Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 032

Oncology

I winced for the third time in two minutes, but kept the inviting smile on my face. I braced myself for yet another out of tune strum of the guitar, but was thankfully saved. The mother of the young boy held his hand, stopping the next stroke of strings.

“He seems to like this one,” she said, giving a sigh. She seemed as displeased as I was, but as she had explained earlier, it was his birthday and she wanted to buy him what he wanted the most. Which was, unfortunately, an electric guitar that he did not know how to play.

“Let’s go ring this up then,” I said, motioning them to follow me to the register. Everything was checked out quickly and the boy happily skipped out with the instrument in its new case. Before the mother went to turn around to leave, I gave her a flyer for cheap guitar lessons. She flashed a smile and went to follow her son.

“Thank the good Lord in Heaven,” I breathed, massaging my temple. I felt a slight headache coming on. Someone clapped me on the back, causing me to turn towards them. I saw Scott standing there with a large grin on his face.

“What?”

“That ain’t the last of those you’re gonna hear or see. Those kinds of kids come in here all the time.” I groaned, making the man behind me belt out a loud, full laugh. I turned my head back around, hiding the smile on my face. The sound of a bell rang throughout the store, signaling that a new customer had come in. My smile widened a smidge when I saw who exactly had walked through the door.

“Hey Frankie,” I greeted with a small wave. He waved back and made his way towards me.

“I thought you said you had a tiff with that kid?”

“We had a heart to heart last night and everything is almost back to normal.”

“Almost?”

“Almost.”

Frank finally made it up to the counter, that contagious smile on his face. He leaned over the counter to give me a small hug and turned to Scott.

“Frank Iero,” he said, holding out his hand, Scott taking it.

“Scott Mandel. We met yesterday.”

Frankie’s smile dimmed just a little, but he still kept it on his face. “That, um, wasn’t really me, if you know what I mean.”

Scott stared down at the teenager hard for a moment, and I could tell that my friend was nervous at his gaze. Then the man gave him a small smile. “I know what you mean.”

When another customer walked in, Scott left, giving the two of us some alone time. I turned to my friend. “So, what are you here for?”

“I can’t be here just to hang out?”

I shrugged, “Sure, but I know that there’s a reason that you’re here.”

“I wanted to give my apology to Ray and Bob. I know we’re not the closest of friends, because of age and all, but I have been ignoring them.”

I threw my thumb over my shoulder, pointing at the manager’s office. “That’s where they be.”

“Well, now that he doesn’t seem like a complete prick, he’s actually pretty cute,” Lisa announced when she walked over to me and Frank was out of ear shot.

“There’s no denying that he is very handsome,” I said normally, flipping through the music magazine that was always on the counter.

“If I was a teenager again, I’d be all over him.”

I snorted as I tried to keep my laugh in, but it ended up coming out anyway. Lisa laughed along with me, and it took a while for the loud noises to calm down. When we were sober again, I turned to her, shaking my head.

“That is something I can not see,” I said, looking her up and down. She pouted.

“And why not?”

“Um, hello? Do you see how short that kid is? You’re a giant Lisa, things just wouldn’t work out that well.”

She sighed. “I know. It’s always hard to find a man when you’re my height. And you know men, a lot of them won’t date girls that are taller than them. If they did, they’d be losing the pissing contest.”

The bell once again rang, making Lisa and I look up, watching Gerard and Roxy walk in. “What’s up my posse?”

“Please don’t ever do that again Ger, you’re embarrassing your girlfriend.”

Ger frowned, looking down at the smaller girl at his side. She just looked away and started whistling innocently. Oh, not the whistling!

“Stop that and come give me a hug,” I voiced, talking to Roxy. She smiled and jogged over, giving me a death grip hug. Once we parted, she looked at me.

“How is everything going over here?”

“Good, this job is kick ass,” I replied simply. Scott walked back over to me with Romeo in tow, who had just finished working with an indecisive customer, throwing an arm over my shoulder. I wrapped one around his waist.

“Except for the children that make your ears bleed.”

“Oh yes, can’t forget about them.”

“Where are Bob and Ray?” Gerard questioned.

“Frank’s in there apologizing to them.” A smile lit Roxy and Gerard’s faces, which caused me to give them a look.

“What are the smiles for?”

“He came to apologize to us as well, not even twenty minutes ago. It was all heartfelt. I swear, he almost cried.”

“I did not Rox, shut your trap,” Frankie said defensively, walking out of the room with the two other men behind him. Roxy stuck her tongue out at the boy, who returned the gesture.

“Alright children.”

“So,” I started off, “everything is cool?”

All of my friends looked at each other, agreeing silently with their eyes the answer. “Yes, everything is more than cool. We’ve been friends forever, Frankie is entitled to a mistake or two now and then.”

“You all are distracting my employees from doing their work. Get to it you four,” Bob said sternly, motioning to the few people we had walking around and listening to music.

“I claim Envy,” Frankie said, taking my arm, “She’s going to help me look for a good guitar.”

“What about your other one, what’s wrong with it?” I said with a blush as the teen;s hand went from my arm to intertwine with my hand.

“That one’s a piece of crap, I want a new one. My birthday is coming up soon, so…” he trailed off, looking up at the wall.

“How about that one?” I teased, pointing up towards the small, bright pink one just above his head.

“Ha, ha,” he mumbled sarcastically.

There was a couple minutes of silence between us, with him looking at all of the guitars while I waited for his choice. Finally, he pointed up to a one that he wanted to see, one that was completely white. It seemed kind of bland, but I’m sure if he bought it, he’d know how to spice it up.

