Cemetery Drive

“Dad could you possibly do something other than sit on the back of the fucking truck, like maybe help us move this stuff inside?”

It was finally moving day, and all my Dad seemed capable of doing was sitting on the back of the truck “supervising” as he liked to call it. Frank, Kyle and I had been busting our asses all morning moving things from the truck up to the apartment; which was on the 7th floor. The building had elevators, but the bigger pieces of furniture wouldn’t fit, so we had to take some things up the stairs.

Frank, my Dad and I had been to view the apartment a week or so before we moved in; it was perfect. It had a nice sized balcony off of the living room, a spacious kitchen (meaning you could fit more than one person in it) two bedrooms, and a bathroom.

After we viewed the apartment we went furniture shopping; it was a complete nightmare. Frank kept wandering off, and I eventually found him lounging on a bed getting yelled at for having his shoes on the clean, white fabric. My Dad couldn’t figure out what couch set to get us; I was honestly losing my mind with both of them. We finally settled on a black couch with matching love-seat, a queen sized bed for the bedroom, a little two person table and chair set, and an oak computer desk so I could do my writing.

We were finally down to the last few boxes and my Dad graciously helped carry up my purse to the apartment, after shutting the back of the moving truck.

“Well I guess you guys have everything you need.”

I nodded at my Dad, feeling rather awkward I wouldn’t be going home with him. Frank caught the
look on my face and took Kyle out onto the balcony, allowing my dad and I some privacy.

“I’m going to miss you Daddy.”

I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck feeling the tears sting my eyes, as he hugged me back.

“I’m only a phone call away Nicole, besides now I have somewhere to go when your Mom’s driving me crazy.”

I smiled through my tears and let go of him; he called a goodbye to Frank and Kyle as I walked him to the door, he paused before leaving digging out his wallet and pulled out six crisp one hundred dollar bills, handing them to me.

“Here, in case you need anything, and to get those boys some pizza and beer.”

I thanked him as he walked out the door. With every step he took I felt more like running after him and begging him to take me home; I felt Frank grab my hand and pull me back into the apartment, wiping my tears and kissing me.

“He’ll be back Nicole, don’t worry.”

“I know I just miss him already.”

I let go of Frank’s hand and walked through the living room; Kyle was sitting on the couch and unpacking a box of CDs, I continued past him and stepped out onto the balcony, breathing in the warm July air and lighting a smoke. I never realised saying goodbye to my dad would be so hard, I mean when I was living at home I couldn’t wait to move out, and now that I had all I wanted to do was run back home. Ironic isn’t it?

I eventually snapped out of my funk, thanks to the boys and a few glasses of too dry Merlot Kyle had brought over; we had eventually decided that the boys would set up the furniture and I would do the decorating, in between all of us unpacking boxes. You never really notice how much stuff you have until you have to unpack it all and find homes for things, and because I was living with Frank we had double the amount.

I was in the bedroom putting sheets and blankets on the bed, when I felt hands snake along my waist, I turned around and was met by hazel eyes.

“It looks nice in here.”

I gave Frank a smile and looked around the room; the queen bed had black wooden headboard and foot-board that matched the dresser, vanity and bedside tables; on the tables were matching silver lamps and an alarm clock on Frank’s side while mine had a picture of us on prom night. I had hung a Black Flag poster on Frank’s side of the room and a Pink Floyd one on my side, the black sheets and red duvet finished off the room; it almost looked to adult for us, but we would eventually make it our own.

Frank pulled me closer to him; he smelled like sweat, cigarettes and whatever cologne he used, he smelled like a man, and I had to stop myself from laying him down on the bed and stripping his clothes off.

“Smoke? I want to see how the living room is coming along anyways.”

“Slowly but surely.”

