Don't Stand So Close To Me

My eyes fluttered open as we walked out of Mr. Way’s house. A smile plastered on both of our faces. Frank held my hand as he led me to his car.

The sun was beaming down on us, almost too violently.

It was the kind of sun you experience on an exhausting summer day in the middle of a baseball game. The kind of sun that forbids you from looking at the sky. I was almost grateful for my temporary blindness, I couldn’t see clearly either way.

Not after what just transpired between Frank and I.

Before I knew it we were driving down the road and I could tell I was holding my heart in my hands.

“Oh god.” I mumbled.

“That’s only the beginning.” He chuckled dryly.

“It was good.” I admitted, almost sounding breathless.

“I know.” He smirked.

I bit my lower lip, trying to hold back the inevitable smirk forming on my face.

“Wanna stop somewhere for lunch?” He glanced at me through the rear view mirror.

“Sure. Where?” I smiled back at him.

This was strange; we couldn’t seem to stop smiling at each other. Looking at each other lovingly, like some new couple that couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other. The kind of couples you gag over when you pass in a shopping mall.

But never, never did I think that would be me.

“You pick.” He replied.

“Uhh, somewhere cheap. I don’t have a lot of money on me.” I shrugged.

“Hah. You really think I’m going to let you pay for yourself? It’s on me. I told your Mother I’d feed you anyways.” He laughed.

“What? Are you sure?” My eyes widened.

Is this what relationships were? Orgasms and free food?

I could get used to this.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He grinned.

“Orgasms and free food.” I chuckled.

“What?” He laughed.

“That must be what love is.”

“God, I need to pick your thoughts more often.” He laughed even harder.

“I’m an open book.” I winked.

“Good.” He smiled.

“And I’m pretty sure love is more than just orgasms and free food. But, that does sound pretty fucking nice.” He shook his head in laughter.

“I do though.”

“You do what?” He raised an eyebrow.

I thought for a moment, did I just say that out loud? Why am I speaking my thoughts. I could feel my fingers begin to tremble but I clenched my fists and swallowed the lump forming in the back of my throat.

“I do love you.”

He said nothing for a few seconds, but I glanced up to him to see he had a huge grin, from ear to ear, plastered on his face.

I simply smiled, he didn’t need to say anything. There was a silent understanding between the two of us.

“Alright you lovely girl. How does pizza sound?” He pulled the car into the parking lot of a Domino’s pizza.

“Perfect.” I unbuckled my seat belt and reached for the door handle but Frank suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him.

He pressed his lips against mine, kissing me briefly, tenderly. When he separated he whispered, “Thank you.”

I felt my cheeks heat up instantly, and gulped, stepping out of the car before he could do anything else that made me lose my shit.

As we walked into the Domino’s he draped his arm over my shoulder, keeping me close and claiming me as his. To be honest, I didn’t hate it.

We took our seats at a booth and waited for someone to wait our table. We began flipping through the menus, I honestly wasn’t very hungry but I knew Frank was. As I was flipping through the drink’s menu I felt a tapping on my leg, very subtle, a finger.

I looked up to see Frank staring at me intently. His jaw was clenched and he was trying to warn me about something. ‘What?’ I mouthed to him.

He gestured me to look to the cash counter with his eyes and a nod of his head.

“Don’t be obvious.” He said very quietly.

I nodded and yawned like I was stretching my back, averting my gaze to the direction of the counter.

“Lucas.” I cursed, turning back around immediately. He was ordering food with some girl clinging to his arm. Only it wasn’t some girl, it was Miss Trevor’s 15 year old daughter.

“Fuck. He’s at it again, so soon after Danielle?” I said under my breath, facing Frank and faking a smile as if we were talking about something pleasant.

“Yeah. He must be trying to round up a few girls to make a shipment. Maybe Danielle is still in the USA, or if we’re lucky New Jersey.” He replied, mimicking my gesture and chuckling after his statement as if he’d said something funny.

“You know what we’ve gotta do right?” He asked.

“Follow them?” I sighed.

“You bet.”

“But what about Mr. Way? Don’t we have to get back soon?” I furrowed my eyebrows.

“He’ll be alright. And we shouldn’t be gone too long, just enough to find out where he’s taking the girls. Plus if Gerard is expecting us back, or hasn’t even checked if we left, he won’t do anything stupid.” Frank reached forward and brushed my hair behind my ear, smiling warmly as if we were still having the pleasant conversation.

