Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 003

You Talk Too Much

By the time dad got home, everything was in its place; from rearranging the furniture, to delicately placing pictures on the wall. The boys and I had made ourselves comfortable on the couch and chairs in the living room, watching Scooby-Doo on the television.

“Welcome home Dad,” I said, smiling at him as he put his coat over a chair.

“Hello Envy, boys.”

“Hi Mr. Moore,” they all said in unison, barely even bothering to look at him.

“I see you guys got everything done quickly today, very nice.”

As Dad walked up the stairs to his room, Bob’s stomach grumbled, Frank’s doing the same soon after. I laughed a little and looked at them both. “Hungry?”

“Famished actually.”

I got up from the warm spot on the couch to walk towards the kitchen. “I guess for all the work you guys did today, I could fix you some dinner. Is spaghetti alright?”

“Yes!” they all agreed, grinning my way and licking their lips.

“No meat,” Frank added.

“Right, noodles with no meat. It’ll be ready soon.”

Grabbing the noodles from the kitchen closet, I set them on the counter then proceeded to get water for them to boil in. As I was getting all the preparations done, I heard someone walk in. Turning my head slightly, I saw the petite figure of Frank.

“What’s up?” I questioned, turning the temperature up to medium.

“I just thought you might need some help. The others were too lazy to do anything about it.”

“Could you get the sauce? It’s in the fridge.”

I got another pot for that to warm up in andFrank got the tomato sauce. We seemed to both go towards the stove at the same time, bumping into each other and falling over. The pot clanged on the ground, but the sauce was safely tucked into Frank’s chest. His chest, though, happened to be resting on top of mine, his arms pressing against my breasts.

My first instinct, of course, was to blush. After that task was done, I couldn’t help staring into his eyes. That mix of brown and green was perfect with his small face.

“Oh, sorry about that,” Frank said, getting off and lending me a hand that he wasn’t holding the jar in. I took it and he pulled me up with no effort.

“Thanks. Sorry, I didn’t see you.”

“No problem, this is your kitchen so it’s totally my fault.” He smiled at me, and my stomach tightened automatically along with a slight flutter of my heart. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I know that his smile was gorgeous and made me feel shy and childlike.

After I had shooed him out of the kitchen, telling him to leave after what he had caused, I leaned against the counter and held my hand over my still irregularly beating heart. A few moments of silence and it was completely back to normal, but my stomach still felt tight.

“What exactly was that?” I asked myself, and of course did not get an answer. Shaking the feelings and thoughts off momentarily, I continued to cook. The meal was soon done and I ushered all the boys, including my father, into the dining room.

For about an hour, we talked and laughed as we ate, telling stories and getting to know each other a little better. By the time the meal was finished, I felt like I knew these guys as well as my father. Dad looked out the window, saw it was dark out, and stood from his chair.

“It’s late and you boys should be getting home. This is the last weekend before school starts.”

“Ugh, school,” Mikey moaned, probably like me and thinking about the early rising hours and the horrid learning.

“We’ll see you later Mr. Moore, Envy,” Bob said, waving to us all as they all filed out the door, still waving as we closed it.

“What nice boys, good friends to have.”

I nodded in agreement and went towards the kitchen to start the dishes. Dad stopped me, giving me his fatherly smile. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll clean up. You go to bed and we’ll wake up early to go shopping for school supplies, alright?”

Again, I nodded my agreement, giving him a kiss on the cheek before heading up to my room. I changed into some comfortable and baggy pajamas before crawling into the delightful warmth of my blankets. In only minutes I was out cold and dreaming about that smile Frank had flashed at me.

~~~~~

Just like yesterday morning, the thing that woke me up was again the alarm clock. I groggily sighed, turning over to strike the button to make it stop. It did and I sat up straight, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes reluctantly. I heard my dad walking down the stairs, so he must have gotten up just a little earlier than I had.

I slowly got out of the comfort of my bed and headed to the bathroom to get myself ready. I looked in the mirror and saw some eyeliner smudged all the way down to the cheek. Damn, I had forgotten to take my makeup off last night. It didn’t help that my hair was a mess of tangles either.

I swiftly got ready before heading down stairs to see Dad in his usual clothes, eating a bowl of granola cereal. I waved at him, still not awake enough to talk, then took and apple from a bowl on the counter, biting into it.

“Did you sleep good?” he asked after chewing his spoonful of food. I nodded my head, hiding the blush as I remembered the dream I had. Again, my stomach tightened but I relaxed soon after.

“What are the plans for the day, Father Dearest?” I inquired, finishing the last of my juicy apple.

“First, we go into town and buy you some stuff for school. Maybe later we’ll invite the boys over to watch some old tapes of you in grade school singing performances I found the other day.”

“Dad!” I exclaimed, hitting him on the arm and blushing once again, for a whole other reason this time.

“I’m kidding, or not.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes at his “joke”. I started up the stairs, going to make a list of stuff that I would need.

“Where are you going?”

“To make a list.”

“We don’t need a list,” Dad stated, his voice growing softer the farther I walked from him.

“It’s a girl thing,” I replied simply before scrounging around for paper.

After our list was ready and it was late enough that stores were open, Dad and I took off in the van, singing to music on the radio along the way.

