Smiles Echo In My Memory

Frank’s Point of View
When I got in my car, I had to drive straight to Charley’s. He lived pretty close to Sazzy, but I had to use a main road, and hit a huge traffic jam.
“Fuck,” I mumbled, after seeing a police car at the front of the line of cars, stopping a car every now and then. I was fucking nervous. My heart started beating faster, and my hands got all moist. I gripped the steering wheel tighter. Hopefully they won’t stop me. I drove carefully and slowly past the police cars, and they checked me through the window. They nodded, motioning for me to move along. I sighed in relief, letting out a breath I’d been holding in. That was too close for my liking.
Five minutes later, I parked up in Charley’s driveway. Pulling out my phone, I searched quickly, finding ‘Charley Baby’ and dialed. He answered.
“Are you outside?”
“Yeah, come out. I’m in my car,” I said, hanging up, and putting the phone back in my hoodie pocket. Seconds later, Charley came out from the front door, wearing a blue and grey hoodie along with his navy baggy jeans and yellow/white Nikes. He opened the passenger door, getting in and shutting the door forcefully behind him.
“‘Sup, Frank?” he said, bouncing his fist off mine. I nodded, starting up the engine.
“I don’t know, this shit better work out and go well,” I mumbled, getting nervous about the plans I’d made.
“It’s fine. Don’t forget, we gotta go and get Katie and Syd, they’re at Katie’s place,” Charley explained, strapping himself in.
“Yeah… Where she live again?”
“163 Baranscraig Avenue. It’s in Patcham. You know where it is?”
“That’s near Asda, right? It’s by Patcham High?”
“Yeah,” Charley said, giving me directions.

We finally got there, and Charley miss-called Syd’s mobile. They came out about a minute later, shutting the door tight behind them, Katie yelling something inside before doing so. Sydney was wearing some bright red skinny jeans with a contrasting plain purple top poking out from underneath her white hoodie. The hoodie had a checkerboard style pocket on the left side, and a plain bright blue pocket on the right side. The opening of both pockets had a stripe of neon green, which looked pretty awesome. The top of the hoodie had an almost triangular shape, with ‘VOLCOM’ scrawled across it in neon green. She had on these plain white Converses. Trust Syd to be colorful. Katie was wearing a pair of grey faded straight cut jeans, with a grey and white checkered blouse under a grey cardigan and she had on white dolly shoes. They got in the backseat, and Syd screeched, “FRANKIE! This is your car!? I thought you were joking when you said you could drive!” I laughed at her comment, twisting round in my seat to face them.
“Oh, I don’t lie to you, Sydney,” I said huskily, winking at her. She giggled and winked back, before Charley hit my playfully on the arm.
“HELLO?! God, Frank! I’m right here!” He said in a feminine voice, pouting and flicking his hand in a… gay manner. I laughed uncontrollably along with Katie and Sydney, Charley chuckling. When the laughter died down, I twisted my mouth to the side, indicating for Syd to kiss me on the cheek. When she did, I twisted my mouth to the other side, so Katie could do the same. I turned back round in my seat, looking at Katie in the rear view mirror.
“Do I need to pick up anyone else…?” she tapped on her chin thoughtfully, thinking.
“Errm… Did Jake need to be picked up?” she asked, directing the question to Charley. He shook his head, before thinking again.
“…Rhea? But she usually gets a lift with Cally and Sal… Frank, what about Kelli, Hannah and-?”
“No, they have to get there on their own. I can’t fit ‘em all in. And I’m not wasting all my petrol, there’s fucking too many of them,” I stated, starting up the engine. “Call Rhea and ask her.”
Katie pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket, dialing Rhea’s number. After a brief conversation, she hung up.
“She’s getting dropped off, and picking up Sal and Cally and one of their friends from Hove Park that knows Sazzy. She told me to tell you, Charley, to phone India,” she said, looking over at Charley who was in the seat in front of her.
“Why?” Charley asked, turning around in her seat to look at her. She shrugged. He sighed, turning back round and phoning India. He hung up after a few words.
“She wanted to know your address. And she said could you pick up the booze from Tom’s?” he asked me, putting away his phone.
“Yeah… Where does he live?” I said, pulling out from the curb and driving towards Five-Ways. I knew he lived somewhere around there. Tom was Kelli’s boyfriend who’s a little older than us, but he was pretty cool. Didn’t know him that well, but y’know… He was bringing a couple of friends over, too.
“Sandgate Road. 55, I think. He’ll come out,” Charley said, monitioning for me to turn. A few minutes later, we pulled up outside a small-looking white house. Charley rolled down his window, and looked up at the windows of the house. He waved at one of them, which I’m guessing was Tom’s. Minutes later, we had the trunk of my car filled with alcohol as well as the spare seat in the back. I quickly drove back home, noting the time. 12:23pm.

