I Drew You Once in Art Class

Eighty-Five

"What took you so long?"

"I made a friend at the dog park."

"Frank, you shouldn't just talk to random people."

"That's literally how you make friends, mom. We might hang out later, it's still early."

"You just met this person!"

"Yeah, and she's nice! Her name is Hayley."

His mother raised an eyebrow. "And is Hayley someone you're... interested in?'

"Mom! I am allowed to make new friends without liking them, okay?"

"Okay! Jeez. Did Millie have a good time?"

"Yes, she liked Hayley's dog, Alf."

"Why don't you invite Hayley and Alf over? The dogs can have a playdate."

"No. We went to a coffee shop before, we'll probably just do that again."

"Just... please be careful, Frank. How old is she?"

"She's 17, mom. Same as me. She's in 3 of my classes."

"Oh. Why didn't you say so? Of course you can hang out with her later."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Okay, thanks."

He went up to his room and plopped down on his bed, pulling out his phone. Was it too soon to text her? Frank had still only had one friend; he didn't really know what was weird or not.

Screw it.

Reading the number off his hand quietly, he tapped the numbers into his phone.

Frank: Hey, it's me. Frank. It's probably too soon and sry if this comes off as weird but do you want to hang out again later?

The response came surprisingly quickly.

Hayley: Sure.

Really? Frank was surprised.

Frank: Okay, where do you want to go?

Hayley: ihop

Alright then.

Frank walked to the nearest IHOP, a pretty long trek but he really didn't want his mom saying anything stupid to Hayley.

She was already there, sitting cross-legged on the booth and twiddling her pink sharpie between her fingers. She wore the same outfit, the same brown shirt, long sweater, and black boots. Her eyeliner looked cleaner than before, Frank noticed. He sat across from her.
"Hi."

She looked up. "Hi. IHOP is my favorite restaurant. Did you know IHOP sells over 700 million pancakes per year?"

Frank raised his eyebrows. "Um, no I did not."

"Anyways, why'd you wanna hang out again?"

"Just felt like it. Normally I'd be hanging out with Gerard. I was supposed to go to this winter dance thing with him, but I don't really know if we'll have made up by then or not, you know?"

"Has he reached out to you?"

"Not at all."

"Huh. I don't know, then. Give it a day or two, though. It's only been one day, less than, actually, and there's 6 whole days until the dance. I've never been to a high school dance. They're not really my thing, although I suppose with the right person it could be fun, but usually I skip them because in middle school once I shoved this guy because he was dancing, like, wayyy too close to me... anyway."

Hayley trailed off and looked at her Sharpie, and Frank smiled.  It felt nice to have another friend.

A/N, sorry if my coming chapters suck, I'm a mess and crazy depressed and like disassociating a little bit and I accidentally dumped that all in the next few chapters lol. But yeah sorry if this chapter or a few coming ones are garbage

-xoCal