Four days. That's how long Kiké is able to stay; at least that's what he told his younger brother. Francisco knows what he's up to, and knows that he could stay longer, but frankly, he is sick of his brother's constant presence. Every morning, every afternoon, and every damn night he is there, and why – because of the stupid injury.

Both brothers are used to their lives being a certain way, and like anyone who has a guest for an extended period of time; it gets annoying fast. Spats emerged over silly things like meals, remotes, and even the tiniest of noises; if it wasn't for Lynn's love of his reclining chair, he's sure that he would have made an attempt at getting rid of it just to stop the squeaking.

It's like growing up all over again, except Francisco is happy that his brother can leave.

"You know," Francisco started, "you could have at least cleaned up a bit before you go."

Kiké takes offense to that, "Clean? I'm here to make sure you don't topple over and die because you can't get up, not be your personal maid, I cleaned up after myself."

Francisco glares at his older brother. All these days and his brother found it better to sit around, drink, smoke, or sit around watching tv than to actually help him, like he was supposed to; although the younger brother doesn't know why he expected anything different. Francisco is thrilled that his brother was leaving; he is sick of seeing him in his home for so many days, especially after the accident, but he knows that if it wasn't Kiké, Chuy or his mother would come over, and he knows that he would be happier alone.

At the moment, Kiké is looking around the house to see if he was missing anything. His bags are packed and he is ready to leave to town for the next couple of…whatever time he deems fit. He looks at his younger brother who is attempting and failing to make a sandwich in the kitchen. Kiké shakes his head and continues to search the house to see if he missed anything.

He walks into the kitchen and asks Francisco, "So do you need anything else before I leave?"

Francisco looks up from his plate, and shakes his head, "I'll be fine. Besides, this isn't the first time I've been hurt."

Kiké shrugs his shoulders despite seeing him accidentally spread mustard on his cast, "I know, how often have you gotten hurt in your twenties?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. I pull through."

That's how they are with each other, they could crash and burn, but unless they actually asked the other for help, neither one is jumping to do so with the other.

"Again with the fucking sandwich, don't you ever crave anything else?" his brother asks.

Francisco rolls his eyes at his brother's complaining, "There isn't exactly a lot I can cook with my dominant arm broken, and I can't keep eating takeout."

"All I hear are excuses. Now I know why Caroline didn't offer to let you stay with her in her fancy house when she called."

Francisco looks at his brother, "When did you talk with her? And what made you think that she would offer to let me stay with her."

"She called a few days ago, wondering what happened; I'm guessing Elena wasn't too sure and she wanted to hear it from you, and I thought maybe she wants to be your nurse."

Francisco rolls his eyes, "Why didn't you pass me the phone?"

"Because you were asleep," the older brother responds. "And I can imagine that crap you would give me if I interrupted your beauty sleep," he teases.

Francisco limps away to the dining table in an effort to ignore his brother. No matter how much the pain radiated from his back, he continues moving forward so that he can eat and give his brother a better reason to leave.

Kiké notices his brother in pain and searches through his bags, "By the way, don't go too crazy while I'm gone," he reminds his younger brother, "I'll be back in a couple of…I don't know, a month or two?"

It's his usual sendoff, but it is accurate; he usually appears as he pleases, but at least he warns his brothers ahead of time.

"Oh and here," Kiké says and he tosses his brother a bottle of Francisco's pain pills that he had stashed in his luggage, "Don't use them all at once."

Francisco tries to catch and almost falls over as his brother closes the door, "About time he left," he says immediately after he hears his brother pull away from the driveway.

He walks to the couch and looks in the direction of his bedroom. He takes a deep breath, and shakes his head; he hasn't been alone for even ten minutes, but he can feel the dull headache coming on. The sound of the wall clock's second hand ticks away. Francisco looks up and declares that enough time has passed since his last dose of medicine.

He gets up and limps to his bedroom.


Lynn scratches her head in frustration as she scribbles away to write her notes. The teacher has been lecturing, but she can barely keep up as Mrs. Robinson continues with the lesson, and she is sure that she just made a mistake on her notes.

"Everyone please put your things away. It's time for lunch," says the teacher as she begins to erase the key notes on the blackboard.

