This Is My Stop

Days passed by since my random encounter on Monday. It was now Wednesday, I was really excited because the past couple of days I had been practicing some sketches, one of them was a comic book character that resembled Frank. I haven’t heard of him since he dropped me off that rainy night. Not that I was expecting him to talk back to me right away but felt curious to know more about him. I had been browsing online and heard some of Pencey Prep’s EP’s. They were pretty good; Frank’s voice gave them a very peculiar touch.

I had an early class and was just chilling around my place until it was time to leave to Newark.
I noticed everything was out of place, as I boiled some water to have some tea as lunch I cruised around and started organizing everything. I had been working on this painting; I used to oil paint since I was 9 but stopped doing it for a couple of years. I was just picking it up; luckily I haven’t lost my touch. For this matter I was wearing black Batman shorts and a white tank top full of oil paint stains. There were pizza boxes, pieces of paper, empty bottles of water, empty cigarette cartons and records just laying around the entire floor. I had been having a tough set of weeks; being alone in this chaotic city just gave me brief episodes of anxiety, depression and that awful feeling of being so far away from home. A way out of it were my comic book lessons, maybe that was why I got really fired up when I thought of going to Jersey.
My apartment wasn’t that big. It had white walls all over the place, except for the bedroom. I hung several posters on the walls; from Iron Maiden to Thursday and even Black Flag. I had recently purchased some of a couple of horror movies (Dawn of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre); I was planning on hanging them in the living room as soon as I got the trash out. There was a small living room with a black leather couch that occupied most of the space available, a glass coffee table where I placed my laptop, sketches and random college work. On the other side, near the entrance was the kitchen /dining room. Not really fancy but had this long red marble counters, an oven and a microwave were on one side and a kitchen on the other, a gray medium sized fridge and a glass table with four chairs around it witha gothic looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Finally, next to the living room there was this small space where I had a desk for drawing purposes, I called it ‘my art station’, I had some chords written down on random pieces of paper and an acoustic guitar laying on a pedestal.

I pranced around quickly all over the place with a black trash bag in one hand, I had been messier that I thought. With the bag almost full to the top I looked to the clock on my living room and saw I had a couple hours left to just get the place in order. Grabbed some black converse and threw in a black hoodie that read “I’m not weird I’m just gifted” on the middle.

While I waited for the elevator I put my headphones on and turned my iPod’s volume to the max.
“Ah, yes, you gotta love the Misfits”

There was a warm breeze running, the sun was out it was a really bright day. As I walked to the garbage bin of my street I noticed it was completely full, so I went up to Bond street. I walked up north giving little hops and slightly head banging, I got really into the music, so much i moved my lips to the lyrics. After dropping my large black bag in the bin I made my way back home with my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. When I was about to turn to the corner I felt my phone buzz, it was an unknown number calling.
“Hello?”
“Look back”, ordered a male voice on the other end. It seemed familiar to me, it gave me chills.
“Who is this?” I looked at the screen and felt a bit scared. Whoever it was he hung up.
I put my headphones back on and kept walking but at a quicker pace. I stopped at the door while I looked for the security guard. He wasn’t there.
“Ugh great…”, I mumbled as I looked for my keys in my pockets.
Suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and covered my eyes.
“Either you’re upset at me again or you just decided to ignore me”
“Frank?” I said as I took his hands off my face, “Jesus, you could’ve said something… that phone call was very creepy”
“Sorry, I was going back home from buying some take out and saw you. I actually yelled at you but guessed you didn’t hear me. Nice dancing, by the way”, he laughed as he picked up one of my headphones, “ what are you listening to anyway?”
I felt a bit overwhelmed by the entire situation, his phone call really creeped me out, “It’s just the Misfits”, I said while I looked at him slight headbang.
“No wonder you were so absent minded and didn’t hear me at all”, he gave me the headphones back and just looked at me, “Do you have any plans for lunch?”
“No… Actually I was going to have some tea as lunch.”
“Would you like some italian food? I think it’ll do, if not we can go out for dessert or something.”
He had left the paper bag on one side of the street, he looked at me with puppy eyes.
I laughed and bit my lip, “You’re something else, you know that? Come in.”

