When Will This End?

]

"Welcome to my not so humble abode!" Jake said as we entered his basement/ bedroom.

"Lots changed since we've been here, huh An' " Dez laughed as we saw Jakes newest teddy bear friend sitting on his bed.

"Haha! Yeah." I said making my way to sit on his bed, which was pretty much a mattress on the floor.I took the huge panda in my arms and hugged it. It was so fluffy it made me laugh. Jake always has crazy stuff in his room and this time it was this huge panda teddy.
"Where'd you get this?" I asked with a chuckle.

"It was endangered in my sisters room! I had to save him!" He said as he jumped on the bed next to me and hugged the other side of this rather large panda teddy.

We all laughed at this.

"Cool room, man." Mikey complemented Jake.

"Hee hee! Thanks." He gushed just as I started to tickle him with the panda's ears.

"Gimme it!" Dez plopped herself next to me.

"You listen to Bad Religion?" Frank asked.

"Yup! You?"

"Their awesome." He said with a smile just as he suddenly looked in my direction.

I quickly looked back at the panda as if I didn't see him. I don't know how long I can stick to avoiding him.

"Yo! The guys are here." Elijah said over to Jake.

"Oh alright. Lets set up." Jake replied.

"Can someone-s go get some drinks and snacks from upstairs?" Jake said out to no one in particular as he grabbed some wires.

I volunteered in a heartbeat just get away from Frank for awhile. But just then my luck turned as Frank popped up and said "I'll help."

I stopped in a sudden shock as he walked up to me at the doorway that connected the basement to the rest of the house. I turned around and continued to walk upstairs.
We walked through the hallway into the kitchen and I walked up to the cupboard and reached up to get the bag of combos on the middle shelve...but I couldn't reach.
All of a sudden I saw an arm out stretched over me and it grabbed the combos for me. I turned around and was faced with Frank and for some unknown reason I blushed, like I always do when I'm nervous.

This is the part where he'd usually make fun of how short I am compared to him.

"Can we talk?" He asked.

Wow that's a shocker. Wasn't it just the other night or so that HE was the one who didn't want to talk to ME! Now look at how the tables have turned...

"Umm hmm."

"...Are you talking to me?" He asked.

"Huh? Yeah..." I mumbled.

"It's just that you've been ignoring me the whole day...well I don't blame you. I wouldn't want to talk to the guy who knocked up MY sister either" He said as he placed the bag of combos on the countertop beside us.

Why am I getting so worked up for? He's just gonna ask me how Maddie's doing like everyone else.

"Maddie's doing okay..."

He looked at me a little weirded out. "I...I really don't want to...talk about her."

Wow...what the fuck? Did I hear that correctly?

"Wha-?"

"I- I just-"

"Weren't you gonna ask me about how she was?" I asked him a little confused.

"No..." He said a little sad.

"Oh...well....go on..."

"You said that I could talk to you...the night at the hospital..." He said unsure of himself.

I gave a small smile. "I-I did..."

"Is your offer still opened?" He asked looking down at his feet and back up at me.

"...Of corse. " I old him truthfully.

"Well...um we can't really talk now...cause of-"

"Everyone else being around, it's-"

"Distracting." He finished for me.

"Yeah..." I agreed.

He looked back down at his feet. "You know- after all of this happened, and after all the years of me bashing you...your the ONLY one who hasn't given me crap about the situation... your the only one whose been nice to me...not that I deserve it..."

I smiled at him.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry for ever making fun of you..."

"Apology accepted." I said with a smile.

"Heh! Thanks." He smiled back.

His smile quickly turned back into a frown. "I don't know how I screwed up...I don't know how I
could be so stupid!" He said.

"Frank it's okay...your not stupid..." I tried to reason with him.

I was almost at a loss for words! This is a side of Frank I've NEVER seen before and besides the times I hoped he apologize to me...I didn't wish for him to feel like crap in the process of it.

"Yeah I am... I let myself get carried away. Heh! You probably think I'm crazy or something...having sex at such a young age and what not...no offense. "

"Well...I don't think it was smart... but you really shouldn't beat yourself up about it."

"Why not?"

"Because, Frank-" I said as I pulled his arm towards the table and sat down. "- let's sit down." He did as I asked and we began our conversation. "You didn't know this was gonna happen."

"...I was drunk...I didn't even know we had sex."

I looked at him confused. "So you were too drunk to remember that you had sex?"

"No I mean...I know we did because well when I woke up..." He stayed quiet for a bit.

I widened my eyes a bit more feeling creeped out at the thought of Frank and my sister together on one hand but I wanted to hear what he had to say on the other. "Go on." I said with a slight chuckle at the expression on his face.

"I'm sorry-" He giggled. "It's just this is uncomfortable to talk about let alone with you of all people...no offense." He smiled unsure if I'd be offended about what he said.

"I'm not offended..." I chuckled. "I mean after our past, I wouldn't in a million years imagine talking to YOU about sex." I told him truthfully.

"Yeah..." He looked down again.

"Frank I wouldn't feel so bad about this if I were you."

"How could I not. Damn...I totally got shit faced and I didn't know what I was doing. If I hadn't have gotten so drunk I wouldn't have gotten hurt... I feel like shit..." He whispered into his hand as he brought his face to them. "You know she was planning on breaking up with me... ME...but I wouldn't have cared if she did..." HE picked his head up. "-especially since I've just realized that I had an ego the size of Europe. I don't even know what the hell happened to me these past few years. I mean like...I'd have a lots of girlfriends and I didn't really care if I'd break it off with one of them, but I never had it happen to me. ...She had some stupid jock in the back of the lunch room and they were making out and crap in front of all of our friends! I saw them. I-I'm just stupid."

"So... you really liked her?" I asked him as I looked down at my hands as they rested on my lap.

"I thought I did..." He paused. "But I was just attracted to her looks and crap, Maddie's just wrong...she's not the girl I like."

"So you like someone else?" I squinted my eyes.

"I'm not sure..." He said looking at me.

Suddenly Jake came in the kitchen.

"Hey..." He greeted us. "Everything okay in here?"

I got up from my seat. " Y-Yeah... we were just...getting some snacks." I told him as I held up the bag of combos up to his face.

"Wow it sure did take you a while to get them." He said with an odd expression on his face.

"Yeah... sorry..." I said.

"It's okie." Jake said with a smile as he put his arm around my waist.

I gave an odd look as this hug seemed a bit over friendly...maybe it was just me.

"Just came up to tell you guys that Mikey invited Ray, Bob, and Gerard so I thought I'd help bring more snacks." He smiled down at me.

I saw Frank looking at us from the corner of my eye. I turned to him with an apologetic look for being interrupted.

We all headed back into Jake's part of the house, snacks in hand and had a great time. Gee, Ray, and Bob stopped by and joined Jake, Elijah and the rest of us on a quest to find a good lead singer for the band. Frank sat across the room from me and for the first time in forever I felt okay with it...I didn't feel self conscious or annoyed. I think things between us are good now.