Too Fast For Love

Chapter 11 - On With the Show / Part 3

It's morning - 

Tommy's been lying in bed, staring out into nothing. His crying eyes hurt. Everything hurts. Frankie died in his arms yesterday. He's gone, and never coming back home. This was his home.

The police were summoned to the scene yesterday. Someone reported screaming and cries for help. Once the emergency vehicles arrived, Tommy had to let go. He was ushered away from Frankie. Somebody wrapped a blanket around his shoulders as he sat, but all he could do was stare; willing with all of his might that they'll wake him up and save him, so that they could go home together. But it didn't go that way. He watched them take his best friend away on a stretcher underneath a sheet, and that was it. Frankie wasn't coming home.

Tommy had some minor injuries, but refused treatment. Then he had to answer some questions from the police. He's not even sure what he told them. Everything coming out of his mouth sounded like a foreign language.

"What's your friend's name?"

"Frankie."

"Last name?"

Tommy didn't know. He never knew Frankie's last name. 

That question repeats in his head over and over. Who was Frankie? Where did he come from? Tommy really doesn't know anything about him, except that he was the best friend he ever had. The person he was supposed to live his dream with.

The drummer doesn't know how he made it home last night. He knows that he dropped the money he collected from his deliveries to the drop off place, for the final time. It's done. He never should have taken a job like that. He never should have told Frankie anything about it. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone, anything, ever. He did, and now that person he told is dead. It should have been him. He's the one who screwed up. Frankie did nothing; was just trying to protect him.

--------------------

Tommy stayed inside his apartment for nearly a week, barely moving from his bed, only getting up for basic necessities; his red and swollen eyes gazing upon Suzie, leaning up against the wall, for a good portion of each day. He's pretty much in a catatonic state of mind, lonely, scared, cold, tormented, and in pain.

One thing that Tommy keeps hearing in his head was Frankie's voice saying, "You should try to go home someday...." His drums are there, and Frankie told him to make their dreams come true. He just doesn't know how to do that without him. Frankie was everything his dream centered around.

This apartment has become a physical place of pain for Tommy. He's gonna go home.

---------------------

The following day Tommy left. He took a cab ride home. Upon arriving, he knocked on the door with a hitch in his breath and his heart pounding. His mom answered the door, his dad right behind her. She put her hand to her mouth, gasping. Tommy fell into her arms crying, while she wrapped hers tightly around him, crying too. "My baby. My baby is home." His dad stepped around behind him, and hugged him from behind. 

After a lot of crying and a long talk, Tommy's parents welcomed him back home. A little later that day, his dad drove him back to his apartment so that he could pack up his stuff, and give Ellie the key back and the final month's rent. The elderly lady hugged him, telling him he was a delight to have around. Makes Tommy feel a little guilty that he hid Frankie from her. She never knew he was there. She never knew that this most incredible person was living there too....

Tommy loads his belongings into the trunk of the car. 

"A guitar, Tom?" his dad questions.

"It's a bass guitar. Um, it belonged to my friend."