.Slime.Heads.

I can't make it anymore. Riley has a competition on the 4th."

"Lucas, we leave on the 2nd. You can spend time with us, go on the 4th to see her, then come back."

"I can't I'm already in hot water right now. June go mad-"

"I don't care! You made a promise! We've been looking toward to this and you can't just cancel
because Riley has a competition. Wyatt had a comp-"

I sighed and tapped on my mothers shoulder. She handed me the phone and chewed on her nails angrily. "Lucas, it's Wyatt-"

"Already told you to call me Dad."

"We can reschedule for another time. It's all good."

I could hear him breathe on the phone. "Thanks, it'll give me time for the girls."

I rolled my eyes. This is was why I never bonded with him. He would stop doing whatever he was doing for Riley, even if it was to put me aside. "Yea. I have to go. Bye."

I hung up the phone quickly to ignore anymore of the conversation. Annoyed as I was, I turned to my mother, giving her a hopeful smile. "He lets you down too much, honey."
Hugging her, I sighed. "He's just busy. But look on the bright side! You get to spend much more
time with Linda."

My mother smiled, tears threatened to rise and fall. But she would never show. "You're absolutely right!"

She quickly walked away, the sound of her shutting the door echoed throughout my ears. Then, like most times, her muffled cries was faintly heard.

I wanted to cry myself, but after years of this happening, I became bitter to the subject. Instead, I walked out the house, whipping away a few years that did appear. "Wyatt! Oh uhh hey, are you okay?"

I didn't even see Frank appear besides me. I was too focused on heading towards Gerard's room, the basement. "Oh, yea. You know, just girl things." I said waving and laughing it off.

"My mom said if your mom is free tomorrow. She wants to see all the 'hip' places." He said bumping his arm with mine. His dread locks were tied up this time, but they still looked messy.

He wore his typically jeans and sneakers, but this time he had a long sleeve shirt on with a kangaroo logo over his heart.

"She's busy right now, but I can ask her later. I don't think she's working." I said. Frank nodded and put his hands in his pockets as he looked down at our feet.

"Frank?" I said gaining his attention. "You wanna come with me?"

"Sure."

I smiled at the ground. "Cool."

Instead of going to Gerard's like I had originally planned, I took him to an ice cream shop that sold gelato and dairy-free smoothies. He looked around the sweets, but each time his eyes glazed over the names, they would dart back to the pistachio flavored gelato.

"Hi, what can I get you guys?" Asked a lady from the other side of the yellow counter.

"I'll have two scoops of butter pecan gelato and another two scoops of the pistachio gelato, please." I said.

"Coming right up." She smiled at me.

I took out my wallet and got out four dollars before Frank could stop me. "Wyatt, I'll pay."

Shaking my head at Frank, I handed the money to the lady when she returned with out ice cream. "I invited you. So I pay."

"One pecan and one pistachio." The lady said handing them to me. "Here are some spoons."

She said handing us both things.

"Thank you Ms. have a a nice day!" I told her walking out of the store with Frank.

"Does it taste good?"

"I could've paid, ya'know."

"Yea, but I invited you, so I pay."

"Next time, I'm paying." Frank said.

"Are you inviting me?"

"Informally yes." I smiled and ate more of my ice cream.

"You must get along with strangers a lot." I said starting up a conversation.

"Why is that?" He asked.

I started walking towards Gerard's room this time. "Well, I never really met someone who, without hesitation, would agree to go anywhere with practically a stranger. I'd be a little timid if someone I hardly knew asked me to go with them without giving a location."

Frank shrugged. "I sometimes don't think about it."

We stayed quiet for a bit. We kept walking, ignoring cars and people around. Once we got to our street, Frank decided to speak up. "Hey, so you... Umm, you know that you can talk to me about anything, right? I mean, I know you barely know me and stuff, but I'm actually a great listener.
And I just, when I saw you, you just seemed like you bottle everything up and I started thinking that you need someone. Anyone, for that matter, to hear you."

By this time we had stopped walking. I was speechless.

Sure I had Gerard, but since he knew about my family's situation, he wouldn't give me an outside view. He would tell me to try, to do things that could help me and that was something I hated. Then there was Mikey. He would start listening at first, but then he would interrupt and talk about something else. He was always awkward with emotional type of things.

Then there was Donna, she was the kind that would confront a person. So she would pressure me to do the same thing. Donald, well, he always tried to fix the problems and I didn't like it. It made me feel small, stupid even. Like as if I couldn't handle my shit so he has the grab my hand and guide me.

And then finally my mother. She's no help at all. She's like me, helpless.

"One day," I said to him leading him again towards Gerard's basement door that was on the lower side of their house, "but today calls for a celebration."

