The Past is Only the Future with the Lights On

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After hours of watching movies – mainly comedy for the sake of little Hannah – eating junk food and other baked treats my grandma had made us, pulling pranks on each other at the most random and oblivious of times, and having to continuously remind the guys to watch what they say and keep it PG in front of Hannah, we’d finally fallen asleep in the living room.

Ray had called dibs on the biggest couch, claiming that if he had slept on the floor, it would ‘eff’ – keeping it PG here – his back and we’d all be sorry in the morning. Bob and Gerard had, somehow, miraculously managed to squeeze both of themselves on the other couch. Why they even wanted to sleep together on the same small couch beat me. I guess they were both fighting over it, then finally decided it would only be fair if they both slept on it. And I wasn’t about to remind them that they’d be staying for another night. This sight was just too amusing. Mikey and Dahlia were asleep on the floor in front of the big couch, still in each other’s arms. Hannah and I ended up passing out in the same sleeping bag, just a few feet away from the cute couple. And then there was Frank, peacefully sleeping in the empty space between Mikey and Dahlia’s sleeping bags, and Hannah and me.

I was curious about what him and Mikey had been talking about when they first came in, but when they came back downstairs, offering me hugs and acting as though nothing had happened, I just shrugged it off. It was none of my business anyways. If I was meant to know, Frank would have come to me, not Mikey. And who knows? Maybe Mikey had come to Frank about something.

When we woke up in themorning afternoon, we all gathered around the dining table, eating the waffles, eggs and hash browns grandma had made for us like we were savages that hadn’t seen food in years. Which, you know, was kinda true. We were pretty sav.

Without warning, Hannah leaned in close to my ear from the seat beside me, and I could instantly smell the scent of syrup on her breath. Confused, I leaned in a bit as well, sensing movement as she put her hand next to my ear.

Her tiny voice was even quieter as she whispered in my ear. “Pretend I’m telling you something funny about Gerard.”

I just laughed at how childish it was of her – and how frustrated I knew it would make Gerard. Nodding my head along with hers, I looked across the table at Gerard, who had his suspicious stare on Hannah, sensing she was talking about him.

“What – what is she saying about me?” he demanded, quite loudly, pointing a finger at the small child beside me. The whole table grew silent as all eyes fell on the three of us.

Hannah and I continued to laugh. “What makes you think she’s talking about you?” I queried, raising my eyebrow.

But Gerard was holding his ground. He knew something fishy was up – if only he knew it was nothing to fret about. “She looked at me when she whispered in your ear. She said something about me!” He threw his hands in the air in annoyance and, as I had already guessed, frustration.

I scoffed. “’Cause this seven year old has such a boring life that she spends it talking about you; a person she hasn’t even known a day. Yup. You caught us,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. Oh yeah. I can be a good actress when I try.

“Okay, Kelly. I know it may seem a bit immature to think,” he tried to reason with me, everyone around us listening, intrigued and amused by what was going on, “but you didn’t see the way she looked at me. It looked as if – OHMIGAWD!!!” There she goes doing it again! Aren’t you going to control your sister, Kelly? She is definitely talking about me!”

And that is how the feud between the two of them started. Gerard had to keep a fair distance away from the seven year old otherwise he’d get all over protective and accuse her of spreading crap about him. It was funny, to say the least. This girl was officially the coolest and funniest seven year old I’d ever met…not that I knew many seven year olds. I’m not a pedophile or anything…that’s not my thing.

After walking the couple blocks to the park in our neighborhood – yes, the same park Frank had first tried kissing my at – we all broke up into two teams – Frank, Hannah, Bob and I on one team, and Mikey, Dahlia, Ray and Gee on the other – and played an intense game of Battle of the Air Bands on the play structure, which lasted a whole two minutes before we decided we were bored with that. So we just decided to run around the playground, being our normal, idiotic, immature selves, instead.

Now, spending nearly four hours here with my best friends, exhausted as hell from all this physical activity going on that my body certainly was not use to, I sprawled my body out across the highest flat surface of the playground, glad to be resting my overworked muscles. My eyes fluttered closed as my body relaxed against the cool metal. My friends had also taken their stations at various places around the park, the atmosphere actually quiet for the first time since we’d arrived.

Planning this really was a good idea. It had been a while since the whole lot of us had actually gotten together and did something like this, so I think it had been a sort of relief for all of us. With school and everything, we all needed a break sometime. And that’s just what this was. A freaking kick ass weekend with the coolest and greatest people ever, not having a car in the world.

The wind began to pick up a bit, whipping my hair around my face in all directions. I could hear the skidding of fresh leaves along the pavement, and the crunching of the tam bark beneath feet, but thought nothing of it; I knew it was just one of the besties, probably off to use the public restroom. After all, it had been about thirty minutes since we all collapsed.

I turned onto my side, my eyes remaining tightly closed, and inhaled a deep, long breath of air, taking in the scent of spring and…vanilla? My body relaxed even more at this calming odor, but it didn’t take long for it to grow stiff.

I’ve always been one to be extra paranoid, so this smell was quite uncomforting for me. I began to feel as if I was being watched, and it only freaked me out even more. Cautiously and slowly opening my eyes, I was met by the sight of a blurred, green wall of the playground. I sighed to myself, thinking how silly it was for me to be like this at times. Closing my eyes once more and trying to get myself comfortable again, I turning on my other side, that scent still fresh in my nostrils. I decided to just brush it off though. No need to get myself overwhelmed for nothing.

“Uhm…” a familiar voice startled me, only seconds later. My eyes shot open and the realization of the vanilla hit me. Of course it was Frank’s voice; Frank’s vanilla; Frank’s eyes watching me.

“What’s up, Frank?” I asked, my voice a bit rough from all the yelling and singing and what not I’d done in the previous hours. Propping myself up on my elbows, he came over from his crouched position a few feet away from me to sit cross-legged next to me.

“Well, the guys left a few minutes ago, and I stayed to let you sleep, but got tired of waiting for you to wake up and just decided to do so myself,” he said, smiling smugly. I had actually fallen asleep? Jeez.

“Oh, sorry for keeping you here,” I quickly apologized, standing myself up and brushing my pants and shirt off. “You could have woken my up sooner, I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep.” Frank cut off what we both probably knew was about to be a ramble of mine by tugging on my wrist, motioning for me to sit back down.

Confused, I did as I was silently asked, leaning against a large pillar in the middle of the floor. He stayed where he was, though a look of pure worry and uneasiness was now clearly etched across his face and his fingers were tweaking out at his sides.

“Dude, Frank…you okay? You’re kinda spazzin’ out,” I pointed out dumbly, trying to laugh to lighten the uncomfortable aura that had formed around us in such little time. Having very little luck, too, I if I may add.

His fingers continued tapping and his facial expression remained apprehensive. “Kelly, I need to talk to you…its well, kind of important,” he started, his nervous eyes taking that my nod meant for him to continue. “Uhm…well…I’ve been thinking lately…like, a lot lately, and I really have no idea how I’m going to say this but-“