Platitude

I made me way up the gravel driveway and quickly dropped the box in the living room before coming back out. I stopped at the wooden doorframe and wiped the sweat from my forehead. I started coughing and fell into the bushes into the dirt encrusted ground. I was wheezing and I felt my chest tightening up and I knew what was the cause. It was from all the cigarettes and pot that I had smoked in the last couple of days before the big move. I smiled at the memories while my dad walked up the path carrying a huge box that had a tag on it that said fragile. He put it in the house before walking out and looked at me.

“Don’t you think you should be helping Frank? I told your mother we would be done by the time she got done visiting your aunt. I don’t think sitting in the dirt is going to help matters.”

I flashed a sheepish grin at my dad and shrugged. “I already carried in like three boxes. I’m tired.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I did carry in some boxes and I was feeling a little sluggish but more of it had to due with the fact that I was just being a lazy fuck.

My dad looked at me before smiling. “Okay short guy, I understand. I don’t want you to strain yourself or anything.” He then began walking back to the moving van and got some more boxes.

I shrugged his comment about my height off. I knew I wasn’t the tallest guy and after hearing the same smart remark for over sixteen years, I sort of got use to it. My height, or well lack of, was commonly the main punch line of anybody’s jokes.

I stood up from the little garden and wiped the back of my pants off. My dad soon came back with three large boxes and I felt bad about not helping him much. I walked back to the van and was surprised to see that it was empty.

“I got it all out Frankie!” My dad informed me while he stood at the door.

I quickly walked back up and stood there with him. “I’m sorry I didn’t help much Dad.”

“It’s okay. It is a rather tedious job if I do say so myself.”

I nodded in agreement. “So when is mom suppose to come home?”

“I don’t know. It’ll probably be a few more hours. You know how she is when she’s with her sister. I know that will give me enough time to blow up the air mattresses considering we haven’t set up the beds yet.”

I groaned. “Air mattresses? Dad, I hate those things. They also have no back support or anything.”

He frowned. “You’re not telling me anything new.”

“Maybe we can all get a Sleep Number?” I suggested with a laugh.

“Hmm Frank, you might have something right with. Just tell me when you save up a coupe of hundred dollars and then maybe we can talk.”

“Haha, very funny Dad. And urm, do you know when supper is going to happen at any chance?” I put a hand over my stomach and looked at the sun that was slowly setting.

“I don’t know. I’m assuming that we’ll probably eat out or order something. But I won’t be sure until Linda comes back. Hey, why don’t you go walk around the neighborhood?”

“What?”

“Well I figured that you would get bored of sitting in the house with me. We haven’t got any internet hooked up yet and no TV. And I know how teenagers are without those two things.”
“You’re cranky without those things,” I said with a slight smirk.

“Well yeah, but you’re more liable to be bored in house. Do you have your phone with you?”

“Yep.”

“Well like I said earlier, feel free to take a walk around and try and meet some new kids. I‘ll call you or whatever when your mom comes home.”

I considered his offer. My old town was over two hours away and I don’t know if my friends loved me enough to make a two hour trip every weekend. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that.”

“Do you have a jacket or need one?” I shook my head no. The air felt good against my bare arms. “Just be safe okay? You’re mom will kill me if you get sick with pneumonia or something. You know Jersey isn’t the safest place, especially since it’s starting to get night.”

“I’ll be safe,” I said while I slowly began walking away. I heard him faintly shouting a few more words of caution to him but I sped up and soon I was out of view of the house.

Letting out a deep breath, I let my legs carry me to a patch of green grass. There was a stop sign beside it so I leaned against it. I shoved my hands in my pocket. I looked up above and saw the sun setting. The horizon was a lovely mixture of serene colors. I soon heard voices nearby and I turned my head and saw the source.

Sitting in front of a brick house was a group of people. I strained my eyes in the night that was getting darker by the second. I finally could make out a couple of different silhouettes and it was safe to presume that they were all guys, especially due to the deep voices.