Frank stared at the side of my face for a bit, before following me down the eighteen steps.

"Celebration for what?"

I shrugged opening the door. "Anything, like.... a celebration of you being new!"

He chuckled, closing the door behind him. "I don't mind being celebrated."

Turning on the lights, I noticed Gerard still asleep. His body nearly fell off the twin bed he had. I couldn't see his face, but from the snoring frank and I could hear, I knew the location of his mouth making it easier for me to pinch his nose closed.

Frank stopped paying attention to what I was doing and instead paid attention to the drawings on the wooden walls for a moment and then the figurines and comics caught his full attention. His eyes scanned the titles until a certain one caught his attention the most. His hand reached to grab it, but stopped, realizing it wasn't polite to grab other's things,

He looked at me and instead of calling him over, I decided to let him grab the comic he wanted to read. "You can look at them, he doesn't get mad. If any, he'll MAKE you read them. Just don't do it with Mikey's, he's really possessive." I said giving him a lop sided smile.

"It's cool, I'll just wait later."

"Suit yourself," I shrugged, "New can you help me wake him up? I thought living his nose closed would work, but alas! The sleeping queen won't even stir."

"I heard kissing wakes up any queen. Try that." Frank says shrugging.

I scoffed, "Get Toad from outside, will ya?"

He laughed, sitting next to me on the floor in front of a sleeping queen. "He doesn't wake up, huh?"

"No, the sleeping queen never does wake up, only when it wants."

"That's it!"

Gerard's heavy body lunged at me, diving is backwards. He pinned my hands and sat on my thighs, forbidding any movement from occurring. Frank yelled and moved away from us, not knowing what to do. " GET OFF!"

"NO!" Gerard said. He grabbed both of my hands with one of his, using the other to pull back his hair. "You need to make up your mind, sugar. I can't be every queen."

"Gerard, don't make this more complicated than it has to be." I said getting to move. I looked at Frank, hoping he'd help me.

"Nuh-uh, your pretty boy isn't gonna help you."

"Who says I need help?!"

Gerard laughed, "Wyatt, you're a noodle." He continued to torment me by collecting all his saliva in his mouth and slowly letting it fall, and before it hit my face, he would slurp it back up.

"STOP!! YOU'RE SO DISGUSTING!!" I yelled.

We heard the door open from the hall that lead down here to the basement. "What's with the yelling down there?"

I recognized that voice! "MOTHER HELEN HELP ME!"

Gerard's grandmother walked down the steps and stopped to look at us. She shook her head and walked up to us. "Gerard, let Wyatt go. We talked about this."

"But Ma-"

Before he could finish, she licked her finger and James it into Gerard's ear. He yelped, launching off of me and to the bathroom on the other side of his room. Helen helped me up, hugging me after. I laughed with her, hearing Gerard starting to run a shower.

"Oh! Hi, I'm Helen, Gerard and Mikey's grandma."she said letting me go.

"I'm frank, my mother and I just moved here a few days ago." Frank said standing up to greet her.

"You're Linda's boy?" She asked getting a price response back from him. "My, you are handsome. Like the look." She winked.

Frank blushed, but knowing how to respond. He rubbed the back of his neck, and gave a small "Thank you."

"Anytime, well I can't stay to long, I got a hair appointment. Wyatt, I want to come along to see you perform. Don't forget who taught you!" She said as she walked back up to the house.
I looked at Frank apologetically. "Sorry, She's... quite a character. That's where Gerard gets it from."

Frank laughed, "it's okay, surprisingly it wasn't the first or the worst."

I gave him a surprised look. "No way."

"It happens quite a lot. That's why I got the dreads, hoping I come off as dirty and gross but I guess that didn't work either."

Oh hell no it didn't. But if this is you dirty, I'd like to see the other side of you.

"So, you perform?" He asked breaking my train of dirty thoughts.

"Oh! Uhh yea, I bit."

"What do you do?"

"I-"

"ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY! THE BIRDS ARE CHRIPPING, MY EARS ARE GERM FREE AND MY
UNDERWEAR IS CLEAN!" Gerard yelled as he opened the door. "Vamonos."

"El dia es nuevo para el. Comó siempre!" I said to Frank.

"Si lo creo."

"You know Spanish?" Gerard and I ask surprised.

"Un poquito." He said, "you guys?"

"We only know from what sticks to us when we watch Spanish soap operas." I said.

"I took a class in my old school, but I just know the basic stuff." Frank said.

"Let's go! I only got two days left before I have to go. Let's not waste preferable G-time."

"That's not real."

"Don't patronize me, I'll tell your mom."

"You're wasting your own time now."

"Let's go, first stop, Mikey's job!"

Notes