Somebody To Love

I raced down the stairs at the sound of the doorbell on Friday night, yelling, “I got it!”

I opened the door to find Frank standing on my doorstep, looking attractive in a leather mouth zip up sweatshirt and ripped up black jeans.

“Ready?”

I nodded, grabbing a sweatshirt myself because despite the warm early October temperature outside, it would be freezing at the movies. Some people think the theater is haunted, but I think they just don’t feel like turning the air-conditioning down off of full blast from the hot summer months.

We climbed into Frank’s old, beat up, black Pinto and headed to the mall for dinner.

“So what are you up for?” I asked once we entered the food court.

“To be honest, I’m craving some sushi,” Frank said, as the two went to the sushi place.

A bored boy stood behind the counter, sketching away on left over scraps of paper.

I greeted him with, “Hey Gerard.”

He looked up from his work and smiled. “Hey, Ray. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Frank,” I introduced, with a slight flush. “We are going to HorrorFest tonight and thought we’d eat before.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to keep it down,” Frank said with a laugh, his hand lightly brushing mine. “I heard it gave this one kid nightmares. He had to be locked away, they were so bad.”

I felt my body ignite from the point where his hand brushed mine to the very soles of my feet.

Gerard envied us. “Lucky ducks, I wish I could make that. Mikey got fired so they gave me more hours.”

“I was wondering where he was,” I said, looking around to see if he was lurking behind a tree somewhere.

“Yeah, he got caught eating the sushi in the back,” Gerard explained. “He literally ate a whole box load of sushi. Now he’s working across the food court at Starbucks. That isn’t going to last long either, though, between him flirting with that Alicia girl who works at Nestle Tollhouse and helping himself to ten cups of coffee without paying.”

I shook my head. “That’s Mikey for you.”

“Oh, and speak of the devil, here he comes,” Gerard said, rolling his eyes.

Mikey causally walked up to the counter.

He grinned and waved at Frank and I before turning to his brother, “Yo, Gerard, got that plate for me?”

Gerard tapped his foot. “Are you going to pay this time?”

“Gerard please? I’ll clean your room for a week. Just give me some sushi, I’m dying over here,” Mikey begged.

“Oh, please,” Gerard said in a disgusted tone. “You never clean anything.”

“Gerard, please?”

Gerard broke down, handing a sushi sampler to his little brother. “Just don’t let anyone see you, or you’re dead.”

Mikey rushed off to hit on Alicia, who looked to be on break.

Gerard let out a frustrated sigh before turning back to us. “Anyway, can I get you anything?”

We both ordered some Nigiri-zushi and paid Gerard, finding an empty table for two.

While trying to operate my chopsticks, I asked Frank, “So what are you into?”

“Heavily into music,” He answered.

I picked up the sushi only to have it drop back into the container, “Do you play anything?”

“Guitar,” he answered, watching me drop my sushi before it reached my mouth again. “Do you want me to help you with that?”

If Frank helped me with my sushi, it just might kill me. Just the hand brush sent shocks all the way through me.

“Oh no, I got it,” I replied, trying to do it myself.

He saw I was failing miserably.

“Watch me,” Frank said, taking my chopsticks from me and putting them in his hands. “The trick is to open with your middle finger and close with your forefinger.”

Frank put them in my hands and guided me. All the while, static electricity flowed through my fingers and up my arm as I tried not to drool.

I felt embarrassed. We weren’t already an hour into the date and I had already made an ass out of myself. Frank didn’t seem to mind, though, and continued, talking about the band he was in and the type of guitar he played as if it was nothing.

On the ride over to the theater, we talked about anything and everything, getting to know each other better.

Sliding into a nearby parking spot, Frank asked me, “Iron Maiden or Metallica?”

“Iron Maiden, dude,” I responded, explaining my answer carefully before asking him a question. “Misfits or Black Flag?”

“Ouch, you got me on that one. Can I say both?”

We reached the ticket manager and bought our tickets.

“Depends,” I said as we went to get popcorn. “Elaborate on why you can’t pick.”

Frank went into a detailed explanation as we found a seat. Frank was a music geek just like me, which made him ten times more attractive.

We talked all the way through the previews until the people in front of us told us to be quiet. Frank promptly flipped them off when they turned around, but we got quiet and watched as crazed people on screen brutally sliced and diced anyone they could their hands on.

We devoured our popcorn in pure glee. Sometimes our fingers would bump into each other’s as we got kernels of popcorn. When the popcorn was gone, Frank put his arm around me, bringing me closer to him. The movie started to go out of my focus as I felt Frank’s body heat against the right side of my body. Suddenly it became very hard to concentrate on watching Jim slicing up Jane with a chain-saw. Frank was just so close. I put my head on his shoulder, and he looked at me with the sweetest smile I have ever seen, and slipped his hand in mine. Normally you would expect to find this scene at a chick flick, not a horror movie.

I forced myself to look at the screen as Jim got run over by an eighteen-wheeler, crushing his body into a bloody pulp, and the end credits rolled.

We quickly separated from each other before the lights came on and got ready to leave.

“Ugh,” Frank groaned as we got outside. “I feel like I’m about to throw up. Popcorn was a bad choice.”

“I know,” I agreed as we got to the car. “But that was amazing, you have to admit. I never saw so much bloodshed in all my life.”

“Looks like you need to come over and have a horror movie marathon with me,” Frank proposed as we pulled out of the theater.

We began to plan our second get together, and before I knew it, we were in my driveway.

“I had a really great time,” I said, unsure if I should get out of the car or stay.

“Me too,” Frank answered, taking hold of my hand. “I hope we can do it again next Saturday.”

I nodded in agreement.

Frank shut off the engine. “I’ll walk you to your door.”

We both got out of his car and walked up my front walk, stopping under the stoop light just before my door.

Frank lightly caressed my face with his fingers, running his knuckles evenly along my chin and cupping my face with his forefinger and thumb, gently bringing my face to his in a light good bye kiss that I felt all the way down to the very tips of my toes.

“I’ll see you around,” he whispered, turning to leave.

I went inside and shut the door, falling against it, and sliding all the way down to the floor.