My heart instantly began thumping at an erratic pace. Should I go up and introduce myself. It would just be my luck if one of them turned around and saw me staring them. There were a dozen different thoughts in my mind, all fighting and contradicting the other. Pushing them in the back of my mind, I stood up and took a deep breath.

It was now or never.

I walked across the lonely street and up to the brick house where they were at. I awkwardly stood there before clearing out my throat. “Hi,” I said rather lamely.

As if on cue, four heads turned around and began looking at me. They started with my dark brown shoulder length hair, to my lip ring, to my too short legs in too tight skinny jeans, and finally down to my ratty gray Etnies. I felt severely self conscious until all of them broke into a smile.

“Feel free to sit down kid,” one of them said.

I gladly accepted and sat by the one that said it. He had dark black hair but still had brown roots that were blatantly seen, so I didn’t know if he had it styled like that on purpose or if he just hadn’t bothered tidying it up. “I’m Gerard,” he said. He held up a pack of cigarettes and offered me one. I took one without hesistation.

“Thanks man,” I said while lighting it up with Gerard’s lighter. I took a deep puff before exhaling. “I’m Frank by the way.”

“You know not everybody might not like smoking,” said the guy in front of me. He had thick glasses and he was extremely thin.

“Not everybody likes your lesbian hair,” Gerard said matter of factly.
“You’re just jealous of my awesome natural hair,” the guy replied back.

“You’re stupid Mikey,” Gerard said while shaking head.

“Am not!”

“I’m pretty sure nobody else pretends to have asthma to get out of gym.”

The boy named Mikey simply blushed behind his glasses. “Well whatever Gerard.”

I watched their conversation with amused eyes. They seemed to have some kind of bond between them, but I couldn’t figure it out. One of the guys must have noticed because he seemed to answer my invisible question.

“They’re brothers,” the guy with a set of thick curly hair answered. “And they’re always like that.”

“You got that right Ray,” the guy with light blonde hair answered. He had the bluest eyes I had ever seen and he also had a lip ring similar to mine. “I’m Bob.”

I simply smiled while I looked at all the guys one more time. I put the names with the faces and registered it in my mind. I was slightly overwhelmed by their friendliness but appreciated it all the same. “Nice to meet you guys.”

“Touché,” Gerard said while putting out his cigarette. The others guys nodded and I beamed once again.

“I just moved here,” I said while casually trying to make conversation.

“Yeah, we saw the moving van a couple of hours ago,” Ray said. “ We assumed that you were the new kid in the hood.”

“Glad it’s you than those snobby ass pricks that seems to live in every house around here,” Gerard said with a slight edge to his voice. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Assholes.”

“At least you don’t have to go to school with them,” Mikey said.

“You’re done with school?” I asked, turning to Gerard.

“Yeah, Ray, Bob, and me are. I’m in art school. The other two were smart enough to go and get real jobs. What grade are you in? You and Mikey might be in the same grade.”

“I’m a junior.”

“Hell yeah man!” Mikey said while raising his hand to give me a high five. I quickly hit his hand he was still smiling. “I finally have someone cool to hang around with.”

I was pretty happy myself. I had been nervous about being the new kid in school but that quickly dissolved as soon as I knew that I would have Mikey by my side. “Damn straight.” I was just about to say something else when I felt my phone vibrate in my pants pocket. I quickly dug it out and flipped it open. It was a message from my dad saying that my mom had came home. I silently thanked my dad for learning how to text message.

“You gotta go somewhere,” Gerard asked. He raised any eyebrow and looked at me.

“Urm yeah actually. My dad just texted me and told me that my mom came home.” I stood up and looked back down at them. “Like I said earlier, it was way awesome meeting all of you.”

“Hey Frank, you should hang out with us tomorrow. We’ll be here in this exact spot,” Gerard said, cracking the first grin I had seen from him.

“Definetly,” I said while slowly backing away from them. I waved my hand and then turned around to my house. I heard all of them saying bye and I felt elation rise in me.

Even though I had just moved here, I felt more at home than ever before.