Page 50

Frankie

“FRANKIE~!”

Nikkie’s cry startled me and just about everyone around me. I craned my neck, searching the hordes of people coming through the arrivals lounge for my best friend.

I clapped eyes on her and could have cried.

We sprinted towards one another, all unintelligible squeals and sniffling, hanging onto each other for dear life.

Ignoring the group of disgruntled and tired onlookers, we babbled into each other’s hair until we let go.

“You’re sotan!” I whined, sniffling back an excited sob. “And your hair! You cut it!”

Nikkie turned this way and that, showing off every angle of her straight cut bob, her once waist length hair a distant memory.

“Do you like it?” she asked, her eyes imploring. “I ended up being a little more impulsive than I should have and cut it.”

I ran my hair through the soft, silkiness of her raven hair.

“It’s hideous, isn’t it?” she moaned.

“No, are you kidding?! It’sgorgeous!”

“You sure?”

“Yes, now hush and let me hug you.”

She giggled wetly into my hair. “It’s only been a couple weeks,” she sniffed, but she clung to me just as tightly. “Can we go see your mom?”

I scoffed and pulled away, wiping the tears from my face. “I knew you only liked me because of my mom,” I accused, and she whacked my arm lightly with the back of her hand.

“You know you’re my one and only, asshole,” she tutted.

I smiled to myself as we walked arm in arm out of the airport. I knew that.

“And there’s this gorgeous cathedral that we visited in Sicily,” Nikkie said, her tales a full-blown theatrical performance. She stood at the foot of Mom’s hospital bed, her arms waving around her body as she described her trip in excruciating detail.

Perhaps a littletoomuch detail…

“And the tour guide wasso hot, Auntie!” she complained. Dad coughed pointedly from his spot beside me and I smothered my laughter. “He was married, obviously; they always are.”

At that, Dad perked up, a satisfied grin on his weary face.

Something in me settled while watching Nikkie entertain my parents. Familiarity, I realized.

We hadn’t spent time together in so long. With work, Mom’s health, and Nikkie’s wanderlust, at least one of us was never in the same country.

Mom laughed, her breaths a little short.

“Next time,” Nikkie said, taking Mom’s hand in hers, “we have to go as a family, okay? And you can’t get sick again to get out of it.”

“Deal,” Mom conceded, her eyes soft with fondness.

“Okay,” I announced, getting to my feet and patting Dad’s shoulder. “I’m going to take Nikkie home before she wakes the whole floor. I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”

“Can’t wait,” Dad said, squeezing my hand gently.

Nikkie and I left the hospital, and once we were in the safety of the car she turned quizzical eyes on me.