Pieces of Me

"Roxy." I heard as Frank shook me awake.

"Get up, c'mon we're late." I looked over at his clock the red numbers glowed six. Wow I slept a long time. I scratched my head and yawned.

"Run a brush through your hair and let's go." he said as he pulled another one of his hoodies over his head.

I slowly got up and went to the bathroom and put my hair into a messy bun with my bangs hanging out. I came back out and Frank was waiting by the door, tossing his keys up and down in his hands.

"Kay." I yawned. He opened the door and let me go first down the stairs and onto the walkway that lead to the parking lot. He jogged down the stairs to catch up to me as I walked over to his car. He opened the front car door then reached over and unlocked mine. I sat in and he started the car again.

"You were out." he laughed as we left the parking lot. I nodded sleepily.

"Don't fall asleep now, the restaurant's about five minutes away." he said as he turned up the radio. I yawned again and rubbed my head, I felt really groggy like I had woken up in the middle of the night.

"I'll try not to, it's not my fault if I do though." I mumbled. He laughed and nodded. To try to keep my eyes open, I looked at all the colorful lights on the houses. I remember when mom was still home, we tried to put up the lights. Dad called my his "little helper" even though I was only five, so I doubt I really did anything. I would untangle the strings of lights with mom and hand them up to him while he was on the ladder that seemed to tower above me.

After spending the whole afternoon in the snow putting up lights we would go inside and dad would make us eggnog. He always put a little brandy in his then a little "tiny bit" in mine and soon we would both be asleep on the couch from all the hard work we had done, and the brandy had helped us too.

I snapped out of the memory as we pulled into a restaurant parking lot.

"Fuck, everyone's here cept us." he said as he swirved into a parking spot. I undid my seat belt and opened the door as Frank slammed his shut.

"C'mon." he said. I jogged to catch up to him. It seemed like an Italian place and was pretty nice looking too. He opened the door for me and we asked the hostess where the party for eight under Way were. She lead us to the back of the place where they had a pretty big table. everyone was there. Ray, Bob, Mikey, Alicia, Gerard, and her.

"Frank, Roxy, finally." said Ray who pulled a seat next to him where Frank sat. I sat next to Alicia and across from, Her. She was almost exactly how Frank had described her, brown hair, brown eyes, pink lips glazed with lip gloss, a simple brown coat was hanging on her chair, her hair was wavey in that nice and neat way, her smile was almost perfect, and she had a beauty mark on her left cheek.

She looked up at me and smiled.

"So you're the Roxy I've heard so much about." she said as she stuck out her hand. I looked over at Gee who was smiling madly. I could almost read his mind.

"Please like her Roxy, don't be to mean to her like you were to us." his eyes said. I looked back over to her who was waiting for me to shake her hand.

"I guess I am." I said trying to pull off a smile that looked normal. She put her hand down after realizing I wasn't going to shake it.

"Uh Roxy this is Laura, my girlfriend." Gerard said as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm Roxy." I said trying not to show how much it bugged me that he put his hand on her shoulder the way he used to do to me.

She laughed."Oh, I know, Rox," he said. Only the guys had ever called me that, Gerard had come up with that. I shot her a look that said "Don't ever call me that." I knew she was the only one who had seen me give her that look. Everyone else was listening to Ray and Frank talk about some kind of car.

"So how do you like it here?" she asked as she took a sip of her soda.

"It's pretty and pretty cold." I said as Gerard looked over to her. A waiter came over and asked me if Frank wanted anything to drink.

"Dr. Pepper please." I said over to him.

"Kay hun, and you sir?" he asked Frank.

"Uh, coffee." he said then finished his conversation.

No wonder Gerard looked at her like that. She was beautiful. I suddenly felt so ugly in my jeans, Frank's sweater, all my necklaces, wrist bands, and studded belt. She dressed so simply. She had low rise jeans on, a cute plain white flannel top that buttons up and I could see her black boot high heels as I starred at the floor.

I didn't smile much at dinner. I felt that my smile revealed fangs instead of a white straight and perfect teeth like hers. I even tried not to laugh when Mikey made Ray laugh so hard that soda came out of his nose.

I ordered just a salad and stole some of Alicia's fries. Laura ate so daintily, and her and Gerard fed each other bites from each others dinners to see if the other person liked it too. I couldn't eat much.

"What's wrong Rox?" Mikey asked as he looked at my plate.

"You hardly touched your food." he said.

"Maybe she didn't touch her food, but my she ate all my poor french fries!" Alicia said as she stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed.

"I'm just tired is all." I said. But the truth was that it was Laura and Gerard being all lovey dovey that made me lose my appetite.

"Do you just wana go to bed instead of coming over Rox?" Gerard asked gently. I smiled.

"Nah, I can stay up a little while longer, besides I've never been to your house." I said

"You sure Roxy? You're gonna be over there in another three days" Laura said in a tone like Gerard's

"Yah I'm okay." I said.

"Hey what about me?'' asked Ray

"What about you?" I laughed.

"I woke up at nine just for you." he said.

"Hey I didn't sleep at all." I said

"Well I went to bed at three!" he said finishing some kind of soup.

"Aw, poor Ray, did your night light brake?" Bob asked.

"Yes, and I was frightened." he said smiling.