The Past is Only the Future with the Lights On

---Tuesday, December 16th---

Four months had passed since I moved in with my grandma and, still, no words about when I'd be going back to Bridgewater had been spoken - not that I was in a hurry to go back. In fact, I'd be perfectly content with staying with my grandma until I either moved out or went to college.

Phone calls from dad had become a weekly occurrence - he'd explained that he would have called more often had he not been so deep in his work. And each time we talked, I noted he'd sounded happier than ever (which was odd considering not once did we ever talk about my playing soccer or even the sport itself.

For once, we were talking about real things.

There was once weekend he even stopped by and took my grandma and I to dinner. But Frank happened to be visiting his own dad that weekend, so he never got a chance to meet him.

Frank; that boy was something special. And, with each passing day, hell, each passing second, I'd found myself falling harder and harder for him. Now, I wouldn't say I was in love with him, yet.

Even after four months, I was yet to find a flaw about him. Everything about him was just perfect, and always seemed to amaze me.

On several accounts, I even got to see their band perform. And let me tell you, these boys were gonna be famous one day.

Yeah, so it wasn't love yet with him. I was just in a very strong like for him.

And unlike Dahlia, who had finally made her feelings clear to Mikey, I could never tell Frank. Dahlia was one of the lucky ones, where Mikey felt the same feelings for her. With Frank, we're just friends. And telling him my feelings would destroy that; and possibly make him get a restraining order against me.

And, although I had already broken one of my 'rules' for staying here - about making close friends - I wasn't going to break another.

All of these thoughts had been flying through my mind as I walked to my locker for lunch, alone.

What? I never walked from geometry to my locker alone. Dammit. I forgot Frank!

"Woah. Trying to ditch me there?" my ears were suddenly greeted by Frank's familiar voice as I turned around to come face to face with Frank himself.

"Sorry," I laughed lightly, shaking my head at my idiocy. "I wasn't thinking."

"It's cool," Frank shrugged, patting my head gently with his hand, only reminding me of how shitty it looked with my noticeable blood roots and faded black and purple ends.

"So. . .got any plans after school?" he asked conversationally, practically reading my mind, as I stopped at my locker and Frank began entering the code to his lock a few lockers over from mine.

"Nothin' I can think of, but I would like to do my hair before I see my dad again next week," I told him, grabbing the brown paper bag from the top shelf of my locker, and sticking it in my messenger bag. "You?" I glanced over at him as I slammed the door shut, seeing that he was doing the same.

"I still need to get some Christmas presents for the guys," he explained, the guys being Bob, Gerard, and Ray, who had been hanging out with us a lot lately and I had grown to love like Frank, Mikey, and Dahlia.

"Cool, then we can go to the mall together later, yeah?" I asked, those two, large doors to the cafeteria coming into view.

I watched him smile and nod as he ran a couple feet ahead of me to hold the door open for me gentlemanly.

I shot him a thankful smile before he returned by my side. We walked to our usual table, Mikey and Dahlia already sitting there.

Remember how Frank and I were trying to guess how much longer it would take for them to hook up on his birthday? We were both wrong. Dahlia ended up telling him the very next day (and I might have known that if I wasn't caught up in my own thoughts on our walk to Frank's house from the Halloween carnival) on their walk home together and he told her he felt the same, blah, blah, blah. Then, the following day at school, he asked her out and they've been practically inseparable ever since.

Lucky bastards.

I took my normal seat next to Dahlia, my eyes helplessly wandering to Frank as he sat down across me and next to Mikey.

"Dude, I'm sorry, but your hair looks like shit," Dahlia's voice filled my ears and pulled my from my stare at the beautiful boy sitting across from me as I felt one of her fingers begin to poke through my hair.

"Thanks. That's just what I want to hear from one of my best friends. I love you too, D," I said, unable to hide the smile on my face as Frank and Mikey simply laughed at how forward Dahlia was with me.

I didn't need to be told my hair looked like shit. I saw it every morning I woke up. I just never made a date to have it re-done.

"I said sorry. Besides, would you prefer if I lied and told you I loved it? Of course not," she smiled proudly as she answered her own question, only causing my to shake my head in disbelief at her.

"Whatever. I'm going after school anyways," I said as my hand reached into my lunch bag and pulled out a bag of Dorritos's.

"Ooh! Dorrito's!" Frank exclaimed, reminding me of a little kid as he practically lept across the blue lunch table to grab the tiny red bag from my grasp.

"Sure, you can have my chips," I told Frank, already stuffing the orange, triangular shaped snacks into his mouth viciously.