Lily Baby.

Open POV

Lily didn’t like having tummy aches all the time, it made her anxious because she didn’t understand. All she knew was that she was prone to them whenever Frankie was around and it made her scared.

It was the Sunday after the Saturday she choked on a skittle and Frank was round again but he and Gerard decided to go out somewhere. Lily had complained loudly about not being allowed to go out with them but Donna carefully explained that they were doing ‘big boys’ stuff and did she really want to be a big boy when she could be a pretty girl?

She shut up after that and spent the afternoon sitting in the living room with her mother, watching her sew or do her crosswords. She really wanted to work out what was going on in her head, so she asked her mom.

“Mommy…” she looked up at her mom who stopped what she was doing to look down at her.

“Yeah, honey?”

“My tummy hurts.”

She sat up quickly, “Oh, poor baby! Shall we get some water?”

“It’s not that hurt…”

“What do you mean then, honey?” Donna asked, concern flashing across her features.

“Well…” she struggled for words, “I don’t… when I see… Frankie… I-I-I don’t know.”

“Frankie? Honey, what has this got to do with Frankie?” she asked, cocking her head to the side in utter confusion.
Sometimes she didn’t understand her own daughter…

“It hurts… when Frankie... here… I don’t… know… ugh…”

Donna clapped her hands in joy and leant forward to Lily’s level, “Oh, baby! I’m so proud of you!” she cried, standing up and pulling Lily up by the hands.

“Ugh?”

“Oh, sweetie! You’re in love!” she trilled, spinning her around and dancing around the living room. It was weird.

“Love?” Lily asked, she’d heard that word before and had an idea of what it was but never really understood.

“Yeah, like in the films we used to watch when you got home from Lucky Tree sometimes, where people would kiss and things. Do you remember honey? I explained it to you.”

She’d watched films with her family but never paid attention. She’d seen people together at school: holding hands, hugging, touching lips. She’d seen it all before but never understood why. She never thought she’d want to do those sorts of things with anyone.

She nodded; she sort of knew but was still unsure, “How do you know when you love?”

“You just… do.”

She nodded again for the second, totally understanding this time: she just knew.

“I can’t believe it…” Donna muttered to herself, “I really can’t.”

She smiled and went to the kitchen to make Lily snacks, still smiling and muttering to herself.

Lily sighed to herself and lay back on the floor just as she heard the front door click open.

Frank’s POV

We’d just spent the entire afternoon at the mall. I got way too excited in Hot Topic and bought a lot of stuff, so now I feel all weird. I decided to go back to Gee’s house, to show Mikey my new stuff and also because my mom wouldn’t be home anyway so I didn’t want to be alone.

“Hey, we’re back,” called Gerard into his house as we got back.

We heard a sudden thump and a loud ‘Umph’ from the living room so we decided to investigate.

Lily was lying on the floor by the sofa, upside down and confused.

“Dude,” I said, crossing the room to help her up, “You okay?”

“I-I was… just… Fine, I fine…” she stammered, staring in horror at me, “I go upstairs… upstairs…”

She darted out the room tripping over her feet and racing upstairs.

“Hello boys,” Donna trilled as she came in, looking around the room, mentally counting us, “Where did Lil go?”

“Well, mom, to put it bluntly- she fell off the sofa, saw Frank and ran,” Gerard chuckled, making me glare at him in frustration. I don’t understand what just happened.

Donna looked at me with a weird smile on her face before swiftly leaving the room to go upstairs, no doubt to check on Lily.

“What just happened?” I asked in complete confusion.

“I have no idea…”