TALK TO ME ¯ᶠʳᵉʳᵃʳᵈ

ｅｐｉｌｏｇｕｅ

Five years had passed. Five fucking years and so much had changed. Everyone had taken huge steps in their lives in that five year span and when I look back I can't believe how far we'd come.

My mom.

The one thing that hadn't changed about her was how she enjoyed babying me. No matter how old I got I was still her "baby Frankie." She had started dating again after we all had to practically force her into it. Once I moved out, I didn't want her to be alone so I convinced her to take a risk with her heart and start dating. She hasn't found someone to settle down with, but I'm sure she will eventually. I suggested adoption once, just so she wasn't alone until she remarried or something, but she reacted like I had asked her to kill me.

"Adoption?!" she shrieked.

"Yeah, why not?"

"You're my baby, Frankie," she said, "only you. I can't imagine loving another child as much as you and I won't take a child in without loving them, so no!"

"Come on, Mom, I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"No, no," she shook her head persistently. "Not happening, sweety. You're my only baby."

So that failed. At least she was dating, and I was alright with that.

As for my second mother, Donna, and basically the man who was more of a father to me than my own, Don, they had what they called a "blessing." That blessing was their two sons moving out of the house and allowing them to live their lives freely. They had started traveling a lot more, taking much needed vacations. They took my mom with them on some of them. It never failed to make me happy to see them still maintain an amazing friendship.

While listing off the parents, I could never forget about Maribel. Over the years, she kept in touch with my mom and me and even developed a close relationship with the Way family. I got to see how sweet of a person she really was and if there was such thing as perfection, it would be that woman. She loved with her entire heart and I could feel it anytime I saw her. She wasn't ready to date, but she was ready for a family. She had a surrogate mother give birth to her first child, a boy, who she named Gerard Jr. As if that wasn't the sweetest thing she could have done, she also asked me to be his godfather. I had to be the best fucking godfather around. Gerard Jr. had turned two already and I loved that boy like he was my own child. Maribel did an amazing job raising him and he would have a heart as kind as hers when he got older.

Another parent that wasn't my own, who I never really got close to either, was Ruth. She maintained a relationship with my mom so we were constantly updated on Shane. He was in a mental hospital for a couple years, but was then released, still continuing treatment from home with a therapist. He hadn't done any time in prison, which I was glad for. Instead, they were on the search for the man who raped him when he was younger. I wasn't sure if they had found him yet. There were other cases of teenagers being raped by that same man, so he was on the run. I thought that might give Shane closure, so I hoped they'd catch him. The rest of us-Gerard, Mikey and me-had filed a restraining order against him. We all felt bad for him, but that didn't mean we didn't fear him and want him as far away from us as possible.

Speaking of Mikey, he was still my best friend after five years and not even one hundred years could change that. He was still the guy that made me laugh with his overdramatic reactions to pretty much everything, but also my therapist in the worst of situations. Mikey Way was hands down the reason I hadn't lost my sanity. Right after we graduated high school, he proposed to Alicia. He kept it a secret from us all until graduation night, when he popped the question. I wasn't surprised. I could tell the two of them would never split. They got married just about a year later and were still together and going strong. Alicia may be pregnant, but she still wasn't sure. She hadn't told anyone but me, and still had to buy a pregnancy test to make sure, but I had a strong feeling she was. I couldn't wait to have a mini Mikey Way unleashed into the world.