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Three

"Frank. Frankie. Frank. Frank, wake up. Frankie."

I don't know why Gerard was calling my name. We were standing in water and it seemed to go on forever, no land or buildings in sight. The sky was dark and filled with gray and ominus looking clouds and below us, the water was such a dark blue it almost looked black. But Gerard was right next to me, looking the way he did from the video he had sent, and he was calling my name like I wasn't standing right next to him in the freezing water. It wasn't loud at all save for the calm waves in front of us. I tried to open my mouth to tell him this but it felt like I didn't even have one; like it had been sewn shut. And then I was shaking; vibrating of my own volition as Gerard's voice rose louder and louder.

I opened my eyes my eyes to reveal my Mom's face, already dolled up with make up. I groaned and turned my head, feeling her hand rub my back soothingly. "Must have been really tired," She chuckled, "If you want to stay home today, you can...and Happy Belated Birthday." She got quieter when she told me happy birthday and I ignored her. I put two and two together and realized giving me the option to stay home was my 'present'.

I didn't respond and she stood up straight, sighing as her hands smoothed down her dress. "Frankie..."

"What?"

"You father and I were very busy yesterday in a meeting-"

"Okay."

She waited awhile before saying, "We'll do whatever you want this weekend for your birthday."

Again, I didn't say anything. She finally left my room and it was silent once again. I groaned and stretched, cracking various parts of my body, and then sat up, the covers falling off my chest. I wasn't even falling into her forgive us trap. I didn't even care anymore but I could still make them feel bad for it and sucker them into getting me whatever I wanted for a few days. Hm...what did I want?

I chose to stay home and when my phone went off, I sucked in a quick breath. Gerard. I unlocked my phone and went on Instagram only to realize too late that it wasn't an alert from him, but from my alarm, signaling that it was about to go off in 10 minutes for me to wake up and start getting ready for school. I sighed heavily in disappointment and threw my phone on the bed before I got up to take a shower.

When I had finished washing up and came back downstairs, my Dad and Mom were rushing about making toast and eggs with orange juice. "Hey, son!" My Dad smiled. I stared at him and then at his perfectly crisped brown toast and then his hands, which were scraping some eggs onto the plate.

"I want a computer for my 17th birthday that you both failed to acknowledge." I said in a blunt tone, making them both freeze. "A what?"

"A. Com-pute-ter."

"That's a lot of money, Frank."

"It's like, 200 for a small notebook thing." I crossed my arms and my mom nodded, saying, "Oh yeah! I forgot you like to write." She chuckled. My Dad laughed along with her and I slowly uncrossed my arms, confused. "What's wrong with that?"

"Frank, writing? At least do something...better. Plus, writing is a woman's thing." My Dad chuckled again and put the empty pan in the sink. "Well, I'm not a woman and I like to do it." I said in a strong voice, wiping the few drops of water that had dripped down from my hair to my cheek. "Exactly. You gotta do something that has more...benefit, you know? Writing...it's already hard to do. You have to be inspired all the time, you have to make sure it's something you like while trying to please thousands and millions of others, you have to find someone that would want to represent you and actually get it published. It's a lot of work and someone like you is capable of better things. Haven't you noticed that most authors are women? You putting nothing but words on a page isn't something you should like and strive for."