Reputation - Frankie Morales

Fire Meet Gasoline

So come on, I'll take you on, take you on, I
Ache for love, ache for us, why
Don't you come, don't you come a little closer

I had no idea how long we'd been walking through the woods but it felt like forever, I wasn't about to complain though cause I know this is what we had to do to stay safe. The withdrawal from not having a smoke was so strong right now and I felt a little irritated because of it, plus my head was hurting from cracking it open, but hey at least we're all still alive. It was starting to get dark out and we needed to find a place to stay for the night soon.

"How you feeling?" My brother asks as he stops and waits for me to catch up to him, I shrug "Alright." I lie not wanting to worry him, when in all honesty I was scared shitless. "So, you and Frankie?" He blurts out as we continue to walk, causing me to laugh. "I dunno what to say about that, I mean I know how I feel but who knows what he thinks." Pope frowns at my response, "You're not that stupid, Lucy. Who was the one who looked out for you while I looked into Castillo? Who is always checking up on you out here?"

"Frankie, but-." I begin to protest, "But nothing, I know him just as well as I know you. It's obvious how he feels about you." He cuts me off. I bite my bottom lip to hold back a smile, but Santiago notices anyways. "I say go for it." He says, "I don't know, I'm not the best with relationships or anything like that." I stammer, "At least think about it." He wraps an arm around my shoulders, "I will." I reply.

"Hey, look at this." Will hollers as he points up ahead at an old beat down cabin, Santiago removes his arm from around me and catches up to the others. "Let's check it out, boys." Ben states as three of them cautiously walk up onto the deck with guns raised and Santiago waits outside with me. They take a few minutes to check it out, "It's clear." Frankie says as he pokes his head out of the door. As we enter the cabin a stale scent hits me in the face and I notice a fire place which would be so nice as it was November. "I'm gonna go grab some fire wood." Will says, "I'll come with you." my brother announces, leaving Frankie, Ben and I. Which may be awkward to say the least.

I decide to look around the kitchen and see what was in the cupboards, I open a few, nothing was inside. I open the next one and am taken by surprise, "Oh shit!" I cry stepping back a bit, "What's wrong?" Ben asks as him and Frankie approach me, "A fucking rat." I reply pointing into the cupboard and laughing at myself. "You survive a car crash, a shootout and a dead rat scares you?" Ben chuckles at me, I snicker along with him since I felt kind of stupid. I notice Frankie's face harden with what I thought to be jealousy out of the corner of my eye, I look over at him "Wanna help me keeping looking?" I ask, he shrugs and puts down his gun on the table before walking back over to the cupboards. We browse for a few minutes until I hit the jackpot, "Now we're talking!" I state blissfully, I pull out two pints of whiskey. The boys cheer as I grab some glasses from another cupboard and pour us some.

I take my glass of whiskey over to the retro looking couch that had a few rips in the fabric and take a seat, we all sip on our drinks until Will and Santiago come back. The guys start to make a fire, "Wait." Santiago says, "We can't light this, they'll follow it and find us." He sighs, we all curse at our stupidity. "Well at least we have the whiskey to keep us warm." I chuckle, Will and my brother pour themselves a glass and bring the bottles with them into the living room. We all sit around for a few hours drinking, talking and laughing trying to make the best of this situation. My brother wasn't drinking much as he wanted to keep an eye on things, but the rest of us were drinking quite a bit. Frankie sat across from me in an armchair, every so often we'd make eye contact which would send chills down my spine each time, he was just so handsome. I watch as he adjusts his hat and takes a sip of his drink, I notice myself smiling as I admire him.

