Chapter 10 - Don't take life for granted

“Oh my god, Lisa Wall actually hugged you?” Ben mocked into the phone. He was trying to sound like he knew what I was talking about.
“Oh shut up. Anyway, how have you been?” I said, ignoring his sniggers from the other side of the phone.
“Me? Oh... perfect. My girlfriend for 1 and a half years dumped me yesterday! She said she’d found someone NEW,” he sounded angry.
“What a dog... who was she?” I asked.
“Jo,” he said, I laughed.
“She IS a dog. Don’t worry about her, you’ll always have me as your good friend,” I said, smiling, slightly. Ben was so nice.
“And I’m glad I do. But I wish there was a girl out there who was just ... perfect,” he said, sighing.
“And I wish there was a guy out there who was perfect ... but he died about two years ago,” I said, sighing.
“You’ve gone through a rough time, Sam. But you have to let it all go,” he said.
“That’s the first time someone’s called me Sam. People have called me Sam-Sam but never just plain Sam. Samantha, Samy, Samby, but not Sam,” I said, laughing.
“Who called you Samby?” he said, laughing.
“My sister, she went through this faze where she didn’t call me anything but Samby,” I said, laughing.
“Holy crap,” Ben said.
“What?” I asked.
“I just found my dad’s ANCIENT CD collection! The Beatles... Queen... Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Oasis... Bruce Springsteen... wow. These are all classic! Oh my god, the full Monty soundtrack! Ok, that’s hilarious!” he said, laughing.
“That’s some pretty good music,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. And it’s not his anymore... yoink...” he said, I heard him picking a lot of things up. And, then, a big crash.
“shoot!” he said, gulping. I heard him put the phone down to pick up a lot of CDs. I started laughing.
“You’re an idiot,” I said, laughing. I knew he probably couldn’t hear me, but it was fun calling him an idiot.
“Shut up...” he said, laughing, We said bye and hung up.
“Who was that?” my dad asked.
“Ben, I finally called him back,” I said, smiling.
“Good, he was starting to annoy me, but that’s good. That’s good...” he said, pondering off into the distance of outside. I watched him as he took off his shirt and jumped into the pool. I decided to join him.
“Samy, wait, no don’t come in,” he said, just before I was about to jump in. I looked at him, confused.
“Why?” I asked.
“Bring the triplets in. Put their bubbles on them and bring them in,” he said, smiling. I nodded. I walked up the stairs, singing.
“Jessicaaaaa, Kimberlyyyyy, Jimmberlyyy,” I said, making up the last name. I walked in and started putting their cozies and bubbles on, when the door shut behind me.
“Samantha... Samantha... Samantha,” came the cold, chilling voice of Johnny.
“Johnny... What are you doing here? Please, go away. Leave me alone,” he smiled.
“I’m not going to leave you alone until you give me the pleasure that you gave me a few years ago, if you remember... I broke you and little Frankito up...” he smiled.
“Little Frankito? He was older than you,” I said.
“Well, he’s not anymore is he? Now that he’s G-O-N-E,” he smirked. I tried to exit, but he took hold of my wrist.
“Get-Off-ME,” I said, clenching my teeth together.
“If you give me one of your kids,” he said, “If you give me the boy, I can call him my son, if you give me the girl...” a dark smile came over his face, “I’ll probably rape her...” I looked at him in disgrace, making sure the kid’s were behind me.
“Go away!” I said, pushing him.
“Don’t stop me now... Because I’m having a good time,” he sung to me.
“Oh, yeah, great, this has come down to song lyrics. I’d prefer it if you did this to somebody else, actually, no I wouldn’t. I’m glad you’re doing this to me and not ruining someone else’s life, DAD!” I shouted, on the top of my lungs. I heard the pool gate open and then close and his footsteps becoming closer.
“Bye,” Johnny said, jumping out from the second floor to our garden.
“DON’T COME BACK!” I shouted after him, he stuck his finger up and my dad walked in.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked, expectantly.
“Johnny... he came in here with a load of ... s – h – i – t,” I spelt out the word, “saying he wanted one of the triplets...” I sighed, “this is just getting stupid, Dad,’ I said, sighing. He nodded.
“I’ll report him to the police, but here’s some good news! Chris, Scott and Andy are coming over for a week! They’re coming tomorrow morning!” I smiled.
“They can meet Kim, Jess and Jimmy!” I said, smiling. He nodded.
“Apparently Scott made them come, I told them they could come when you were feeling better... I think it was best nobody saw you whilst you were ... well, depressed,” I nodded.
“You remember Lisa Wall?” I asked, picking up Jess and Kim, Dad picked up Jimmy.
“What about her?” he asked.
