Frank on a Leash

That blonde guy was staring at Mikey again during lunch. What was his problem? Frank was the one who came up to Mikey, not the other way around. Really, this is too much. Poor Frank kept trying to get the blonde boy's attention, but for the last twenty minutes he had been giving Mikey the nastiest look. It was beyond hate. It was what Mikey felt for all the people who used to beat him up doubled. And Mikey had a lot of hate bottled up inside of him for those wretched fucks.

Mikey stood up, brushed the invisible dirt off of his Tripp pants, and walked across the road. Frank saw Mikey walking slowly to his little group. His walk was stocky, unbalanced, the walk of a true serial killer. His eyes were glued to the ground as he walked, his black hair hanging down in his white face. Frank thought the whole endeavor was simply beautiful. Wonderful.

Mikey stopped right in front of the jungle gym and looked up at Bob. "Stop staring at me!"

Bob's eyebrow twitched out of annoyance. He jumped down, barely missing landing on Mikey, and got up in his face. Frank jumped down quickly after he saw Bob and Mikey. He placed himself between the both of them and spread his arms out, separating them. They shot glares at each other across Frank's head but neither moved. Frank sighed with relief.

"Geez...calm down. Bob, go reclaim your spot on the jungle gym, kay?" Frank asked softly. Bob opened his mouth, as if to speak, but decided against it and climbed up to his spot next to Ray. Frank turned to Mikey and held out his hand. Mikey blinked. Did he was to hold hands or something? Frank rolled his eyes.

"Mikey, take my hand. We're crossing the street." Frank said, like it was obvious. To him, it must have been. He's a really weird kid. Mikey put his hand in Frank's and allowed himself to be led back to his original solitary spot under the tree. He wrenched his hand away from Frank and sat down.

"Mikey, I'm sorry about how Bob's been acting. It's all my fault cause he doesn't like it when I talk to people . I didn't mean to bring you into this. If you want me to leave you alone..."

That was the last thing Mikey wanted. Frank was the only person who would talk to him. "No, Frank, I don't want you to leave..."

"Okay!" Frank said quickly. He dropped down on the ground next to Mikey and hugged his arm. He made a pact to himself to hug Mikey everyday at school.

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"So tell me again why Bob hates me.." Mikey said to Frank as they laid out on the grass and looked at the clouds. Frank had been ignoring Bob since yesterday, and decided to sit with Mikey at lunch. Currently, Frank was stretched out, with his legs draped over Mikey's waist.

"Uhm...jealousy, I suppose." Frank said. He raced out and grabbed a piece of grass.

"Jealous of what?" Mikey didn't think he had anything that anyone else would want. "Ew, Frank, don't eat that." He snatched to blade of grass from Frank's mouth and wrinkled his nose. "Bleck, Frank spit..."

Frank shrugged and rolled over so he could see Mikey. This was the most anyone's ever heard him talk in a day, especially at school. But Frank was easy to talk to. He could go on for hours about the dumbest things, and never mention himself. Mikey appreciated that, because personally he thought of himself as very boring and liked talking about random shit.

"So Mikey....do you like people with glasses?" Frank asked. He liked glasses. He liked Mikey, anyway, and he wears glasses. Mikey didn't answer him, so Frank kept talking. "I do. I like the way they magnify your eyes. Did you know you have pretty eyes?"

Mikey looked over at Frank. Did he just say his eyes were pretty? Mikey felt a little jolt run through his heart. No one'd ever told him that before. His eyes were brown, the colour of shit. Not only that, but everyone in New Jersey had brown eyes. How were his pretty?

"Do I?"

Frank, who had begun chewing on a flower now, nodded. "Yes, they're very pretty. I wish I had pretty eyes."

"You do."

Frank laughed and shook his head. "You're not looking at my eyes, Mikey. How would you know?" he asked. Mikey had Frank's eyes memorized, burned into his brain. They weren't brown like his, they were bright and different. When Frank looked at him, he could tell he was looking at him, not through him like everyone else.

