We're Just Friends (Frank Iero)

9.

Heading to school was the most daunting experience in the world this morning. I hadn't spoken to Poppy once since...the incident. I had spent the next day in my room with my curtain closed in case she tried to look into my window, and I had switched off my phone until this morning. Turning it on, I felt nervous about whether I would receive a massive influx of texts from her, but there was nothing there. She hadn't text, called or even knocked on my door once after what had happened. This morning she didn't come over and I didn't go round to hers, despite normally eating breakfast with her every morning for the past ten years.

I started up the shitcar and pulled out of my driveway, glancing briefly over at her house as I pulled onto the main road. I could see Bob walking around through the window but there was no sign of Poppy. I quickly looked away and put my foot down on the pedal in case she saw me and tried to get into the shitcar. Arriving at school, I felt as if everybody was watching me. I had screamed at Poppy outside a house that contained practically every student in our school, declaring my undying love for her, before storming off like a child throwing a tantrum. I had never been a loser at school, and considering the way I dressed and the interests I had, I was surprisingly popular, but today I felt like the loser. People were staring at me, or was I just being paranoid?

No, people were definitely staring at me.

  "I heard about your embarrassing display at the weekend," grinned a malicious looking Grace Penney as she sauntered past me in the hallway.

  "Fuck off Grace," I said, rolling my eyes and pushing past her.

  "If it makes you feel better, everybody else already knew. You made it so obvious Frankie, you even broke up with me because she didn't like my attitude towards her."

  "I only went out with you to make her jealous so I guess you're the idiot then aren't you?" I said angrily before storming to class. I had Math class, which would mean I'd be sitting next to Poppy.   I walked into class and sat down in my usual seat, but Poppy was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was just running late? I tried to focus on class and pay attention to the teacher and before I knew it class was over and Poppy hadn't turned up, which is weird considering in the ten years I'd known her I had never seen her miss a class. I practically ran to Chemistry class because I figured she would be there, but she didn't show up to that either. By the end of the day I hadn't seen Poppy in a single lesson. On my way out of school after a disappointing but slightly relieving day, I bumped into Gerard.  

"Hey Frank!" he called as I tried to avoid eye contact with him. It was the loudest I had ever heard this timid boy speak.

"H-hey Gerard," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks heat up with embarrassment as I thought about what had happened at the weekend. 

"Have you heard from Poppy?" he said bluntly. He seemed to be acting friendly towards me considering what I had done.

"No, she hasn't been in school today. Why?"

"You should go round dude," he said. Dude? Are we friends now? "It's important."

Without thinking, in the heat of the moment and with a head full of irrationality, I ran to my shitcar and sped to Poppy's house. What was important? Why wasn't she in school?

I pulled up on her driveway, abandoning my car with the keys still in the ignition and the engine roaring. I used my spare key to her house to go inside and was surprised to see that her mother and father were home. They hadn't been home in...weeks.

"Hey Mr Bryar, Mrs Bryar," I said politely, although I was somehow out of breath from running from my car to her house. I should quit smoking.

"Hey Frank!" Poppy's mother replied with a smile on her face that looked slightly haunted. Her  father did very little to greet me. "Poppy is upstairs. I'm glad you're here, actually."

What the fuuuck?

I jogged upstairs and burst into Poppy's room, my heart beating insanely fast. I tried to forget about what happened at the weekend and prayed that she wasn't about to tell me that she hated me.

"Frankie!" she sobbed, running up to me and nestling her head in my shoulder. Her body was shaking and I soon realized it was because she was crying.

"What's up?!" I replied, wrapping my arms around her tightly and resting my chin on top of her head. 

"My stupid fucking parents..." she cried into my shoulder. "They're getting a divorce and Mom is moving to Chicago and Dad is moving to fucking Texas!"

"W-what?" I gasped. She pulled away from me and went to sit on her bed, where she rested her head in her arms and tried to stop herself from crying. I walked over to her and sat beside her, gently stroking the back of her head as I tried to stop myself from crying just at the sight of her being so upset. What she had told me hadn't quite sunk in yet.

"They've been on those business runs," she said bitterly through tears. "But it turns out Dad was having an affair and now he's moving to be with this other woman in Texas, and M-mom is moving back home to Chicago to be with my grandparent's until she g-gets sorted."

"Hey, hey it's fine," I said, wrapping my arms around her once again and taking hold of one of her hands. "You barely see them, they haven't gotten along in years- it's not the end of the world Pops."

"Frankie don't you realize?!" she shrieked, pulling her hand away from me. "I have to fucking move to Chicago or Texas!"

"Wait, what?"

"Bob's taken so much time out of college to watch over me while they've been fucking around and he has to go back, they're selling our house and moving by the end of the month."

"No..." I said, finally understanding the full extent of what was happening. "No Poppy, you can't."

"Frankie I'm sixteen, what choice do I have?" she said with desperate eyes, before bursting into tears yet again.

"You've been a few metres away from me for a decade," I said, tears forming in my eyes and escaping quickly down my cheeks as I thought about the idea of Poppy moving. "I can't live without you."