I've been sitting here for hours, what am I going to do with my life? “Samy...” my dad put his arm around me, “It was two years ago. You haven’t done anything since then, you barely pay any attention to your kids, it’s like I’m a father again. I have a life, I can’t look after them my whole life...” he looked me in the eyes. “I know. I’ve been thinking about it heaps, though. It’s like my mind won’t let it go...” “Samy, I miss Frankie, but he’s gone. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. You have to let it be, get on with your life. You’ve spent two years in your room sulking,” he stood up and left. Harsh, but true... “The drugs don’t work...” I heard my sister say to my dad, “They just make her worse...” I laughed, for the first time in years. She was referring to a song. “We have to do something about her,” my dad said. “I know, but what?” she whispered back. “We could...” my dad started. “Intervention!” she said, a little too loudly. “Of course... we could get Tre, he seems to be getting better. I mean, they were probably the closest two that knew Frankie,” he said. “Yes, BUT Tre hasn’t been himself for a while I mean...he hasn’t had a girlfriend in a long time...” “Or a frack buddy,” my dad said, laughing. I walked out. “I don’t need an intervention. I’ll be fine. Just give me some time,” I smiled and walked over to Frank... Tre’s. I knocked on the front door. “Coming!” I heard Tre’s voice coming from the other side of the door, “...Samy!?” he said, surprised. “Yes, I finally left my den. It’s nice to see you too. How do you... get over it?” I asked him. He beckoned me to come in. “I just... stopped thinking about it. I basically forced myself to, for the band as well. The papers were starting to say I was an attention seeking little... prat. So, I... started acting to the media that everything was okay and I suppose that got to me...” “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll work. Just let me become famous first.... Tre! You’re a genius!” I jumped off my chair and started pacing up and down. “If I become famous I can get over Frankie!” the waterworks started at his name. “Samy, its okay to have feelings. You’re only human,” Tre said. “I can’t even say his name without breaking down! How do I get over my best friend dying! It’s like I’ll never be the same, why don’t I just kill myself!” I screamed, not too loud though, only a little loud. “Calm down,” Tre said, making me sit down, “You can’t kill yourself. What about your dad? What about Esi... what about me? I care for you; you’re like my second daughter. I couldn’t bare it if you died too, it just... it would all be too much,” I could see tears starting at his eyes. “This is the first time I’ve had a proper conversation with anybody since ... well yeah. Since it happened,” Tre went over to a draw and pulled out a phone. “I thought, since you got this phone for him, that you might like it back. Who knows, you could find something out,” I flipped it open and turned it on. It said ‘recording saved’ on the screen. I might as well check out what that means. “I made up fake letters that say they’re from you, Frankie and I’m going to get your fingerprints all over them. Oh, and you know how I’ve been phoning you a lot over the past few months? Well guess what! They’ll think you were helping me escape from all the phone calls. Oh and this. You did it for this,” came from the recording. “Pot?” it was Frankie’s voice this time. Whose was the other? “Yes, pot, Frankie. I’m going to plant it in your house. They’ll believe me straight away!” Was it... no it couldn’t be. He was in jail... wait... “And you’ll get put away for longer for escaping and having pot! Where did you get it? They’ll arrest whoever sold it to you as well,” came Frankie’s soft voice, again. “Everyone, except the guards, know that old Frank in the prison sells shoot loads of pot,” I was right! It WAS Johnny! But... he was in prison... “What’s that?” Tre asked, confused. I indicated for him to be quiet. I could hear footsteps coming from the recording and then a car door slam, then the engine starting up. Then an even softer voice came from Frankie. “Johnny...” he said and then a huge noise came into the phone and then... it stopped. “He... he tried to blackmail him and then ran him over! He’s got away with this for two years!” I grabbed Tre and started walking out the door. “Where are you going?” he asked. “YOU’RE taking ME to the prison!” I said, fuming with anger. This was the first feeling apart from depression I had had in a long, long time. * “Who are you here to see?” came a boring voice from the other side of the speaker box. “Johnny French,” I said, shuddering at his name. “Friend or relative?” they asked. “Uh...” I hated Johnny. He was no friend of mine. And I wasn’t related to him. “Friend,” Tre said, rolling his eyes and then whispered to me, “they’re not going to let in