“Be right back,” I said, going in the back with the keys to look for product #009563, AKA, the guitar Frankie wanted. The guitar was close to the back of the storage unit, which made it a little dusty. After cleaning the guitar off somewhat, I went back to the main room.

“Here you are sir,” I said, handing it over.

He strummed it, making a totally out of tune noise. Again, I winced. “What happened to you being some sort of guitar god?”

“Hush you,” he said, playing with the pegs, “It’s way out of tune.”

I just shrugged my shoulders. “Hey, I just sell the stuff, I don’t tune it.”

As Frankie tuned, I grabbed one of the drum stools and brought it over to him, sitting on it as I watched him work his magic over the instrument. In no time at all, the boy had tuned it and was softly playing scales to make sure everything was good. Once that was done, he let his fingers glide across the fingerboard, copying some hard core song he must have listened to.

“Play that funky music white boy!” Lisa yelled, clapping to encourage him. He gave the woman a smirk before starting the song that she had just quoted from. All of us started to sway and bob our heads, feeling the beat.

“Once I was a boogey singer,” Gerard sang, coming over with a large grin on his face, “Playin’ in a Rock ‘n’ Roll band.”

“I never had no problems, yeah,” I joined, locking eyes with the pale man.

“Burnin’ down the one night stands,” we belted together.

The two of us continued to sing together until we got to the chorus, where everyone knew the words and went along. Bob even beat his hands against the counter to simulate the drums. The customers were watching all of us with amused smiles on their faces.

“Yeah they were dancin’ and singin’ and movin’ to the grove and just when it hit me, somebody turned around and shouted ‘Play that funky music white boy! Play that funky music right!’”

We all stopped singing and playing because we couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing. After everyone calmed down, the customers clapped loudly while be bowed and waved.

“Yeah, you think that’s cool? Gimmie that Frank,” Ray scoffed, taking the pure white guitar away from his younger friend. He adjusted it so that the strap of the guitar fit nicely around him, and then let out some amazing guitar solo that I had never heard of before. But it was totally impressive and I had to kindly say that he blew Frankie out of the water.

“Heck yeah,” Ray smirked after he was finished, handing it back, “The pupil has yet to proceed the master.”

“You taught him how to play guitar?” I asked.

“I started out teaching him, yeah. Then I kind of got busy with my job, but he found another good teacher and started playing at school. Even though he isn’t as good as me yet, he’s got a lot of potential.”

“Will you keep this on hold for me?” Frank asked, handing me the guitar, “I really want it, but until I get my money for my birthday, I can totally not buy this thing.”

I looked into his face and saw how much he really wanted the instrument, as if it had been made for him. He really did do well with it, even though he had never played it before. I nodded my head, giving him a smile.

“I’ll hold onto it as long as I can.”

That bright smile returned to his face, giving my stomach butterflies. “Thanks.”

“Alright you hooligans, out of my store. You’re making my people neglect the actual customers.”

“Awe, bye guys!” Ger said, waving and walking out with Roxy and Frank. Bob shook his head after they left then walked off to his office to do paperwork. Ray trailed behind him, probably to bug the man.

~~~~~

“I’m telling you I’m fine damn it, it’s been weeks since I’ve had the flu! I don’t need to go to the damn doctor,” I growled at my father as we walked through the hospital. We were following a nurse that was going to escort us to our examining room.

“We got a call that says he needs to check you out and we’re doing that. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.” I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn’t like it, but I willingly followed my father into the room, jumping up on the bed like instructed. When the doctor came in, I gave him a glare. He didn’t seem to notice.

“How are you feeling Miss. Moore?” he questioned, washing his hands in the sink, his back turned to me. I glared daggers at the man.

“I’m doing perfectly fine, so I shouldn’t have to be here.”

“I just need to check your vitals Envy, there’s nothing to be scared of.”

My nostrils flared, my anger starting to show. “I am not scared of anything that you’re going to do to me, Doctor. I just hate hospitals.”

“And why is that?” he asked calmly, turning to me with his stethoscope in his ears and hand.

“That is none of your business,” I huffed, uncrossing my arms so he could check my heart rate. I glanced over at my father and saw that he was giving me a look that said “behave”. My frown deepened, but I said nothing else.

It took about ten or so minutes to get everything done, and once it was, I was marked healthy and we got out of that room as quick as possible. I was ahead of Dad a couple steps, but he pulled at my arm to get my attention. I just looked at him.

“I know why you hate hospitals V, but you can’t blame every doctor you meet for it.”

“Like hell I can’t,” I mumbled, turning around so he couldn’t see my face. “Who knows, if I get in some accident, I could die just like Mom because the damn doctor had no idea what he was doing.”

Dad wrapped his arms around me from behind, laying his forehead on my shoulder. I felt his pain, just like he felt mine, and it eased me. He didn’t like being in hospitals just as much as I did, but he wanted to make sure I was going to be okay. I turned around in his arms and gave him a tight hug. Once we both let go, he gave me a small smile.

“Let’s go home.”

I nodded my head, following his lead down the hall. We reached the hallway that lead to the elevators, as well as other wards on this floor, when I heard a familiar sound. The confident clicking of heels. I knew that sound anywhere.

Turning to my head to the right, I saw Ms. Den walking down the hallway, the end being a door that had a sign that said “Oncology Ward” printed on it. She walked through the double doors, disappearing from my sight.

“What is the oncology ward?” I asked, turning to my father. He looked grim as he glanced down at me.

“That’s the cancer ward.”