Frankly, I Don't Love You.

Getting over your fears is something that is a milestone in most peoples’ lives. It helps us shape ourselves into becoming better people and opens a world of new opportunities to us through conquering them. How did I manage to get over my past and help my future? Well, for starters, I told Frank the truth. And the second thing is that I managed to tell him how I actually feel instead of running from my problems. The only thing that was now on my mind was if I did do the right thing after all.

After the night in the park, we managed to get to a warm house safely. By that time, I was just floating on air. I couldn’t help not to smile and sing sappy love songs, in my head of course. After watching a movie, Frank said he had to get home because he hadn’t been home in almost two days. I sighed but understood his situation and gave him a hug good bye.

“Bye A.J. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” he said kissing my cheek and heading towards the door.

“Okay Frank, bye” I said leaning against the door frame waiting to hear his car engine start up. As soon as I heard it, I closed the door and went upstairs where I couldn’t wait to fall into my bed and sleep.



My dreams from the previous night were shattered when I heard the phone ring. I groaned as I tried to figure out whether what had happened the night before was real or not. I sat up in my bed and looked at the phone, which was now ringing louder, almost shrilly. I winced as I picked it up.

“Hello?” I spoke into the receiver almost unsure of what to expect

“Alyson, honey, it’s your mom. I just called to make sure you were okay. Is your brother home yet?” my mom practically yelled into the phone.

“Well, I’m not sure, I was out a little late with Gerard since we kind of lost Frank yesterday, but we found him. Jeremy said that he was going to a friend’s house, so he’ll be home later” I said, my heart beating a little faster as I stumbled over Frank’s name.

“Okay hun, we’ll be home tomorrow. I left some money in the cookie jar just in case you want to order a pizza or something. Bye”

“Bye mum”

Click.

I sighed as I looked around my room, it was a mess. I cleaned it up after I took a quick shower and put on a fresh pair of jeans and a Queen shirt. After cleaning up I walked around the house making sure there wasn’t anything else that needed to be done. Nothing. The house felt so cold and empty considering I was the only one in it. Before I could relish in the comforts of having the house alone to myself any longer, my brother walked through the door. He reeked of alcohol and looked hung over. I stifled my giggle as I watched him stumble in the entry way.

“Hey big bro, how are you?” I said, as I couldn’t contain my laughter

“Don’t even start with that A.J. I’m not in the mood to argue with you. Have you seen the,” he hiccupped, “Tylenol by the way?”

“It’s in the upstairs bathroom in the cabinet, middle shelf” I recited, since this was somewhat repetitive.

He bounded up the stairs, trying to hold his balance by grasping the hand rail. As he went up I heard him mumble something like “neat freak”. I rolled my eyes, and then went into the living room to read. I grabbed my copy of The Catcher In the Rye from the coffee table and flopped myself on the couch. About thirty pages into the book, there was a knock on the door and I couldn’t help but feel my stomach flip flop a little with the chance that it could be Frank.

Walking toward the door, my mind was racing with thoughts of him and us, if there was such a thing. He hadn’t exactly told me anything besides his feeling for me, so I didn’t know where we stood. I stopped right in front of the door and reached for the door knob and slowly, turned it. The door opened at a snail like pace, but that didn’t stop my heart from racing one hundred miles an hour when I saw Frank standing there in his beat up Chuck’s and hoodie he lent me before. He was beaming, almost angelically, and his smile, was one that could make any girl swoon. I smiled in return, since it was so gosh darn contagious. Neither of us spoke for a moment, allowing time to stand still as we stared into each other’s eyes, which I could tell were simply light brown with flecks of green and yellow.

“Good morning” I said, not daring to break eye contact with him.

“Bonjour” he replied as he stepped inside. Suddenly, the house seemed very warm, and I had a feeling it had to do with Frank’s presence.

“I didn’t know you could speak French”

“I don’t.” he grinned.

I was then swooped quickly into his arms which were extremely warm despite the harsh cold outside. He continued to hug me as we walked back, clumsily into the living room. Somehow we tripped over the coffee table and fell to the ground with a thud, Frank on top of me.

“Frank, I really appreciate you wanting to hug me, but you’re heavy, even for a short guy” I said from underneath him

“But you’re comfortable!” he said as I tried to push him off to the side, off of me.

“Hey A.J. do you know where mom left the…” I heard Jeremy’s voice from above us, “What in the world is going on here?”

I looked up to see Jeremy with a very confused look on his face.

“Uh, we were just hugging, and then we fell…” I trailed off a bit, with my cheeks burning.

“I must be really drunk still because I can’t believe that you and Frank were actually hugging”

“Jeremy, we were hugging, and as for the drunken part, that could be up for debate”

“I think I’ll just go then, I could use the sleep” he said quickly before running off upstairs.

I looked at Frank who had been silent the whole time. He wasn’t sad, but seemed to be in deep thought. I couldn’t help but wonder what was on his mind now.