Happy Birthday to Me

MARISSA

Ray, Frank, and I were walking toward the Target store's main entrance. Ray was walking in the middle with me on one side and Frank on the other side of him.

Ray turned to me, "Now, we have to keep an eye on Frank because he tends to disappear in big stores like this. Okay?"

I nodded, "Sure." I threw a glance past Ray to Frank to tell him 'I've got my eyes on you.'

"Hey Ray?" I asked.

"What?"

"Frank's gone."

"Seriously?!" Ray questioned as he looked in every direction, his fro whipping in every direction.

After a minute Ray sighed, "C'mon, I know where he is." he muttered and walked into the store.

I followed after him, "And where would that be?"

"When we go shopping Gerard always makes Frank stay in the bus because he tends to take off and wander. But what Gerard doesn't know is he always goes for the same thing." Ray explained.

"Which is?" I asked.

Ray stopped and gestured ahead of us, "The video game section."

There was Frank, eyes glued to a tv screen with a game controller in his hands. He was playing one of the games the store has on display.

Ray walked up to Frank, "Dude, let's go."

"But Mario wants to party!" Frank whined.

Ray put his hand on Franks shoulder and began to pull him away, "Mario can't party right now. C'mon, let's go."

Frank pouted and said, "Fine." before he stomped away from the section.

A short distance away his pout party was cut short when he smiled from ear to ear and shouted, "Ooh bicycles!" and took off running again.

"Damnit Frank! Get back here!" Ray shouted and chased after him.

I trailed after the duo and caught up to them just in time to see Frank sitting on a kid sized bike and smiling up at Ray.

"C'mon dude, stop wasting time. We gotta go!" Ray groaned.

"Awh! Just one time around the toy section! Pleeeaaase?" Frank asked, dragging out the last word.

Ray sighed, "Fine."

Frank fist pumped before he looked up at Ray with a cheesy grin and asked, "Wanna race?"

Ray slowly smiled back and shouted, "Yeah!" before he went and found another bike for himself.

"Will you judge the race for us?" Frank asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Sure, I guess."

Frank and Ray lined up their bikes and prepared to race. When they were both ready they turned their heads to look at me.

"Ahh okay...Three...Two...One...GO!" I said awkwardly.

Frank and Ray took off as quickly as they could. Frank had a little trouble with his pedals at first while Ray missed the first turn entirely and had to catch up.

After they disappeared from my line of vision, I quickly lost interest. While I was glancing around at the other toys, my eyes caught something shiny and I skipped over toward it. I picked up an orange hula hoop and began to see how long I could keep it looping around my hips. I wasn't that bad, actually.

I heard both Ray and Frank's shouting voices and turned around to see them both standing on the line they started on arguing about who came in first. They both turned to me to announce the winner but I didn't see anything so I only shrugged my shoulders and they went back to their arguing.

Frank grew more and more fired up about him coming in first while Ray continued to deny his winning left and right. Frank became so steamed; he spotted a giant red ball and kicked it with all his might. The ball flew through the air, much higher than any of us thought it was going to go, and came crashing back down to earth as it knocked over a huge display.

Both Frank and Ray's eyes grew wide and Frank shouted, "Run!" before he took off again at a high speed, leaving Ray and I in the dust.

Ray, not wanting to get caught either, grabbed me by the wrist and took off running after Frank.

When we reached the grocery section of the store, we stopped running. Frank glanced over at me and slowly asked, "Why do you still have the hula hoop?"

"I didn't exactly have time to set it down before we ran." I replied.

"You could have just dropped it while we were running." Ray said.

"That would have been irresponsible." I replied.

"What part of us screams we're responsible?" Ray asked.

I didn't know how to reply to that, so I just laughed at him instead.

A grin crossed Frank's face as he reached out for the hula hoop, "Can I play with it?"

I shook my head at him and hid the toy behind my back.

"Awh. Why not?" Frank pouted.

"Because you'll throw it and break something else and we'll have to run again." I said.

"No I won't!" Frank denied a little too quickly.