FicWad

Frank scratched the top of his head and looked at the ground; he went red with embarrassment as I stood in the front doorway with my jaw on the floor.
“You live in a mansion. Frank, you live in a mansion. A mansion. It’s a motherfuckin-” I managed to stumble out in absolute amazement.
“I know what it is.” He cut me off.
The floor was made of marble. I didn’t know what you could even call this room; it sure as hell wasn’t a hallway, it was too damn big. In the centre of the room was a big white stone fountain, with a statue of a woman with a sheet draped over her. The water was sucked up beneath her and she cried the water back out through her eyes. Next to the fountain on the left was a massive grand piano.
On both sides of the room were staircases that led to the second and third floors of the mansion. The steps were black and white, and the handrails were made of some wood I had never seen before, but it was super fancy.
“You never said anything.” I gasped.
“I didn’t feel the need to.” He sighed.
“How many rooms does this place have?” I gawped up at the ceiling; it had a biblical mural painted right across it. I stared around the entrance to the mansion in wonder; how the hell could someone like Frank live in a place like this? None of it made sense. He sighed.
“Seven bedrooms, two kitchens, three lounges, a dining room and a dining hall, a cinema, eight bathrooms, three guest houses; they have their own kitchens and bathrooms in it too. Uh what else? A basketball court, a courtyard, stables, three double garages and I can’t think of anything else. I probably missed something but I usually spend my time in either my room or the cinema.”
I stared at Frank blankly. I had no idea what to say.
“Frank dear,” An older woman, maybe in her late fifties/early sixties in a floral print dress walked up to us. “I had Gregory set up your ‘eggs box’ in the cinema for you. It’s ready to go. I had no fuckin’ idea how to do it. I looked at the plugs and the screen and thought, fuck that.”
Frank smiled at her, and then turned to me.
“Rachel this is Agnes, she’s the maid. She’s raised me, she’s my second mother. Agnes this is Rachel, she kinda got kicked out of home so she’ll be staying with us. By the way it's an Xbox, not 'eggs box'.”
Before I could say anything, Agnes’ jaw dropped and she turned to me.
“You got kicked out of home?”
“Yeah.” I said shyly.
“Alcoholic parents?” She asked sweetly.
“Yeah,” I answered awkwardly.
“Want me to set their house on fire for you?”
Frank and I burst into laughter. I could tell Agnes and I would get along really well.
“I’m just joking,” She waved her hand and laughed. Her face went serious suddenly and she whispered, “Or am I?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Frank smiled. “Oh. She’s staying in guest house one, by the way. I figured Mum and Dad wouldn’t have a problem with that, and it’s the closest one to the house.”
“Mansion,” I whispered under my breath. They didn’t hear me.
“Oh alright then,” Agnes smiled. She took my bag off me. “I’ll take this there for you. Would either of you like something to eat? I could get Billy to make you something.”
“No thank you, not for me,” Frank smiled.
“I’m fine thanks.” I blushed. Who the hell is Billy?
She waddled off across the entrance hall room thing that we were standing in and out the backdoor.
“Wanna go watch a movie or something?”
“Sure.” I shrugged.
He led us up one of the staircases. I ran my hand along the handrail, trying to figure out what kind of wood it was made of. We got to the top of the stairs and I kept looking at it.
“It’s made of Tulip Tree,” An older man said. He was dressed in black.
“Billy this is Rachel, Rachel this is Billy, our butler.” Frank said as he continued to walk down a long hallway. I smiled at Billy and jogged behind Frank to catch up.
We passed several doors before we got to the end of the hallway. He opened up the door and we walked in.
It had four big red couches facing a massive white backdrop. I looked to the opposite side of the backdrop, it was a projector. It was literally like walking into a cinema. The couches sat in rows, with each row sitting on a higher level than the row in front. We sat down in the middle and Frank grabbed a remote.
“What movie do you want to see?” He asked as if nothing abnormal was going on. He flicked the projector on and a movie list with over ten thousand movies in it popped up. He turned to me.
“I’m sorry,” I scoffed in a non-condescending way, it was more in a state of pure disbelief. “But this is where I ask you ‘what the hell is going on’? You’re a fucking millionaire!”