“I ran into her the other day at your café,” I said, “She ... hugged me...” he laughed.
“You’re delirious,” he said, smirking.
“It’s that weird, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” he said and we walked down to the pool.
**
“Samantha, get up,” my dad pulled the covers off me, showing my blue pyjama bottoms and black singlet.
“Arghhh...” I groaned.
“SAMY!” I heard the cheerful voice of Scott enter my room and he jumped onto my bed and gave me a massive hug.
“Scott! I’m so glad to see you! Finally,” I hugged him back and he sat there telling me news about the band and his life and everything.
“So, how have you been holding up?” he asked, squinting his eyes a bit.
“Fine, I’ve only just got out of my ‘depressed mode’ I’m during the ‘recovery mode’ at the moment. So far so good, I’ve only taken it out on one thing... Tre’s car, oh and ... one person,” I smiled.
“You took it out on Tre’s car?” I giggled.
“All I did was kick it. Apparently I left a mark there or something,” he pulled me out of bed and downstairs to where breakfast was being served. Billie, Adi and Tre were all over, as well as Chris and Andy of course.
“Samy,” Chris hugged me and passed me a plate to put food on it. Andy came over and started speaking to me about how it would be difficult and he would always be there for me.
“Just, whatever you do, don’t do something stupid. That’s my advice; these things can affect people a lot. When my mum died, I couldn’t take it and I stopped playing for a long time and the band had to get a new drummer for a while. I even cut and ... well now I think about it, my mum wouldn’t have wanted me to do that, so whatever you do... nothing stupid. Oh, and I’m always here for you,” he smiled.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging him.
“Bacon?” Adi said, passing the plate full of bacon to me. I shook my head, and put a sausage on my plate as well as some fried tomatoes and fried eggs. I covered them in tomato sauce and started eating it all greedily. I didn’t have dinner last night so I was starving. Billie started speaking with his mouth full.
“Hroo Washt oo oi oo eh ete?” he said, chewing. We all stared at him. Adi put her head in her hands.
“Idiot...” she mumbled. I laughed.
“Excuse me, Billie?” I said, politely, trying to hold back my laughter.
“I said who wants to go to the fete?” he said, rolling his eyes... smiling.
“Oh you did? It sounded like a load of crap to everyone else,” my dad said, shoving food into his mouth, “It shoundid ike is,” he said, laughing. Adi and I, being the only girls at the table, both rolled our eyes and started our own conversation. All the men at the table were fooling around with food in their mouths.
“Grow up,” I said, smirking. Scott looked at me.
“You serious?” he said, laughing, “Grow up? Your dad looks one hundred,” he said, laughing more. I couldn’t help but laugh. My dad had always looked like the oldest in Green Day, when, in fact, he was the second oldest. Tre, being the most immature, was the youngest. Billie, who seemed like the youngest, was the oldest. But that’s just what I’ve heard.
“Excuse me, Scott? I thought I heard you say I looked one hundred then, which, surely, I DON’T. And, if I do, then you’re going to get a nice beating,” he said, smiling.
“Battle of the bass’s!” Tre spurted up, speaking for what seemed like the first time.
“Hear, hear!” I said, agreeing with him.
“And, who would win that?” my dad said, pointing to himself. I nodded.
“I’m sure you would, dad. Just ... wait a second,” I licked my finger and started trying to rub something off his face, “Wait ... it’s a wrinkle,” I smirked. He rolled his eyes.
“You can’t talk,” he mumbled. Everyone looked at him, laughing.
“BATTLE OF THE SEXES!” Tre roared out, laughing. We all looked at him.
“It wasn’t that funny,” I whispered to my dad. He nodded in agreement. Everybody was sitting there silently.
“You all suck,” Tre said, grinning at his own stupidity.
“Um... I’ll clean up, then,” she picked up her plate and my plate, “Samy, help me,” she pointed towards the kitchen. She wanted to speak to me, I picked up my dad’s plate and Scott’s and left the table to clean them.
“It’s Tre,” she said, “I don’t think he’s been fine ever since Frankie, well... left. He hasn’t been the same. I think the only person he’s only truly spoken to the slightest is you...” she said, straight away.
“But he’s barely spoken to me,” I said.
“Exactly, he’s kept his feelings bottled up for so long! Samy, at least you’ve spoken to people. Your father told me you even spoke to Lisa Wall, which is just totally...amazing. Anyway, I think we really need to do something for Tre. He needs to let his feelings out. Can I ask you a favor?”
“Sure,” I said, hoping it wouldn’t involve getting hurt.
“Could you ... speak to Tre? I think you’re the only person he’ll tell. He’s just ... I’m sorry, really,” she said, packing away the plates in the dishwasher.
