Frankie

Annapolis was home. There was always something about Annapolis that Francesca missed. She never had the best memories there, but she also never had the worst. It was just home.

Francesca rested her head on the window, just watching the scenery pass her by. Drew was on her left driving and Gwen in the back sleeping. There was a comfortable silence in the car just the radio playing some classical music Francesca put on earlier.

Drew took his eyes off the road and looked at his depressed sister. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked suddenly.

Ever since he picked up Francesca from her dorm, she had a sad look on her face and she was more distant from everyone. They weren't as close as their mother would've liked them to be, especially because of the age difference and them running in different circles, but they knew each other fairly well. It wasn't until five years ago, when he and Francesca got into a car accident, that they became much closer. Even if they weren't joined to the hips, he could tell when something was bothering her, he acted the same way.

Francesca lifted her head from the window and looked at Drew with a blank stare. "Not really," she whispered so that Gwen wouldn't wake up.

Since the dinner, Francesca hadn't talked to Gwen about what Jordan had done or that he had appeared in her dorm steps to apologize. She was sure that Gwen would get mad at her for pretty much telling Jordan to leave her alone. Gwen was determined to get Frankie to like Jordan and get over Ryan.

"It's just not something you'd feel comfortable talking about," she further explained.

"Is this about Jordan?"

Francesca's eyes widened and she say up straight, her body stiffening.

Chuckling, Drew gave his sister a sceptical look. "I'm not that out of tune with my baby sister's life. Ry told me that you guys double dated and you brought Jordan. I didn't know that you knew him."

Sighing, Francesca nodded. "Gwen introduced me to the team a few weeks back and then I bumped into Jordan when I dropped off your pain meds. I didn't know that you were Jordan's mechanic."

"A few of the guys on the team are customers there, actually," he confessed.

Drew pulled up on a familiar driveway of a large red bricked house. Francesca grew increasingly excited to see her parents and to be able to talk to her mom about what had been going on in her life. Drew stopped the car, and as soon as he killed the engine, Francesca bolted out of the car and rang the doorbell.

"Mom!" Francesca exclaimed and hugged her mother the moment the brunette woman answered the door. "I missed you!" she said happily, breathing in her perfume.

Edith smiled and rubbed her daughter's back, also missing her little girl. "Hey baby girl," she said with her distinct South Carolina accent. "I missed you too."

The mother and daughter continued to hug until Drew was behind Francesca; then Edith went to hug her oldest child just as tightly.

He let out a light chuckle. "I missed you too, mom."

"Gwen! How are you dear? Glad that you could spend the long weekend with us," Edith greeted the blonde, who was behind Drew, hair a mess from her nap.

Gwen smiled and opened her arms to receive Edith's motherly hug. "I'm fine, Mrs. Ryan," she said shyly, hugging the woman back.

The moment Gwen broke the hug; Timothy Ryan appeared behind his wife. From the corner of her eye, Francesca could see Drew stiffen and stand up straighter. The atmosphere tensed up significantly and everyone quieted down. Tim had a strict smile on his face that always made everyone nervous. His politics smile.

Drew cleared his throat. "Dad," he said in a tone unfamiliar to someone like Drew and nodded.

Tim also acknowledged Drew with a smile and turned to Francesca and Gwen, giving them a small smile. "Andrew, Francesca, Gwen, good to have you guys home."

"Hey dad," Francesca gave him a small wave and smile.

"Hey, Mr. Ryan."

Edith sighed, sensing the tense atmosphere. She thought two years apart would ease the tension between father and son, but it didn't. "Why are we still outside? Come in, come in," she ushered them inside the house. "Tim, could you get their things?"

Francesca panned the room and smiled. She was home.

*

As a child, it never really bothered Francesca that all the little boys would chase after the prettier girls but when it came to her they would run. She usually had her head stuck in a book or something more interesting. She never noticed, so she never cared.

Entering her high school years, Francesca was a pimple faced, glass eyed, gangly teen that was known as Andrew Ryan's, quarterback extraordinaire, little sister. She remembered clearly, people frequently asking her if she really was Drew's sister. Often they would laugh and wonder what happened to her.

