THE ROAD IS LONG
Chappie number 12 is here! Thought I'd update once more before I am chained down to finishing my dissertation (groan). Hope it's okay but I probably won't be updating til next weekend so enjoy this while you can! Lol! Gem xxx Chapter 12: Morning Glory. Frankie woke to the blaring of her alarm clock, her newly awakened brain suddenly registering the stabbing pain that shot down her neck which had slumped to allow her head to droop, resting her chin on her chest. She'd fallen asleep on the window seat doing homework again and groaned as the fierce piercing pain increased in intensity, travelling down her hunched spine as she struggled to sit up straight. Quickly she scanned over her work, checking how much of her English essay she had finished and how much of it was actually coherent and legible before flinging the half-answered essay question into her backpack ready for another day in the hell that they called High School. She'd just have to complete it during lunch and skip choir practice for a second week in a row, no doubt provoking another lecture from her choir teacher, Mrs. Miller. She growled in frustration at the situation that she had landed herself in by leaving her work until the last minute, and then grabbed her towel, storming down the landing towards the bathroom. There was just something about the early morning that Frankie loved. She smiled, calming her lack of sleep induced irritation and breathed in the smell of the new day that drifted in through the open window at the end of the long, bare wooden corridor, pale yellow sunlight already warming the timbers of the rickety old house. It was silent. Save for the creaking as the house almost seemed to breathe in the morning freshness itself and the usual snores of her father. That morning, however, there were remarkably more voices added to the chorus as Frankie padded barefoot down towards the bathroom. A decidedly loud, female snore that sounded like a raging monster-truck reverberated through the thin walls of her Uncle Dom's room. That would be Letty, she presumed and smirked to herself. How a woman could make such a monumental disturbance was beyond her and she stifled a snigger as she passed it, tossing her towel over her shoulder. Mia, on the other hand, did not so much snore as breathe incredibly loud and Frankie could picture her father's youngest cousin with her cheek pressed firmly up against her pillow, mouth gaping wide. How else could she take such deep, gasping breaths? Frankie shook her head again and paused her steps, glancing across the landing to the door of the box room that Jesse now inhabited. She'd heard him typing away on his laptop the previous night while she had sat attempting to pen her essay upon the poetry of William Blake, a constant rhythm of clacks and clicks keeping her company until her brain had finally shut down, refusing to squeeze anymore critical theories out, and she had fallen asleep at around 3:15am. Frankie didn't know how long Jesse had stayed awake for, hunched over his laptop computer, but there was little chance that she would be seeing him awake before she went to school at such an ungodly hour of the morning. Quite unexpectedly she felt a feeling of regret well in her chest at the thought of not being able to see the other teenager until that afternoon and she frowned in confusion attempting to decipher where that feeling had suddenly sprung from. She shook her head in puzzlement, glancing down at her cheap, pink plastic watch putting her strange feelings down to the fact that she was up and wide awake at the ridiculous time of 6:30 after having a mere three and a quarter hours of rest. She yawned and shook her head a second time, kicking the shabby white painted door of the bathroom open as she went to enter. "Fuck!" Frankie stopped dead, eyes wide in horror, mouth hanging open as the bathroom's current occupant yelled and turned a bleary eyed, startled gaze upon his intruder, mid-piss and unable to do anything but continue. His hair stood up in sleep-skewed angles that bordered on the impossible. Finally Frankie's brain kicked in and she released a horror-struck yip, stumbling backwards and falling over her feet to land in a heap at the top of the stairs. She simply lay there, staring at the cracked plaster of the ceiling in mortification, her cheeks flaming blood red as she heard the toilet flush and then the tap turn on as he washed his hands and cursed under his breath. "Shit, Frankie. Are you alright?" Jesse asked, looking down at her and Frankie cringed, placing her hands over her burning face, desperately and silently pleading for the creaking wooden floor to open up and swallow her right there and then. "I'm sorry!" she groaned with her eyes still tightly shut and her hands pressing into them so hard that they began to ache. "I thought no one was awake yet!" She apologised lamely wishing that he would leave her to her humiliation. Just go! She thought desperately. Just go so I can try and wipe my mind free from thoughts of your- "You scared the living crap outta me, girl!" he laughed and Frankie writhed, trying in vain to sink down into the floorboards at the thoughts that were invading her mind. Jesse gave another laugh and reached down to take hold of her wrist, pulling it away from her scrunched up face. "Guess you got a bit of an eyeful, huh?" Reluctantly she opened her uncovered eye, keeping the other still tightly closed and covered, and glanced up at Jesse's face, automatically wishing that she hadn't. Blood coursed up into her cheeks again, making her face glow even redder than previously. "So, you getting off the floor anytime soon?" he quirked an eyebrow at her, tugging on her wrist so that she sat upright. Frankie, however, tore her hand from his grasp and stood without his aid, suddenly angry at herself for feeling so embarrassed. "You should learn to lock the