The fourth grader silently sighs in relief as she puts her things away in her desk and grabs her lunch. She can't wait for the school day to be over so that she can go home, but there's still three more hours of school to go; which means three more hours of droning lectures to hear and her struggling to listen.

Lynn notices her friend sitting down at a table and calls out to her before taking a seat next to her best friend.

"Can you believe that lecture?" asks Lynn as she pulls out her lunch.

Margo nods, "I know, it was so interesting."

Lynn opens her mouth and closes it when she can't think of what to say. She expected her friend to agree that the lecture was boring, but to hear her say that it was interesting, sort of made her wonder what she missed. She isn't sure how interesting a lecture on the history of copper mining was supposed to be, but like all the years before, Lynn just learned to go along with her friends when it came to school.

"Yeah…it was," she lies.

Lynn eats her sandwich and tries to remember what her teacher said in class, but most of it sounded like those teachers in the cartoons that his brother liked to watch. No matter, how hard she tried in school, it didn't stick; at least she is able to get decent enough grades to pass her classes.

As more of her friends begin to sit down, the conversation turns from school and miners to the weekend; a subject Lynn loved. A part of her can't wait to grow up so that she can have more free time and much less school, she can decide what she wants to do and not worry about homework and reading and spelling, unfortunately, she still has to get through middle school and high school and she's not looking forward to another eight or so years.

The lunch bell rings and the students head back to class. Lynn's teacher hands out a worksheet for the students to work on, and the girl reads the first question before her eyes begin to wander away from the sheet and onto a motivational poster hanging across from her. Lynn knows that she's read that poster over a hundred times, but it didn't matter, she always makes a habit of reading it when she loses interest in her schoolwork, which is often.

Her teacher walks up to her, "Lynn, do you need some help with the worksheet?" she asks, snapping Lynn away from the poster.

She shakes her head and rests her head on the desk as she tries to read the assignment with just one eye. Mrs. Robinson turns back and sees Lynn press her pencil to the sheet of paper, but it doesn't move.

Lynn isn't the first student that she's had that struggles with schoolwork, but she does notice that the girl is falling behind a lot of her classmates. She makes a mental note to have a conference with her parents, and decides to stay close in case she wants help.

Lynn gets her head up from her desk as she feels her teacher's eyes on her, 'Am I in trouble?' she asks herself.

She turns her head slightly and sees her teacher still looking in her direction. Lynn looks back down on her paper and begins to answer the questions with ease. Mrs. Robinson notices the change her student and walks away to check on the other students.

As Lynn sees her teacher walk around the classroom, her eyes begin to wander away from her assignment. Margo, who is sitting next to Lynn, whispers, "Do you need help?"

Lynn shakes her head, "No, not on this…maybe the reading assignment and the homework," she admits.

"Do you want to study after school? I can tell my mom to pick me up after school at your house."

"You sure that you want to study at my house?"

Margo has mostly heard stories about Lynn's rambunctious family, and thinks about it for a minute, before she nods her head, "I'm sure."


Francisco snores away on the couch. The sound of knocking wakes him up abruptly and he looks around the room with his eyes; hoping to find the source of the sound without having to get up. He shakes his head; assuming that he is probably just hearing things. He yawns loudly and closes his eyes in hopes of getting to sleep again.

The knocking continues.

Francisco groans, a pain radiates from his back as he tries to get up, "Damn couch…" he mutters to himself before grabbing the pill bottle from the coffee table and takes a pill dry.

He slowly gets up, but the pain is making it difficult to move properly; his legs feel wobbly and his head feels like its spinning. As he walks to the door, he grabs onto any furniture that he can, hoping to keep himself from ending up on the ground.

He holds onto an end table and stares down at the carpet, 'What am I doing again? Why am I up again? I should be resting a bit.'

He turns back to the couch, before the knocking on the door reminds him that he was headed towards the door.

Francisco slowly opens the door to reveal Caroline and Elena.

"Hi Dad."

"Hey, um…" he struggles a bit with her name, "Is it Friday already?"

Caroline lightly nods, "Yes, it is."

She looks at him; his clothes are messy, his hair disheveled, and his beard longer than normal.