Lucas sat down at the waiting lounge with Miss Trevor’s daughter Katrina as they waited for their order to be ready. They were getting take out, which means we’d have to do the same.

“I’ll go order two pizzas then we’ll leave, very casual. If he sees you just smile and wave or something, don’t let on that something’s up.”

Frank got up from the booth and went to the cash register, smiling warmly at the cashier and placing his order.

I tried to steady my breath, pulling my phone out of my pocket and pretending to text. I saw I had a message from my Mom.

Sweetie, call me before u go 2 bed so I know youre alright.
I texted back, ‘sure thing mum.’

I sighed, my foot tapping up and down in anxiety. I’d rather not encounter Katrina or Lucas because I know they’d want to stop for a conversation.

It’d go something like,

“Oh hey Lana, thanks for beating me up and killing the school librarian yesterday.”

“Oh hey Lana, so I hear your Mom is sleeping with my Mom. I wonder if we’ll be sisters now!” Insert fake girly laugh here.

Just, fuck my life.

Frank returned rather quickly, holding the two pizza boxes in his hands and smiling.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah.” I said sternly.

I followed him back to the car and we waited for Lucas and Katrina to come outside. They were taking longer because they’d ordered a shit load of food. Probably for the rest of Lucas’ ‘trafficking crew’. If he was taking her today, I assumed. He probably told her something like ‘wanna go to a party?’

Yeah, a party where you lose your freedom and dignity.

But then again, If this was all even real. There was the possibility that this was all a set up and Lucas actually did fake that phone call. And Danielle was actually taken by someone else.

But I didn’t believe that, not even for a second.

“Alright, They’re coming out. We’ll wait a few seconds till they pull out to follow them.” Frank said quietly.

Hmm. Could I call this disappointment? Disappointment that we were no longer going to my house, and disappointment that we would no longer be having our alone time. But I had to suck it up, Katrina’s well being was more important right now than my teenage hornymones.

“Frank what are we going to do when we get there? If he is taking her to wherever he takes the girls, what would we do? He probably has a whole mafia or something.” I frowned.

“A mafia? That punk? Forget it. Assholes with guns maybe.” Frank laughed.

“Assholes with guns? Isn’t that the same thing!” I glared at him.

“Yeah. It is. Good point. Well we’ll know when we get there. If we see he’s actually kidnapping girls then we’ll have probable cause. Then, we can tip the cops off and tell them his location from there. We won’t have to do anything..”

Lucas’ car had pulled out of the parking lot and was already on its way down the street. Frank started the car and followed close behind but not noticeable.

We drove in silence for a while, anxiety filling the air.

“I hope she’s okay.” I muttered.

“Danielle?” Frank asked.

“Yeah..” I felt a sense of anguish in the pit of my stomach. What if they’d beat her, raped her, killed her. She was such a sweet girl. It could have been me just as easily as it’d been her.

“We're doing all we can.” Frank said sadly.

“I know…” I sighed.

30 minutes passed till we started to near a remote location, we were almost positive Lucas was kidnapping her now. We’d reached shipping docks out by the water. As more and more cars were disappearing around us, it was becoming more obvious that we were following them.

All of a sudden Lucas’ car made a sharp turn, ours followed.

“Shit. He knows.” Frank said under his breath.

“Dial 911.” He added sharply.

I reached for his phone frantically; dialing the number and receiving some type of an error.

“Oh god. There’s no service out here.” I panicked.

“Alright, I’m going to turn around.” Frank’s eyebrows furrowed and I could spot beads of swear rolling down the side of his face.

Lucas’ car stopped abruptly. Frank slammed on the breaks, our car stopping only a few feet behind Lucas’.

“BACK UP!” I screamed. I saw Lucas get out of the car, a handgun in his right hand. He slammed the door and began walking toward us.

Frank put the car in reverse and pressed on the gas pedal ferociously.

I could see from behind us a large group of man were gathering, all armed with heavy-duty rifles.

“Frank-“ I cried, my voice barely above a whisper. He glanced at me and I pointed to behind us where the men were nearing closer.

Two gunshots resounded throughout the air, making contact with our back tires.

Frank pushed even further on the gas pedal causing a terrible screech, but it was no use, the car refused to move.

The armed men walked towards us from the back of our vehicle, along with Lucas coming from the front.

Another shot fired.

Notes

HIII. thanks so much for all the comments<3 they made me really happy. AND THIS STORY IS #2 ON THE POPULAR PAGE THANK YOUUU. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. Sorry for the cliffy either way haha!
and since you guys liked the gif from monday so much you can have another ;D