Suffering Alone In Silence

Frank’s POV

We have finished up eating and I helped stack the dishwasher. We are all still sitting around the kitchen table talking, about nothing and everything, when Donna announces that she has a surprise for me.

“Now Frank, we all know that what you have in your bag is all you have, so when I knew you were coming home to stay I went out and bought you some things that you will need.” She starts, walking out of the room.

“Just stay there and I will bring it all in for you.” She calls from somewhere in the house.

Soon she returns, and places two big bags on the kitchen table.

“This should see you through for a little bit.” She smiles, before gesturing for me to open the bags.

I take a step forward and take hold of the bag. I put it on the ground so I can sit down and look. I open the bag and look inside. I gasp when I realise what she had gotten me. Inside the first bag is clothes, and lots of them.

“Gerard and Mikey took me shopping because I had no idea what you liked to wear. They took me to Hot Topic. It was definitely a learning curve.” She laughs.

I start pulling everything out of the bag. Five pairs of jeans, three button up tops in black, red and green, and two new band shirts.

“Wow...Thank you so much Donna.” I gush.

I get up and hug her tightly.

“You’re very welcome dear. With the clothes you already have, you should have nearly a week’s worth of clothes.” She says, petting my hair soothingly.

“How about you open the other bag,” She suggests.

I nod and pull away from her. I get the other, smaller bag and take a look inside. I pull out a new mobile phone, and some school materials. I felt really rich. I had a mobile phone.

“Oh, wow...” I trail off.

Suddenly sobs are wracking my body.

“Frank? Sweetie, what’s the matter dear?” She asks, pulling me to her and petting my head.

“It’s...s-so...g-gener-erous...Thank you...you shouldn’t have.” I mumble, between sobs.

“Oh sweetie, you are worth every penny,” She soothes.

“I just feel unbelievably rich,” I state.

“Does that make me superficial?” I ask, feeling nervous.

“No dear, that makes you grateful. When the little things in life make you feel rich, you are grateful for everything else.” She replies, still petting my hair.

When I feel that I am calm, I pull away from her embrace.

“Thank you, like, so much. I really appreciate your generosity,” I say.

“You are most certainly welcome,” She smiles back at me.

“Thanks too, for all the hugs...” I trail off.

“Honey, if you need a hug, I will never deny it to you.” She says, petting the side of my face.

“Hey Frankie, let’s go take all your stuff upstairs to your room, and you can try on all your new clothes.” Mikey perks up.

“Okay.” I say, with a big smile.

I glance at Donna and she nods. I smile and we take everything upstairs. In the next hour I try on all my clothes and parade them to Gerard and Donna. We all smile and laugh, and have a good time. I feel dizzy and light. I think this is happiness but I can’t be too sure. Donna is such a great pretend mom. If only my real mom was this nice. Just thinking about her and my dad bring my mood down a bit, so I ignore the thoughts and continue the night with Mikey helping me to get my school stuff together. I am now a year behind Mikey, but he says that’s okay, and that he’ll try his ‘damned hardest’ to get me up to his grade. This is unnerving to say the least.