"You know, if you think that you need an extra weekend to get better, I understand," she tells him.

"What?" he snaps from his thoughts, "it's the weekend, Elena and I always spend weekends together."

Caroline knows that these few days meant a lot to him, but is there any point when he is clearly tired and needs more time to recuperate from his injuries. She knows that Elena will understand, but she also knows how stubborn he could be too.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asks with concern in her voice. Francisco is absentmindedly scratching at his face, as Caroline tries to get his attention. "Francisco!"

He looks at her, "Oh sorry, I still haven't gotten used to the beard yet. I'll see you next weekend," he tells her as he closes the door on both her and Elena and Caroline.

Both look at each other, surprised that he did such a thing, however Caroline decides to take advantage of the privacy and steps down to meet her daughter at eye level, "Look, I know that you and your dad look forward to your weekends together, but maybe it's a good idea to let him get better and then you can come back next weekend."

Elena frowns. Even if her mom is making a good point, it didn't mean that she feels any better. She knows how her dad could get when he was sick, but they only get Friday afternoons to Sunday nights, and they both like to at least try to make the most of it.

"Okay…" Elena says with disappointment in her voice.

Both of them get into the car, and before pulling out of the driveway, Caroline texts Francisco a message for him to read when he is capable.


The girls are reading their books in Lynn's room and every couple of pages, Lynn looks over at her friend and notices her focused on the page. She stares back at her book and looks at the last words that she read, before looking at Margo again.

Margo notices Lynn's staring, "Wow! You're already done?"

"What?"

"With the reading?"

"Oh almost," Lynn says before burying her nose in the book.

Margo looks back at her book, "Just give me a few more paragraphs. Oh, by the way, did you want to work on the homework together?"

Lynn looks up, "Yeah!" she says; anything to end the boring reading. "Let me go look for the worksheet in my backpack."

She pulls out her backpack and Margo notices a mess of papers falling to her feet as she searches through what appears to be a year's worth of schoolwork.

Lynn pulls out a wrinkled piece of paper, "Ready when you are!" Margo sets down the book, and is interrupted by the sound of Lynn's stomach, "Sorry, guess I'm hungry. We can get a snack if you want?"

Margo smiles, "No, I'm fine."

The girls quietly look down at the assignment. Lynn looks over at Margo and sees her effortlessly fill out the worksheet. The blonde notices Lynn's staring and she looks up, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just…trying to think of what to write," she lies.

Margo subtly notices that Lynn still isn't writing and turns her head to face her. She can see that Lynn is beginning to panic, "Who is Gloria? And what book inspired her to throw a party?"

"What?"

"In the story," Margo realizes that Lynn probably struggled to read it. Her mom told her that sometimes kids struggle to read because of disorder, and she assumes that Lynn is probably embarrassed and didn't want to say a thing to her.

She begins to summarize the story to her and Lynn hangs onto her every word. Lynn begins to quickly fill in the worksheet with ease, and Margo notices some misspellings, "Maybe you can write down the questions and answers so that you can look at it later," she suggests.

"That's a good idea!"

The girls continued, and Rita interrupts the girls, "Margo, your mom just called. She said that she's on her way over."

"Thank you, Mrs. Loud," she looks at Lynn, "I better get my things."

Lynn, who is writing notes on the story, looks up, "Aww is it that late?" She looks out the window and sees that the sun is starting to set.

The girls walk downstairs and Lynn continues to write down what she could remember as the girls wait by the door. A car pulls up to the front of the house and Margo bids her friend goodbye.

"Bye Margo!" she yells to her friend from the front door.

Lynn closes the door and hears a sound coming from her baby sister's playpen. The older girl walks over to Lisa. She looks down and says, "You're lucky, you don't have to do homework or study for tests." She shows the infant her notes, "See this? One day you're gonna have to learn it, and it's boring."

Lisa intently looks over at her sister's notes. Both are interrupted when they their dad, "Lynn Jr., can you get Lisa her bottle? It's time to feed her."

"Got it!" she yells to her dad.

She walks into the kitchen and gets the bottle from the fridge. As she places the bottle in the warmer, Lynn stares at it, and thinks about how psyched she will be to go to class tomorrow now that she's armed with the info that Margo gave her. She proudly taps at her pocket and notices that her notes aren't in there.

