"Greenlee, this is Bianca I need your help with Leo-"
"Too bad, I am so over him, I'm hanging up-"
"No! This is an emergency, I need you to find Leo right away and bring him to my house, it's very, very important, please you have to do this, please Greenlee."
"Okay, why?"
"Just do it, and stay as far away from Laura as you can," said Bianca hanging up.
Frankie came back into the room carrying an ice pack. "Here, lay down, I'll put it on your back."
Bianca layed down on her stomach as Frankie got on her knees next to the sofa. She slowly pushed up Bianca's shirt and saw a large red mark that was already turning colors. As gently as she could she layed the ice pack on Bianca's back and Bianca sucked in a breath.
"Sorry," said Frankie. "Do you want me to get one for your wrist?"
"No, I just want you to stay with me."
Frankie gently ran her fingers through Bianca's hair. "I will, I promise."
Bianca closed her eyes, this was were she wanted to be, with Frankie.
Frankie closed her eyes, wishing she were anywhere but where she was.
About an hour later there was a knock at the door. Bianca went to get
up but Frankie stopped her. "I'll get it."
Frankie opened the door to see a tall young man who seemed familiar with a shorter woman around the same age.
The guy let himself in and saw the disarray in the living room. "Are you okay? Greenlee said it was an emergency. Who's this?"
He asked looking at Frankie.
"That's my friend Frankie. Have you seen Laura today?" asked Bianca standing up.
"Yeah, this morning, why?"
"Well are you two getting married?"
"Bianca, we're already married, you know that."
"What I mean is are you getting your vows renewed?"
"No. Bianca, why are you asking me this?"
"Well, Laura's under the assumption that you two are
renewing your vows and that I'm her Maid of Honor."
"What?"
"Yeah, and the last time Laura and I talked I told her I never wanted to see her again and then today she comes here hugging me and telling me we're going shopping for dresses, I went to call you
but she took the phone away from me, so I went to go upstairs to get away from her and she threw it at me."
"She what? Laura wouldn't do that."
Bianca turned, her back to him and lifted up her shirt, "Does this look like I'm lying."
"Oh my God, did she do anything else? Are you okay? I'm so sorry."
"I'm fine but while I'm laying on the floor she leans down next to me and says she accepts my
apology for making her mad and I can come over tomorrow and try on my dress."
"I've got to go find Brooke, if she comes back call me," he said heading towards the door.
"I told you Laura was nuts but you refused to listen to me," said Greenlee following Leo out the door.
"Are you sure you're okay, Bianca? I can call your mom if you want me to."
"No, I'll tell her about it later. Thank you for being here for me. You don't know what it means to me."
"It was nothing."
"You better go back to Myrtle's and get some sleep, you start training for the Glam-o-rama tomorrow."
"I don't want to leave you alone, are you sure you're going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I doubt Laura will come back, just in case though I'll go upstairs as soon as you leave and I'll make sure all of the doors are locked."
"Okay," said Frankie walking towards the door with Bianca.Frankie turned around to say goodbye and Bianca hugged her.
Frankie closed her eyes and hugged Bianca back and she didn't want to let go. They stayed like that for at least a whole minute but then Frankie pulled away. "See ya later."
Frankie sat on her bed craving a hit, anything to just make her forget for awhile, forget how she felt, what she was doing, just everything. She'd been clean seven months now, with nothing to
help her except her own will power, she'd thought she had beaten it, but this, this was too much. She went to her back pack and pulled out the pills Dr. Joe had prescribed. She opened the bottle, there were eight in there, he had said she wouldn't need them for anymore than a few days, if only there were more. She looked into the bottle, just three, maybe four and she'd feel better, she still had most of the money Vanessa had given her, she could go get something better off of the streets. She looked down again at the bottle, put the cap back on and started pacing around the room squeezing the bottle in her
hand. She brushed the sweat off of her forehead. She needed this so bad, she needed it.
