Stereotype

Once out of the house, Frank felt like the fury he had inside was going to make him explode in tiny little pieces. The anger intensified every time tears would blurry his vision, no matter how much he rubbed his eyes with desperation trying to keep them dry. He didn't want to let stupid people ruin his day. He didn't want to let his mother do it either, but he was so frustrated. He had tried and tried to make her understand. When he was sure that she had finally gotten it -at least for the most part, that conversation he had eavesdropped from the stairs made him doubt again. Frank hoped that his mother had just not understood enough. Otherwise he'd have to think she was simply ashamed of him, of her own son. That would be much worse.

Frank was conscious of Marina's presence and that she was trying to comfort him. However, he continued to shun her because he knew the moment he let her hug him, he wouldn't be able to refrain from sobbing.

"You can cry, you know?" she told him. "It's no crime and it would actually do you some good."

"No it won't, it'll just make me feel like they won. And they didn't. They fucking didn't and they never will. FUCK," Frank screamed, facing the wall and preparing to punch it.

Marina was quick to stop his hand, keeping it in hers as she struggled to get the boy to a safe distance from the tempting bricks. "Stop it, Frank!"

"Let me go, Mar! I need to release all this anger or I'll fucking die!" Frank tried to get himself free, but his friend had always been bigger and stronger than him.

Marina rolled her eyes, still holding Frank by both arms. "You won't die. If you want a good anger releaser, I already told you what that is: cry. I could let your break your hand against the wall 'cause, you know, not my hand. But I just did your nails an hour ago and won't let you, angry midget, ruin my job," she concluded with seriousness.

Frank stopped fighting, looked up at Marina and couldn't hold a chuckle. "You're a dork." He sniffed.

The girl let him go and smiled approvingly. "That's my Frankie!"

"I'm still not crying," Frank pointed out, wiping his face with a sleeve of his t-shirt. "You wanted me to cry."

"Well yeah, I still think you need a good cry. But if you're not going to give in, then a laugh is at least much better than a broken hand or an exploding Frankie..."

Frank couldn't argue with any part of that. Crying would work best with no painful consequence, but he already felt better after Marina broke the tension and made him laugh. He could leave the crying for some other time. "I guess so. It's just..." He forgot what he was about to say as he spotted the guy two houses from his looking straight at him with disgust.

"What is it?" Marina turned to check what Frank was seeing. "Oh. That." Raising her voice, she addressed the man, "What the fuck are you looking at, uh? All of you old farts need to let my friend alone and mind your own damn business!"

"Mar, please, don't get in trouble..." Frank whispered, not sure Marina even heard him.

The guy just shook his head and walked towards his house muttering, "Freak, just like her friend and her mother..."

That got Marina running after their neighbor. She stopped on the man's sidewalk only because Frank caught her by the jacket. "What's your problem with my mother, asshole?" she screamed nevertheless.

Frank tugged at her some more. "Leave it, you know he has a problem with a lot of people in this street, stupid hermit."

"He called my mom a freak, I'm furious!"

"Us too, don't forget. Not our best day, uh?"

Before Marina could reply, they saw Gerard arrive on his red bike. He parked it against the curb and walked to them, frowning as he looked from one kid to the other. "What's wrong?"

Mikey was stopped farther behind, his two feet on the ground as he pushed buttons on his cellphone.

Gerard's simple question made Frank want to be painfully honest; to list everything that had gone wrong that day so far. But since what he needed was to forget, he instead lied. "Oh...nothing. Everything's fine."

Gerard didn't seem too convinced, so Frank was thankful when Marina came to the rescue. "Just...arguing with a stupid neighbor, nothing serious."

"Ahh, okay. We all have those, I guess!" Gerard laughed.

Well, that was easy. Frank could have done it himself if he had used his supposedly gifted brain. Where was it when he needed it for anything other than school work?

"I'll get our bikes," he announced, going back to his porch where they had left them.

Without delay they began to walk towards the park. Frank thought it was ridiculous to have to carry their bikes instead of riding them there; but after that time when he was hit by a car, he wasn't allowed near traffic with his bike anymore. It hadn't been anything too serious -just a few scrapes and bruises, and he considered the ban unjustified, yet he didn't want to risk anyone seeing him that could then rat him out. He was lucky that his friends were patient and gave up the use of their own wheels; they could have well told him 'we'll wait for you there' and gotten ahead. Thankfully, the park was only five blocks away.

Stopping her march for some seconds, Marina waited for Mikey, who was again fumbling with his phone, to catch up. She bumped her shoulder into his. "What'ssss up, Mikey!" She grinned when the boy looked up.

Mikey, on the contrary, looked annoyed. "Seriously, Marina...why do I have to put up with you here too?"

That made Frank and Gerard come to a halt and turn around, nearly colliding with the other two kids.

"Is there something we should know?" asked Frank with a frown. Because seriously, Mikey and Marina barely knew each other.

"She goes to my school," Mikey replied casually.

Frank's frown got deeper, although this time it was aimed at Marina alone. "What the fuck, Mar? How come you never told me this?"

Marina groaned and moved her hand to indicate the three boys to keep on walking. Only then she gave Frank explanations. "I haven't really known Mikey as Gerard's brother for too long! Only saw him with you one time, actually. When was it, a couple of weeks ago? Maybe less. He seemed familiar then, but I wasn't sure. He's not in my class but in my...I mean, Bill's."

"Her crush," Mikey translated. "She's been driving me crazy asking me about him and wanting to know whether he mentions her."

"Oh, shut up!" the girl demanded as everybody laughed.

Frank tried to sober up when seeing his friend's glare, but a giggle escaped. "Now I see why you didn't tell me about Mikey."

"Well, of course. Every time I mention Bill you don't stop making fun of me, asshole!" she retorted.

"And why didn't you tell me?" Gerard poked his brother in the chest.

The youngest Way shrugged. "I forgot."

Gerard knew Mikey was being honest. "I think you should meet our friend James. He's always talking about the outer space, UFOs, all that shit."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Your head's often in the stratosphere, so you could tell him how it looks. Better than a telescope," the older elaborated.

Frank raised a finger at Gerard. "See, the stratosphere is not far enough. If Mikey's head reaches the exosphere, then James will be surely interested," he informed with a new giggle.

Gerard wore the frown now, thoughtful. "Which one was the exos- no, forget it, you'll give me a geography lesson."

"I wasn't going to!" Frank protested.

Marina laughed. "I see you've been victim of one of Frankie's knowledge attacks."

"Jeez! I just want to educate you, guys. Some subjects are fun! If you only opened your minds a little..." Frank shook his head defeated.

Mikey patted his back in support. "I guess they've grown pretty fond of their ignorance."

"Guess so..."

Even though they had been too entertained to notice, they had made it to the park a couple of minutes ago and just continued to walk around it. Finally becoming aware of that, Frank fished an elastic band out of his pocket and tied his hair back in a ponytail.

"Purple," Gerard noted. "Do they always match your clothes?" He knew what the answer was, of course; his observant self hadn't missed those details.

"Uh? No...it's coincidence," Frank eluded.

"Yeah, coincidence my ass," Marina said, then clapped her hands. "Everybody shut up now! It's time to exercise our bodies. On your bikes, boys! Who takes the longest to go around the park and be back to this spot, pays for the cotton candy!"