Lynn looks around the kitchen and sees that they aren't in the room. She walks towards the dining room and nothing. In the living room and they aren't there either.

She walks into her parents' room and asks, "Mom, have you seen my notes for school?"

"No, sorry I haven't, but give me a minute and I can help you look for them," Rita offers.

Lynn begins to panic; she finally had something that could help her understand what her teacher was talking about and she lost it. She runs up to her room and begins to take apart her bed, thinking that she may not have taken the pages with her downstairs.

Lynn Sr. walks into the kitchen and notices that it's empty. He walks over to the bottle warmer and sees that Lisa's bottle is ready.

He takes the bottle to his youngest and looks down at Lisa's playpen, where he notices a piece of paper sticking out from under her blanket. He takes the paper from his daughter and tries to read the words on the paper.

"Rita! Rita! Come quick!" he calls to his wife. "Look at this," he shows her the papers. "There are actual letters on this paper. It's a little crude and I can't tell what she's trying to communicate, but there are actual words on here!" he excitedly tells his wife.

Rita isn't convinced, but the messy handwriting looks familiar.

"I think that we may have a little genius on our hands," Lynn Sr. proudly says as he picks up his stoic daughter.

"Lynn!" Rita calls out.

Both father and daughter, who runs down the stairs, ask, "What?"

Rita hands her older daughter the paper and asks, "Are these the notes that you've been looking for?"

"Yes! Thanks mom," Lynn happily says, as she takes her notes from her mom. "Now I don't have to beg Margo to help me again," she says as she runs back to her room.

Rita looks at her husband, who confidently tells her, "Well I still think that Lisa's smart. Remember how I used to name parts of my face and she can point to them on her own face?"

"Okay, honey. Whatever you say."


Francisco slowly opens his eyes, 'How did I end up on the floor?' he thinks to himself, as he makes an attempt at getting up, but struggles as his nerves fired off in pain.

"I can do this…I can do this…" he tells himself, refusing to see himself like those old people in those tv commercials.

His knees feel stiff, and his back did not want to cooperate with him. He drags himself to the couch and lifts himself up in an attempt to get onto the somewhat softer piece of furniture. After hoisting himself up, Francisco makes an attempt to catch his breath. He assumed that after exercising for months, he wouldn't struggle, but the pain radiating from his back definitely knocks the wind out of him.

"Elena! Elena!" he calls out into the house. "Where is she?" he asks himself before checking the date on his phone. "It's Sunday, she should be home."

Francisco quizzically looks at the notifications on his screen; they were all from Caroline.

You were sick

Without having any memories of what he assumed was an interaction on Friday, he knows exactly why she took Elena. During their time together, Caroline has seen him sick a handful of times, and he recalls that every time she did her best to get him back to health as soon as possible; because they both knew that he has a hard time caring for himself, let alone doing so with Elena.

Wait…he isn't sick. He breathes through his nose and felt his forehead, but he confirmed it. Maybe a little dizzy from the medicine that he's taking, but he's not sick from any actual bug or anything.

Took Elena for the weekend

Understandable, he can't even remember them coming, how would he care for a nine-year-old?

We'll talk privately when we get a chance

He isn't sure what that last part is about, but he figures that he can get to that when they talk.

His stomach begins to rumble. He can't remember the last time he ate, but he is going to take a crack at it and say Friday, despite the dishes in the sink, still, that is a long time without food.

"A pizza sounds good right now…wait, are they open?"


"That's all for today, class," says the teacher as he dismisses the students. "Don't forget that you have a test on Monday. Take advantage of the weekend."

Lynn steps into the hallway and looked around for Margo. Since fourth grade, Lynn has always asked her friend to help her with her notes for classes, and now, as eleventh graders, the tradition continues.

She continues to look around, but there is no sign of Margo.

Francisco sees Lynn jumping over the crowd, looking for something and he walks over to her, "What are you doing?"

She keeps jumping in her search for Margo, "Hey! Have you seen Margo? I haven't seen her all day and I need her to help me with my notes for English class."

"Isn't your sister a super genius? Why don't you ask her?"

