Drowning Lessons

Frankie’s POV

Okay, so Gerard’s wild side had me a little captivated. So what? Don’t pretend like you don’t think its hot. Now, there was only a matter of the problems that were presented:

1. We now had no way to get, well, anywhere.
2. He was a wanted criminal, and I was his partner.
3. We had absolutely no idea where we were going.
4. And we were supposed to be in school. For the next year and a half.

I went over these in my head as we walked down the cool, breezy, yet dusty road that would lead us to any number of podunk towns; but I pushed them back as I heard a familiar tune.

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground,
And the Russians fire another round.
We get so near yet so far away,
We wont live to fight another day.

I was confused at first, but then I realized, it was Gerard’s cell phone. And that was Ray’s ringtone. We looked at each other, wide eyed, and he answered it.

“Ray! Dude, I can’t believe I get service out here. I have no idea where I am!” he said excitedly into the phone. Don’t worry about us, man. We’re doin’ just fine. Hey, how’s Mikey? So he’s not worrying about us? Good to hear, good to hear. Hey, you know Jersey better than I do, whats less than 5 miles from the number 14 highway? Like, what town could I get to by nightfall? Allenhurst? That place is a shit hole. Alright, alright. Okay. Yeah, I’ll tell him. You too, man. Bye,” Gerard finished his little conversation with Ray, and slid the phone back into his pocket.

As he did so, the gun worked its way out of his jacked pocked and hit the ground. I picked it up quickly and realized the safety was off. I gave him an admonishing look, flipped the safety on, and slid it into the waistband of my jeans. He shrugged apologetically.

“What’d Ray have to say?” I asked finally.

“Nothing much. I guess we’re headed for Allenhurst, and it looks like we’re walking until someone nice enough to give two creepy looking juniors a ride drives by.”

“Whats Mikey think of this?”

“He says if anyone can pull this off, its his big brother. He’s not worried,” Gerard said with a proud grin.

We walked in silence for a while, until we heard gravel crunching behind us. I couldn’t believe it! Someone was driving by, and we could possibly get there a little faster, maybe even go to a totally different place, somewhere far away, where we couldn’t get in any more trouble.

We flagged him down and much to our surprise and pleasure, he stopped!

“Hello, sir. Our car ran into some trouble a way back, and we were wondering if it wouldn’t be too much trouble to maybe catch a ride into town, maybe have a mechanic look at it?” I said in my most innocent voice through the driver window. I was careful to make sure my shirt concealed the gun beneath it.

“Why, you boys look plum tuckered. Go on and hop in the back seat. This old heap ain’t much but it’ll take you as far as you need to go. Where was it you said you were aimin’ on goin?” the friendly old man asked. I couldn’t bring myself to take out the gun, and go through the whole business of carjacking him. I decided we’d just have to get one from an asshole somewhere.

“Well sir, we don’t really know these parts that well. Do you have any idea where we could go?”

“Well, I was headin’ into Allenhurst myself to catch the matinee. How’s about you boys go to Ol’ Sam? He’s a mighty fine machine major. He’ll fix you up right good in no time!” the man flashed a toothless grin at us, and I couldn’t help but grin back. We got into his car, and sure as his word, he took us right to Allenhurst in less than 15 minutes.

“Thankee, sir! This was right Christian of ya!” Gerard said, aping the man’s country accent.

“Oh, no problem. You boys take care, now!” the man smiled and waved as he drove off.

“Alright, so we’ve got about $300 in our pockets, a gun in your pants, and tireless youthful energy. What do we do?” Gerard asked.

I had to think for a minute. How do we start? Where do we sleep? Where do we eat? When do we go back home? What do we do about the serious criminal charges that are being held against Gerard and possibly me at this point in time? We finally decided to address the most important first, and went into the only Starbucks in the entire town. A small Stop ‘n Go corner shop with only one worker on duty.

When that was taken care of, we decided to have a serious conversation about what we’d do.

“Let’s see, armed robbery, homicide, resisting arrest... they’ve got enough to put me away for quite some time, Frankie. I’m sorry I dragged you into this. You know, you’re still as innocent as can be. I will still take you back as soon as you want to, and we can pretend like you never knew a thing,” Gerard said, placing his hand on mine across the small table.

“Gerard, how many times will I have to explain this to you? I. Am. Not. Leaving you. I’ve had the time of my life today! I really can’t explain it, and I’d rather not dig into that part of me that gets a wild thrill out of seeing you wildly brandish a weapon at helpless old people, but I wouldn’t leave this for the world,” I assured him for what I hoped would be the final time. I saw a relieved smile come across his face, as if that was the answer he’d expected. Who was he kidding. He knew he would be lost without me here on his little adventure. We needed each other.

We finished our coffee in a comfortable silence, and I decided I'd use the payphone and give good ol' Bob a call. He could tell us what steps to take next.

" 'Lo?" Came the lazy voice of a tired Bob.

"Hey, Roberto, whats up? Guess where I am?"

"Frankie? Oh, god, where the hell are you? When are you coming back? How's Gerard? What the hell are you guys doing?" he asked, and he suddenly no longer sounded tired.

"Well its a long story, but Gerard's in deep shit and we're in the middle of podunk. What do we do? What DO we do?"

He laughed, as if he expected nothing more from his two best friends.

"Well do you have money?"

"Uh, yeah, 300, plus whatever we had with us before we got here," I said, remembering what Gerard had said.

