This Is How I Disappear

You can do this, Frank. You’re an idiot, but you can do this. What Tess said when she was a spoiled brat has nothing to do with what happened to Helena. It’s not like she has superpowers or anything… unless you count her dazzling green eyes as a superpower. Okay, focus! Take a deep breath, knock on the door. It’s all cool man, you can do this. God I wish the voices in my head would go away instead of telling me what to do when I’ve been a jerk. But then again, if no one told me what to do, I’d probably still be sitting in my apartment playing “Helena” over and over again. Anyway, I should knock on the door now, but I’m not really sure how many knocks is appropriate for a apology-to-be. One? Two? Three? Or maybe it doesn’t matter. Ugh, I’m gonna go with three knocks, just to be sure.

“Who is it?” Tess says on the other side of the door.

“Duh, it’s Frank”

“What do you want?” Oh my God, so typical girls, asking a question she already knows the answer to.

“I just wanna talk to you. Could you open the door, please?” I guess I’m the one with superpowers, she opens the door right away. I was prepared for some serious begging.

“Tess, I’m really sorry. I overreacted, and it was really unfair to just walk away”

“Go on”

God. “Well, I’m hoping you can forgive me. I mean, the wedding is two days away, we can’t not speak at their wedding, don’t you agree?”

“I guess… Argh, okay, come on in, we should really get some sleep”

The night apparently flew by, because before I know it I’m having breakfast with a hormonal bride-to-be, an ass of a friend and a girl who’s obviously still mad at me. Great.
“You’re coming with me to get a tux today, right Frankie?” Gerard asks me with his mouth full of pancakes. Well, it sounded more like a demand rather that a question, but this isn’t the time to make a smart comment about it.

“Sure, I need a tux anyway, so it’s actually perfect” And I get to get away from Tess for a few hours, and hopefully it’ll give her time to cool off.

“Great! We leave in a few minutes, so you should get ready”

“Honey, have you forgotten about the florist? You promised you would come with” Juliah exclaimed slightly upset.

“Right. Well, I guess Tess could go with you instead? We’ll just drop you off and then go get the tux?”

“Fine. God, I’m lucky if you show up in church on Saturday” she says and rolls her eyes.

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go get ready” I say and excuse myself from the table, almost running upstairs.

“Hey, you” I hear Tess say behind me.

“Hey. I’d really love to talk, but Gee’s kinda waiting for me. And you should really get dressed”

“I know, I just wanted to make sure everything’s cool between us”

“Well, is it?” I stop what I’m doing and wait for an answer. And after what seems like an eternity, she nods her head.

“Great! So I’m gonna let you get dressed. Meet you in the car?”

“Yeah”

I run downstairs and out the door, both Gee and Juliah is in the car giving me a look that says I’ve been taking way to long. I guess I should shorten my morning-ritual. Maybe I could pull off the caveman look or something.
I get in the car and see Tess running towards the car (without getting any weird looks from Gerard. So unfair) and she sits down in the backseat beside me.

“You kids ready to go?” Gerard says and looks in the rearview mirror. We both nod our heads in response, and everyone can just feel the tension. I thought we were cool? I guess I could make an effort to make her realize I’m sorry, so I carefully take her hand and smile at her, and I’m glad to see her smiling back at me.