Platitude

I stretched my legs out and opened my eyes up. I glanced at my cell phone and saw that it was nine in the morning. I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes and rolled over on the shitty air mattress. The area under my stomach seemed slightly deflated and I groaned. Air mattresses weren’t much difference from sleeping on the floor.

“Are you awake?” Someone asked. I turned around and saw my mom bending over and wiping stray hair out of my face. I mumbled out a few incoherent noises. “I take that as a yes. Your father is already up and he’s trying to set up all the beds and the appliances. We were wondering if maybe you wanted to go hang out with those guys you met yesterday. You and that Jared kid seemed pretty friendly last night.”

“It’s Gerard.”

“What an odd name,” she said slightly trailing off. “Anyway, I figured that you wouldn’t want to stay here and help set up the house. Your father did tell me that you only carried in a box or two.”

I sat up hunchbacked and shrugged my shoulders. The blanket fell off my bare chest and resided at my waist. “I think I’ll take your offer up. Where are my clothes?”

She pointed at a box that had my name on it and I crawled over there. I was feeling rather lazy and it didn’t feel a Saturday at all. I ripped the tape off the box and quickly dug out a shirt, pants, and socks. I put them on and stood up, wincing as I heard my bones pop. I grabbed my worn out Etnies and shoved them on. “How do I look?”

My mom pinched my cheeks. “You always look cute Frankie.” I felt my face turn red. “You don’t plan on doing anything to your hair though?”

I ran a hand through it and shook my head. “Nah, I think I’ll go for the natural look.”

She looked as if she wanted to say something but refrained. “Do you need any money?”

“Nope,” I said while leaning against the door. I had one hand on the door know ready to go. She must have got the innuendo because she gave me one last look before going into the room with my dad. I turned the knob and was instantly met with sunlight. Cursing myself for not grabbing my sunglasses, I put my head down and began walking
--

After about ten minutes, I finally found my way back to Gerard’s place. I somehow got lost and panicked a little, but I calmed down and found the correct path. I knocked on the doorbell hoping that it would be opened soon. I looked around at the lawn and only saw one car. I was hoping that was either Gerard’s or Mikey’s because I wasn’t too great around meeting friend’s parents. Just as I was about to walk away, the door swung open and Gerard was there smiling.

“Hey Frank,” he said gleefully. He moved out of the way and allowed me to walk in. “If you would have came just a minute earlier you could have seen Mikey.”

“Where’d he go?” I asked while gazing around. The kitchen was spotless and had a faint smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. “It smells good in here by the way.”

“Aw thanks. I just made cookies, if that’s not obvious. Do you want one?”

I shook my head no. “I think I have about twenty from last night, ha.”

He smiled. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Gerard motioned us to the living room and we sat down.

The living room was well kept. There was a huge wide screen TV on the wall. There were numerous pictures of two young boys all over the walls, which I assumed was Gerard and Mikey when they were younger. Speaking of Mikey… “You never did tell me where Mikey went too.”

“Oh! Yeah, you’re right, sorry. He just left to go see his girlfriend.”

“Mikey has a girlfriend?” I blurted out before I could think. I felt the heat rise to my face and felt even worse when I saw that Gerard look liked he wanted to laugh. “I mean…”

“No, no, I get what you’re saying. He seems real nerdy and shit, which he actually is, but Alicia is probably his best friend. That’s his girlfriend by the way,” he added while seeing my confused face. “She’s really cool. She practically lives here. My parents are pretty much never home though. They like to travel abroad and to places that I’m not sure are even on maps.”

“That’s crazy. You don’t ever miss them?”

“Of course I miss them. But you get use to it you know? That’s another reason why I haven’t moved out. If I left, Mikey would pretty much be on his own twenty-four seven. Or either Alicia would be around all the time and no offense to him, but I don’t feel like being an uncle at the age of nineteen. Even though I know Mikey is smarter than that,” he added after a thoughtful look.

“You’re nineteen?”

“Yep.

“Cool, I’m only sixteen. I’ll be seventeen this year though.”

“Really? When’s your birthday?”

“October thirty first.”

Gerard’s eyes popped and he smiled. “You’re a Halloween baby? Oh shit Frank, that’s awesome.”

I giggled. “Thanks.”

Gerard kept looking at me with an odd gleam in his eye. It wasn’t until a minute later or so that he spoke. “I gotta go somewhere, but you can come with me if you want.”

“Where?”

“I’m going to Bob’s. Ray will be there too and I told him I would come.”

“They wouldn’t mind if I came?”

“Of course not!” Gerard said with a smile. “They’d probably love it actually.”

“Well okay,” I said.

“Great!” He said while standing up and I soon followed.

We walked into the kitchen when something dawned on me. “Hey Gerard.” He stopped at the door and turned around to look at me. “I thought you said I could see your art sometime.”

He looked like he was at a lost for a few miniscule seconds before smiling. “My art room is all messy and I have so many unfinished projects. I wouldn’t want you to think less of my art.”

I didn’t really know how truthful he was being, but I shrugged my shoulders. “If you say so.”

“That’s right,” he said with a smirk as he opened the door. He walked out with me right behind. We walked to his car and climbed int. “Well buckle up Frankie.”

I giggled when I heard my nickname. “Okay.” I did and looked at him.

One hand one was on the stick shift and the other was on the steering wheel. “Well here we go.”