We called the elevator, as we waited I could see he had stepped back to see the tattoo on my thigh.
“What’s that?” he said as he kneeled down to get a better look of it.
“Oh… It’s a skull with 3 red roses tangled around it. Those three roses symbolize my mom, dad and younger sister. The skull is for my dead grandfather.”
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, it looks awesome!”
The elevator doors opened, he stood back up and signaled me in.
“So… Which floor?”
“12. My grandfather died 10 years ago, that’s why I got the tattoo, to have him always with me”
“I thought it was recent, although I’m pretty close to my gramps too. He’s a musician, just like me and my father”.
I opened the door to my apartment, waited for him to come in and closed it behind me.
“You can leave the food on the kitchen table; I’ll show you around my place… Well there’s not a lot to show but let’s do it anyway.”
Frank walked into the kitchen and left the stuff, he walked closed to where I was standing as he took his jacket off.
“You know, I really like your place. It’s so… cozy and has an artistic feeling to it”.
I patted on his shoulder and lead him into the living room, “So this is the living room, I usually hang out here” He looked around the walls and saw the posters laying on top of the coffee table.
“I LOVE THESE MOVIES! These posters are wicked, where’d you get them?”
“Oh, I found those in a random garage sale during the weekend. Come, there’s more to see”, I showed him the way to my art station.
“This is where the magic happens, I’ve been painting these past few days”
“Yeah I can see that, is it a cemetery?”
“Yes, I took some pictures back home and decided to paint them”.
He walked passed me and went into the bedroom, “I guess this is your room”, he looked at me with a smirk on his face and slid his hand through my waist; “I’d like to see that later”.
He made his way to the kitchen and began taking a couple food containers from the paper bag and also, a bottle of wine.
“I hope you don’t mind, I was going to drink some wine with the lasagna”, he said as he looked for a bottle opener through my kitchen cabinets.
“No, it’s fine. I like wine, a lot” I said as I grabbed some plates, forks and placed them on the dining table.
Out of nowhere I felt something hit the back of my head with amazing speed and force.
Everything went black.

I opened my eyes slowly and found myself lying on my bed, confused as a I felt pain overcome me.
Frank jumped from the living room and walked in.
“Aubrey, sorry, I hit you with the cork… Ugh I… Sorry… Are you okay? Do you feel a lot of pain? Do you need anything?”
I looked at him confused and started laughing. He had a worried look on his face, as if he didn't understand what was going on.
“Frank, it’s okay. I’m fine, I just felt confused as of why I was here and the pain is not that bad”.
He exhaled in relief and sat next to me on the bed, “I feel really embarrassed… Oh yeah, Gerard called, he’s in LA right now. You don’t have to go to Jersey today”
“Oh, okay. So… did you eat?”
“No”, he said as he curled up against me, “I was really worried about you but…”
“Are you still hungry?”
“I’m starving, still in the mood for Italian?”
“Sure, let’s go”, I said as I tried to stand up.
Frank stood up quickly and grabbed me from the waist, as he helped me get to the kitchen and sat me down on one of the chairs of the dining table.
“Aubrey, let me do this, I need to redeem myself”.
I laughed slightly as I looked at him get everything ready. We talked about random subjects, from movies to music. Time went by so fast, hanging out with him was really entertaining. He had a different way of seeing stuff, he appeared to be more of a free spirit.
While we finished the bottle of wine, I had unconsciously placed my hand on top of his.

His hands were really warm, very different to my body temperature. I always felt cold.
“You’re… freezing. Are you sure you feel okay?”
“Yeah”, I said as I looked at our hands together, “My hands are always cold”.
We looked at each other for what seemed to be an eternity; I watched his eyes move to my chest occasionally.
I hadn’t noticed I was still wearing my painting top.
“Hey, why don’t you gather up the plates and put everything into the sink, I’ll help you clean after I get changed into something more decent”
He kept looking at me in silence and nodded as I made my way to my room.
I opened the closet, on the background I heard the noise of plates being pushed against each other, took my top off and looked for a decent looking shirt and threw it to the bed as well as a pair of dark blue skinny jeans.

Out of nowhere I felt someone breathe on my neck.
“Frank, what are you doing here?”
He grabbed my waist and made me look at him; I stood there in shock with only my bra and shorts on.
“I can’t help myself around you”, he whispered as he pushed me against his waist.
He wrapped his arms around me, and slid the tip of his fingers all over my back.
“Frank, don’t that’s my weak spot” I said between moans.
He got me much closer to him and licked my lower lip as he started to touch my neck. I got fired up by the look he gave me. He looked so lustful and hungry. I came close to him, moaned in his ear and bit his lower lip.
“Two can play this game”, I said as I watched him get agitated.
“You’re playing with fire, Aubrey”
“I want to get burned.”

He grabbed my legs and wrapped me around him; I could feel a bulge in his pants. He carried me to the bed and placed me on top, “Let’s start an arson.” he said as he kissed me passionately.

Notes

It's almost 4 am where i live.
I've been caught up with this and wanted to finish it before going to bed.
Since i'm on winter break, i'll be uploading a new chapter in a few hours.
Fow now, i'll get some sleep.
Enjoy, x.