She opened up the bottle and poured three into her shaking hand.
She was shaking, just like she use to when she was desperate when she
was an addict.
Biting her lip she put the pills back in the bottle and closed the lid, there was one person who could help her, only one. So she ventured out into the late November night.
Bianca was sleeping, almost, it was a welcome release from the day she had had, smooth and warm blankets piled on top of her, a soft pillow and music playing softly from her radio. She was almost so
much asleep that she didn't hear a soft tapping. For a moment she feared it was Laura and she grabbed her phone but then she heard an urgent whisper of her name. She went over to her window to see Frankie in the tree outside her window tapping on the window. Bianca hurriedly opened the window and pulled her inside. "What are you doing and how did you get up there with your ankle? Are you okay?"
"No, I need you to get rid of these, please, get them away from me," she said as her cold hands touched Bianca's warmed ones as Frankie relinquished the pills.
Bianca didn't know what was going on but she did as Frankie asked and went to her bathroom. She opened the bottle and dumped the pills in the toilet and then flushed them. She went back into her room and Frankie was sitting there with her head down. Bianca noticed she wasn't even wearing a coat so she wrapped her blanket around Frankie.
"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" asked Bianca as she sat next to Frankie.
Frankie was silent for awhile as the soft music drifted around the room. "I was going to take them."
"And that's bad? If you're in pain you should."
"I wasn't going to take them for the pain, well I was, but not the kind of pain they're made for. I use to," she paused, "I use to get high sometimes, a lot of the time really, and I took all kinds of stuff but I swear Bianca, I haven't done it for a long time. I swear I haven't, you have to believe me."
"I believe you."
"It's just tonight, I wanted them so bad, I could imagine how good it
would feel and I-I just couldn't put them down so I came here."
"You can always come here, we're friends, there's no secrets, okay? There's nothing you can't tell me."
"You mean you're not disappointed that I use to use, that I almost
did tonight?"
"How could I be disappointed? You said you've been clean and tonight
you realized you needed help and instead of not getting it you came to me, I only admire you more, I'm not going to judge you on your past, that's why it's called the past," Bianca said, putting an arm around Frankie.
"You are so amazing, I can't thank you enough."
Bianca smiled and went to her jewelry box and pulled out the locket
that her father had given her."I want you to take this," she said putting it in
Frankie's hand.
Frankie looked at it. "Bianca, I can't-"
"Yes you can, whenever you look at it I want you to know that there's someone here who cares about you…someone who loves you," Bianca let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, it hadn't been as hard as she thought to say those words.
"Bianca," Frankie couldn't finish the sentence because she couldn't find any words to say.
"I love you, Frankie and I know that I haven't even known you for that long but I do love you, and I don't expect you to say it back and I don't even expect you to have the same kind of feelings for me, I
just want you to know that someone loves you."
Despite her inner protests Frankie felt tears welling up in her eyes. "No one has ever said that to me, ever. No one has ever accepted me like this."
"Well I do and I promise I'm not going anywhere."
They were both silent for a moment. "I'd better go, I don't want your mom to come in and freak," said Frankie wiping her eyes.
"You can stay here and sleep if you want, I'll take you back to Myrtle's tomorrow morning.
"I really don't want to be alone tonight," Frankie admitted.
"You don't have to be."
"Okay, I'll stay."
Bianca remade the bed as Frankie took off her shoes then slipped under the covers. Bianca turned off the lights and then lay down next to her.
Frankie silently listened to the music, she had never felt this way before, not when she had been at home all of those years ago or with her so called friends, this was how she had always wished her life
would be like, she felt normal, she felt loved. She decided that she would probably never feel this way again and she should enjoy it because soon she knew soon her life would come crashing down around her in the form of 300,000 dollars.She reached under the covers and grasped Bianca's hand and
held it in her own, this was what she really wanted and she fell asleep, content, for the first time that she could remember.