"$300?? Jesus, Frankie! What'd ya do? Rob a convenience store?" said Bob, laughing. I tried to nervously laugh along with him, because even though he was only joking, he had no idea how right he was.

"Oh, no. Frankie, you did, didn't you? You're a crazy motherfucker, you know that?"

"No! It wasn't me.. It was Gerard. Bob, you wouldn't believe him. He's become this ... this animal. He scares the fuck out of me, and it's absolutely thrilling. Anyways, we have money. How do we use it?"

"Well, its obvious. Until you know when you can come home, you have to check into a hotel there, if there is one. Use a pseudonym though. You have no idea how quickly the cops can track you down."

See, this was why I called Bob. He didn't pass judgment for a second. He wasn't bummed because we'd done this, he wasn't angry because it wasn't what he would have done, he just got the facts and suggested the most reasonable course of action. I loved this guy.

"Alright. Thanks, Bob. I appreciate it. Love you, man."

"No problem. Love you too man. Get your ass home as soon as humanly possible. Tell Gerard I said hi."

I hung up the phone and went back to Gerard, waiting at the door.

"Bob says hi, and we should check into a hotel under false names."

"Good man, he is. Alright, well lets go see where the hotel is."

After asking the girl on duty at Starbucks if there was an hotel somewhere in Allenhurst, we made our way to the Allen Inn.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Welcome to the Allen Inn. What can I do for you?" said a haughty looking man sitting behind a large, shiny wooden desk. He looked up from his papers with a smile on his face, but it slowly faded away as he eyed us suspiciously. Somehow I think it had little to do with the fact that he had his arm around my shoulder.

"We'd like a room. Preferably top floor," Gerard said briskly.

"Just... one room?" the man said, a little uncomfortable.

"Yes. Do you have any rooms left with just one bed?" I asked, finding his unease hilarious.

"Well, yes, but... uh, alright... Whats.. whats the last name?" the man managed to squeak out.

"Roman," Gerard said, joining in my game.

"And the other?" I read his nametag. Gary seemed pretty shaken by now.

"The other what?" I asked innocently.

"Nevermind. Alright, just sign this form and I'll show you to your... your room."

After we were given the key to our room, we deposited our stuff in the small bedside drawers and Gary left us alone. When he was gone, we burst out laughing.

"Good job. Now he thinks we're gay," Gerard teased through stifled laughs.

"Oh, darn. Well we'll have to go sort it out now, won't we?" I said with a lisp, and a flick of my wrist.

I grabbed his hand and wrapped my arm around his waist, and we walked down to the lobby to creep Gary out a little further.

We stopped when we heard his hushed voice.

"I didn't hear what the name was on News at Noon, but I swear it was him. I KNOW what I saw! Look, just get down here and check it out. Don't push me Mike. Alright, alright, don't push me, SERGEANT. Yeah, yeah. See you soon. Bye," he hung up the phone, sighed, and returned to his work.

Gee's hand tightened on mine.

"Ah, fuck. Can I get away from them ANYWHERE?" he said despairingly.

"Don't worry, Gee. We'll just go get our stuff and light out of here. We gave them fake names, they can't do much if we're not here and they have nothing to go on when they get here," I tried to comfort him, but all I felt was panic.

We rushed back upstairs, grabbed the laundry bag hanging off the back of the bathroom door, and deposited our money, our gun, and the few items we had with us, into it. I thought for a minute, went into the bathroom, and swept what was on the counter into the bag as well. Gerard looked at me kinda funny, and I just shrugged.

Hey, the stuff might've come in handy, and lets face it, you CANNOT leave a hotel without taking something first.

Gerard finally shrugged and threw the packets of Instant Coffee into the bag as well.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Gerard asked finally.

"We have a gun. We don't have to fire it, but we can use it to intimidate someone into giving us their car. Its not the greatest way, but it'll work." I replied. I looked out the window and saw that we had the view of the parking lot. We were only on the second floor, and there was a tree by the window. It was as if God WANTED this to happen.

"Hey, we don't even have to use the gun. We can just take one from the lot," Gerard said, coming up behind me.

"Yeah, and I've seen enough movies to know just HOW to steal one."

We were just examining the tree beside the window to see how we could climb down without getting hurt. Just then, we heard a knock on the door.

"Afternoon, boys. If you could open the door, that would be great. Sergeant Mike Therres here, I just want to ask you a few questions," came a stern voice.

"Oh fuck," Gee mouthed. We quietly opened the window, and I guided him out the window. I held onto the bag, and he cautiously climbed down the tree. It was a good couple minutes before he hit the ground, and I tossed the bag down when he did.

A pounding started on the door, and 'Sergeant Mike' was yelling for us to let him in immediately. I climbed out the window, and slowly shut it. Just as I hit the last branch on the tree, the door gave way and the policeman barged in. He stopped, confused, and turned to call Gary a moron before walking out. We ran to the first car we saw, a black Sedan.

It took me a while, but I finally managed to get that heap of shit going, and soon we were on the road again, with 3/4 of a tank of gas.

"We are the luckiest motherfuckers in the world," Gerard said.

"I love you, Gee."

"I love you too, Frankie," he replied, leaning over to kiss my forehead softly. We made it out of Allenhurst, and instead of a shitty gravel road, we were on a paved highway this time. At least driving would be a little easier. Now, we could do whatever we wanted. We had just escaped police--again--and they had no idea if Gerard was even who they thought he was. And they had no proof we'd even been in the room. Well, other than the missing soap, shampoo, and coffee. But everyone does that.

The point was, we were free again.

And we really felt like we were unstoppable.