Thank You, Gravity

The next few weeks go by much too fast. It’s the night before our flight now, and both Nick and I are nervous as hell. “You ready for tomorrow?” I ask him as I walk into the room, sitting down on the bed. Nick looks at me with slight surprise, like he’d forgotten.

“No,” he mutters softly, bending over slightly to pull his shirt over his head. He tosses it across the room into the hamper and sits down next to me on the bed. He looks down again. The bruises on his wrist are gone, but I can tell he’s thinking about it.

“Don’t be nervous. If Dad tries to touch you I’ll hurt him, I swear.” I assure him.

Nick smiles slightly while I imagine myself punching the crap out of our dad. It makes me feel much better. “I’m still nervous. What’s he going to say when he sees us?” he asks quietly.

“Probably yell at us for coming back, but Peyton said he was worrying about us. So I don’t think he’d do anything bad. And I know Frankie misses us and I miss him, too.” I mutter. I know he;s not going to be happy, but what can he do? Last time he was probably just furious, but now that it’s sunken in he may be a bit more understanding.

“I don’t know,” Nick murmurs. “He wasn’t happy with me at all.”

“Nickie, don’t worry. It will all work out. But we might have to…” I trail off. I keep thinking about a horrible idea.

“Tell Frankie?” Nick finishes. I sigh and nod.

“He should know.” he says solemnly.

Nick nods in agreement. It’s easy to tell both of us are nervous. “You know,“ I say huskily, taking a chance to change the subject. “The worst part about being near Dad,” I turn sideways to put a hand on each of Nick’s shoulders. “Is we can’t do this.”

We both lean forward and connect our lips. Nick puts his hand on my back, pulling me slightly closer. I pull my legs up onto the bed, sighing as I close my eyes and savor the last kiss we’ll probably share for a while.

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I wake Nick up early in the morning. it’s six AM and our flight is at eight. I’m dreading this trip more and more. Dad’s surely going to kill us when he sees us. Nick and I are silent as we get our clothes on and put our bags by the door. It’s going to be a long day.

“Let’s go,” I kiss Nick on the cheek as we stand by the door, holding our bags.

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We get off the plane and take the rental car to our dad’s house. We leave our bags and Nick and I approach the house slowly, and we’re soon on the front step. I sigh and take a deep breath, knocking slowly on the door. Nick gives me a nervous look and I just want to hug him, but not here.

Frankie answers the door. His eyes light up when he sees us.

“Nick, Joe!” Frankie says excitedly, looking up at us in happy surprise. I look down at him with a smile, and look back up when I hear our dad’s voice. I hold my breath.

“Frankie, who’s-” Dad comes into the hallway, and his eyes rest on us. I gulp.

“What the hell..” his eyes narrow, his expression turns cold. He doesn’t come to the door. I hold my breath again. “Get out,” Dad seethes, pointing out the door. Nick looks petrified when I glance at him.

“Why can’t they be here?” Frankie asks, turning towards Dad.

“Frankie..” I take a deep breath. “We have to tell you something.”

“Get out of my house!” Dad yells. He stalks through the hall pushing Frankie away from the door gently and staring at us icily.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Frankie asks quietly. He’s terrified by our dad when he gets mad.

“Dad, you can’t just kick us out again,” Nick states, standing up for the both of us.

“I don’t want you here. I have no desire to associate with the two of you, you’re not my sons.” he spit’s the words, putting his hand on the door. “I told you not to come back, Nicholas.”

Nick looks like he’s going to cry. I can’t believe our father is treating us like this. I look at Frankie desperately. He’s completely confused and I feel so bad for him. He looks up at our dad for an explanation. “Your brothers aren’t good people, Frank,” he tells him icily.

“Dad, just because you don’t agree with us doesn’t mean we’re ‘bad people’,” Nick hisses courageously. “We’re here because your little girlfriend wound up at Kevin’s house,” Dad looks at us in surprise. He doesn’t say anything. “I thought you were all about accepting people for who they are. Now you’re just a hypocrite, and an asshole.”

“You will not talk to me like that!” Dad screams, stepping towards Nick. I step in front of him.

“Don’t touch him,” I command in a voice that scares myself. Dad looks at me with wide eyes.

“What the hell do you two want?” he demands icily, stepping away from Nick. Frankie’s just kind of standing on the sidelines, watching this scene. We really need to explain this to him, instead of putting him through all the fights without knowing.

“Frankie..” I ignore his question. “I’m sorry, we need to explain something to you.”

“Joseph, Nicholas, leave, now.” Dad commands. He doesn’t want Frankie to know about his brothers. Instead of leaving, I step into the house. It’s time he stopped treating us like crap. He physically hurt Nick, I can’t let that go. I look to the right, and I notice Frankie has disappeared. I hear his door close upstairs.

“Dad, just let us explain this to Frankie and we’ll leave,” I request, looking him in the eye.

“Frankie doesn’t have to know about your screwed up relationships, Joseph.”

“He needs to know why he has to listen to all this fighting,” I state. He’s gonna grow up so screwed up if he doesn’t get this explained to him now. Dad glares at us, but he doesn’t object to Nick and I going upstairs.

“Frankie?” I ask, knocking on the door softly. I peer in and walk in the room slowly, with Nick behind me. He’s just lying on his bed, listening to his iPod and staring at the ceiling. “Frankie,” I say, louder. He just looks at us.

“Come on buddy, take the headphones out,” Nick asks quietly. Frankie pulls them out and looks at us.

“What’s going on?” he demands. It’s time to tell him everything.