"It doesn't change the fact that you do have pretty eyes. But what would I know of pretty things?" Mikey asked. Frank took the half-chewed flower out of his mouth and examined it. The petals....well, what were left of the petals were white with a dark blue center. If Frank hadn't ruined it, it would be beautiful.

"Well, is this pretty?" Frank asked, putting the flower in Mikey's vision. He smiled.

"Frank, don't chew on flowers. You'll get sick. And yes, I suppose it was pretty before you ate it." he said, Frank reached out to pick another flower. They were sitting next to a whole patch of the small blue and white flowers. Frank pulled the stem of the flower he was holding in two. Then he got another flower and repeated the process, then tied the flowers together. He kept doing this until he had a long string of flowers.

Frank told Mikey to stand up and he did. He took the string of flowers and tied it around Mikey's waist. "Don't throw this away. Keep it to remind you of..." Of what? Frank couldn't say "of me" , because Mikey might take it too seriously.

"Of pretty things?" Mikey offered, Frank nodded and sighed in relief.

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Bob cornered Frank after school walking with Mikey to his car. When he saw Frank latched onto that goth fuck's arm, jealousy bubbled up in him. Frank was his...

"Frank, I wanna talk...please?" Bob tried to sound pleasant, like he wasn't imagining taking Mikey's head and smashing it into a wall. Frank hesitated for a moment before nodding and releasing his grip on Mikey to grab onto Bob's arm.

"What's up Bob?" he asked, playing dumb. Maybe if he acts cute, Bob will just forget this whole deal and the three of them can be friends...

"Frank, what the hell, you've been avoiding me since yesterday! Are you mad at me or something?" He glanced up at Mikey, then pulled Frank a few steps away. "Why'd you ditch me for him?"

"I'm not ditching you Bob! I just like hanging out with Mikey! You...you're always telling me what to do, ad I need some space." Shit, he did not just use a break up line with Bob. This wasn't going the way he wanted.

"Space? Are you fucking kidding me? Friends don't need space. Ray doesn't need space."

"I'm not like Ray! You don't care who Ray talks to! You don't act like a jealous boyfriend with him!" Frank's eyes widened and he slapped his hand over his mouth. He tightened his hold on his friend's arm. "Bob, I didn't-"

"No, you meant it! Just...ugh." Bob wrenched his arm away and ran off. Ah, geez, what did Frank just do? He didn't mean to say that. Yes, he meant it, but it just slipped out... He walked back over to Mikey and leaned against his black Kia.

"Shiit..." he growled. Mikey had heard every word they'd said...screamed, and was confused. Was Frank and Bob dating? It would explain things, like why Bob hated him. He must think Mikey was moving in on his boyfriend.

"Is Bob your boyfriend?" Mikey blurted out. Frank's eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently.

"Hell no! He's my best friend, but he kinda likes me...but I don't like him that way." Frank put his hands behind his back and looked down at the ground. He was a horrible friend, Bob was just trying to protect him. He sniffled and wiped at his eyes.

Mikey saw that Frank was sad, so he hugged him, which, yes, is a big deal. Mikey doesn't just hug people, they have to initiate it. But Frank looked so depressed and on the verge of tears that Mikey couldn't stand it. He brought Frank into his arms.

"What's wrong, Frank?" he asked. Frank sniffled and clutched at the fabric of Mikey's T-shirt.

"Bob's mad at me." Frank mumbled, his voice slightly muffled by Mikey's shirt. Mikey smoothed down Frank's hair, wracking his brain to find a way to make him feel better. It was Friday, which meant Mikey didn't have to drive back to Belleville until later, so maybe Frank would want to hang out...?

"Hey, um, Frank, do you want to go...I dunno, to eat or something?" Mikey asked nervously, scratching the back of his head. Frank's head popped up from where it was hidden in Mikey's chest and his face lit up. Of course Frank wanted to go eat with Mikey. He wanted to spend all the time he could with him.