Dark and Dirty Like You've Never Seen

We pulled up to a one story house. It was yellow with light brown shutters. There was a line of bushes across the front of the house, littered every now and then with different colors and types of flowers. It was only about a five minute drive from my house. I’ve probably passed it dozens of times but never noticed it before amongst the other houses that caused it to fade into a certain pattern. Frank pulled his car along the curb of the road in front of the house and shut the engine off. I thought the car was quiet before, but now that the engine was shut off and the radio was no longer humming a random station, it was so quiet my ears were ringing. The only sound now was our breathing and the occasional noise of the engine cooling off. I had composed myself at this point; no more tears or sniffling or red eyes. I was able to look at Frank without getting upset. He returned the look and squeezed my hand one last time before letting go.

“So, are you ready to meet my friends?” He asked, his tone finally brightening up. I nodded and gave him the best smile I could muster up. “Good. Now, I’ll have to warn you, they’re a little … different. It’s hard to explain. They’re … well you’ll just have to meet them. You can leave your stuff in the car.” I gave him a questioning look, but decided I could trust him. We stepped out of the car and began walking toward the house. I let Frank lead the way. He took me around the side of the house where there was a garage with the door propped slightly open. I could hear faint talking along with the tuning of a guitar or something. I don’t know why I felt so nervous. We walked in to see two guys sitting on a couch against the wall. I looked at Frank but he had a confused look on his face.

“Frank? What’re you doing here?” The guy with shaggy black hair asked; he looked older than me and Frank. There was another guy sitting next to him; he had poufy brownish red hair. He also looked a little older. He didn’t say anything and kept plucking at the guitar in his hands.

“I thought we had band practice today?”

“Dude, I texted you and tried to call you. Mikey has some group project for a class he’s in and Bob had a family emergency out of town. We had to cancel. Ray and I are just working on some riffs.” The black haired guy said, standing up and running his hand through his messy hair. Well, I know everyone’s name except the guy relaying the information. That’s when his attention turned to me. I took a step back putting myself slightly behind Frank. It was a subconscious movement I didn’t mean to make. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, this is my friend Angela. Angela, this is Gerard.” He put his hand on my back, pushing me out from behind him a little bit. Gerard smiled, taking a few steps forward and offering his hand to me. I smiled shyly and shook his hand.

“If you’re friends with Frank, you’re cool with me. Don’t be fooled though; Frank’s acting all shy right now, but wait to you get to see who he really is.” He looked at Frank and gave him a knowing look. I saw Frank return a pleading look, wanting him to shut up now. Gerard just laughed and turned to go sit back on the couch. “You guys are welcome to hang out; there’s not much going on though.”

Frank turned to look at me. I knew he was waiting to see what I wanted to do. This was the only plan I had to stay away from home for a while. Did I want to hang out here with these guys I just met or do I want to go ahead and go home; get it over with? I looked over to Gerard and Ray sitting on the couch then back to Frank. I grabbed his hand and pulled him outside, not wanting to talk about this in front of them. We got outside the garage and pushed the door closed.

“I… I don’t …” I didn’t know exactly what to say or how to say it.

“Angela …” He put a hand on my shoulder and stared into my eyes. “They’re nice, I promise. You don’t have to go home. I can see if they want to go somewhere else; maybe grab some coffee or something so it’s not so awkward. Is that ok?”

“Yeah” I breathed out a sigh of relief. I’m glad he knows what I’m thinking without me having to explain myself. He smiled and turned around, leading us back into the garage. We stepped back inside to find Gerard and Ray hadn’t moved from the couch.

“Hey guys, we were thinking about going to get coffee. Did you want to come with us?” Frank asked. Ray shrugged his shoulders and Gerard stood up and stretched.

“Yeah, it beats sitting around the garage all day.” Gerard said as he started to gather up notebooks and stack them on a milk crate in the corner of the room.

“Let me run to the bathroom really quick” Ray said leaning his guitar against the wall and running inside the house.

“Alright, we’ll see you guys outside.” Frank said, turning around to leave with me following suit.

“Wait, Frank. I need to talk to you for a second.” Gerard looked at Frank, giving him a knowing look. Frank looked over at me and smiled reaching into his pocket and retrieving his keys.

“Here, you want to throw all my stuff from the back seat in the trunk and I’ll meet you in a minute?” He asked as he handed me his car keys. I looked over at Gerard with curiosity, then finally back to Frank and smiled hesitantly, taking the keys from him.

“Sure.” I turned and walked out of the garage, pushing the garage door over, but not shutting it all the way. I started to walk towards the car, but curiosity was killing me. I bit down on my lip as I turned to look at the partially open door to the garage. I decided to go back and see if I could listen in on the conversation. I quietly walked back to the door and crouched down, straining my ears to listen in. I recognized the first voice as Gerard’s.

“So, what’s up with the girl?”

“What do you mean?” Frank asked back.

“Well if you’re not dating her, then …” There was a pause, which caused my face to burn, wondering what he was most likely suggesting. I didn’t catch what Frank said, and I didn’t think I wanted to. I ran quickly to the car, popped open the trunk and put everything in as fast as I could. I slammed the trunk shut and jumped in the passenger’s seat. After a second I realized my breathing was frantic and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I put the key in the ignition and turned it back so the radio was playing, just so there was something to drown out my breathing. Just as I began to slow my heart rate and feel the heat leave my cheeks, I saw Gerard and Frank walking out of the garage with Ray trailing behind them. I let out a long sigh and felt myself slouching down in the seat a little. I saw Frank look at me and give me a weary smile. Hmmm … I wonder why? He looked over at Gerard who had a smile plastered on his face. He gave Frank a wink before hopping into the backseat behind me. Ray climbed in behind the driver’s seat, obviously out of the loop. I could tell by the expression on his face. Frank climbed in behind the wheel and turned the ignition. The car roared to life, allowing me to let out an audible groan without being noticed. I looked over to Frank about the same time he turned to me. We exchanged awkward smiles, him not knowing why mine was so strained. We finally pulled away from the house and headed to the nearest coffee shop. Maybe I should have gone home…