Sunflowers and Roses: A Solangelo AU

Chapter 6: Frank

Growing up in Canada, everything had been simple for Frank. Until his mother died. After she died, nothing made sense. Nothing made sense throughout high school. Nothing made sense throughout graduation. Nothing made sense when his grandmother told him he'd be going to college in the states.

Nothing made sense until he met Hazel. She made everything fall into place. Nothing mattered before, but now, everything did.

She was a beautiful girl with a heart of gold and eyes that matched. She had warm brown skin and a pretty smile and a laugh that sent warmth to the purest parts of Frank's soul.

Stumbling and awkward and probably embarrassing, he didn't know how she ended up loving him, he just knew he was the luckiest man in the world that she did.

He met her brother three months after dating her. He expected to meet a black guy, probably someone taller than him, with the same smile and warm attitude. What he met was an angry, 5'6" Italian boy who barely acknowledged that Frank even existed.

When he and Hazel returned back to California, she apologized a hundred times. And he accepted a hundred and one times. Still, Nico had bothered him. But he tried to be understanding, especially when Frank learned his mother and sister had died.

Still, Frank's mother had died. He wondered how two people with the same trauma could have completely different outcomes. Frank missed his mom everyday, but he was happy. He wasn't stuck. He wasn't emo. And he was holding the hand of a girl he would die for.

Maybe that was it. Maybe Nico hadn't found something- someone- that made everything make sense again. He was still lost. Frank remembered that feeling. And so he vowed to be patient with Nico, for as long as it took for him to find meaning again.

When the phone call came, Frank was more terrified than Hazel. He didn't want to lose his brother-in-law. He was hoping and praying for the day that he could talk to Nico about his animals, and Nico could talk to him about his flowers. He wanted to hang out with Nico without feeling like Hazel had to be there too. He wanted his future children to have their uncle. He wanted Nico around. He wanted a brother too.

It was Frank that drove Hazel to the airport. It was Frank who picked her and her brother back up, a month later, after it was decided Nico would be moving in.

When Frank saw him again, his heart was broken. Nico was too thin, too pale, too weary of life.

After Nico had gone to bed, Frank asked the questions he'd been dying to ask for thirty days.

What happened? What's wrong with him? How can I help him?

He's been abused, Frank. Abused and alone, and we didn't know. He's not eating, Frank. He wanted to die. He tried to-

She wasn't able to finish the sentence.

I don't know how we can help him, Frank. How do we help him? How do we save him?

Frank couldn't believe it. His brother-in-law, abused and alone and tormented by ghosts who wouldn't stay gone.

As he went to bed that night, he stared at the ceiling.

Tell me, Nico. He thought. Tell me everything so I can fix it for you. For Hazel, too. But mostly for you.

Now, as he watches Nico exit the house and head off into the small world of this small town, he feels a sense of relief. At the very least, Nico isn't alone anymore.

"He'll be okay, right?" Hazel whispers, more to herself.
Frank nods, smiling softly at his wife.

"He will be. He has us."