bleeding door!" she scolded, snatching her towel up in a swift motion that made Jesse take a step backwards. "The bloody latch broke off!" he defended, pointing a waving finger at the offending door. "I didn't think anyone got up this early anyway!" Frankie snorted and wrapped her fraying, faded pink towel about her arms, then hugging it to her chest as if to shield herself from the shameful situation that she had landed herself in. "I'm always up this early." She responded, watching warily as Jesse yawned and scratched absentmindedly at his pale, bare, hairless chest. "I got school, you know!" Frankie's eyes involuntarily took him in as he stood there before her. Slight in build, though with a little muscle on his upper arms, probably from working in her Uncle Dom's garage. His left shoulder and right hip bore fiery, blood red scabs the size of coins, surrounded further by purple bruises almost the same size as Frankie's fist. They were obviously the gunshot wounds that he had suffered while back in L.A though he hadn't told her why he'd been targeted. If her father had anything to do with it she'd never find out why he had been shot. Her eye moved again, perhaps even more embarrassingly than before as they flickered lower of the own accord. It was almost as if they were drawn by some magnetic impulse. (A/N: All you girls out there gotta know what I mean! Lol! When you see a guy you like it just…just…happens! You can't help it!...or is that just me?) They rested briefly on the waistband of his royal blue boxer shorts that looked about three sizes too big for him and Frankie silently gave thanks for that fact even though that strange feeling of regret had returned. Besides, she'd already seen enough to guess how big he was… Argh! Frankie forced her eyes shut again and slapped her towel up as much to hide her blushing face as to stop herself from studying him further and initiating more corrupt thoughts. Jesse, however, had been too busy yawning and rubbing sleep from his eyes to notice her invasive stare. He glanced back at her and chuckled at her hidden face. "Come on, Frankie. It's not that bad. Lotsa girls have seen me naked before." A sudden irritation burned in her chest and she ripped her makeshift shield from her face, not caring that he could see her flushing cheeks and glaring at him maliciously. "Lovely!" she nettled, partly with disgust at the implications of his words and partly with an emotion that she couldn't quite place. "I really wanted to know that!" she shuddered. "Calm down, Frank! It's no big deal!" Jesse muttered with a confused frown and another yawn. Frankie watched him, still seething and fighting desperately against the urge to follow suit and yawn as well. "Stop yawning!" she hissed, stifling a second one that attempted to force it's way from her lips. "You're making me yawn and I can't be mad at you when I'm yawning!" Jesse laughed and performed another deep, gaping intake of breath and Frankie, unable to prevent it any longer gave in to a broad yawn making Jesse laugh harder. Finally, she allowed a smile to play across her face. "See, there's that sense of humour I knew you had." Jesse grinned, cuffing her chin playfully. "No one can stay mad at me for too long." "Yeah, yeah…" she retorted rolling her eyes. "This would never have happened if you hadn't broken the door. I don't really care for seeing naked men in my house, it's quite scarring!" "Yeah, yeah…" Jesse mimicked sarcastically. "You loved it really…but I guess it means that I'm just gonna have to return the favour…" Frankie's eyes widened at his insinuation. "The hell you will!" she barked but before either of them could continue their playful bantering they heard loud footsteps. Turning in unison they watched as the door to Dom and Letty's room swung open revealing Letty squinting at them from underneath a mass of chaotic, sleep-trussed hair. She swayed slightly, barely awake enough to stand upright and a look of profound annoyance furrowed her brow. "You mind takin' your little party somewhere else?" she demanded in a fierce, sleep distorted mutter. "Some of us are tryin' to sleep!" she swayed again and grabbed onto the door and it's frame to steady herself. She wore Dom's filthy T-shirt from the previous day that reached down to her thighs. Jesse snorted cheekily. "Don't take it out on us coz you spent all night workin' Dom and not sleeping!" he teased, knowing that he was only able to get away with such a comment because Letty was still too asleep to hit him. She replied with a sarcastic smile. "Ha ha! Funny!" she retorted, the pretend smile falling from her lips to be replaced with a classic Letty scowl. "Just coz you're not getting' any, Einstein!" she growled as she turned and moved back into the room. "Just keep it down, would ya?" she kicked the door closed behind her, leaving the two teenagers sharing amused glances as muttering and mumbling ensued until the bedsprings creaked and Dom growled at her to stop being a royal pain in his ass and quit shaking the bed. "That was definitely a conversation that I didn't want to hear." Frankie announced though a little more quietly, not wanting to provoke the wrath of a tired Letty. Jesse chuckled. "You'll get used to it." He assured her, moving towards his room. "If there's one thing about that girl that you'll learn, it's that what Letty wants, Letty gets! And that's usually Dom…or chocolate…or both!" "Thanks, Jesse!" Frankie spat horrified as he stepped into his darkened room. "Now I'm gonna have to cleanse my mind a second time! First you naked, now my Uncle Dom's sex-life!" she shuddered again and headed into the bathroom leaving Jesse to laugh in the doorway of his room. -00000- Next chap will be next weekend! Sorry! But it's gonna be a Letty and Donni chapter, already got most of it down! Please read and review!
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