Behind This Smile

I woke up to the sound of Frank yelling at Mikey for hitting him, and Mikey yelling at Frank for taking his glasses. I blinked my eyes a few times to get adjusted to the light and watched as Frank stubbornly stomped his feet. "I am NOT apologizing! No! No way!" He crossed his arms and shook his head. "Nope."

Mikey narrowed his eyes. "Frank Iero, you better fucking apologize." Mikey was glasses-less... and Frank held them in his hand. I don't know why Mikey didn't just tackle him down. Frank couldn't stand a chance.

"Not until you apologize for hitting me!" Frank sounded like a liitle girl who doesn't get what she wants.

"Well, I'm not apologizing." Mikey stood in the same postion as Frank.

"Well, you're not getting your glasses back." He smirked. "So... there." He made a face that was between a lopsided smile, scrunching his nose, and a scowl. All in all, that was face was priceless.

It was then when I giggled. I don't think they heard me, though. Mikey was glaring at Frank, as was Frank glaring at Mikey. I watched them stand and stare like that for about five minutes. They did absolutley nothing.

When I got bored of watching them do nothing, I grabbed the three pens that lay on the little bed side table and aimed the first pen for Frank's head. Once I threw, and victoriously hit him, by the way, I threw the other one at Mikey. "Frank, give Mikey's glasses back, and Mikey say sorry for hitting Frank."

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Wow, Syd. Pens. So scary." His voice was thick with joking sarcasm, but I grabbed the un-opened coke can that was also on the bed side table and opened it. Aiming for Mikey. "I will. Try me." I also glanced at Frank whose eyes were wide and he shuffled quickly to Mikey and handed him his glasses.

"I'm so sorry for taking your glasses, Mikey," Frank said, a smile lingering on his lips.

"And I guess I'm sorry for hitting you," Mikey mumbled.

"What, Mikey?" I asked, raising the coke can a bit. "I couldn't hear you."

"I'm sorry for hitting you!!" Mikey yelled. Frank giggled uncontrollably and Mikey started laughing along with him. Frank and Mikey bent over laughing and Mikey went tumbling to the ground.

I looked at the ceiling and then at Frank and Miker who were practically rolling around on the hospital floor laughing. "Where's my dad?" I asked.

"He's... talking... to the... doc...tor," Mikey said in between fits of laughter. I nodded and put the coke can back on the bed side table. Frank immediatly stood up and walked to the table. He grabbed the coke and smiled. He took a sip and grimanced.

"It's... icky," he complained. I rolled my eyes and pointed to the door.

"You can get another one," I told him.

"Yes, but I don't have a dollar." Frank raised his eyebrows and nodded. "True story, right there."

"It's a dollar twenty-five," Mikey corrected, brushing himself off.

"Wha--? A dollar twenty-five?! Good God! What has the world come to an end to?! Nobody has that kind of money!" He collapsed dramatically into the chair and sighed. "Good God," he repeated.

Mikey looked from me to Frank to me again. "See what I have to deal with?"

I smiled and watched as the door opened to see an all too distracted Dad come in.

--

Dad and Dr. H walked in and Dr. H checked his clipboared. I honestly don't think there's anything on those clipboards. I think they have them just to look professional. But I wasn't going to say that.

"Well, Sydri. It looks like you can go now. I'm going to give you a prescription I reccomend you to get. Just incase you get bad headaches. Okay?" he asked while marking something on his fancy clipboard.

"Um.. sure."

He nodded and the nurse started to unhook all the machines and Dad gave me some clothes to change into. Everybody left while I walked into the small bathroom and changed. Once I saw my hair in the mirror, I let out a small wimper. Once my long, black hair that reached almost to my elbows now reached just below my shoulders. And it was sticking out in all directions, and it was cut horribly uneven. I grabbed the ponytail on my wrist and tried my best to get my messy, shitty hair in the scrunchie.

After getting dressed and done mourning over my hair, I walked out of the bathroom and Mikey handed me a beanie. "I haven't worn it yet. Even if, my hair's perfectly fine."

I smiled gratefully and took my hair out of the ponytail and pulled the beanie over my head. "Thanks, Mikey." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and hurried over to my dad who seemed to get even more pale everyday.

--

Frank was, without a doubt, the most obnoxious person on the face of the planet. During the ride to the hair salon, he sang "The Wheels On The Bus Go 'Round And 'Round", "99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall", and "Old McDonald". I could tell Mikey was trying his best not to sing along.

Thankfully, my dad was feeling the same pain, and told Frank to shut up. Frank shut his mouth and bowed his head in shame. Mikey slapped him across the neck. "Ah! I thought you were going to be nice to me!" he shouted and hit Mikey back.

Mikey pushed Frank against the car door, and Frank pushed Mikey against me, and I pushed Mikey against Frank who was pushed against the car door again. Frank chuckled. "This is fun."

"If you keep doing that, you're all going to be dead before we get to the hair place." My dad was much more grouchy than he usually his. In fact, he hasn't smiled to anyone all day. The car got quiet except for the almost inaudible muttering of my dad whenever a car cut him off.

When we pulled up in front of the hair salon, we all got out of the car silent. I was afraid to say anything, not wanting to make my dad any more mad. Luckily, there was nobody there beside the worker people, and I told the lady just to get it as even as possible.

It only took her about twenty minutes, and she actually got it looking better. You could actually run a brush through my hair, and she got to rest just about on my shoulders. My bangs still fell in front of my eyes, and commented on the supposedly huge scar at the bottom of my scalp.

I thanked her, and felt around for the stitches, which I forgot about. The stitches were almost on my neck and Mikey said I had stitches in the middle, but they took them out two or three hours later.

I shrugged and handed Mikey back his beanie. He shook his head. "Nah. You can have it. I have three thousand at my house, anyway." I smiled and put the beanie over my newly cut hair.