Always Yours

“You do?”.

I nodded but it didn’t matter nothing could ever happen between us. I may have told him I like him, but I still had to think about the consequences I would suffer if I did pursue how I felt.

“Fuck darling you’ve got a funny way of showing it”. He chuckled.

Being with him was different. Being around him made me feel all sorts of things. I liked it, I liked spending time with him and hanging out. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I faced forward and dropped my gaze.

I didn’t want to do this, but I had to.

“I like you Franko, but nothing can ever happen between us”. He had to understand that we could never be together.

“Your parents?”.

I expected him to go off on one so when he didn’t, I was a little taken aback. What Franko wants Franko gets I learned that a long time ago. So, when he brought my hand to his mouth and placed a kiss on my knuckles, I blinked away the tears that threatened to fall.

I don’t know why I was getting so upset. This is the way it had to be. I knew that from the start of whatever this was or becoming.

I nodded.

“Fuck babe you really like me?”.

A laugh fell from my lips as I wiped my cheeks. “I tell you we can’t be together, and you ask that”. I shook my head. “You really aren’t as bad as I thought you were”.

“Nah darling I probably am but just not to you”.

I didn’t know what to say to that. I heard all the rumours about how ruthless he was and how much of a bad reputation he had built up already, but I had never seen him doing anything to back it up.

Although there was the fight with Tommy, but they were friends.

I frowned.

“I’m sorry”. I whispered.

The last thing I want is for him to think I was leading him on. It was easy being me when I was around him. I didn’t have to hide myself or be someone else. I was comfortable around him more than I was with anyone else and that included friends.

Or in my case friend.

It was easy to forget my world when I was hanging around in his.

“I ain’t gonna stop darling. Might not be right now or even in the next few years but you will be my old lady”.

The thing was I wanted to be with him now. I couldn’t control the feelings that were growing for him. The nicer he was the harder it was getting to say no and I had said no every single time.

If there was ever a time I wanted to say ‘fuck it’ it was now. I never in a million years thought I would have feelings for Franko Mendez and yet here I was sitting in his truck waiting for him to drop me off home.

“I like being around you”. My cheeks reddened, embarrassment settling in. I had no idea why I was telling him this. I don’t know where I got the courage from and yet I couldn’t seem to stop. “You’re easy to talk to and I feel comfortable with you”.

“Who is making you feel uncomfortable?”. He brushed his thumb over my knuckles as he squeezed gently. “I’ll take care of the fucker”.

I rolled my eyes. “No one but if you haven’t already noticed I don’t have many friends, I barely have a social life and I get uncomfortable real fast but with you”. I paused. “It’s different”.

“Fuck babe”.

“Lame right”. I took my hand out of his and lay it in my lap. I should have kept my mouth shut. He didn’t need to know how sad my life really was.

“You deserve the world princess. Fuck, I’d give you the stars in the sky if I could”.

“That’s sweet”. I smiled.

“Let me take you out”.

“Franko”.

“If you ain’t gonna be with me then at least let me take you on one fucking date. You like me, right?”.

“Okay”. I sighed. “One date”.

..

I couldn’t stop smiling. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I walked up the path leading to my house. I took the ‘fuck it’ step and agreed to go out with him. It was one date and then we’d go our separate ways.

The smile fell from my face when I found my mom passed out on the couch an empty bottle of wine beside her. Was she drunk? Or had she just fallen asleep? A sigh fell from my lips as I grabbed the blanket and placed it over her.

She didn’t move.

I got myself a drink before heading upstairs. I wasn’t sure whether to be concerned or not. Drinking had never been a problem for her before but recently there was a lot more empty bottles around the house and in the trash.

I showered got into clean pjs and went to bed.

Who knows what tomorrow would bring.

.

I overslept and my mom wasn’t in the best of moods because she was going to be late for work. I think she was a little worse for wear this morning.

“I can’t be doing this every morning Aubrey. I can’t afford to be late for work”.

“Then tell dad to get me a car”. I shrugged.

She made a face furrowed her eyebrows but said nothing. As she put her cup in the sink, I grabbed my bag and jacket and made my way outside. I was guessing she had drunk a little too much last night.

“I’ll need to speak to dad about getting your car sooner”.

“It would make things so much easier”.

“Maybe set an alarm and you wouldn’t sleep in”.

“I did”.

Clipping my seatbelt into place I rolled my eyes. It’s not as if she was going to get sacked for being late once. She spent most of her time there than she did at home. I’m sure they’ll let it slide.

“Well set two”.

“Do you want me to walk?”. I asked.

“Don’t be silly Aubrey and enough with the backchat”.

That was me told. We didn’t speak the rest of the drive. As she pulled up outside the school, I was a little surprised to see Alice. I guess there wasn’t a party after all.

I couldn’t see Franko though. Not that I was looking.

“Will you be able to get home on your own?”. She asked.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Yeah”.

“I’ll make sure dad leaves money for pizza”.

“Okay”.

“Have a good day”.

I closed the car door and walked through the gates. Alice started walking towards me as soon as she saw me. A massive grin on her face and a spring in her step. Someone must have got lucky last night.

“Hey”. She smiled slipping her arm through mine.

“Hi”.

“What class have you got first?”. She asked.

“History why?”.

“Want to skip?”.

“We just got here. School hasn’t even started yet”.

We reached our lockers, and I pulled out my books for first class. History with Mr Ellis. It wasn’t a bad class although half the time he let us do what we wanted.

“I can’t be bothered today. If we skip, I’ll treat you to breakfast”.

“Can’t I have a test second period”. I didn’t but she didn’t need to know that.

“Boring”. She sang.

“Whatever”. I closed the door to my locker and finished putting my books in my bag. I was getting a little pissed off with people calling me boring and I wasn’t going to skip class just to show I wasn’t.

I wanted to learn; I wanted good grades so I could get the hell out of here as soon as I graduated.

“Fine”. She sighed. “I guess I’ll see you at lunch”.

“Yeah”. I turned to walk away.

“Hey”. She grabbed a hold of my arm. “Are you okay?”.

“I’m fine I have to get to class”.

“You do know I’m only joking when I call you boring right?”.

“Yeah, well I don’t find it funny. Just because I don’t want to skip school or because I don’t want to drink beer and sleep with boys doesn’t make me boring”.

“I never said that, Aubrey. I ask you because I don’t want to leave you out. I ask because I want to experience being a teenager with my best friend. It’s not a crime to have fun once in a while”.

A sigh fell from my lips. She was right. It wasn’t a crime to have fun. I was a teenager. I was meant to be going out and getting up to mischief. It was all about making mistakes and learning from them.

I was only going to be young once.

“Let’s skip”.

“Huh?”. She frowned.

“I mean it let’s go let’s skip”.