FicWad

Part 10
Amy’s POV- ‘You make me smile’
I walk though the door closely followed by Fran. We’re both hysterically laughing again after an encounter with a chav half out age who had tried, and failed, to insult us. Our smiles fade as Bob walks over to us.
“Where have you been?” he asks me.
“Out. It’s not late Bob. And you don’t own me.”
“I didn’t know where you were. Tom said you’d walk out.”
“You asked Tom about me?”
“I didn’t know where you were!” he repeats. I walk through to the kitchen and get myself a drink. “Do you want one?” I ask Frank who had followed me. “Don’t worry about Bob.” I whisper to try and reassure him as he was looking quite unnerved by Bob’s sudden anger.
“Where did you go then?” Bob asks me, joining us in the kitchen.
“Cinema.”
“By yourself?”
“With Frank.” I say with a frown. I thought that much had been obvious by the fact that we had come in together.
“Oh right. Well at least he was with you. Just don’t make a habit of it or you’ll wind up like him.” He says with a wink. I give Bob a quick hug before heading to the living room down the hall.
“Oh hey Amy.” Mikey greets me. I should have guessed people would be around, Frank had said that he was supposed to be going there today. I take a seat in one of the chairs and Frank takes the other one. The other guys are scattered around on the sofa and the floor.
“Bob! I found her.” Mikey says once we’re all seated.
“I don’t need finding.”
“Obviously,” Mikey says with (I hope) faked exasperation, “Coz I already found you.” I groan and roll my eyes. “When are you ever going to grow up?”
“Never!” Mikey proclaims.
“Oh dear…” Frank mutters and I smirk. We sit around chatting and stuff until the subject of me comes around again.
“Man this is getting boring!” I scream.
“I looked after her. Don’t worry about it. We just needed to escape.” Frank says, sticking up for me which is kind of sweet of him.
“What he said.” I nod. Bob still looks dubious.
“Is something going on between you two?” Bob asks with raised eyebrows. A look we both probably do a little too much. Before I can roll my eyes and say no Frank jumps in and says, “Yes!” I turn to frown at him and he continues. “We didn’t really see Spiderman, we got married in Vegas.” I laugh at him and Bob relaxes. Oddly Gerard seems too as well. I guess they both just care.
Later on me and Frank are making noodles (the Burger King had been a late lunch) when he puts an emo fringe in his hair and does yet another rendition of Peter Parkers dance. I try not to laugh too hard but it was hard not to. Then he scoops me up in his arms (as much as he can scoop as we’re practically the same height) and says quietly “I missed you.”

Frank’s POV- ‘She’s a much more beautiful person that she’ll ever know.’
“Why didn’t we start talking earlier?” She asks me while we’re eating noodles around her table. Mikey and Bob are eating with us too. Their parents are both out as usual.
“Coz you’re so intimidating.” I answer. It was sort of a joke but when I say it out loud I realise that it was kind of the truth.
“Seriously.” Amy persists. “Why did we wait so long to be mates again?”
“I am being serious. You were this really I dunno, girl powery girl that seemed to cope with everything. Then there was me, a little weasel kid from your past whose life was going downhill fast. You were doing better without me.”
“You were seriously intimidated by me?” She smiles somewhat evilly. Damn, maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so honest...
“I was. Now I know you’re just a pussycat.” I say, half expecting her to throw her noodles at me. She doesn’t, just smiles, shakes her head and starts asking Bob about where their parents were.
Their Dad ran his own business and had a habit of booking in too many jobs. He always did them all but it annoyed Amy that he was never home and that when he was he was just shut up with his account books, sleeping or shouting at her or Bob for stopping him doing either of the other two things. Their Mum worked funny shifts at the local hospital and went out with her friends from work a lot. Amy regularly moaned to Bob about them but I think he was over it by now.
Right now she’s looking pretty p*ssed off. She stands up, pushing away her noodles that she’s hardly touched and walks quickly out of the room, down the hall and up the stairs.
“Is she Ok?” I ask Bob after a short silence from everyone at the table.
“I don’t really know… I kind of said something… but I didn’t really mean it… she just goes on and on and on all the time... Could you go see if she’s Ok? You seem to be back to your 8 year old selves.” He answers looking extremely awkward. I nod and follow Amy’s path up the stairs. I can hear her rummaging around through her drawers for something. I reach the end of the landing and knock on her door. “Go away Bob.” She near growls.
“It’s Frank.” I say, opening the door slightly. She has tears falling freely and she’s still frantically searching for something.
“Amy?” I say, waling into the room.
“Go away Frank. F*ck! He’s taken it.”
“What?” I ask, bewildered by the whole situation. I’d never seen Amy and Bob argue before and I had definitely never seen her in this state before. She always seemed to be so strong and able to cope with absolutely everything, I mean there was evidence against that but… you never want to believe it do you?
“Nothing.” She mutters before walking over to me and sobbing into my chest. I automatically put my arms around her and try desperately to sooth her while feeling extremely guilty at the happiness I was getting out of being able to hold her this close.
“It’s all my fault.” She sobs.
“What is?” I ask her. Steering her over to her bed so we could sit down.
“Dad not wanting to be here. Bob being so uptight about everything. Mum going out all the time.” I didn’t really know what she was talking about but I knew where thoughts like this could lead. In my case a quick sh*g, in hers… well everyone had heard the rumours or seen the scars.
“Amy listen to me,” I say, turning her face with my hand so that her tear filled eyes were looking into mine. “It’s not your fault. None of it is your fault. Bob was just worried earlier because he cares about you.”
“I’m not perfect enough for them,” She says barely above a whisper. “Not for anyone. I just f*ck up and push them away and closer to other people. Did you know my Dad can’t even sit next to me anymore because I’m so ugly?” She asks me with such bluntness that it breaks my heart.
“You’re not ugly.” I say pulling her into a tight hug. “And you’re perfect. You’ve come so far. Don’t give up. You’ve always got me.” I whisper to the top of her head before the tears start again.
Today had gone so well. I guess everything has to come full circle again. I wonder for the first time whether this bet really was so innocent and painless as I’d been telling myself. I really couldn’t hurt her. I just wanted to wrap her up in bubble wrap and keep her safe and happy for the rest of my life.
“This is going to be so embarrassing in the morning.” She sighs. I can’t help but smile.