two people that hate him, are they?” “You can enter now,” a buzzer went and the two doors opened, letting us walk through them. I stood close to Tre as we went up to the table Johnny was sitting at. “Oh, hello, what are you two doing here?” he smirked. “You think it’s funny!” I screamed, “YOU RAPED ME THEN YOU FUCKING KILLED FRANKIE! WHAT THE frack IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!” I shouted, even louder. A few guards came out and made me sit down. “How’d you know I killed Frankie?” he asked. “You should think about what you’re saying, he recorded it on his phone. I’m going to take it down the police and show them that YOU did it!” I sneered at ... it. “And you only just looked at his phone?” he looked at me, sad, “I can’t believe he recorded what I said. Good thing I killed him,” he smirked, so clearly, what I did should have been done a long time ago. “OW!” he screamed, as I took my hand back from punching him. I smiled. The guards walked up. “We’re going to have to ask you to leave,” one of them said, holding my arm. “Oh, wait, please,” I smiled, they stared at me, “Can I please see the, uh... boss guy,” I fumbled with my words, Tre took over. “Look, this man has killed my son and we have proof. You can’t be letting him out of jail anytime soon,” he put on a serious face. “Are you fucking serious?” Johnny stared at me, “All I did was rape her, and I went to jail for that! By the way, Tre, she’s not your son. Oh, and can I call you Frank now that Frankie’s gone? Terrible car accident he had, really. It would’ve hurt a lot,” he smirked. “Oh, I’m pretty sure it didn’t hurt him as much as it hurt me,” I said, beginning to cry, “You tried to frame him, Johnny! I...” I didn’t know what to say. I had mixed feelings, I wanted to kill him, but then I’d be just as bad as him and every time I thought about how much I hate him I remembered when we were good friends. I looked around. “Who’s Frank?” I questioned. The guard pointed at the scruffy man at the back with grey, bushy hair that had knots all through it, “How much longer is he in here for?” I asked again. The guard thought. “Why?” he asked, curiously. “He sells pot, bye,” I walked out, ignoring everything and everyone. I just wanted to get out, I hated this place, but before I left I said one more thing, “Johnny, why would you ruin your life by making two mistakes to spend a lifetime in here?” I kept walking. “For you...” he said, looking at me. I stood still for a moment “For...” I said, and then screamed. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me; Tre held me by the arm and pulled me out. “Samy!” he said, smiling. I looked at him curiously. “What...?” I asked, confused. “You... you showed more feelings!” I burst out crying. “I HATE THIS!” I shouted, pulling at my hair. I kicked the closest car, which just so happened to be Tre’s. “You ... Samy, you kicked my car!” Tre exclaimed, smiling. “Stop being so happy,” I said, letting myself in as soon as he had unlocked it. “I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this,” I said, over and over again until Tre told me to shut up and put the radio on. “And I don’t want the world to see me, ‘cause I don’t think that they’d understand,” I sung along to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. “You know what?” I said, thinking hard, “This is sort of like the OC, Frankie, one of the main characters... dies...Marissa, the main character died...” “Samy, that’s really sad that you’re resorting real life to bad quality crap,” Tre said, sighing, “I’m going to take you home and take that TV out of your room,” he said, smiling. I nodded. “Please, it’s driving me crazy. Gilmore girls is just old re-runs from years ago and The Simpson’s haven’t made anything new since you guys starred on it in the movie,” I laughed. Tre smiled. “I’m so glad that you’re back to the old Samy,” “But with a jigsaw piece missing in me,” I sighed, “...Frankie, turn left,” I pointed to the next street, Tre must’ve got what I meant... the cemetery. “I’ll... I’ll do this by myself. Then I’ll walk home. It’ll be fine,” Tre nodded and drove off. I went down all the aisles, this was the first time I’d visited him. I couldn’t go to his funeral.... I was too sad. It would’ve killed me. He had a grey tombstone written “Frankito Wright. 2001 - 2019” with all the details on it. Tears started pouring from my eyes. How could this have happened? How could Johnny have done this to everyone? If it was for me, then he should realize that I hate him, with a very strong passion.   “Samy, are you okay?” my Dad walked up to me as I walked into the house, which was the same as ever. It was the first time that I’d actually been in the room for more than a few seconds. And this time, it wasn’t only to get food. I’m going to change my life around; I’ll always remember Frankie, though. Maybe this will be like the OC; my life will turn shoot after the main character’s dead (The OC turned shoot after Marissa died) or maybe it won’t. I hope it won’t... Damn, it is REALLY sad that I’m resorting to the OC. really... Really sad. “Yeah, I’m fine... Where’s Esi?” I asked, not having spoken to her in a long time. “I told you ages ago, she moved to New York for a year or two to help her with her career in journalism. “...Oh...” I sighed. What do I do now? Is there anything left to do with my life? “Ben’s been calling about once a week every week of the year so far... I think he really wants to speak to you...” I sighed. “Ben? Wait... Where are Jessie, Kim and Jimmy?” I asked, wondering where the triplets were. “Sleeping upstairs,” he smiled; I skipped up the stairs to my little darlings. They were turning three this year. “Hello, guys!” I said, kissing each of them on the heads. I heard the front door bell go. “Mummy...” Jess said, scratching her nose. Dad must’ve taught them that I’m mum! My gosh, I’ve missed out on so much in my life. How could I have done this to myself? How could I have done this to my kids? I’m a mum now! I have to start acting like one. And that’s the end of that. I hung out in Esi’s old room, which was now the triplet’s room, for the rest of the arvo just watching them play and playing with them. It was quite odd really, I had no idea how Kim got blonde hair and Jess had brown hair, but Jimmy... he looked just like his father. At about 5pm I put them down for an afternoon nap and went downstairs to watch TV. “Anything good on?” I asked my dad, who was flicking channels. He put on the movie channel, which had a movie on called ‘Frankie and Johnny’ I looked at my feet. My dad, knowing I missed Frankie and hated Johnny, changed the channel quickly. “Uh... I think the tennis is on. And there’s some random new show on the Disney channel which is pretty good,” he smiled, passing me the controller. I laughed. “You still in love with Disney?” I asked, smiling. He nodded, sighing. “I still miss it when you would come home from school each day and watch Studio D. I can’t believe they took that off the air. It was such a good show! I loved all the dares they did... What was it? Dare Dan or something...yeah...” he went upstairs into the bathroom. I turned the TV off and went outside to go for a walk to Rudy Can’t Fail café. Damn good café, damn good band my dad got the name off of. “Samy?” I heard a familiar voice come from a table near the entrance. “Billie!” he stood up and pulled me into a massive hug. “How are you? Oh my god, I haven’t spoken to you in so long. It has to have been a year since I’ve spoken to you! I’ve missed you so much!” he hugged tighter, kissing me on the cheek. “Samy!” Adi came up and joined the hug, also. I smiled. “Thanks guys... what are you guys doing here?” I asked. “Well, we were actually just about to go to some fireworks they have down at the park, did you want to come?” they asked. “Oh, no thanks, that seems a little too... loud for me at the moment. Still... recovering, if that’s what you call it,” I smiled. They gave me one last bear hug and then left. “Samantha god damn Pritchard?” I heard, from behind me as I ordered a coffee. I turned around, only to see Lisa Wall standing there, looking shocked. I laughed. “Lisa god damn Wall?” I mimicked her, “How have you been?” I hoped she had turned nice. “My god, did you brush your hair this morning? Are you still the same old Samy?” she asked. I nodded. “Are you still the same old Lisa?” I asked, she shook her head. “Nah. I’ve changed since being the most popular girl in school. I’m now the most popular girl in Uni!” she laughed, “I’m kidding... I’m kidding. But I’m funny, ay. I actually got into Uni, I can’t believe it. It was so weird. I haven’t seen you in ages... not since you beat me up, actually, which was quite long ago. Anyway, how have you been? What have you been up to? Where’s Frankie?” she asked, looking behind me, “You two are usually around each other, aren’t you?” she asked, confused. I looked at my feet. “Uh... you remember Johnny?” I asked, she nodded, “He... uh... about two years ago he raped me and then like a few weeks after that he killed Frankie in a car crash and.. um.. yeah... I have to go,” I started walking out, leaving behind Lisa’s shocked face. “He killed... oh my god....” I saw her sit down in the corner, she indicated for me to sit down, I stopped leaving and did. “How comes I never heard about it?” she put her head in her hands. I shrugged. “It’s not something people like to talk about; I’ve only just got over it... slightly. I’ve spent the last two years in my room...depressed...” she looked at me, sympathetically. “You cared for him a lot, didn’t you?” she asked. I nodded, feeling tears coming. “And I don’t know what to do with my life, now,” I said, crying more. She leant over the table and hugged me. Yes, that’s right. Lisa Wall was hugging me.