Left You Behind

3

Frankie's Pov:

I laid in my bed staring at the ceiling as I tapped out a little beat against my thighs.

"Hey Frankie. Can I come in?" I heard Lukas call from outside of my door. Something about the tone of his voice worried me.

"Sure I guess." I said unsure. He slowly came in and closed the door behind him before he sat on the edge of my bed. "What's up?" He took a deep breath and tried to focus on anything but me. "Lukas?"

"There's something you need to see." He whispered sadly as he held out a small news clipping. I slowly took it and read the top.

Obituaries

I didn't want to read it. Why was Lukas handing me something like this?

"Just read it Franks." He said quietly as his elbows rested on his knees and his chin rested on his folded knuckles.

My eyes slowly scanned the page and filled with tears at one name.

Richard Dawson 1973-2017

I didn't read further. My father is dead.

"Frankie.." Lukas whispered slowly.

"Just stop Lukas. There's no use." I cut him off as I rolled on my side and faced the wall. All of my emotions drained out of me like a stream into the ocean. My feelings floated in the air all around me yet, I didn't feel a thing.

"I just thought you would want to know Frankie. His funeral is today at 3." I felt him stand up and listened to his footsteps leave my room.

It hurts that he's gone. Yes he never wanted me as a child but it still hurt to know I'll never have the opportunity to try and make amends with him. Maybe if he knew where my life ended up he wouldn't be so ashamed of me.

xxxxxxx

It was now 3:15 and I stood under a tree far back away from everyone as they crowded around my father's casket. My brother held tightly onto his twin sister as she cried into his shoulder. My mom cried harshly into her hand as the preacher said spoke about him. I shook my head a bit my lip trying to fight the urge to run to my family; to go up and brag about how my life turned out great without them.

Only one tear fell and it wasn't for the fact that my father is dead. It fell because I'm stuck sitting under this tree watching my family mourn. I was stuck watching my brother comfort his twin, leaving my mother to mourn the loss of her husband alone.

Someone took Cat away from Rian and held her tight. I could see him say something to her before he kissed her. It hurt to see the small wedding band on her ring finger.

Rian turned around for a moment and his eyes met mine for a moment before I turned and walked away.

All of this was too much. I couldn't watch my sister grow up and become a woman. I couldn't watch my father grow old.

I watched the clouds slowly roll across the sky as I continued to walk down the sidewalk. It was a sunny day out but it was so tragic.

"Hey, wait up Miss." Someone said from behind me. I was grateful to recognise that the voice didn't belong to my brother. But when I turned around my stomach churned.

Jack fucking Barackat. The guitarist for the band my brothers in.

"Hey, I saw you standing under the tree at Mr. Dawson's funeral. Were you a friend of his?" I shook my head.

"No. Me and him were nothing more than.." I paused for a moment. "..mere strangers. I just wanted to check on something." I partially lied. Technically I wasn't lying at all. My family had nothing to do with me and I just wanted to see if by any chance I wasn't forgotten.

"Oh. I see-" He was cut off by the phone dining in his pocket. "I'm sorry I gotta take this. Maybe we'll meet up in the future." I meekly nodded before we parted ways.

"Mere strangers in a world of chaos." I muttered one of our song lyrics.

I was almost to the band house then suddenly my phone rang. When I pulled it out of my pocket I could see it was scarlet.

"Hey." I answered with little emotion.

"Hey, how far are you from the house? I have important news." She squealed.

"I'm walking up the patio right now. Give me 2 seconds." I said before I hung up and walked up the porch steps and through the door.

As soon as I closed the door Scarlet squealed loudly causing me to cringe slightly.

"Guess what! We got asked to tour with someone!" She said happily.

"Scar calm down because there's something else she needs to know." Sam said with a down voice.

"Sam, this is an opportunity of a life time. Knowing her she'll be able to ignore it." Scarlet huffed.

"I am right here you know. Can I just know so I can go to my room?" I asked with no emotion.

"The band is doing a headlining tour and we're their opening band I guess so to speak." Sam started to explain. "But you're not going to like the band we're opening for." I motioned him to continue.

"It's All Time low." Lukas responded quietly.

"Just great. Fucking. Wonderful." I whispered violently as I stormed off to my room and slammed my door.