Lynn stops bouncing and leans against the lockers, "She won't help unless I have some notes that she can go over, so I won't get much help if my notes are crap. Besides, I just need good notes, and Margo is always willing to help."

Francisco stays quiet. Margo has told him before about the arrangement that the girls have had since elementary school, but she's also mentioned that it's entirely one-sided as Lynn has yet to return the favors.

"I can help," he offers.

Her eyes lit up, "Really?"

"We have the same test, so why not?"

She happily wraps her arm around his shoulder, "Alright! Let's go!"

The two take a seat on the bus and head to Lynn's house. They walk through the front door and Lynn announces, "I'm home! Francisco and I are gonna go study in my room."

Rita calls from the dining room, "Okay, but make sure that you try to study, Lynn."

"Okay!" Lynn responds.

"Study?" he asks.

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "Kinda, I mean I do have to read your notes and that counts for studying," she declares.

The two walk upstairs and she opens the door to her room, "Alright, make yourself at home. I have to find some paper and we can get started."

He pulls out the desk chair to sit, while she searches under her bed, "Don't you have a notebook for class?"

"It's somewhere down here," she says as she digs through the trash, clothes, books, and other things littering under her bed.

Francisco looks around the room. He rarely visits her house and its even rarer that he enters her bedroom. In the few times that he's visited, he's always noted the messy state of Lynn's half of the room and he can tell that it's a trait that Lynn hasn't changed.

She pulls out a ream of printer paper from under her bed and takes a textbook to place her paper on.

"Do you want me to move?" he asks as he gets up from the chair. "I'm sure it's easier to write here than on your bed."

"Nah, I'll be fine. I can write from here."

He picks up the chair and sits near her, in case she needs help. He pulls out his notes from his backpack and hands them to her.

"Is there a reason that you need help with your notes? Let me see what you've got."

Lynn hands him what she has written in class, "Maybe, but Margo's notes definitely help."

Francisco looks at Lynn's notes and is surprised by what is written on the paper. Most of the notes didn't stay within the lines, little pieces of information are placed wherever there is space, and there were plenty of misspellings that made him wonder how she got to the eleventh grade.

He takes a sheet from her notes and asks, "Lynn, what does that say?"

"Those are the vocabulary words that Mr. Cameron has posted up every day."

"You know that spelling counts towards our grade, right? And why don't you have the definitions?"

"I'll get it from a dictionary, don't worry," she tries to assure him, "I swear, you're like Margo."

He can't blame Lynn for not being worried. Most of the test isn't something that needs to be heavily studied since it's based on interpreting short stories, and knowing some basic information about the books that they are reading in class. However, knowing the vocabulary words and their proper spelling will be helpful.

"Speaking of Margo, have you seen her all week?"

Lynn stops writing and shakes her head, "Nope. I haven't seen her at all."


On Sunday afternoons, Lynn has a tradition of visiting Romano's Deli for coffee and sometimes a home cooked Italian meal. She isn't the biggest fan of intruding on the family during their day off, but Raffaelina, the owner's wife and matriarch of the family, won't take no for an answer.

"And she just kept talking over and over again. At some point, I don't know when, I stopped paying attention and agreeing with her," Lynn tells the woman, recounting her phone conversation with Luan.

Raffaelina takes a sip from her coffee, "Why don't you listen?"

"I don't know I just get bored listening to her complaints. Besides, why call me? She knows that I'm not the one to go to for these sorta things!"

"Maybe she wants to release emotions or hear from someone different," she suggests.

Raffaelina has listened to Lynn's conversations for some time, and while she doesn't attempt to interfere in her affairs, she does try to push Lynn into making good choices, rather than impulsive ones.

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I guess…"

"Why don't you," Raffaelina struggles to find the right words, "mostra un po 'di compassione?"

Lynn loudly groans, "You know I haven't picked up that much Italian! I can barely make a sentence and you want me to understand a phrase? Let me show you…" Lynn looks around the kitchen and points to some apples, "Can I have a…mela?"

Raffaelina laughs and gets up to hand her the fruit, "Show compassion. Show you care."