"I wish we had a radio or something." I pipe up, I love music and dancing when I'm drinking. "I think I saw one in the bedroom." Ben states as he jumps to his feet and walks down the hallway to where the bedroom was, he comes back moments later with an old style black radio. He turns the dial and static fills the air causing me to flinch at the sound, he takes a few moments and plays with it until he lands on a channel, it was old music but hey I'd take it. "Guys. Do you really think we should be doing this?" Santiago asks us, he was right it probably wasn't what we should be doing while on the run. "Let's just settle down and go to bed so you're not all hungover as fuck tomorrow." He adds, Ben continued to call him the fun police but we all finish off our drinks and settle down for the night anyways. The boys insisted that I have the bedroom, so I make my way there and fall onto the bed. It didn't have a duvet on it, only a fitted sheet so I stretched out and tried to fall asleep. I toss and turn for quite some time and come to the realization that I can't sleep, I let out a sigh and slide off the bed. Maybe I needed some fresh air again like last night, so I silently walk down the hallway and into the kitchen / living room area where the guys were sleeping, or so I thought. I glance over and see a silhouette sitting in a chair,

"Hello?" I whisper, the person gets up and walks over to me. It was Frankie. "So we meet again." I say, he laughs "What's up? Can't sleep again?" He asks, I shake my head in response. "Yeah me either." My eyes jump to his shoulder where he'd been shot, he had wrapped some fabric around it to slow the bleeding. "Help me find a sewing needle and I'll fix that up for you." The brunette smiles, "I'll be alright."

"I'm not taking no for an answer, go look for a sewing kit please." I say in a stern voice "Yes ma'am." He replies which makes me grin, I begin to search around. A few minutes later he meets me in the hallway after coming up with nothing, I had lucked out and found a sewing kit in the linen closet that had all kinds of needles. I go back into the living room and grab the whiskey and motion for Frankie to follow me into the bedroom so I could sew him up,

"Got your lighter?" I question, he pulls it out of his pocket and hands it to me. I light a few candles so we'd have some light and I could actually see what I was doing. "It probably would be easier if I took my shirt off right?" He asks as he sits down on the bed, I gulp nervously "Y-yeah." And with that he pulls his t-shirt over his head. I couldn't help but admire him and he totally noticed since I was still a little tipsy and wasn't being very sly about it. Our eyes meet and I clear my throat awkwardly, he had such an effect on me.

"You alright, Luce?" He asks as he gently grabs my hand causing me to look at him again, "I'm okay." I reply, my heart beating what felt like a thousand beats per second. "This is gonna sting." I say as I get ready to clean his wound with the whiskey, "At least I've got a pretty face to distract me." He flirts, causing me to blush. I pour the whiskey over the gash which made him wince, I didn't like hurting him but it had to be done. "Alright. Now it's time to sew you up."

"Where'd you learn to do this anyway?" He ponders,"Tv." I grin as I loop the thread through the needle and make a little knot, "You ready?" He nods and I push the needle through his skin, my free hand was pressed against his bicep and I could feel him tense up, but his expression didn't change.

"So what's up with you and Ben?" He asks, the question completely catching me off guard, "Absolutely nothing, why?" I question as I keep sewing him up. "I know you guys slept together." He exclaims causing me to stop what I was doing. "Did Ben tell you that?" I interrogate as my eyes meet his brown ones, "He brought it up as an excuse when we were arguing over who got to keep an eye on you." He admits. "Yeah, we slept together but it was a mistake."

"He doesn't seem to think so." He responds, I sigh "There's someone else, Frankie. I'm not interested in Ben like that." He scratches the back of his neck "Oh." He says with a hint of disappointment in his voice, I reach out and grab his hand. "You." Our eyes meet again and we both smile before I go back to sewing him up.

"There. I'm all done." I say as I tie a knot in the thread, I feel him staring at me which causes me to blush again. He reaches out and lifts my chin so I had no choice but to look at him, "Do you really mean what you said?" He questions, "Yes." I say staring into his eyes as his hand moves up to my cheek, we both begin to lean in and I get lost in the moment as we're now inches away from each other. Both of his hands work their way into my hair as our lips finally collide and we sink into the kiss. I had never felt so content in all of my life.