FicWad

Grace phones me early on Sunday morning. I leap a foot in the air as my phone blasts out my favourite Misfits tune. "Holy shit...." I mumble as I groggily roll over and grope around on my messy floor for my phone. My fingers eventually grasp the cool metal and I hold it to my ear:
"uurrgghhh...."
" Frank! Wake up!" I'm in a serious panic here!" I hear her frantic voice in my ear squeal.
" Why? What's up? I grumble, " Grace, you do know it's eight thirty right?"
" Of course I do! Get up now! I really need you to help me sort myself out. Get on the 18 bus and I'll meet you at the bus stop near my house when you get here."
" okay, see you in half an hour" I hang up and haul myself from my warm and cosy bed and meandering around my room, scooping up clothes. I finally emerge at the bus stop on time, wearing my skinny jeans and a scruffy band shirt. I stand shivering in the battered bus shelter. An old woman's also stood with me, or she was until she took a proper look at me and went and stood as far away from me as she possibly can. Maybe she thinks I'll mug her. Or kill her, y'know like all teenagers do.
I hunch up in a corner at the back of the bus, putting in my headphones so no one will try to talk to me. Luckily the bus is pretty empty, so no one has to sit with me. I gaze out of the window, trying to zone out completely. In ten minutes I'm at my stop and see Grace stood on the pavement, jigging up and down impatiently.I jump off the bus and she runs up to me. "Hey, sorry about all this, it's just I woke up this morning and when totally ape shit. I'm a bit calmer now but I just needed you here, to...I dunno, reassure me or something. Like you did on Friday." She looks at me sheepishly, her big eyes are bright, but I can see she's scared. She doesn't have her glasses on today, I can see the faint line of her contact lenses around her pale blue irises. She obviously wants to look good today. She lets us into her house and practically pulled me upstairs. I wonder where her parents are, they can't be at work surely? I don't ask and simply follow her up the stairs. The sound of our shoes pounding on the cream carpet is the only sound in the quiet house. Grace pushes open the door to her room which is unmissable. From the top of it to the floor it is coated in cut outs and labels from various clothing stores. I stand staring at it, my eyes skittering over all the little parts of Grace's life stuck on the door. There's a couple of newspaper clippings about a show in a theatre in the next town, I read on entitled " Panto is back and better than ever!" Grace sees me reading it and slaps her hand over it, " Hey! Don't read that!" I pull her hand away and continue reading, gripping her wrist tightly to stop her attempting to hide the paper. " It says you were the narrator in this. It says you were pretty good" I grin as she wrenches her hand away from me and goes into her room.
"It's lying, I wasn't that good to be honest." She says modestly, sitting on the edge of her bed. I follow her inside and I'm pleasantly surprised. Its a simple room, with a bed on the right side against the wall. The duvet is rumpled and there's a huge pile of books by the pillow. There are clothes piled high on the back of a pink desk chair, just like in my own room at home. There are band posters on the walls and a large bay window lets in a lot of light. "Sorry about the mess, I'm kind of a messy person."
"It's fine." I say, sitting next to her, " So what's the problem, why the frantic call at stupid o'clock this morning?"
"Oh, that. Well you know I'm going to the cinema with Ray today....I'm kind of crapping myself about it." She flicks the bracelets on her wrist nervously. "I just wanted you here. You calm me down." She smiles and I return it. "Do I look okay?" She stands in front of me, turning round and gesturing to herself. She's wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a t shirt with a faded USA flag print. On her feet she had a pair of grey, knee high biker boots. She shrugs on a scruffy looking black pinstripe blazer loaded with badges. She looks great, Ray is going to flip when he sees her. "Well? I look bad don't I? I should change..." She looks down at herself and makes to wrench open the doors to her large white wardobe. "Don't even dare!" I jump up and pull her hands away from the handles, " You look great! Stay exactly like that!"
"You think so?" She blushes slightly and smiles a tiny smile, " Okay, I'll stay like this, you know Ray more than I do, I'll trust you on this one, but if it all goes badly, I'll kill you"
"Deal." We shake hands on it and then she goes and puts her pink Ipod on some speakers on top of a chest of drawers by the door. "okay, I'm feeling slightly calmer now. Thanks Frank, Your the best friend ever." Those words cause a huge burst of warmth to break out through my body. No one at school has ever said that to me before. No one ever made me feel wanted, ever made me feel like I was the best of anything. A huge smile breaks out across my face, real smile, not the fake one I show so often to my parents and teachers. A real, warm smile.

I ride with Grace on the bus on the way to the cinema. We chat about her and Ray and the movie they are going to see, a remake of Steven King's Carrie. When the bus stops about five minutes away from the cinema, Grace tenses up and stands up rigidly. " You'll be fine, I promise." I say, "Just behave yourself, don't get kicked out okay?" I wink at her and she laughs, then makes her way to the front of the bus, thanks the driver and steps off. I wave again as the bus sets off once more and she waggles her fingers back. I see her walking down the street, flicking her hair out of her eyes and messing with her bracelets.


"You kissed her?" I practically shriek, almost throwing the Xbox controller through the TV. "Hey! Watch it!" Ray lunges at it before impact. I ingore the fact I nearly just destroyed the most important thing to him and continue to stare at Ray. "Dude did you really?"
Ray turns as red as a tomato and ducks his head, " Uh...yeah." He can't look me in the eye, but I can see a tiny smile on his face under his mass of curly hair. He looked exactly like Grace had done when I spoke to her in the library. They were perfect for eachother. "Hey, don't go all embarrassed on me man!" I say slapping him. I grab my controller and un-pause the game before he even gets hs hands on the controller.
"Hey! No fair! He yells as I kill him, causing me to roll about with laughter.