~~~~~

I was now sorting through the supplies in my room, looking at all the things my father had bought without my knowledge. As I scrounged in the plastic bags, I found a little folder with cute little puppies sitting all around. They were so adorable; I couldn’t just throw them away. But I was an adult now; you don’t just walk around carrying something like that. Looking around, I secretly put it in my sock drawer, under all of the mismatching socks, then closed the drawer. Hopefully no one would barge in on me squealing about how cute they were.

“Envy! Dinner’s ready, get your butt down here.”

I simply dumped the rest of the school stuff on the bed, the supplies having to suffer loneliness until I returned with a full belly.

Practically skipping down the stairs, I slid into the kitchen, noticing two people sitting at the dinner table.

“What are you guys doing here?” I questioned, eying Ray and Frankie.

“We’d thought we’d drop by and bother the Moore family at dinner time.”

“You boys are no bother to us. Come whenever you please,” Dad said, bringing the food to the table we were sitting at. I smelled the yummy sent of the meatloaf that had been cooked and almost instantly started to drool.

“Gross. How can you eat that stuff?” Frank asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Dad’s cooking isn’t that bad…”

“No, I meant the meat all together. Those poor animals.”

I blinked at the hazel eyed boy and shook my head. “I understand your cause, but it’s the circle of life dear. You can just eat some salad and be a rabbit.”

All throughout the meal, we were laughing and joking around with the boys while they did the same to us. I also found out that Ray and I had a lot in common. Dad said we were long lost twins.

Unfortunately, the night came to a close all too soon and I was walking the boys to the door.

“That was fun,” Ray voiced, smiling at me, “We’ll have to do that more often.”

“If we did that more often, you boys would eat us out of house and home. God, I thought you were about to devour the damn table.”

Ray stuck his tongue out at me playfully while I just smirked.

“Well, bye guys. I’ll see you at school tomorrow Frank. Later!”

Dad and I waved them away before closing the door. We both walked to the kitchen to clean up the mess we had made. I piled up the dishes to take to the sink while my dad added soapy water to it.

“So, I see you’re getting along with those boys,” I heard dad say from the other room.

“Of course, they’re my new friends here,” I stated simply, knowing what he really meant.

“Do you think any of them are cute?” my father said in a girly and almost gay like voice.

“Please Dad. They’re all cute.”

“Which one are you going to go after?”

“Dad!”

I dropped the plates into the sink and glared at my father as he laughed at my pain. Is that a form of abuse? I think it should be.

“You just wash the dishes, I’m going to bed. I’ll see you after school Dad.”

“Night Envy, have a good first day.”

~~~~~

People say all the time that the worst thing about school is learning. That’s a lie I tell you, a damn lie! The worst thing about school is the fact that you have to get up so god damn early. Don’t adults know that kids never go to bed early, why torture us with sleep deprivation?

I rubbed my eyes carefully for the millionth time, avoiding smudging the makeup which I had oh so carefully brushed on this morning. I sat at the table, eating an apple absentmindedly.

“Here’s the start of a beautiful year…”

“At least it’s the beginning of the end,” I heard Dad say as he walked down the stairs, his hair a mess and sleep still in his eyes.

“Very true. You must be very sad, you’re little girl is growing up so fast.”

“Whatever gets you out of the house sooner.”

I stared at my dad, opened mouthed as he laughed at my pain once again. I’m telling you, this is some kind of abuse! I threw my core at him, which missed by the way, and glared at him.

“I’m going to school now. See you later, seeing as you want me out so soon.”

I kissed his cheek and headed out the door to the bus stop. It was dark out for me to be walking around, and I tripped a couple of times before finding a bench to wait for my yellow limo, or school bus as you may call it.

After a while of waiting, I saw two figures coming my way and squinted to see Mikey and Frankie walking down the sidewalk. When they saw me in the early morning darkness, they smiled and made their way towards me.

“What are you doing here sitting alone in the dark?” Mikey asked, pushing up his thick rimmed glasses.

“Waiting for my bus so I can safely arrive to school and torture myself for the sake of knowledge?” I said, hoping my answer was the right one.

“Why not walk?” Frank questioned with a chuckle.

“It’s darkish, knowing my luck; I’ll trip over a poor, innocent lady bug.”

The two looked at each other before looking at me and dragging me away from the bench by my arms.

“It’s quicker this way, the bus stops every five seconds.”

“But walking involves physical labor, and I’m not into stuff like ‘walking’.”

Of course, they ignored me as I continued to babble about exercise and physical labor and how it was unhealthy. It was kind of weird, they gave me the same response my father usually does. Absolute silence.

“And on the other hand-“

“Has anyone ever told you that you talk a lot?” Frank interrupted.

“My dad tells me that all the time,” I replied, giving him a smile.

“I bet. Come on, we have to go to the gym and get our schedules. It’s pretty early, so hopefully there won’t be crowds of people.”

Again, I was dragged off, to the gym this time, but I just kept my mouth shut and looked around.