The Before Part (Ferard)

Chpt. 3

The rest of Frank's weekend was pretty dull. He seemed to just text or call Jamia all day, and then sleep dreamlessly. It was nice to at least have someone to talk to in the midst of his boredom. She was becoming his best friend, and he really liked that. It had been so long since he had a best friend. Someone to talk to about serious stuff, and stupid stuff (mostly stupid stuff). He found himself getting to know her better. Example, her favorite food is Alfredo, just barely above yogurt (for some really weird reason, Jamia was a yogurt enthusiest ) and she works at Dairy Queen, she hates her parents and she's surprisingly an honor student, which didn't seem realistic considering how much time she spents at the skate park and the mall. 

Monday started off as it always did, sitting in the back listening to music, watching his new acquaintances from the sidelines due to shyness. And his classes were boring and plain. Lunch was pretty good, this time Frank found Jamia in the hall and sat with her and the guys. It felt good to belong again. Having a clique made Frank feel less alien like. Especially since he was new and had no clue who any one was on a personal level. " You should come over this weekend" Ollie suggested " you live close". Frank's eyes widened and his face went pink. "Really?" Frank asked in a meek tone. "Yea, your bus stop is like 4 blocks away from mine. You could probably walk. Ill send you the address, just google maps it" Frank was flattered. He hadn't been to a friends house in so long. And he wasn't close with Ollie, so this was possibly the foreshadowing of a new friendship. "Okay!" he replied with excitement. Jamia smiled wholesomely, at her boy bestie and cousins getting along. 

The rest of the day was plain, Frank Sr. got home at around 11, so he didn't interact with his son who was in his room trying not to remember too much at once. Nights terrified Frank, because he always laid in a daze waiting for his melatonin to kick in.  And this was when his mind was most vulnerable to outside thoughts. He couldn't stop thinking about what he thought of the other night. How real it felt when he closed his eye and relived it all. But it hurt so much, and he didn't want to cope with it. 'How could so much bad shit happen at once', he thought, why him? These taxful thoughts caused his conscious to slip and slide. Time for bed.

Tuesday was annoying. He had tests in so may classes and he didn't feel like doing them. After spending all of last week reviewing everything he had missed, he wanted a break from straining work. Seeing Andy was decent,  but they couldn't really talk,  and he hardly knew Andy. From what he gathered, Andy was the quiet one that preferred listening over talking. The stress of work had even tainted lunch, because by the time he got there, he was too tired to talk. All he did was lay his head down on the table and try to sleep as much as he could. 

Once he got home it was dull. As usual his dad wasn't home, and dinner was prepared for him. Vegetarian lasagna, it was bomb. He didn't have much homework, he usually didnt, so he decided to call Jamia. It was the usual stuff, she ranted about girl drama that Frank didn't understand and Frank told her about how boring it is to be rich suddenly. In New Jersey, he had lived in a two bedroom trailer so it really was rags to riches for him. Jamia was desperate to know more, but simply referencing Jersey was enough stress for him. His heart couldn't take the rest, he needed to be a man and just move on. Jamia fell asleep on the phone and Frank hung up. It was 7 when he decided to take his melatonin. The early bed time reminded him of when Frank was younger and he'd stay up all night. But now, he was older and had more weighing him down everyday so an early bed time didn't really embarrassing him. As he lay there in his blank room staring at the back of his eyelids, Frank began to reminisce. The mention of Jersey early made it come back more than he wanted it to. And it made him think back to his dream from last week. It all felt so real.. like it had just been yesterday, not years ago... once again, Frank breathed smoothly, and let his mind think back to the beginning. And that name.. that name he can't say, but could think for all of eternity.