FicWad

Dude...I was gonna wait to post this, but I had so much fun writing it that I couldn't wait. I'll catch up with you at the end.

I lift up my shirt and look in the mirror. Again. I sigh, then put my shirt back down. It is now completely inevitable. I need a bra. I was in fifth grade, and somehow, my breasts were growing. At a freakish rate, I might add. I needed a bra now. The problem? I had no mom to take me for one. I looked in the mirror one more time, took a deep breath, which turned into a moan. Then I went out into the front room to face my dad.

He's sitting in the front, hunched over a sketchbook on the table. I can see from where I'm standing that it is a vampire, and I smile because I know it was for me. I know he'd draw me a thousand pictures. The question was, could he handle shopping for a bra? And if he couldn't, who could?

"Dad?" I say, and my voice cracks. He looks up at me, startled, and tucks a piece of hair behind his ear.

"Hey Charley." He frowns. "Is something wrong?"

"Um..." I walk over to him, pulling out a chair. I glance at his sketchbook, and he covers it quickly with a smile.

"Don't look yet. It's not done."

I manage a smile for him, but it must be sort of fake, because he says, "So what's wrong?"

"Uh...I need a..bra." I mumble, quickly and quietly.

"What? What do you need?" Dad's eyebrows come together.

"A bra..." I say, looking down at the table.

"Oh." He says, with fearful understanding. He tries to hide it, but his eyes get sort of wide anyway. I can feel my cheeks getting hot.

"I'm sorry...it's just. I really need one."

Dad looks mortified. "Oh, it's not your fault you need one." He mumbles something under his breath that I don't hear, and I'm sort of glad that I can't hear it. There's a moment of awkward silence before he speaks again.

"So, do you want me to-" Just then, through our door come Bob, Ray, Mikey and Frankie. I grin at them, kind of happy for the distraction. I think Dad is too, because he stands up and hugs everyone, with a little more fervor than usual. Bob totally catches it too.

He smirks. "What's going on Gee?"

Dad bites his lip uncomfortably, while Mikey and Ray go and sit down on our couch.

"Spill it Gee." Frankie laughs.

Dad sighs. "Charley needs a bra."

Bob's eyes widen, and he doubles over laughing. Frankie just smirks, but I can hear chuckling from Mikey and Ray.

Bob grins. "You taking her for that one Gee?"

"Maybe..." Dad turns to me. "Charley, who do you want to take you?"

I shrug. "Doesn't matter."

Dad looks at me wearily. "So you're ok with me not being the one...to take you?"

"Yeah." I say, shuffling my feet.

Dad looks up. "Frankie, can Jamia take her?"

Frank shakes his head. "Not if she needs one in the next few days. She's gone, remember?"

Dad sighs. "Shit." He looks to Mikey. "What about Alicia?"

Mikey bites his lip. "No man, she's in Jersey."

"Damn it." Dad swears again. It makes me laugh how loosely they all swear around me.

Dad puts his hands in his pockets. "I guess one of us has to then." He grins. "I vote Bob."

And all of the sudden, Bob doesn't find it funny anymore. "Nu-uh. You're her dad." Dad starts to protest, and Bob holds up a hand. "Fine. How about Frankie? He's close to a girl!"

Frank laughs, and looks kind of abashed. Then he meets my eyes. I feel kind of pleading when I look back at him. He sighs. "Fine. I'll do it. Someone's got to."

Bob's eyes are the size of quarters, and my dad's are close. "You're serious? You will?"

Frank nods. "It's not that big of a deal...ok well sort of." He grins. "Yeah. It is. You owe me big time Gerard."

"What kind of owing are we talking here?" Dad suddenly seems apprehensive.

Frank gets a wicked smile. "I don't know. But when I figure out, I'll let you know."

Ray laughs at that one, and with the looks on everyone's faces, I get the feeling this isn't the first time that my dad has owed Frank something. They all look at each other, laughing, and then Frank looks down at me.

"Ok kid. You ready for this?"

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There's nothing like shopping with Frank. Period. He's one of the most fun people to be with in general, but in public it's even better. He insisted on taking the Trans-Am, with the top down. He blared the Descendants at top volume, and I loved every second of it.

At the mall, people stare at us. Teenagers, who recognize him, wave. Frank waves back, giving peace signs to some of them. He's nice to everybody. He gets really ticked off when he sees people wearing animal fur, and I'm pretty sure he flipped off one lady with fur boots. I always feel cool when I'm with Frankie; he treats me like a grown up.

Frank took me into Hot Topic, buying me a Misfits shirt, and a Bouncing Souls hat. I'm pretty sure I'm the only fifth grader who wears that stuff. He gets himself a Black Flag t-shirt, grinning at me and saying, "Because I just don't have enough of these." To which I replied , "You can never have enough of those."

Frank grinned at me, holding up a hand for me to slap. "That's my girl!" He grabs my hand and swings it back and forth. "See, this is gonna be easy! We'll do the bra thing real quick, and then go and get some food."

"Ok Frankie." I say, but I'm still sort of nervous. However, if I had to pick out of Mikey, Ray, Bob, Frank and my dad to take me for this, I would have picked Frank.

We go into Macy's, because it seems like the easiest. Frankie tenses up a little bit as we near the bra section, and it makes me ease up a little bit to know it's awkward for him too.

"So," Frankie says, fingering through a couple of the bras. "Do you have any idea how this goes?"

I shake my head.

"Well, this is the smallest one." Frank hands me a black bra, looking briefly at the label. "It's an A. That makes sense, it comes first so it's the smallest, right?"

I shrug. "Maybe."

Frank finds a couple more and hands them to me. We walk awkwardly to the fitting room, and Frank shifts his weight from foot to foot.

"You don't have to come in. I can try for myself."

Frank looks relieved. "Good." I laugh, because he's so open.

I throw the bras on quickly, deciding in just a few seconds which ones work. I'm glad it's so easy, and I don't have to leave Frank sitting outside the girls dressing rooms. I come out after only a few minutes, and again he's relieved.

"You done?"

"Yep." I cover up the bras with a t-shirt and we walk to the front, checking out. The lady eyes Frank doubtfully as he lays the bras down on the counter.

"Will this be all for you today?"

Frank nods solemnly. Then he looks at me and winks.

"You her brother?" The lady asks him, giving him an evil eye, like she expects him to do something wrong.

Frank smiles at me. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm her brother." He ruffles my hair playfully. Looking up at him, I can sort of see why she would say that. We've both got dark hair and high cheekbones, and we're both pale. My eyes are hazel too.

I giggle when Frank takes the bag from the checkout lady and says, "Come on sis."

Once we're out of the store, Frank grins. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Nah. It wasn't too bad."

Frank runs a hand through his hair. "Come on kid. Let's go get some chocolate cake?"

"Chocolate cake?" I say. Frank nods. "Ok."

We actually get a whole entire cake. We take it back to the car, and Frank pulls a can of Reddi Whip out of nowhere, squirting it right into his mouth.

Shopping with Frank. It's the best.



I hope you liked it. It was sooooo fun to write. Tell me what you thought. And I dare one of you to deny that you would die for the chance to bra shop with Frankie.... Rate and Review!!!!