Lily Baby.

“Dance?”

I merely stared at her.

“Let’s dance, Frankie!” she giggled, she stepped towards me, holding her ice cream out for Gerard to hold.

“There’s no music!” I laughed, but she just put her hands in mine and started swaying.

I could hear Gerard’s laugh from behind us so I absentmindedly gave him the finger.

I didn’t know what to do, I just felt so awkward. I can’t dance at all.

“Frank!” she whined, “I want to dance!”

“‘I wants’ don’t get,” I countered. She pouted adorably, I sighed, “Fine!”

I remembered what my uncle used to do to my cousin Sandy at weddings. I lifted Lily onto my feet and swayed with her firmly attached to me; but the close proximity was new. She was so close I could almost hear her heart beat.

She placed her ear to my shoulder and breathed in deeply as I started to hum a familiar tune. She smiled up at me as soon as she heard it.

I was so glad that there was no one around. If anyone had seen me dancing like an idiot out here then I’d probably get beaten up. But I guess I didn’t care. I was just trying so hard to remember everything about that moment. The was she smelled, the way she felt, the texture of her hair, the feeling of her warm skin against mine: everything.

It was perfect. Until, Quinn had to go and spoil it all.

I could hear his heavy footsteps but thought nothing of it; we were still ‘dancing’. “Lily!” his big, booming voice cried making us jump apart in fright, Lily almost falling backwards onto the concrete, only just saved by myself grabbing her small waist.

“Lily!” he yelled again, even though we were about a metre away, “Lily!”

“What?” cried Lily, a look of annoyance crossing her face for the first time.

“Look!” he said, and without anymore words he plunged his melting strawberry ice cream onto her shoulder, laughing hysterically, making Lily to scream.

Big fat tears filled her eyes as she shivered, but she looked away from me, trying to hide her eyes.

Gerard had joined us, laughing, handing Lily her ice cream, “Nice one, Quinny-boy.”

“Nice one?” I cried, “Look at her! She’s covered in ice cream and she’s crying!”

“It a joke…” Quinn smiled, which just made me more angry.

“Even jokes can hurt people!” I yelled, stepping forwards on my tip toes trying to reach Quinn’s height so I could yell at him.

Oh, great, now Quinn’s crying.

Quinn just ran off, causing Gerard to glare at me, before running after him, “Asshole,” he muttered.

I turned to Lily, who was anxiously trying to wipe congealed ice cream off her clothes.

“Come here,” I whispered, grabbing her arms and pulling her into a tight hug, no doubt covering myself in goo, “let’s get you home.”

She nodded and we walked home hand in hand.

These streets are filled to the brim with memories for me. Most of them containing Mikey and Gerard, and on occasion, Bert and Ray. Walking down them now with Lily was just nice and peaceful seeing as she barely spoke the whole way. I think she was still a little upset about the ice cream fiasco. She held onto her ice cream cone like it was her most prized possession and gripped my hand even harder.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded but I persisted, “Aww, come on! You’re never quiet,” I tried to keep the mood nice and fun but I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

“You yelled…” she frowned.

“Well, Quinn did something very bad. He upset you,” I said.

“You upset him.”

“I know, but he’ll be fine, sweetheart, seriously, he’s with Gee- he can look after him!”

She nodded again, “You scared me…”

I sighed, “I’m sorry, honey, I would never yell at you. You know that.”

“Okay…” she said, before pulling her face into a confused expression, “Why you call me sweetheart and honey?”

“Because I can,” I replied, yawning loudly.

“They only call people that in love films,” she stated.

“Yeah? You like romance films, huh? What else do they do in those films, sweetie?” I asked.

“They kiss.”

I looked over at her and sighed. I really had an urge to kiss her.

“Yep.”

A group of kids on the other side of the street started yelling at us, “Oi, retard! What you doing with that emo fag?”

Lily’s head whipped to look at them; I was all prepared to yell back when she did something amazing: she lifted her hand and held her middle finger up at them.

The kids were shocked to say the least.

I giggled at the gestured and squeezing the hand still entwined in mine, “You remembered…”