Lynn stays quiet. It's not often that any of her sisters talked to her about anything that bothered them, so hearing Luan want to vent surprised her. Although, based on what Lucy has said, it's happened before; Lynn imagines that the source of her sisters' grief has something to do with their proximity, work, or whatever Luan was talking about that Lynn ignored.

"We'll see…"

"Try again."

"Alright, I'll call her back. Is that what you want to hear?"

"Maybe, but listen when she talks, don't play with a ball."

Lynn isn't upset at Raffaelina's request, but she isn't looking forward to repeating the conversation with Luan. She can't imagine that her older sister is going to be thrilled at knowing that she didn't listen and was just mindlessly agreeing, but one less thing on her chest.

The two silently drink coffee, and Raffaelina looks in the direction of the younger woman; her cup is beginning to shake and she asks, "Have you found a job yet?"

Lynn's cup stops shaking, she was afraid that Raffaelina would ask this question. Since she quit her coaching job after returning from her trip down south, the older woman has asked every once in a while, but Lynn knows why she keeps asking.

"No, but I'm doing fine; 840 days."

"Good, now why no job?"

"Because, I'm financially fine, I didn't even need the coaching job in the first place, but I did it to get you off my back," Lynn says.

With the frequent talks, their personal lives are bound to come up, but for Lynn, it feels like she's in high school again hearing her parents, teachers, and other adults telling her to buckle down and take things seriously, when she just wanted to play ball.

"You need something to keep busy, if not, you get bored."

Lynn rolls her eyes, "I'm always bored. Why do you think that my resume is so colorful?"

The older woman sighs. For as long as she has known Lynn, she has been impulsive with her life choices; typically making her decisions based on mundane signs or because she wants to quickly move on to something more exciting. Unfortunately, the young woman rarely thinks long-term and it shows based on her job history.

With a cheeky smile, Raffaelina responds, "You worked at a copy store?"

Lynn chuckles a bit at the memory of how she would occasionally play around with the machines when bored and once printed a resume with every color in the color wheel.

"How are things going with you and Francesco?" Raffaelina says with a knowing smile.

Lynn turns her head away from the older woman. She doesn't like her bringing up the relationship, usually due to her daughters' intrusive nature, but also because Raffaelina has made it clear that the she entered in her relationship too quickly.

"Yeah…it's been going good. He got a new job with my sister, Lisa. I haven't seen him for a couple of days, but," she shrugs her shoulders.

Raffaelina waits to see what Lynn was going to add, but as Lynn takes a sip of her coffee, she knows that the younger woman isn't going to talk. When Lynn told her of the relationship about a year ago, Raffaelina was concerned about the two dating, but she has since let it go.

"But?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen him."

Raffaelina's older daughter, Theresa, walks in and looks over at the two women talking at the table, "Who haven't you seen?"

Lynn turns around and faces Theresa, "Francisco," she turns back to Raffaelina, "It's been over a week. I've called and texted, but he doesn't answer. I asked my sister and she says that he didn't go into work on Monday, but she also says that she didn't even bother to call him anyway, so yeah."

Theresa takes a seat next to Lynn, and beats her mother to the question, "Are you worried? I mean, you don't hear back from him in a week and he doesn't respond when you try to communicate with him; it's a little worrisome."

"Okay, he doesn't not respond," she corrects, "But when I called during the week, he tells me to call him back, then when I listen, he doesn't answer me."

Laura, Raffaelina's younger daughter, comes up from behind and takes a seat next to Lynn, "You know what you should do?"

Theresa responds for Lynn, "Cut your losses and move on."

"No!" the three others immediately say.

Laura sticks her tongue out at her older sister, before starting again, "See, mama agrees with me. Romance is the better option," she tells Lynn, then turns towards her sister, "If you aren't careful, you'll always have some doubt and someone won't be afraid to take advantage."

Theresa kicks her younger sister under the table, before Raffaelina quickly tells her daughters in Italian to leave the room and leave her and Lynn to their conversation.

"Are they right?"

The older woman asks, "What?"

"Are they right? I mean, I don't know how to be in a proper relationship and maintain it? My last good one was when I was eighteen and that was short-lived. After that, well you know that story…"

"Look Lynn, I can't say what to do. I only give advice, what you do is on you."

