Origins

“Frances!” I call out as I knock on my hotel room door. She or should I say I pull it open. “Holy shit,” I freak out at seeing myself.

“Oh thank God!” She sobs and hugs me.

“Rough day?” I ask…myself.

“Yes! Some guy pushed came up and bashed me, another pushed me onto the train tracks and some chic slapped me,” Frances sobs as I escort her to my room and sit her down. Then I hug her and tell her she’s making me sound like a wuss, which makes her laugh and stop crying. I smile and tell her about my day, leaving out the part where I found out about her liking me. “You didn’t!” She exclaims when I tell her about Janice.

“Pscht, its ok. If she annoys you again tell me and I’ll sort her out for you,” I tell her. We talk for ages and eventually we fall asleep.

*

At four the next morning I wake up and feel my chest. No boobs, then I touch my groin. Yep everything is back, so I put my arm around Frances, who is back in her own body, and pull the covers up. She wakes when I do this so I kiss her shoulder. “Go back to sleep babe,” I tell her. She instead rolls over and kisses me, we make out then she pulls her top off and I push her away.

“Frances are you sure?” I ask her.

“Izack, I love you,” Frances tells me.

“I love you too Frankee,” I tell her using ‘Frankee’ for the first time.

“You do?” She asks sitting back a bit more.

“Yes, since I first saw you. Almost 6 years ago,” I touch her side gently.

“I… you remember that?” She asks amazed.

“Yes, of course! I mean how can I forget? You looked so beautiful, as you tackled Hamish into the mud,” We both laugh and I notice as the tension that was in her body seems to visibly melt away as we laugh together in the small hours of the morning. I sit up and she leans into me again. My hand brushes the belly bar and I remember the ‘I’ as we look down at once.

“It stands for your name you know, my mum doesn’t know, no one does and…” She turns to show me her back, “If you look closely at the top left hand corner, the boarder has writing in it,”

“It’s my name…” I touch it lightly and her back arches.

“Tickles…” She mutters. I smile and trave my hand up her back and she moves away from it. “It tickles Izack.”

“What if I do this?” I kiss her shoulder as I unhook her bra and slip it off of her shoulders.

“No,” She squeaks as she turns to face me and we softly kiss. The song ‘Feeling This’ by her favourite band blink-182 comes to mind as I smile and we discard our clothes, dropping them to the floor as we do.

*

We break apart sweaty, panting but smiling. Frankee kisses me again. The whole time we hadn’t seemed to stop kissing.

“Izack,” Frankee whispers.

“What?” I ask worried.

“I just lost my virginity to you,” She mutters.

“Yeah, same,” I smile and kiss her again. She rests her head on my chest and pulls the sheet and doona up to shield us against the ‘cold and low’ air. I look down at her soon after to see her sleeping softly. I smile and let the calm waves of sleep envelope me too.

***

“You two need to get up, it’s past midday,” My brother and assistant coach of the football team bangs on the door. We sit up, look at each other and start laughing for no particular reason. We pull on our underwear and pants just before my brother Brent walks into the room. “What’s so funny?”

“Don’t know,” Frankee looks at me, then bends over and picks up her shirt.

“Wow nice tat Frances,” Brent admires.

“Thanks, but it’s not finished yet,” She smiles, throws on her shirt and winks at me.

“Oh, well your mum called before and asked if you were here,” He tells us.

“Oh, what did you say?” Frankee asks.

“That I hadn’t seen you. I told her you were over at Blythe’s, then called her and told her,” Brent smiles.

“Thanks Brent, I owe you one,” Frankee hugs him then looks at me. “I best be going then,” She smiles sadly.

“I’ll walk you to the bus stop,” I offer.

“Ok, sure,” She accepts with another, happier smile and focuses her currently emerald green eyes on me. She doesn’t look like she’ll need the anti-depressants anymore, a definite plus! We get to the bus stop as the bus arrives. “I guess I’ll see you around then.”

“Yeah…” I think for a second and decide that it’s the right thing. “Be my girlfriend Frankee?”

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to her you ask me that,” She kisses me.

“So that’s a yes then?” I ask earnestly.

“Yes, you’re such a dork, but I like that about you Zacky,” She kisses me again and hops on the bus, the doors shut behind her and it drives away. I stand there for a minute then go inside the hotel to get rid of all my alcohol.

*

Brent walks in as I pour the last bottle down the drain.

“What are you doing?” He asks bewildered.

“Making either the worse mistake or the best idea come true,” I throw the bottle into the recycling.

“Ok then. Now where are you going?” He asks.

“To go tell a few girls I don’t want to see them anymore,” I grimace.

“Ouch, well I’m pulling for you bro. Good luck with that, recommend me,” Brent chuckles and leaves to tell my team members about my weird behaviour.

*

Five nasty and mentally exhausting phone calls later and I’m beginning to second guess myself. Then Frankee calls me.

“Hello?”

“Hey Zacky.”

“What’s up?”

“I seem to have left my keys at your place and my family aren’t home. Could you bring them over?”

“Sure I’ll be there in 45.”

“Thanks, see you then.”

“Yep, bye.”

And we hang up. I grab my room key and the forgotten house keys. I shout to my brother and team mates that I’m going out then I go down into the lobby. I get onto the bus that heads out to where Frankee lives and halfway down the road put my iPod on. One of Frankee’s favourite Breaking Benjamin songs blast through the headphones. Count on Francesca to try and kill me with her obscene music volumes.