Chapter 41

STACEY'S POV
How exactly do people go to see therapists and pour out whatever they're going through to them? It didn't seem like an easy task and even if it was, how did they do it? I had a thousand things on my mind and I badly wanted to talk to someone but I had no idea how to go about it.
Random thoughts kept on evading my mind as I sat on top of Maddie's bed, with my legs crossed, swaying my feet from side to side. It was a cool Sunday afternoon and I had just had a chilled glass of lemonade, it was perfect, Ed Sheeran's Supermarket flowers was playing mildly from the radio in the corner of the room, and the air wasn't too hot or too cold. It was just st about right.
As I waited patiently for Maddie to get back from the important errand she said she had to run, I listened to Danny and Ken Jr whining about the new increase in the sales of the guns in Call of duty mobile. I honestly didn't understand what the boys saw in such a game that they would even be ready to spend money on getting ammunitions, it was weird.
"Why would you run out of the building like that?!" Danny yelled at the screen and Ken's face mirrored his frustration. Why were they letting a game put them in such a mood?
Danny's voice filled the room again as he shouted at the players in the screen, "Don't fucking go there! What is wrong with you people?!" He looked like he would have wrung the person's neck if it was in real life and I couldn't help but smile. Boys and their games.
I glanced at the clock on Frankie's bed stand, 2:31pm, Maddie had been gone for almost an hour and the boys had been playing their game for three hours and counting. Jesus. Didn't they have something else to do than this?
Someone called out my name from the door and my eyes met a pair of blue eyes as I turned around, Franklin Swift. Being 9 with a matured mind had been quite a struggle for me you know. There were things I could say even if I wanted to do so badly and it practically sucked but Frankie, with Frankie I could air out all my grievances and that was exactly what we were going to do.
"Hey Stacey, didn't you hear me?" Frankie was staring at me and I realized I was still sitting on the bed. I jumped down quickly, scrambled through the boys who were engaging in a heated battle that involved many swearing and grunting, picked up my little journal I carried everywhere with me, if you exclude the bathroom though, and ran to meet an impatient Frankie.
The house was eerily quiet as we snuck up the stairs to Amber's room. I had seen Frankie eavesdrop on his mum a lot of times but it still felt weird to watch. I wondered why he had to sneak around but most importantly, I wondered why he hated his mum so much.
"...I think Stacey will be able to tell us what's going on with Frankie, the least we can do is hear directly from the source in other to avoid any more issues" Frankie and I exchanged looks as Amber's voice flowed through the door. At this point, I wasn't curious about Frankie's behavior because I had an idea on why he had decided to sneak around.
I heard Maddie's voice afterwards, "I'll talk to Stacey, mum. I don't think she's in the right frame of mind to help with our questions" I heard her say and Frankie glanced my way, again. Right frame of mind? What was Maddie talking about? Did she know something?
That couldn't even be possible because I made sure to keep my journal properly. Okay, maybe I didn't make sure of anything lol but I carried it everywhere with me so that could count for something, right? I wasn't sure what to think, tomorrow would maybe give us a chance to weigh our options.
I had turned my attention towards the stairs with the aim of rushing back to the room when Maddie started talking again, "No, she's fine. I think something happened and she's keeping it away from us, maybe it has something to do with Frankie. I don't know" the hallway was quiet as I almost ran down the stairs completely ignoring the stares Frankie was giving me.
The journal laid pretty on Maddie's bed as I walked back into the room. Yes, I know I said I took it everywhere with me, I mostly did but I had mistakenly dropped it as I rushed out to meet Frankie. The boys had finished whatever they were preoccupied with before I left and Ken was already asleep.
"Is that like a diary?" Danny's voice evaded the quietness as I turned my attention from the journal to him. I wanted to say "yes, it's like a diary" but I decided against it. There was no point in confirming his suspicions, it was oy going to fuel his curiosity so I said the first thing that came to mind,
"Nope, it's for our maths assignment" I quickly said but Danny didn't look convinced. Lying wasn't really my thing and it was obvious but Danny didn't seem to catch on,
He shot me a confused look, "You use a journal for your assignments?" He asked still looking at me. I totally adored the Swift triplets but they all had one trait I had grown to both dislike and be cautious about.
"It didn't look like it was just a book for maths assignment though" Danny pointed out and I held my breath. Didn't look like? He must have seen the confusion on my face cause he shrugged as he added offhandedly, "Maddie seemed quite interested in what was in the journal cause she spent over 30 minutes going through it" What the hell?!