A Love That's So Demanding

Cherry Pie

        Frank earned odd stares from his aunt and uncle as he trotted down the stairs that Sunday morning twenty minutes earlier than he ever had. He was already showered and dressed.

        “Well, you’re up quite early this morning, Frank.” His aunt stopped cutting her cherry pie into slices as she looked up at him.

        “Oh, yeah. I just thought I’d help out.” He motioned to what she was doing. Her eyes almost bugged out of her skull at his statement. He had never in the whole two years that he had been living there, wanted to help out with anything that regarded church. He thought having Sunday brunch at their house was stupid and a waste of time. Why would you ever want to invite a bunch of haughty, hypocrites over into your personal space? She disagreed, however. She said they were lovely people. They would compliment her dishes, only to quietly whisper among themselves about how they could have done a better job at making them. They weren’t lovely. They were snobby gossipers.

        “Well, alright then. Here, take this and get the casserole out.” She grabbed a dish cloth off of the counter and threw it in his direction. He just nodded, stalking over to the oven to retrieve it. Right about that time his uncle walked in through the back door looking quite satisfied. His white linen shirt was tucked securely into his slacks and his hair was perfectly combed over and held down with gel.

        “You should see Johnny’s new paint job. He just came back from the shop.” He walked over to the cabinet, grabbing himself a glass for his morning orange juice.

        “Who?” His aunt stared over at him, fixing her plaid apron.

        “Johnny Way.” His uncle motioned behind him to their house down the street. At the mention of the name ‘Way’, Frank’s heart skipped a beat. He then started thinking of Gerard’s text message last night. That’s why he had woken up earlier that morning. The quicker he got to church, the quicker he would be able to speak to him.

        “I didn’t know you two were that great of friends.” His aunt had her hand on her hip as she stared at him.

        “Well, the man knows his automobiles.” He chuckled, flashing one of those phony smiles. “We also have something else in common.” He uncle continued, his smile fading. Frank had placed the casserole on the counter. He was just standing there looking from his uncle to his aunt. The silence seemed to stretch.

        “We both have irresponsible minors living under our roofs.” He stated, glaring over at Frank with disapproval. Frank just stared back boldly. He knew he wasn’t an irresponsible teenager. Well, he did “forget” to study and there was that one time that he stayed out too late at this party with Robert, but other than that he was fine. Suddenly, he went over the statement again. His uncle hadn’t only been talking about Frank, he had also been talking about Gerard. He thought Gerard was an irresponsible teenager too? His uncle must have been talking to Gerard’s dad about him.

        “Gerard’s irresponsible? How so?” His aunt piped up, cutting through the silence like a knife through butter. His uncle tore his gaze away from Frank long enough to respond.

        “We will discuss it later.” That was all he said, before pouring his orange juice. He then dived into a huge rant about how he thought the stocks were ridiculous nowadays.

        Frank continued to wonder what he had meant about Gerard being irresponsible. What had Gerard’s dad said to his uncle? Were they discussing his accident? Was Gerard’s accident the effect of him being irresponsible? So many questions needed answering. Hopefully, Frank would get them all answered today.