Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 082

Swans

Teens, when given the day off from school on the weekend, were expected to do certain things with their time. You could usually find them sleeping in until noon only to go have fun at the mall and cause trouble with their friends, only to end the day going to a raging party to secretly get drunk. Their lives could vary—maybe—but that’s what teens were expected to do.

It was not expected that a large group of them hang out at the zoo. We had chaperons—if you could call Ray, Ger, and Bob that—but they were acting just as crazy as we were.

“What kind of teens are we that we spend our Saturday at the zoo?” I asked Ray next to me, who was grinning like a mad-man.

“Cool ones. I haven’t been to the zoo since I was a child, and things have changed a lot. You can’t say this isn’t a great coming here. Who doesn’t like to look at animals?”

“I’m not saying this isn’t fun, just that it’s a little weird that we’re here.”

That left us in a silence as I watched my friends enter the zoo, picking up maps so everyone could plan out where they were going to go. I could already hear the arguments on where to go first.

“I want to go see the lions!” Quinn shouted, pointing to their location on the map, his eyes looking so happy.

“No way, let’s go see the penguins!” Dan exclaimed, glaring as his friend for even mentioning something other than penguins.

“Why don’t we go see the sea lions? It’s a good compromise, right?”

“No!” the males yelled together, making me step back a little. I was only trying to help.

“If you guys have to go to those exhibits first, then we can split up and see what we want and meet up to go to lunch later. Does that sound good?” Roxy said calmly, though I could tell that her patience was already wearing thin. And we had only been here for ten minutes.

“That sounds like a great idea! Everyone who wants to see the penguins, follow me!”

Dan lead his groups—consisting of Mikey, Bert, Roxy, Gerard, and Jeremy—like a band director, marching with them out of our sight. I sighed and shook my head. I was hoping that they didn’t cause any trouble while they were away from us.

“You’re just letting Jeremy go with them? Aren’t couples supposed to always stay together?” Tay asked me, raising her blonde brow. I just shrugged me shoulders.

“He wants to go see the penguins, why should I stop him?”

She just shook her head as we followed Quinn, normally, to get to the lions. Our group was Quinn, Taylor, Ray, Bob, Jepha, Frankie, and I. Frank slid up next to me, looking glum.

“Turn that frown upside down Pansy!” I said, throwing my arm over his shoulder as we walked.

“I’m not frowning. I’m just all lonely without my girlfriend. That stupid concert coming up takes her away a lot.”

I nodded my head, knowing how he felt. I always had to adjust my schedule around the practices at the Art Center and I found it really hard to find time for my friends with how much time it was taking up. I was just glad that I could be here at the zoo instead of there, like Tamara.

“Hey, you got me, and that’s way better,” I teased, pulling him along so we could catch up to everyone else.

“Oh, of course,” he said sarcastically, but put his arm around my waist as we walked. I smiled down at him and continued to talk to him.

It might have been a Saturday afternoon, one of the busiest time for most businesses, but it wasn’t all that crowded here. There were a few families milling around, with their children on their tippy toes to see the hiding animals. Sometimes I wanted to stop to look at the animals we were passing, but the two of us were already way behind our group. Apparently we actually had to see the lion first.

We were put back even further when Frankie stopped us at an exhibit, almost making us fall over when he stopped so abruptly. I looked over at him, about to question him when I looked up.

It was a lake filled with swans; a large pond that had about ten adult birds and a couple chicks here and there. What I found strange about it, though, was that all of them were paired together.

“Swans are known to mate for life,” Frankie informed me, almost as if he could read my mind. I looked between the birds and my friend, noticing how fascinated he was with the beautiful white fowl.

“Why would you know that?” I asked him, not to make fun of him, but because I was actually curious.

“When I was younger, and way stupider than I am today, I jumped out of the window of my room and broke my leg. When I was on bed rest, my mom made me read educational books as a punishment. I read that all the way back then and its stuck with me.”

I smiled at Frankie and felt my heart well. The way he talked about it was very fond, like it really meant something to him.

“You’re way deeper than I thought you were, Frank.”

He grinned up at me, finally taking his eyes off the group of birds. “Never judge a book by its cover V, had no one ever taught you that?”

“Oh, whatever, with all the stupid shit you do, you can understand my shock.”

Frank shrugged his shoulder and pulled me along, taking us away from the swans.

“Come on, let’s go look at the peacocks,” he announced, ignoring my remark.

“Why, you have more philosophical things to talk about having to do with birds?”

He scoffed. “No, I just like peacocks, the males get all the females because they’re hot. It’s like my life.”

~~~~~~

At around 1:45, everyone met back up at the exit of the zoo. At some points for the time we had been here, we would pass different groups and say hi, but we never really became one whole group again. That is until now, when everyone’s stomachs were rumbling.

“I am so in the mood for pancakes,” I grumbled, rubbing my angry stomach, imagining the hot syrup making the fluffiness so much sweeter. I wouldn’t have been surprised If there was a stupid grin on my face.

“Pancakes are breakfast food Envy,” Bob stated, as if I hadn’t known that already known that.

“Is it wrong that I want breakfast food when it’s not the morning?”

“Yes, but we will oblige you anyway!” Bert exclaimed happily, “I could really use some bacon.”

And now we were at Ihop, one of the best places to go for breakfast. The hostess at the door smiled at the first few of us as we came in, but as all thirteen of us piled into the waiting room, her smile faltered a little bit. She left us to go help the staff make a table for us.

“Why do we always get that kind of reaction?” Jepha asked, looking like a sad puppy, “you would think that they would be happy that we were giving them our money!”

“They would rather not deal with ten teens gone wilds, two man children, and a poor adult that’s been forces to accompany us,” Rox explained.

“I wasn’t forced, I like the zoo and breakfast,” Bob said.

When we finally got our seats and orders in, all the boys proved the reason why people weren’t happy to see this many teens. They were to the point where they felt the need to yell and scream at each other from across the table, telling some stories that had everyone busting out in laughter.

The only time the restaurant found any peace was when the mountain sized pile of food was delivered to our table. The boys were so into their breakfast food that they were actually silent as they devoured each morsel. Something the employees were glad of, I’m sure. I ate my pancakes in a happy silence, chewing the fluffiness with a smile on my face with my eyes closed.

“You’re so fucking cure; who eats pancakes that way?!”

I opened my eyes at Roxy’s statement to see everyone now looking at me. I finished chewing what pancake I had left in my mouth so I could talk.

“I’m enjoying my pancakes my way, leave me alone!” Then I stuffed a large piece into my mouth and continued to eat the way I wanted to. Everyone laughed at me, concurring that it was cute, then went back to their food.

After everyone was finished, the boys seemed to be too full and tired to make a commotion, making our waitress happy. The money and her tip was in her pocket in no time with us piled into our respective cars.

“I’m going to explode, I ate too much,” I moaned, leaning back into the passenger seat of Jeremy’s car. He looked over at me with that gentle smile on his face. He took my hand in his and continued to drive to my house that way. I kept my content smile the whole ride. This had probably been one of the best days in a while.

“Would it be sad if this day turned out better than Prom?”

Jeremy laughed and squeezed my hand harder, while he looked my way whenever he had the chance.

“It’s not going to be that way, I won’t let it. You’re never going to forget it.”

“That just means we won’t get drunk afterwards.”