You and Me

Today was just terrible. The bus that was taking us to the aquarium ran out of gas halfway there. I had to entertain Frank for nearly an hour, which wasn’t bad at all. However, when we got there, some stupid kids, maybe around fifteen, started calling Frank names. I nearly beat them down had it not been for Morgan who held me back and told me to soothe Frank instead of starting a scene. Unfortunately, he started crying again and didn’t stop until we left, nearly another whole hour later, around three. When we were on the bus, he fell asleep on my shoulder and slept until we were back at the school. Apparently, the whole thing was to be moving to a more comfortable environment soon. I just didn’t know where. I was glad that it was happening though; it felt like I was in a freaking hospital.

At the moment, I was getting ready to leave and go back home. I wouldn’t see Frank for another two weeks, as they’ve decided to counsel them separately and see how things are and to make sure that nobody is physically or emotionally abusing anybody. I find it hard to believe that people could actually be cruel to a person with special needs. It just isn’t right – especially humane.

“Hey Frank, I gotta go,” I told him, rubbing his shoulder.

“Aw, why?” he asked, making me giggle.

“Because I have to go home,” I told him. “Besides, they won't let me stay here.”

“Not even for a-a little bit?” he asked, looking at me with big eyes.

“I'm sorry, but no. I really want to talk with you some more because you're really fun and nice, but I can't. I’ll talk to you later though; I promise,” I said.

He kept looking at me as if he were expecting something. I almost forgot.

I opened my arms with a smile and he hugged me instantly. I laughed at how eager he was.

“You're m-my first friend,” he said. I could tell his face was just covered with my hair.

I truly didn’t know what to say to that. I couldn’t tell him the same because I didn’t want to lie to him. But, I didn’t know what else to say. Damn it; why do I have to be such a pushover?

“You're my friend too, Frankie,” I finally told him as he eventually let go of me.

*****

“Dude, leave me alone,” I laughed, pushing Brian away from me as we walked through the mall. It was Saturday, meaning that I had nothing better to do than go to the mall with him. He's been my friend since the eighth grade, so we were pretty close.

“Oh, hey, you wanna go to the bookstore?” Brian asked.

“Why? Since when did you read books?” I asked, half amused.

“I don’t know. I just like looking in bookstores, and for your information, I'm really beginning to like books,” he said, sticking his tongue out at me.

“Well that’s just dandy,” I laughed.

“Gerard, shut up. I am allowed to be knowledgeable, okay?” he said.

“Whatever. I'm surprised that you're able to make up the word knowledgeable,” I smirked.

“It’s not a real word?” he asked. He totally fell for it. I burst out laughing and he just looked at me. “Is it a real word?” he asked me, completely dumbfounded.

“Yes, you dumbass,” I said.

He slapped me hard and we kept walking. As we were about to walk away from the bookstore, someone caught my eye.

“Frank!” I yelled, waving my arms. Frank's head jumped up and he quickly spotted me. I made Brian come with me and I walked as calmly as I could to Frank.

“Hi,” I said cheerfully, smiling.

“Hi Gerard,” Frank giggled.

“Are you here by yourself?” I asked him, now wondering about his safety.

“No, m-my Mom, she's in there.”

He pointed to Barnes and Noble.

“Oh,” I said, nodding my head. “Well Frank, this is my friend Brian, and Brian, this is my friend Frank, the one I was telling you about,” I said, introducing them. Frank just smiled as Brian gave him a small wave.

A few minutes later, after listening to Frank tell us a story about how his dog ran into the screen door and broke it, his Mom came out.

“Hello, can I help you?” she asked, protectively putting her hand on Frank's shoulder.

“Oh, I'm sorry. My name’s Gerard and—“

“From the program? Sorry to interrupt,” she said, blushing a little bit.

“Uh, yeah,” I told her.

“It’s wonderful to meet you Gerard. Frank talks about you almost nonstop. I think that you're definitely going to be a great influence on him, and I'm so happy that I got the pleasure of meeting you,” she said as she continued to shake my hand before dropping it.

“It’s really no problem. Frank's wonderful, to be completely honest. I love hanging out with him,” I said truthfully.

After a few more minutes of talking, I found out that his Mom’s name is Linda. We exchanged numbers, in case I ever wanted to meet with Frank outside of the program. I then spent the rest of the day goofing off with Brian until we finally departed and I went home. I looked at the “brochure” type thing that I got when I joined the program and nothing in it said that I couldn’t socialize with Frank outside of “meeting” days. I don’t know why there would be rules prohibiting that, but you can never be too sure. I went to sleep listening to Mikey’s obnoxiously loud music coming from his room. It was (unfortunately) normal for him to play heavy metal eighties bands until the early morning hours during the summer. I didn’t care too much though; I was pretty happy tonight.