Through the Smoke~ DTQK

Frankie & Gio

Frankie and Gio learned to be independent from a pretty young age.

Life wasn't always the way it was for them now.

The brothers used to live in a nice house with both parents still together. They had a big backyard with a swing set and they each had their own bedroom.

Gio was two years older than Frankie, but they acted as if they were twins. They did everything together. They even wanted to dress alike on most days.

Their mom always took them out to do fun things. They went to the park often, the zoo, and other day trips during the summers. Gio and Frankie never fought, and neither did their parents.

Their parents had met in Italy during highschool and got married at a young age. They were highschool sweethearts. They moved to America at the age of 23 to live out the "American Dream".

Their father opened up a small pizza restaurant and their mother became the manager of a fancy hotel.

Gio was born shortly afterwards, then Frankie followed two years later. They grew up only speaking Italian until they got to school where they were taught English.

Frankie had a difficult time making friends when he started school. He was embarrassed of the teacher that stayed by his side at all times to help him with his work. He was embarrassed of his accent and how he couldn't understand the other kids in his class.

He never spoke in school except to his english teacher when they were in a private classroom. He made sure he paid close attention to his english lessons so he could fit in.

At home, he used his mothers laptop to find more websites to teach him english. He became obsessed, using each free minute on these websites. By second grade, he was fluent in english. He still had a heavy accent, but at least he could understand his peers.

Gio wasn't too far behind Frankie, he became fluent in english the same year. Their parents still spoke in all Italian at home, yet at school the boys were able to communicate with their classmates and teachers.

Life was going very well for the two boys. They were doing good in school, their parents were happy, and Frankie even made a new best friend named Colin.

Frankie would always sit by himself on a bench at recess, and one day Colin decided to join him. They became inseparable immediately.

Frankie saw Colin as another brother. They did everything together. Everyday after school the both of them would either be at Frankie's house or Colin's house a couple of streets over.

During the summer in between third and fourth grade they had sleepovers almost every day. Frankie even went on a camping trip with Colin's family for a week.

When he returned back from the trip, his whole world came crashing down.

Frankie's father sat him and Gio down in the living room, a serious look plastered on his face.

"Listen boys, I need to talk to you about something." He began. The boys listened anxiously. "Your mom is very very sick. She has cancer." He said, choking back tears.

The boys looked at each other, speechless.

Frankie and Gio spent every night sleeping in their parents bed from then on.

Colin was able to tell immediately that something was going on when Frankie saw him a few days later for the first day of school.

Frankie told him about his mom, immediately getting brought into a hug by Colin. No more words were spoken between the two about it, but Frankie knew Colin would be there for him no matter what.

That is, until two months later.

Frankie's mom had been in the hospital for over a week at that point, he knew she didn't have much longer. That's also when he found out that Colin was moving across the country to California.

It felt as if his entire world was being ripped away from him.

Saying goodbye to Colin as he was packing his stuff up into a moving truck was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. He squeezed him hard in a hug with tears running down his face.

"I'll miss you." Colin whispered, holding Frankie close.

"I'll miss you more." Frankie responded. He was saying goodbye to his only friend.

A week later, he said goodbye to his mom.

He had held her hand as she flatlined. He felt the life slip away from her. Two of his best friends were taken away from him.

His dad had to close the pizza shop because of the medical bills. He wasn't making enough money to keep it open. He also wasn't making enough money to afford the house they lived in.

So the boys had to pack up all of their things into a moving truck just like had Colin had done a few weeks prior. Except they weren't moving to California, they were moving to an apartment in the same city, just in the bad part of the city.

It was only a one bedroom apartment, so their father let them have the cramped bedroom as he settled for the couch.

Their father also began to fall into a heavy depression. He wasn't working, he drank frequently and got into drugs as well.

Frankie and Gio had to become self sufficient. They stole from grocery stores for food and went hungry most nights.

One night, when the boys had returned from stealing a loaf of bread from the grocery store, they found their dad unresponsive on the couch with an empty bottle of pills in his hand.

They called 911 immediately, and their dad was rushed to the hospital. He spent weeks in the psychiatric ward.

During that time, the boys were placed in foster care.

They were placed with a couple who had an endless list of chores for them to do at all times. They hated it.

Eventually they were released back to their dad, but he continued to get worse. He wouldn't talk much and would only drink.

As soon as Gio turned 16 he got a job to pay for food and bills. The state gave them money monthly since their dad was unemployed, yet it wasn't nearly enough.

Frankie got into partying and drugs at a fairly young age. He would rather be anywhere else then home anyway.

He began to notice Clay, who lived in the building next to them. He didn't want to introduce himself though. He waited until Clay introduced himself at a party.

After all, he didn't want him to be taken out of his life too.