While he was amazingly athletic and popular, Frankie was the type of girl that would freeze in terror when a ball so much as even rolled her way. People would argue with the gym teacher to no have her on their team, but would fight to be her partner in other subjects.

She was never able to catch any boy's attention because she wasn't the most stunning thing out there, and her feelings were often unrequited. Francesca quickly grew used to it and gave up on liking guys all together and focused on school.

Francesca couldn't remember when it started, she guessed it was when some girls were picking on her and he stood up for her, but she started liking Ryan during her last year in elementary. He was the only boy to show any genuine interest in her, not because she was Drew's sister or the mayor's daughter.

Edith knocked on her daughter's bedroom door and waited patiently for her to answer, but when she didn't hear a thing, she entered. "Frankie, honey, are you alright?" she asked and saw Frankie sitting on the ledge of her window sill, looking out at the sky.

Slowly, her head turned and she looked at her mother and shook her head. "Not really," whispered Francesca.

"What's wrong baby girl?" Edith asked worriedly and sat beside her, wrapping her arms around her daughter.

Francesca sighed. "There's this boy…" she trialed off. "Gwen introduced me to him and his team mates," she continued when she saw her mother's encouraging eyes. "He's a really nice guy, and mom, he's so cute," Francesca gushed, a wide smile spread across her face.

When Edith heard Francesca gush about this boy, she grew excited. She had never seen her daughter act like a young woman her age, boy crazy and girl. No, she always acted like a proper woman well beyond her years. Sure, she knew about Francesca being in love with Ryan, but with Ryan, Francesca's confused her feelings for admiration, this boy was completely different.

"He's really sweet and for some reason, whenever I'm with him. I find myself always distracted, like there's nothing else but me and him."

Edith nodded, knowing full well that her daughter really liked this guy. "Then why are you so sad?"

"We were pretending to being dating, because he told his brother that he had a girlfriend that wasn't promiscuous and I owed him for helping me with my Ryan problem. Things were going great, he was great. But then this waitress came along and he started flirting with her. I shouldn't have bothered me, but seeing him flirt with her made me feel like I wasn't worth his time, which is ridiculous because we were only flirting and I didn't like him like that.

"But when I saw them together, I just felt like crawling under my covers and never resurfacing. It's weird because when I'm not with him, all I can thing about is him and my chest starts to beat really fast when he is around. Mom what's that supposed to mean?" Francesca looked at her mother helplessly as tears started to form from being so overwhelmed.

Edith smiled and rubbed her daughter's arm comfortingly as Francesca rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "You like him," she stated simply.

Eye widening, Francesca lifted her head from her mother's shoulder and looked at her. "What?"

*

Gwen groaned when her phone rang for the tenth time since she got to Annapolis. She knew it was Jordan and she was rather shocked at how persistent he was with Frankie, he was never like that with other girls.

She smiled at Drew and excused herself from the table, stepping outside to the backyard shutting the door behind her. "What?" Gwen asked rudely.

"Geez, do you have to be such a major bitch?" Jordan asked sarcastically.

Gwen clenched her hands tightly. "Jordan Staal, you have a lot of nerve to be calling me after what you did to Frankie."

"I'm sorry okay? What else do you want me to do? I know I was a douche bag and I really want to make it up to her. I like Frankie okay!" he confessed.

Eyes widening, Gwen almost choked on her own spit. "What? You… like her? Like no lie, you have feelings for Fran?" she asked disbelievingly.

Jordan sighed tiredly and scratched the back of his head in frustration. "Yes! I like her, she's different. Her awkwardness and the way she's incredibly smart, I find really cute and it only took Frankie telling me that she never wanted to see me again to realize it!" he confessed.

"Wow… you really like her." Gwen's lips turned into a smile, Jordan liked Francesca, but she didn't expect him to be so open about it.

"Can you please, give me her address? I want to tell her in person," he begged her.

For a moment, Gwen was stunned, but she quickly recovered. "You're seriously going to drive all the way here?" she asked sceptically, but gave her address none the less.

"Yes, Frankie deserves and explanation and proper apology. Thank you Gwen."

"Good luck Jordan."