Common People (frerard)

Chapter 12

I walked out of my dorm in my freshly ironed suit and found Frank's car there. He stood beside it and looked up at me and smiled. His suit was dark grey with a black button up and a black and white tie. The red parts of his hair looked freshly dyed.

"You look great, Gee," he said.

I blushed as I looked down at my plain black outfit with the red tie.

"I-I thought Jamia was picking me up," I said quietly.

"She was but there were some technical difficulties with rides and she ended up having to go pick up her grandparents," he said.

I looked around a little nervously as he opened the door for me and I slid into my suit. Frank shut the door and walked around to get into his side. We were quiet as we drove to Jamia's house and my stomach dropped when I saw the cars.

"Wait, don't get out just yet," he said as he shut off the engine.

Frank got out and ran around the car to open my door for me. I blushed, walking inside with him. We went out to the backyard where everyone was talking and laughing. Music was playing and there were lights strung up everywhere. I stood awkwardly with Frank as he said hello and hugged people.

"This was such a nice idea, Frank," a lady said.

"Yep, there's food," he said, ushering her away.

We got a secluded corner on a bench under a large tree that had lights hanging down from it.

"What does she mean this was your idea?" I asked. "I thought you guys do this every year."

"Uh, yeah," he said. "We just do it in a banquet hall in New York usually and I didn't wanna spend a weekend in New York now that I'm in college and busier so Jamia and I suggested we do it here in her backyard."

"This is a huge backyard," I mumbled.

The entire thing looked like it could be the size of a football field, it was at least an acre. There was the huge grassy area here behind the large stone patio with the built in stone fireplace, fire pit and pizza oven. There was a playset on the left with currently some kids playing on it while their mothers asked them to be careful and not ruin their nice clothes. A stone path on the right led you down a small incline to a fence where the pool area was.

"Yeah, it is big," he said. "It felt a lot bigger when we were young and all running around."

I glanced at my phone but saw no notifications.

"Everything alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just haven't heard from Andy in a while," I said.

Frank nodded but didn't say anything more.

"Do you want something to drink?" He asked. "We've got some punch or water or pop. I'm sure I can steal some alcohol."

"I'm okay," I said, looking down at my lap as I tapped my middle finger against my thumb.

Frank glanced down at my hand before smiling.

"Do you wanna play a game me and Jamia used to play?" he asked as I looked up at him. "So the game is called kiss or no kiss."

"I-I don't wanna kiss," I mumbled.

"No, it's an observation game," he said. "We're all, like, super Italian. Like Hollywood movie, Michael Corleone type of shit. So basically we pick a random adult and we have to guess if they're the kissing type or not."

I looked at him in confusion. 

"Okay, okay, sounds weird, I know," he said. "But it's actually pretty common, I think Italians just don't know personal space."