It’s Christmas of 1996, and you’re at the Ways Christmas Slam Party. It was a get-together of friends from Belleville who attended different but local high schools.

You sat on the couch in the basement, considerably the most chaotic yet entertaining part of the house. This is where the Juniors and Seniors or former high school students that just graduated would illegally drink and have shots. You waited years just to get a taste of what it was like to be down here with the older kids, and you finally did. You were a junior, but you felt like most of the kids down here were much older, along with Gerard who was 19, a recent graduate.

Gerard Way, the eldest of the two brothers, kept his eyes on you from afar, occasionally handing you treats and party favors as the loud Christmas music played on and bled through the floor boards above. Eventually, he came and sat next to you, putting his arm around the couch.

“Hey, you liking the party so far?”