That's what Raffaelina always told her. It's nice that she cares enough to open her family's home to her, but she could only offer the insight that came with age and experience, and that's it.

"I know that," Lynn explained.

"Do you?" questioned the older woman, "Who told you to wait before dating? Who said that you should know each other first? Who said that you shouldn't do anything crazy because of your emotions?"

"You did," Lynn responds like a child who was being punished, "but I don't know what to do. That's sort of why we talk on Sunday afternoons…that and your tomato sauce is really good."

Raffaelina scoffs, "Good, she says." She shakes her head and sighs, "Do you trust him? Has he given you any reason to doubt him? Do you care about him?" Lynn responds to each question with her head, "Don't worry."


Francisco pulls out his phone and sees a message from Margo.

Can you do me a favor?

What is it?

Could I borrow you notes for English class?
I haven't been to class for a few days, and I want to know what's going to be on the test

Sure, I can send my notes over there in a bit.

Thank you so much

This is the opportunity that Margo has probably been waiting for after seven years. A chance for Lynn to return a favor and let her borrow her notes; granted, the notes are Francisco's, but it's better than nothing.

Francisco slowly started asking, "Do you think that Margo will need some help, you know, studying? Maybe some notes in case she shows up for the test on Monday?"

"Couldn't she just ask Mr. Cameron to take the test another day? He's pretty understanding, especially since Margo has a good excuse."

"But she has friends that could give her the information now," he adds, "Why not just help her so that she doesn't have to waste time later taking it?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulder, "I guess."

Francisco isn't convinced. He looks at Lynn and sees her beginning to play with a can of pop, "Are you done? I have to get going."

Hearing that snapped her back to finish writing her notes; she hates making him wait, but she knows that if she doesn't write them down now, then she'll put it off all weekend.

"Lynn, just go help her. Is it really that hard to do? I mean you ask for help from her, why can't you return the favor?"

She isn't sure where all of that came from, "What are you talking about? I help her."

"Do you?"

"Yes, I help her run drills for soccer, baseball, and–"

"Something non-athletic," he interrupts.

Lynn starts to think about and realizes that Francisco was right, "Wait…how did you know that I never helped?"

He didn't want to tell her that Margo told him, and quickly lied, "I've known you for years, Lynn. You mean well, but sometimes, you tend to focus on yourself too much. Sorry."

It's sort of true, and he did think it, but he didn't want to start a fight between two good friends over something frustrating that Lynn does.

She scowls and quickly writes her notes, "Done," she hands him the notes. "I'm heading to Margo's. Thanks."

He sighs and quickly follows out the door. She stomps out the front door and he watches her head away from him in a huff.


Francisco quietly holds onto his stomach, while trying to watch television. His stomach feels like it is in knots and he can't ignore it despite the noise coming from the television. He feels full and ready to vomit. The people on the screen continue to talk, but he can't concentrate; only worrying about the possibility of spending the night crawled up like a ball on the bathroom floor.

He lets out a nauseous burp and feels heartburn beginning to creep in.

Rather than suffer all night with the taste of garlic and insomnia-inducing stomach pains from hell, he decides to do the sensible thing and get some medicine for his aching stomach.

He turns off the television and walks to his medicine cabinet and pulls out a bottle of pink medicine. Francisco looks at the bottle and already imagines the scent that comes from within the bottle and he is not looking forward to devouring it at all. He takes the little cup from the top of the bottle and shakes his head; not wanting to consume it. He holds his head over the sink, and makes a small attempt at throwing up before having to resort to the medicine that he hates, but nothing came of it.

He takes a deep breath, and prepares himself for what is coming next. After he takes the medicine, he feels the liquid touch the back of his mouth, the taste overpowers him and he immediately throws up. Francisco groans; he hates vomiting. As he rests his head on the faucet, he tries to force whatever chunks or stomach acid that he has out of his nose and mouth.

'There goes a perfectly good pill.'

Francisco looks at his blurry reflection in the mirror. He is dizzy and struggling to focus on the mirror's image, but he can tell that his eyes looked tired. However, Francisco isn't too concerned; a good night's sleep should remedy that, he tells himself.

"I just need something…" he opens his medicine cabinet, and notices the bottle of medicine that Lisa gave him the last time he visited her lab.

