Mikey, she asked you to a movie and she thinks you’re sensitive. It’s a date.”
“But I was her, like, sixth choice.” He hoped he did the math correctly, because Little Joe Gould was a large band.
“Whatever, dude. You’d better pay.” He then closed the door to his bedroom and Mikey tried to burn holes into it with his glare. It didn’t work, so he figured he might as well do something with his hair and look under the couch cushions for change.
Mikey stared at the theatre for ten minutes, occasionally groaning in frustration and hitting his head on the steering wheel a few times. Finally, his watch hit 7:00 exactly, and he entered the theatre. He pressed himself against a wall covered in current attraction posters, and stared at his shoes.
“Mikey!” Someone called, and he glanced up to find Sarah waving at him from the ticket line. He swallowed and took a moment to revel that she knew his name, before crossing the theatre and ducking under the ribbon. “Hi!” She smiled. “The show starts at quarter to eight, I hope you don’t mind sitting around awhile.”
A thousand cheesy lines about time with you is never time wasted ran through his mind, but instead he settled on “At least we’ll get good seats.” Sarah smiled and was called up to the counter. Mikey followed behind her, reaching for his wallet and swallowing thickly and calling on all the guts he had, but Sarah was smiling sweetly and asking for two tickets before Mikey was even at the counter.
“No, Sarah-“ Mikey started, freaking the fuck out because she was paying oh my god was this a date but Sarah patted his arm and said, “Don’t worry about it. I can’t imagine they pay you much for being an intern at an indie record label.” And Mikey tried to not let his shoulders sag too much, because she was only being nice, and this wasn’t a date.
“Whatever, I’m paying for the popcorn.” He hoped he sounded as firm as he wanted, and Sarah laughed and thanked the kid that handed over their tickets.
“If you insist, but I can totally get it.”
“No, I will.”
“Great, um. I’ll go get us seats, okay?” Sarah said, frowning at the popcorn lines. “I mean, not that I want to ditch you or anything," she started.
“No, no, good idea. Just. Ticket?” He asked.
“Oh, yeah!” She laughed, and Mikey pinned it as the most amazing sound in the world. “Here you go. Theatre eight, on the left, I think. I’ll, um, probably sit near the top above the doors, but if you, like, look lost or whatever, I’ve got a mean set of vocal chords.”
“Okay,” Mikey just nodded, and Sarah flashed him a completely unguarded smile before slipping off to the side. Mikey stepped into the shortest line and opened his wallet, just for something to do, and found an extra ten. He frowned and tried to place where he’d obtained it, before it dawned on him that his stupid brother had a real job now.
With the ten, he had enough for the bucket combo (it was a bold move, something Frank would be proud of, because it only included one large drink), which came with a packet of either M&Ms or gummi bears. Mikey almost died when he realized he didn’t find out what drink she wanted and that he’d have to choose between the two treats.
He was at the counter, and ordered the bucket combo, iced tea, and gummi bears. He simply said the first thing that came to mind, and squeezed his eyes shut at the condiment counter, praying he’d chosen correctly. He gathered everything in his arms and got his ticket ripped, willing his knees to stop shaking. He was being such a girl, this wasn’t even a date, it was her fault for leaving him to choose, but this was Sarah.
He rounded the corner of the theatre and immediately glanced up at the spots above the door, and his ears burned when he noticed there were three rows of double seats. Sarah was waving frantically from the middle one, and Mikey lifted his chin in recognition and started climbing the stairs.
“Are those gummi bears?” Sarah asked as Mikey placed the drink in the cupholder between the seats.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” Mikey started, but based on the way she grabbed them out of his hand, he’d misinterpreted her question.
“You are my new best friend, Mikey…”
“Uh, Way.” He finished.
“Balliet,” she smiled. “Sarah Balliet. Are you going to sit down?” She asked playfully, and Mikey realized he was still standing and staring at her. He slid into the seat and Sarah immediately grabbed a few kernels of popcorn. “So, Mikey. You work at a record label. Who’s your favourite band?”
Mikey’s first instinct was to say, “Yours,” so he did. She laughed.
“No, seriously. My band has, like, three songs. Four, actually, if you count the one Adam’s been obsessing about for a week. We don’t count.”
“Fine,” Mikey sighed. “Smashing Pumpkins.”
“Really?” She asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’ve been to, like, twenty of their concerts.”
“There is no way they came to this area twenty times.” She took some more popcorn.
“Um, no. I followed them up and down the coast.”
“You didn’t,” she gasped.
“Totally.”
“How?” She took a sip of the iced tea, and Mikey braced himself. She didn’t say anything, just stared at him expectantly.
“Job,” he said, his routine answer. He was still trying to win her over and determine if this was a date; he wasn’t about to launch into the tale of how he bootlegged Disney movies when he was fifteen.
“Wow. Devout.” She said, taking more popcorn.
“What about you, Sarah Balliet?” He asked, taking more popcorn himself. “Who’s your favourite band?”
“Curse you and your people skills, Mikey.” She crossed her arms. “You weren’t supposed to turn the question on me.” And Mikey was confused, because he didn’t have any people skills, he was just curious. “I think I would probably have to choose…Yellowcard.”
Mikey stared at her.