He nodded as I gave him a sideways glance and proceeded out into the hallway stepping around boxes and stacks of movies, CDs, and records. As I entered the living room I stopped a moment and took it all in; the TV sat in one corner facing the couch, while the love seat sat across from the couch, there was a coffee table in front of the couch and a little side table beside the loveseat. Posters were already hung around the room and my writing desk sat in front of one of the patio windows. A bookshelf that Frank brought was by the entrance to the living room, already accumulating books and movies, my Buddha collection sitting on top of it.

“It looks really good in here guys, thanks.”

The boys smiled at me looking tired and hungry, I looked at the clock already hung in the kitchen and noticed it was just after seven. I snatched my keys from the coffee table and looked over at the boys.

“Come on, let’s go get pizza. I’m sure you guys are starving.”

They followed me out and I locked the door behind us, checking it twice before deciding it was actually locked and walking down the hallway after the boys; we climbed into my car and headed to the nearest pizza place, Kyle ran in and to grab us a Hawaiian and a cheese pizza leaving Frank and I in the car listening to the radio. After Kyle came back we headed to the apartment, stomachs rumbling the whole way.

It was almost eleven at night and the three of us had polished off most of the pizza and drank almost a case of beer and two bottles of wine between the three of us, we were full and drunk to say the least.

Kyle was nodding off on the couch and Frank was strumming away on his guitar, a cigarette hanging from his lips. I was watching him intently, the way his fingers wrapped around the neck of the guitar, the sweep of hair that fell in his face, the smoke curling in the air around his head, making it look like he had a halo.

Frank glanced up and removed the smoke from his mouth, flicking the ashes into the ashtray, noticing my eyes on him.

“What are you smiling for?”

I hadn’t even noticed I was smiling and shrugged my shoulders.

“You.”

I said simply, he looked at me quizzically. I picked a cigarette out of the cardboard pack in front of me, lighting it and taking a few drags before speaking.

“You just looked happy, truly happy I mean; it wasn’t faked. You don’t see a lot of that these days, truly happy people.”

I knew the liquor had gone to my head, and seeing him sitting there so completely happy brought out the philosopher in me I guess. He smiled at me putting his guitar down and walked over to me.

“I love you even though you’ve had too much to drink.”

He leaned down and planted a kiss on my lips, I put my hands on his shoulders and pulled him into me, enjoying the warmth his body was giving off; he placed one of his hands on my cheek and pulled back.

“You should call Kyle a cab.”

I nodded and sat up straight, reaching over to Kyle and shaking him awake.

“Kyle I’m going to call you a cab okay? Kyle!”

He startled awake and shot me a death glare, slurring his words.

“Yeah okay, call me a cab.”

I reached for the phone sitting on the coffee table and dialed for a cab, giving them the address and hanging up.

“They said about 5 minutes. But I can’t move, Frank will you take him? You two need to bond anyways.”

He kissed the top of my head, and helped Kyle off the couch towards the front door; Kyle called out a “Love you Nic!” before the door closed behind them. I sat there a few minutes, willing myself to get up and head to bed where I could curl up into warm blankets. I got up and staggered down the hall, making a pit stop in the bathroom, before going into the bedroom and taking my clothes off settling on one of Frank’s shirts and crawling onto the bed, making a cocoon out of the blankets and closing my eyes.

I heard Frank come in and lock the door behind him, going around and turning off the lights before joining me in the bedroom. Our bedroom. I felt him get into the bed a few minutes later, covering himself with the blankets and wrapping his arms around me.

“Nic?”

“Mm-hmm.”

I still haven’t opened my eyes, and was quite comfortable all wrapped up in Frank and the blankets.

“You mind if I borrow your car tomorrow morning? I have to go pick up a few things.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at him.

“Yeah sure, the keys are on the coffee table. What do you need to get though?”

“Oh nothing much, just a few things at the grocery store is all.”

He left it at that and leaned over to turn off his lamp, placing his arms around me once again, leaning down and kissing me slowly.

“I love you baby.”

“I love you too.”

I mumbled before drifting off to sleep.

Notes