"Have I taken these yet?" he can't remember, but decides to take the dosage on the label, regardless, along with his usual medicine.

He takes a deep breath, 'I just need sleep is all…' Francisco slowly walks to his bed. He plops down; not caring that he is still in his regular clothes; he is tired and dizzy and just needs to rest.

Francisco looks at his clock on the night stand, 'Maybe I am sick…6pm and already in bed…'

The man's phone buzzes, and he groans, 'Not now…' he thinks to himself as he takes his phone out of his pocket and sets it on the floor.

The phone keeps buzzing with each incoming notification. Less than two minutes later, the phone buzzes again; which continued for five minutes before Francisco grabs the phone and tosses it out of the room in frustration.

He isn't sure if he broke his phone, but he doesn't care, so long as that damn buzzing stops.

Lynn stares at his name on her phone's screen, before she looks at the driveway. His truck is parked, but every light in his house is off despite the hour.

"I guess there's always the front door…" she tells herself. "And the spare key…" she says continuing to convince herself, "And I'm probably doing him a favor, I mean with the lights off, people will think that he's not home and try to rob him." She shakes her head. She doesn't really need to go in there, but maybe she does, at least that's what she's thinks she should do.

She gets out of her car and approaches the front door, and before she could get the spare key, Lynn can hear Raffaelina's voice; telling her that she's probably overstepping by going inside.

"Its fine, besides it's not like I'm some stranger. He knows me, there's nobody in there but him and maybe Elena," she said to the older woman in her imagination. "I just want to be sure that he's okay."

She walks into the house and calls out his name, "Francisco…are you home?"

The light from the kitchen grabs her attention, and she assures herself that he has to be home, "He wouldn't just leave this light on." She continues to search, noticing the messy state of the house, which is currently littered with dirty plates, a half eaten pizza, and wrappers from various fast food restaurants.

The sound of snoring grabs Lynn's attention. She looks up at the ceiling and hears the sound again; taking a few steps in the direction of the sound. She continues to follow the snoring, and notices a broken cell phone outside of Francisco's room.

Lynn's heart is pounding, but if anyone was inside she is ready to face them head-on. She quietly opens the door and peeks inside. He is sprawled on the bed with his arm and leg hanging off of the bed. Deciding to sneak up on him, she tiptoes inside and walks closer to him, but stops when she noticed the casts and stitches.

"Dang," she mouths quietly to herself, before leaving the room.

"What the heck happened to you?" she whispers to him.

She quietly steps out of the room and walks to the living room to take a seat on the couch.

'I did not expect to see that,' she thinks to herself. 'Still he could have called or something…' she shakes her head and tries to think more positively, but her mind begins to creep down the dark path as she tried to figure out how he got hurt.

'He could have fallen off of the roof…nah…slipped on ice, no wait…it's hot outside, there's no ice…oh! Maybe he slipped on a banana peel,' she giggles at the thought of him walking down the street and slipping because of stray banana peel.

Lynn grabs a slice of pizza and takes a bite out of it, "Guess I could ask him in the morning."

She lays down on the couch and feels a lump. She digs under the cushion and finds a dirty sock, "What the…?"

Granted, Lynn is no stranger to a messy home, but it feels strange to see her boyfriend's house be this way; he used to playfully tease her about her messy room and now here he is, one step away from having animals wandering in confused if they were indoors or not, "One time, and you owe me one," she says out loud to herself.

She grabs the pizza box, and begins to stack the dishes on top of the box. "If only they were plastic," she says, tempting the idea of playing a bit of frisbee with the plates. She sets them down in the sink, "It's only been a couple of days; how the heck do you have so many dirty dishes?"

Rather than starting on the dishes, Lynn opens the fridge to put the leftover pizza away when some silver cans grabs her attention. "What the…"

Lynn swallows, and put the pizza box inside and before closing the door.


Hello everybody, and thank you for making it to the end of the chapter. It's been a while since I've left a note here, but hopefully you will continue to enjoy the story for many weeks to come.

I want to thank Pedroxmv97 for confirming that Kiké is an ass (I was hoping that was clear, but I wasn't too sure if I had to make it worse)