“Why are you sorry? I’ll do it,” I said, walking out.
“WAIT,” she said, everyone looked at her pulling me back in, “She left a dirty plate,” she said to everyone else, “Look, when Billie tried to speak to him he went way over the top and started smashing things so ... be careful,” I nodded and walked out.
**
I knocked on the front door of Tre’s house. He opened the door, holding a knife. I stood back a bit.
“Tre, why do you have a knife!?” I said, shocked.
“Oh, yeah I’m cooking dinner. Do you want some? Its spaghetti,” he pointed in the direction of the kitchen.
“You cook?” I asked, scared. Tre never used to cook ... well, not that I can remember. And, I can remember a lot...
“I love to, it’s a good way to ... express yourself,” he smiled. I nodded and walked in.
“Make yourself at home,” he pointed towards the couches. I jumped onto them. How do I get onto the subject of this? Song lyrics? What song? shoot, this is hard!
“Beautiful stranger...” I said, unexpectantly. Tre looked at me suspiciously, “I fell in love with a beautiful stranger,” I sung to myself, “I’d like to change your point of view ... If I could just forget about you. To know you is to love you. You’re everywhere I go, everybody knows... I look into your eyes and my world came tumbling down. You’re the devil in disguise that’s why I’m singing this song to you,”
“Samy, what the hell are you on about?” he asked. I nodded.
“You, that’s what I’m on about, well, not you, Frankie, he was my beautiful stranger. To know him, you loved him. Everywhere I went, he went. If I could just forget about him ... but I can’t. I love him way too much. What was he to you?” I asked. He looked at me weirdly.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Just answer the question, please. You can’t keep your feelings bottled up!” I said, walking up to help him with the food.
“Why the hell does everyone keep saying stuff like that to me? It’s getting darn tedious!” he said, annoyed.
“Because you’re not the same Tre we used to know! The old Tre didn’t cook, and he sure as hell didn’t say ‘darn tedious’!” I said. He looked taken aback.
“And the old Samy didn’t say stuff like that...” he said, looking sad.
“The old Samy is gone, now. I have a piece missing. I’m a new person; I can’t be the same person I was without having Frankie back. He completed me. I have to get over it... he’ll always be there. But, Tre, you’ve got to listen. Frankie wouldn’t want you to be sad. He’d want you to be happy!” I said, hoping that worked. He looked up.
“Maybe I’m a new Tre. They all accepted you as a new Samy, why can’t they accept me as a new Tre?” he asked. I smiled.
“Because we all loved the old Tre so much! For example, at breakfast this morning, you were laughing incredibly ... oddly... it was like a lame joke that you laugh at because it’s so lame. But you weren’t doing that! You were just plain laughing... at ... ‘battle of the sexes’ which wasn’t even funny! Battle of the basses, see that was ok... I’m sorry, but I think you killed it,”
“Oh deary me! I killed a joke. That’s a first,” he rolled his eyes and started chopping furiously.
“Tre... That is a first, you never killed jokes. You were always the class clown, the one we laughed with, not at...” I sighed and started walking out.
“I’m sorry,” he said, before I opened the door.
“What for?”
“For being such a prick for the last ... well few years. I have been bottling my feelings up about Frankie. I miss him a lot. I’ve never missed something so much in my whole entire life. I took it for granted; I took my life for granted. Now I know that life isn’t just a joke. Losing my son, the best son, showed me. I shouldn’t have been so ... stubborn. I was an asshole. I am an asshole. Samy, you’ve got to help me. It’s not the fact that I haven’t yet got over Frankie, because I have, honestly. It’s that I took my life for granted and at any moment I could get horrible news. You could be next, Samy. Your Dad... Billie, Adi, Esi... Ramona....” I saw tears dripping out of his eyes. I put my arms around him and hugged him.
“This is like some shootty planned out story, where it gets fracked up and I lose the love of my life,” I said to him. I felt him nodding.
“And I lost my son, my prized possession,” he sniffed and wiped his nose on my clothes.
“Urgh thanks,” I said, ungratefully. He laughed.
“It’s green,” he joked; well I hope he was joking.
“I wonder what life will be like in 3 years time,” I said, pondering in my own thoughts. Tre nodded.
“Same. Hopefully they will have created something to bring back the ... dead,” he said, staring into space.
“That would be wonderful, but ... that would shock the world too much. We would all be too shocked and take THAT for granted and we probably wouldn’t even be grateful,” I smiled at Tre and started to leave.
“Samy, wait,” he held my arm and hugged me again. I let go but he still held on, his face kept edging towards mine. Suddenly, his lips pressed against mine...
“Tre, no!” I said, backing away and leaving quickly.

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