He cleared his throat as he scrolled through some lists and chucked on a Misfits CD. The screen displayed the album’s cover, Walk Among Us, and the sound came from all directions of the room. He sighed as he turned to me. He scratched the side of his face and thought for a few minutes.
“My Dad is the CEO of British Airways which is why he is never home, he’s always in London. My Mum is a fashion designer who spends a good majority of her time in Paris and Rome, and on the side for a bit of extra cash she breeds race horses; hence the horses in the field out the front.
They chose to build their house in the outskirts of Liverpool because my Dad grew up in Liverpool. He’s always lived in Liverpool and wouldn’t have it any other way. Which I’ve always thought is so stupid because he’s always in fuckin London anyway. They’ve always been about making money. They’ve both always had the aspiration of being rich and combined, yeah, they’re multi-billionaires.”
My jaw dropped again. Frank was a billionaire kid in a public school in Liverpool.
“But- You- This- School- What?” I stuttered. He laughed.
“I chose the public school,” He smiled. “The folks weren’t happy about it. I’ve always just wanted to be a normal kid. I’ve always hated this shit. There’s kids out there not just in Africa that are starving, there’s all these people around the world that struggle just to feed their kids once a day. And here’s me sitting in my tomb; a home of wealth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for what I’ve got but I just don’t see how it’s fair that we win when so many lose. I haven’t worked a day of my life yet I can get anything I want. There are people all over that don’t stop working and they barely have anything. That’s always riddled me. Like I said, Agnes has raised me. When Gretel and I were born, oh by the way I have a twin sister.”
My eyes shot open.
“You haven’t met her because she’s in London at some private boarding school.” He sighed. “She’s a lot like my Mum. She wants to be a fashion designer, she’s a model right now. She’s the polar opposite of me. Anyway, when Gretel and I were born Mum went straight back into designing and she hired a nanny to look after us. The Nanny was of course a bit overwhelmed because there were two of us, so her and Agnes shared the duties. Agnes looked after me. I remember going to the shops with her when I was like, seven or eight, and there was this kid sitting outside the store with no shoes on. He had his had held out in front of him; he was begging for money. Agnes explained to me that not all kids are like me. You know, rich and have about fifty different people around the house working. A lot of kids starve and can’t even afford shoes. Since then I’ve felt the burden of my wealth I did nothing to deserve.
I just wanted to be a normal kid, because normal kids have what they deserve. That’s why I chose public school over private wear-a-tie-and-a-smile boarding school. I don’t deserve expensive education when I’ve never done anything to have it. It’s hard to explain.”
“No, I definitely see where you’re coming from. It’s nice to know that someone so lucky is actually so humble.” I smiled.
“I wouldn’t call myself lucky.” He sighed. “Yeah I’m loaded and yeah if I wanted to I could own a Ferrari and drive that to school everyday. But my parent’s are cold.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well like I said, Mum was back at work like two days after Gretel and I were born.” He leant back into the couch and put his feet up on the row in front of him. He looked up at the ceiling. “My Dad never stopped working. He wasn’t even there during the birth. I think he came back home four or five days after we were born. I’ve never run around the backyard with my Dad, I’ve never had cuddles or bedtime stories with my Mum. My Dad will never teach me how to drive, because hey, why do it yourself when you can pay someone else to? Biologically they’re my parents, but Agnes and Billy are who I look up to, or turn to for advice. They’ve always been here. My Mum hired them two years before I came on the scene. Actually, Billy was hired first and then hassled my Mum to hire his wife as the head maid. So Agnes came long two or three weeks after Billy. They’re such beautiful people, so caring and kind. Billy told me not long ago actually that the only reason they’ve stayed this long is because of me. They can’t have children of their own and I told them when I was ten that they are my second Mum and Dad. They never forgot it, and they never left here because of it.”
“That’s cool that you had those two when you were growing up,” I smiled.
“Yeah,” He smiled too. “I know your parents are fuckheads, but do you have someone or people that you looked up to, too?”