“Shut up!” She cried, burying her face in her hands. “Their violin makes me weak in the fucking knees, and Ryan can sing.”
Mikey sucked his lips in and looked back at the screen, trying not to laugh.
“Fuck you, Mikey Way.” Sarah hit his shoulder lightly. “At least I didn’t talk about how he expresses my emotions so perfectly and his music makes me feel alive. I’m not an emo kid, God.”
“I guess,” Mikey sighed, looking back at her. “I actually, um, don’t know much of their stuff, just their rep.”
“Oh, fuck you,” She squinted her eyes into a glare. “You don’t even get to talk.”
Mikey laughed, and Sarah huffed. They watched the time-wasting previews, occasionally commenting on a certain celebrity or movie, and then the lights faded. Mikey chanced a glance over at Sarah as she got settled, and his breath caught. It was like she was on stage again, only with differently coloured lights, and Mikey never wanted to look away.
Sarah insisted they stay until the end of the credits, and even though Mikey was pretty sure that it wasn’t the type of film to have anything past Spielberg’s name, he sat willingly. Sure enough, they were left with a blank screen at the end, and Sarah shooed him out of the row.
“Thank you for coming with me,” She called as they left the theatre. “Out of my guys, the only one even willing to go was Vincent, but he had to go to his sister’s best friend’s cousin’s wedding or something.”
“That’s really extended,” Mikey replied, hoping it was an exaggeration.
“It’s better than his father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.” She replied, and Mikey literally stopped in his tracks.
“Did you just quote Spaceballs?“
“Hm?” Sarah turned around.
“That was the exact quote.”
“Oh.” Sarah’s cheeks filled with colour. “Um, yeah, Alex watches it all the time.” She tucked some hair behind her ear and Mikey took some of the deepest breaths in the history of breathing to make his heart slow down and prevent himself from kissing her. Sarah bit her lip as Mikey wired his brain to make his legs move again, and they left the theatre in silence.
“So, um, where’s your car?” Mikey asked, and Sarah pointed to it. It was a beat-up station wagon.
“It was my parents’,” Sarah defended. “It was that or nothing.”
“Well, it must be convenient for the band.” Mikey shrugged.
“Oh, well, yeah.” Sarah nodded, and Mikey started walking towards it. “Do you need a ride?”
“Huh? Oh, no.” Mikey shook his head. “No, my car’s like…” He looked over his shoulder. “Over there somewhere.”
“Oh,” Sarah said, keeping her lips shaped longer than necessary and looking at the ground. They arrived at her car, and Mikey decided that holding the driver’s door open for someone else’s car would be weird, so he just stood with his hands in his pockets and tried to focus on not kissing her because, once again, the crappy streetlight was flooding her in yellow light, and she looked amazing.
“So, um, here’s the thing.” She turned around. “You haven’t even tried to kiss me yet.”
And Mikey felt ill.
“And I think that is totally, totally amazing. I mean, most guys are all ‘c’mon, Sarah, fuck your values, kiss on the first date’ and then wonder why I never talk to them again.”
He was speechless.
“And I know that this is the part where I kiss you to flip gender roles and thank you for not trying to kiss me, but it’s just really important to me, so I’ll instead ask you on the next date.”
Mikey just nodded.
“Planet of the Apes comes out next week. We could go out for dinner before, or something, somewhere cheap or whatever-“
But Mikey’s still processing that she said Planet of the Apes, and cuts her off.
“Thank you, thank you for saying you didn’t kiss on the first date because-” he slid a hand though his hair- “I totally would have, just then.”
Sarah’s cheeks flooded with colour again. “Oh.” She scuffed the ground with her sandal. “Did you hear the rest of what I said?” She asked, smiling slightly.
“No,” he admitted, biting his lip.
“Dinner beforehand?”
“Absolutely. Um. I’ll pick you up next time.”
“Do you want my address now or later?”
“Um,” he bit his lip again, “I don’t have a pen.”
“Neither do I,” she replied, and shifted so that she was blocking his view of inside the car. Mikey blinked. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” She asked, not getting in the car.
“Uh, yeah.” He glanced at her face again. “Definitely. Drive safe and everything.”
“You too,” she smiled, and Mikey took it as his cue to step away from the car. Sarah got in and started adjusting her dress, and, on impulse, Mikey grabbed the door and made sure her skirt was fully in the car before starting to close it. “Oh,” she said as she glanced up.
“Good night,” Mikey said as the door clicked shut. He then turned away and walked as fast as he could back to his piece of crap car, willing his stomach to stop flipping and his heartbeat to resume to something almost normal. He slid into the car and took a few deep breaths before pulling out of the lot and returning home. He unlocked the door, not expecting to find Gerard sitting at the kitchen table, smoking and sketching.
“So?” He asked without looking up.
“It was a date,” Mikey tried to keep his voice casual despite the grin that had split his face. Gerard glanced up, then back at his art, then at Mikey again.
“Is that- are you-‘ Gerard sputtered, standing up. “Are you grinning?”
At that comment, Mikey wanted to stop, to tell Gerard to bite him, but he didn’t. He just smiled.
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truthtruthlie's journal
I TOTALLY DIDN'T CATCH THE FACT THAT THIS WAS FROM MY PROMPTS
FAIL, SELF.
Ugh, I still think this is adorableeeeeee. ♥