My Life As Sienna Brown

It was ten minutes before my phone started vibrating. I answered it quickly. "Hello?"

"Hi," he answered calmly.

"Oh my god, what was that? Is everything okay?"

"Yea, yea, it's fine," he said.

"Oh," I said more calmly, "So what was going on?"

"I'll tell you in a minute, help me up."

I got up and walked over to my window, where he stood below and waved. I shut off my phone after seeing him close his. I slid open the window at the same time he starting climbing up the eavesdrop and grabbed his arm and pulled him in as we both fell to the ground.

"So, what was it?" I asked again, sitting up. He must have been getting annoyed with the amount of times I was asking him.

"My parents are having... marriage problems."

I flinched back, shocked. "What? You're family seemed so happy, when did this start?"

"A little while ago... but whatever, it's not a big deal."

I shoved another chip in my mouth and offered the bag out to my friend. "But... why didn't you tell me?"

"I don’t know, figured I didn’t need to burden you with my stupid family problems." He smiled.

Mom was wrong. Frankie was everything she didn't say.

"Oh. So- how do you feel about it?"

He shrugged, like I usually shrugged when I wanted things to look like they weren't bothering me. "I think that it's about time," he replied.

I nodded. "Why? Was it bad before?"

He answered. "It's been getting worse every year since before I even knew you."

That... kind of bothered me. Out of the four years I've known him, he never told me this? I ignored myself.

"So, are they getting a divorce?"

He nodded, "Yea."

I thought of it being weird walking to Frank's house and only seeing one of his parents living there. "Do you have to move?"

He smirked. "No, even if I did, I wouldn't. I'd live in your smelly old closet."

I smiled lightly and tried to giggle lightly, but another yawn escaped from my mouth. “I wouldn't mind it that much. Then whenever I got mad at mom, I'd simply crawl in there with you and we'd hide in there for the rest of our lives."

He nodded, "That would make me feel happy. I like company."

It was quiet for a moment. I had put away the chips and pop and sat quietly by my bed. "Any way’s goodnight, I'm going to bed," Frank said, crawling across the floor and sitting in the closet.

I laughed and crawled on all fours, sitting beside him and dropping my head lazily on his shoulder as I started to doze off. "Do you ever feel lonely, even where there are other people around," I asked randomly.

"All the time," he answered, and I looked up at his face. "I feel lonely whenever you're not around. You ever get that feeling that nobody's listening when you're talking, even though they are? That's how... I feel when I’m talking to people. Sometimes I think that people like us just don't belong around here, like there’s a place way better out there."

It was quiet before I answered him, "There is... it's called heaven."

"You don't want to go there yet, do you," he asked, and I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder.

"No. I was just saying..." My face turned red.

"Well, that's good, I'd miss you."

I smiled happily.

"But Mikey and they guys aren't that bad, don't you trust them?"

He nodded. "Yea, of course I trust them. Same with Tim and Shaun and Neil and John... they're all good friends- especially Mikey. But, still... it's just the feelings you get sometimes."

I nodded and closed my eyes as I started to feel my head slide down his shoulder and onto his chest, where the warm, quiet, steady beat of his heart lulled me to sleep peacefully.