“Yeah,” I grinned. “My Aunt Marie. She’s so cool. The majority of the time I’ve actually spent talking to her has been by phone, though. I’ve actually met her maybe six or seven times. But when I was really little, maybe three or four, she started calling me every day and she would read me stories over the phone. She used to buy me heaps of clothes and just send them over, and stuff. She’s really cool. My parents are assholes, though. I’ve never had a bedtime story from my Mum either, or cuddles. My Dad hit me in the face with a beer bottle in the backyard, so I guess you could say I ran around with him once.”
“My parents never laid a hand on me or my sister.” He said sternly. “Why didn’t you ever get help?”
“I was scared that if they took me away, I wouldn’t hear from my Aunty again.”
“That’s shit house, man.” Frank shook his head.
“My Dad used to hit me a lot, occasionally my Mum would too but no way near as much. He stopped maybe, three or four years ago.”
He shook his head and lit up a cigarette, he handed one too me. I frowned slightly.
“Everyone knows I smoke. Billy is the only other person who uses this cinema, and he smokes, too. So it’s okay.”
I nodded and lit up.
“I think that if people are going to have kids, then you have to accept the full responsibility. You are the one who changes the nappies and gets up in the middle of the night. You don’t fucking hire someone else to do it. I love Agnes and my Nanny was super cool but realistically, it should have been my own Mum that did all that stuff.”
“I agree. My Aunty shouldn’t of been the one to buy all my clothes for me or read me stories over the phone. It should have been both my parents.”
It was right at that moment that Frank and I ‘clicked’ for the first time. We had always been friends, but we had an understanding for each other that no one else would get. We sat there for hours just smoking cigarettes and listening to music. Frank eventually put on movies but we never actually watched it. We just shared and compared stories of our childhood as Billy and Agnes brought in food every so often and forced us to eat it.
I didn’t understand what he had meant by ‘I can relate to your story more than you think I can, just on opposite ends of the spectrum’ when he said it in the car, but as the stories rolled out in the cinema I understood perfectly. I was the kid from the broken home that never had any money for food, who was neglected by her parents and abused by her own father in her childhood. Frank was the multi-billionaire kid who also didn’t get love from his parents.
We suddenly realized how late it was and Frank said he would show me to my own room. We left the cinema and walked back down the staircase.
As we turned to head through the backdoor we bumped into a middle aged woman. She had Frank’s eyes. She sort of looked a bit shocked to see us. She had her hair straightened perfectly, and was wearing a red and black tight fit dress and had a big belt around her waist. She was wearing a pearl necklace.
“Hello.” She said softly.
“Mum this is Rachel, she’ll be staying with us. She’s got nowhere to go.”
She tilted her head back slightly and whispered, ‘Oh’. She looked at me up and down slowly, eyeing out my clothes and smiled. She turned to Frank.
“As you know I will be away this weekend. I’m going to Paris for Vogue’s Fashion show. I don’t think Agnes and Billy will be here so just behave. I trust you.”
She walked off. I watched her as she left, baffled that she wasn’t even slightly concerned for anything. She didn’t even ask Frank how his day was.
“Told you.” He turned and opened up the back door.
We walked through the courtyard and followed a path to a small house out the back of the mansion. He unlocked the door and handed me the key.
“This is your house now.” He smiled.
I walked in through the sliding door. The first room was a lounge, dining room and kitchenette joined together. To the immediate left was the bathroom and the door in the corner led to my bedroom. It was small, but cosy.
“Will you be alright in here?” Frank asked as I stared at my new king sized bed.
“Yeah,” I smiled and turned to him. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “We’ll do some shopping tomorrow for things that you need.”
“Oh,” I blushed. “I’ll call my aunty and ask her to send some money before then. Damnit, I forgot to call her with your number and stuff!”
“Rachel,” Frank raised an eyebrow. “Have you forgotten I’m a billionaire?”
I smiled and nodded.
He hugged me goodnight and walked out, closing the door behind me.
I collapsed onto my back on the bed with my arms spread out like wings.
“This is going to be interesting,” I said to myself.
I climbed into the bed under the sheets, I snuggled in. It was warm and cosy.
I thought about how I had treated Gerard before he got arrested. I frowned and shook the thought out of my head. I was going to see him at school the next day anyway.
I closed my eyes and let my mind wander through all sorts of thoughts for what seemed like eternity before I finally managed to drift off to sleep.