When Did Your Heart Go Missing?

The rest of the night was slow. We awkwardly ate dinner with the Dictator (my mom). Bob and Kelsey stopped sucking face long enough to laugh at Frank for being kicked out of his girlfriend's house by her parents.

"It's because of my tattoos!" Frank had said. "They think I have gang ties our something!" And he whispered to me, 'I'd rather be here with you, anyway.'

Damn it, did that get me blushing. No. I can't like him...

Ray never showed. The 'seniors' were showing symptoms of 'senioritis'. We'd watched stupid movies. Gerard eventually picked Mikey up. And Bob and Kelsey left. And now Frank and I...

"Frank!" my mom yelled up the stairs over the music. "Your mom wants you home!"

Frank and I stopped dancing. Yes, dancing! We're fourteen, what can I say? We'd been working on that stupid math homework. And he realized I was stressed (you know, Rodney and the Dictator) and turned up the stereo. Dancing along to the Ramones never felt so good. Especially since Frank's hands were in mine.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Frank breathed, turning down the music.

"Actually, not tomorrow," I said. He pouted like the adorable guy he is. "Remember? Kelsey wanted that "girls' day" or what ever."

"Oh," Frank said, laughing. "So you can talk about girl stuff. Like, oh my gosh! Billy is so hot!"

I laughed at Frank's 'impersonation'.

"Bye, Frankie," I said, pushing him out through my door.

"You don't wanna talk some more?" he asked, turning around and looking at me with concern in his eyes. That made me angry.

"That's what Kelsey's "girls' day" is for," I whispered to him harshly. "If I needed my friends to treat me like a mental case, and like all of you are my therapists, I would've asked."

Frank looked unfazed. It was just so tiring that all my friends thought I needed to "talk". I wasn't that damn angry and depressed all the time. They didn't need to treat me like this.

"Okay," Frank said simply. He kissed my cheek and walked down the stairs. I smiled. He knew me enough to drop the subject when I wanted him to.

I went back inside my room and lay down for maybe a few seconds. Then, the Dictator stormed in.

"What the fuck is your problem?" she asked. Neigh, yelled. You'd be surprised this lady is in her forties.

"You," I whispered. I shouldn't have, though. She hears everything.

She grabbed my arm and made me stand up from my oh-so-comfortable bed.

"Why'd you bring all your stupid friends here?" she yelled.

"They aren't stupid and I didn't bring them," I whispered. Then I smiled. "They brought themselves."

She shoved me against the wall. "You're grounded."

Wow. Grounded. Sarcasm intended.

"Why?" I asked her.

"For having a stupid boyfriend when I'd told you...you are too young...and for bringing your fucking friends in my house to do God knows what."

"We were just hanging out, Mom. It's not a crime to have a social life. Oh, right. You don't know what a social life is."

She grabbed my arms so tightly then that I felt her nails claw into my skin.

"No TV," she began, "no phone, no crappy music, no fucking computer and no leaving this house except for school until a week after summer vacation starts. And don't you dare fucking talk to me like that."

She pushed me against a bookshelf, causing all the books to fall and hit my head.

I sat against the wall a few minutes, trying not to cry. Then my cell phone rang and I took it out of my pocket, answering it quickly before my mom heard it.

"Hello," I whispered into it.

"Your mom sure can yell." It was Frank. He was always looking out for me.

"You heard that?" I whispered.

"Yeah. Everyone on the block heard that." I shuddered. "And I'll hang up soon so you don't get in any more trouble."

No. Please don't hang up soon...

"Remember one thing, okay, Layla?" he whispered. I was already feeling better. Just hearing his voice. I nodded and then felt stupid because he couldn't see me. "I love you, Layla. Don't forget to smile."

I didn't forget. I smiled even after he hung up. And I closed my phone and braced myself for the next boring and painful one and a half weeks.