As The Waves Crash Down...[Chapter 10]
Gosh...why does it feel like I have to make myself write nowadays? I blame it on MySpace not letting me delete my account. I'm so frustrated with them right about now.
Anyways, I feel like these author's notes before chapters have become like a mini-blog. Don't feel guiltly if you just shamelessly scroll over these few paragraphs of words...I would probably do the same...hehehe.
'Kay...onto the next chapter (that's definitely one of the last) ]:
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(Two Months Later)
I lazily ate some popcorn as I made my way through my box sets of "Lost," making sure to keep the remote within arm reach. It was winter break, allowing me to act as lazy as I wanted to be. Frankie was over at my house, his full attention currently being given to the amazing show playing on the TV. Suddenly, the front door swung open with a bang and, as I turned my head to look in its direction, I saw Dan rush through the door with a wide smile on his face. He looked hurried as he climbed the stairs two steps at a time.
"DAN!" I screamed after him.
"What?" he yelled back.
"What's up with you?" I yelled in reply.
He quickly made his way back down the stairs, drumsticks in hand, and laughed at me. His laugh gave off a sense of complete joy-as if he won a billion dollars in the lottery.
"My band got a gig!" he yelled out in excitement.
Frankie chuckled after his attention was finally diverted and stood up to give Dan a "man-hug." "Congrats, man," Frankie said.
"When it is?" I asked him from my seat on the couch.
"Tomorrow night," Dan answered with a shrug.
"The night before Christmas Eve?" I asked him.
"Yup...its like a pre-Christmas Eve party," Dan said, "It's being held at Joey's house."
When he saw no flash of recognition on my face, he added, "He's a friend of Jake's. Everyone at school's invited."
"Wow, Dan. Joey was going on and on about this great band that was going to be at his party yesterday, I didn't know it was going to be yours. Dude, his dad's a record label executive, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity," Frankie said in wonder.
"Looks like your goals this year are really coming true, cousin," I said with a laugh.
"Yeah...looks like it," Dan said with a laugh. "I gotta get to practice...this was all on short notice so we're really gonna coop ourselves up and be ready for tomorrow."
"Okay, bye Dan," I said.
Once Dan left, Frankie and I resumed our "Lost" marathon. We often found ourselves hanging out together these past few months. We were a couple but not quite that serious yet. Going out became a weekly occurrence and things were really going great. He seemed like a genuinely awesome guy. I wondered how Luke was. We still talked everyday, but he really seemed busy with his sport and school work so we never talked that long. As I let my mind wander back to the TV show, I wanted to always spend my days like this-just being preoccupied with normal teenage stuff like relationships and parties and not whether my parents are going to hurt each other or if my family will turn their back on me and leave me to fend for myself.
"Hey Krys?" I heard Frankie ask.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"I gotta go head out. You're coming to the party tomorrow, right?" he asked.
"Yup. I wouldn't miss Dan's first gig for anything," I said with a grin.
"I'll just meet you there then. I gotta do some stuff before that so...yeah," he said while he looked at the front door of my house.
"Okay then," I said, a little disappointed. "Bye."
We shared a hug before he left. Even though things were going great between Frankie and me, there we're still times when I had a gut feeling that something was bound to go wrong.
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Dance and rock music blared through the speakers as I shoved my way through the house and into the kitchen. Grabbing just a plastic cup of soda, I could already tell that I was going to have to drive a couple of people home tonight. As I made my way out of the kitchen, I slid through a glass sliding door into the backyard where Dan's band was set to play. Checking my cellphone, I realized that they were set to begin performing any second now. I shoved my way through the throng of people eagerly standing around the makeshift stage. Even though I was near the stage now, I still doubted that Dan would be able to see me since my height really wasn't that impressive.
The crowd loved Dan's band. Three songs into their 8-song set, I realized that Frankie still wasn't in the crowd. My eyes had swept over the sea of people every few minutes and I had yet to see him. Knowing that he would love to see Dan's band play, I assumed that he hadn't realized the time and didn't know they had already started the music. Immediately, I decided to look for him.
Once again, I made my way through the back door of the house and saw that the crowd inside was less dense seeing as the majority of them were not outside. A few people lingered here and there but, for the most part, everyone was enjoying the band outside. I made my way through the bottom floor of the house, searching almost every room for Frankie. I was sure that he was here since Dan had come up to me earlier, before he went on stage, and told me that he had talked to Frankie. I furrowed my eyebrows when I had gone through the whole bottom floor and hadn't seen him.
Deciding that he might be upstairs, I climbed up the stairs and gasped when I saw him in the 2nd floor hallway. Between him and the wall was some girl I didn't know. Not only were their whole bodies touching, but so were their lips.
"Frankie?" I asked in surprise, my voice breaking halfway through his name.
As he turned his head in the direction of my voice, his lips detached from those of the girl and sly grin slid on those pieces of flesh.
"Yeah, babe?" he asked me as if those were perfectly normal words to be said at a moment like this.
"Frankie!" the girl under him whined. He merely put a finger to her lips.
"Jake was right, I shouldn't have trusted you," I said to myself.
"Come on, Krys," he said. "You should have known this would happen. I told you weeks ago that I wanted to have fun this year. Lots of it."
I shook my head at my own stupidity. I willed myself not to cry. Never had I ran faster than I did then as I made my way down those stairs and into my car. Once in my car, I gripped the steering wheel tightly, not letting my hands wipe away the tears flowing down my cheeks. As soon as I pulled in to my driveway, I ran from my car to the beach. I fell to the sand; loving the sense of comfort the presence of the sea always seemed to give me. I pulled my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. I rested my forehead on my knees and just let all the tears flow. There was no sense in stopping them now. 'Just let them all go,' I told myself.
After what seemed to be hours, though I knew they really weren't, I heard someone approach and sit beside me.
"Dan," I started, my voice hoarse and muffled, "I can't believe I let this happen to myself. I should have been smarter."
"It's going to be okay, Krys," a voice said as an arm wrapped around me.
As soon as I heard that voice and felt that arm wrapped around me, I knew in an instant that this wasn't Dan, but I also knew exactly who it was.