When we got to my place, we piled out of the car, leaving the alcohol in there. We could get it later, when everything was ready. I locked the car, and opened the door, letting everyone in. They all ran upstairs into my room, while I checked out the living room. It was cleared out, like Mom said she’d do. The sofa was pushed back against the wall, and anything fragile was taken out, which wasn’t much. It was perfect. The coffee table was against a wall, so all the booze could go on that. I went into the kitchen, and found a note taped to the fridge.

Frankie,
Don’t make too much of a mess!
I’ll be coming back briefly to wish Sazzy, and then I’m off to London.
I’ll be back the day after tomorrow, so make sure everything’s clean and tidy!
Love you,
Mom x

I tore the note off the fridge and shoved it in my jeans pocket, before running upstairs. Mom had no doubt locked her door, and I’ll do the same to mine tonight. I didn’t fancy having my stuff smashed to bits and my room smelling of sex or whatever. I walked in, finding Charley strumming on my busted up electric guitar, and Sydney going through all my clothes. Katie was messing about with her phone.
“MY GOSH, FRANK, I LOVE THIS TEE!” Syd screeched, waving my rare Misfits tee in the air. I smiled, watching her put it back in the wardrobe.
Charley stood up, put my battered guitar on its stand and looked over at Katie and Syd.
“Let’s get this shit sorted out now,” he said, stretching. We all went downstairs, and started putting up the big banner, and getting out plastic cups and whatnot.
After about half an hour, Sydney dragged me upstairs, back into my room, locking it behind her.
“Syd… What the hell!” I said, before getting a hand clapped to my mouth.
“Shh! You’re going out with Sazzy later, right? Well I was think- Frank, stop it!” she said, cutting herself off. I tried to move her hand from my mouth, but she just got a tighter grip. I gave up miserably, slumping against the wall with her hand still attached to me. She sighed.
“You need to know what to wear. She’s dressing up, and so are you. Why do you think I was going through your wardrobe? I have a reason for everything, Iero,” she said, smirking. I rolled my eyes, due to my lack of a mouth, I couldn’t reply.
“Now, if I let you go and give you back your mouth, will you do as I say and wear what I tell you?” My eyes widened in shock.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
Don’t get me wrong, Sydney has great dress sense.
For a girl.
She’ll probably get me wearing one of Sazzy’s skirts that have been abandoned here in the pit of my wardrobe or something. Syd obviously noticed, and knew what I was thinking.
“I won’t make you wear something ridiculous!” she said, giggling. I blinked, relieved. I nodded, still slightly unsure. She squealed happily, letting go of me. My hand immediately flew to my mouth, massaging my jaw. It fucking ached. Syd was already going through my wardrobe, pulling out tees and jeans, throwing them onto the bed. It was literally like the wardrobe was exploding. After what seemed like seventy-two clothing explosions later, Sydney emerged from a pile of clothes.
“I THINK I GOT THE PERFECT OUTFIT!” she shrieked, running over to me. She banged into me, leaving my rare Misfits’ tee, my incredibly tight skinny jeans and my favorite blazer in my arms. I grinned, walking towards the door.
“No, stay here, I’m going back downstairs,” Sydney said, rushing out quickly.
I looked over at the time. 2:03pm. I hastily got changed and grabbed my hair gel and hairspray, starting on my hair. I swept my bangs over my right eye, and lathered it in gel, keeping it in place. I spiked the back of my dyed black hair, making sure it didn’t look bad. After I was satisfied, I sprayed the hairspray over my head, keeping everything in place. I then started on my eyeliner, outlining my eyes in black and red eye pencils. It looked good, if I do say so myself.

2:21pm. I ran out to my car, after telling Charley, Katie and Sydney that we’d be back at around 4:30 – 5:00, and that I’d poke my head in after Sazzy went upstairs to get changed out of her dress, like I’d tell her. They promised that everything would be set and ready. I had to send Charley a blank text, and that’ll tell him that we’ll be on our way back.

Everything was going as planned.