8 Family

Frank came back home after his run, ready to take a quick shower.

As soon as he entered the house, he smelled something delicious. His mother must have started cooking and boy was she good at it.

His dad would be coming home from work in about an hour or so, right in time for dinner.

Frank walked in and saw his mother, busy in the kitchen, "Smells delicious Ma, what's for dinner?"

Ana turned her head towards him, "Welcome back Frankie. You're a bit late from school aren't you?

"You're sweating like a pig, go take a shower first before thinking about dinner.

"Why are you so sweaty anyway, get into another fight?"

Frank smiled, "I'd have to be fighting the whole school to work up this much of a sweat Ma. I went for a run."

"Now that's a welcome surprise. Did you finally get tired of wasting away in those pubs and start thinking about your future?" Ana had never been one to mince words.

"Aaay! I come back home and this is how you greet me? I liked you more when you were cooking in silence." Frank was a bit irritated by his mother's snarky comment and gave it back to her.

"What did you say?!" Ana got irritated by her son's backtalk.

"You heard me." Frank wasn't one to succumb and back down.

Before this could turn into one of their small arguments though, Frank made his way up the stairs to take a shower.

This wasn't anything out of the ordinary. His mother always liked to poke people even if they were her family.

Frank wasn't angry at her about this either. He knew his mother wanted what's best for him and seeing your child go to bars every day for 2 months would worry any mother.

The real reason he was going though was far worse. His mother wouldn't exactly be over the moon if he told her that he wasn't a drunk, just a wanna-be mobster that was gathering information.

Besides, there wasn't anything deeper about this. As he got older Frank realized that aside from wanting what's best for her close ones, his mother also liked to argue.

After cleaning himself up and changing clothes, Frank didn't go back downstairs but instead went straight to his room to clean his gun.

He didn't have many fears in life, but things he couldn't control were more frightening than anything else. That's why he instantly picked up the habit of cleaning his gun every day.

There were a lot of dumb ways to go and a gun jam was definitely near the top of that list.

By the time he finished and walked out of his room, he heard the shower going. His father was probably back home.

He went downstairs and saw that his mother was finishing up in the kitchen. She heard him coming down and said, "Frank, come help me set the table while I finish up here."

"Sure thing." His mother usually set the table, but when he was downstairs he helped out occasionally.

After he set the table, he sat down on one of the chairs and turned on the radio. There was a football match in progress, 29th minute of the first half.

It was 0-0, but it certainly didn't sound like a boring affair. Frank enjoyed listening to the tactical side of the game as the commentators explained it and didn't really bothered about what the score was.

His father though liked to support the team that was playing with more passion and aggression so he was complaining more often than not when the commentary wasn't about sliding challenges but about the passing side of the game.

Bill came back downstairs and his wife and him sat down on the table. Dinner began while Frank and Bill were paying attention to the game.

They weren't really a religious family. They went to catholic church from time to time, but they didn't bother to pray before dinner.

In life you got what you got and then you died. Everything depended on you, this was something Frank and his parents agreed on.

They could bicker for days, but there was no room for complaining in this house. Bill and Ana hadn't heard Frank bitch to them about school or anything else.

Their kid got into a lot of fights, but they took pride in the fact that they didn't raise a snob and that they could hear people praise his son every now and again.

After dinner was over, they sat on the sofa, relaxed and listened to the radio.

After seeing that It was getting late though, Frank said, "I'll be back late tonight, eat without me."

"Alright son, be safe out there." His father had no problem with letting Frank stay up late.

Bill may be a father now, but at some point he was also a teenager and he knew what it was like. Frank staying outside until past midnight was exactly what he was doing at that age.

"Make yourself a sandwich at least before you go, don't starve yourself." Ana had also gotten used to it at this point.

"Okay mom, thanks for the reminder." Frank made himself a sandwich, ate it and then went upstairs.

It was only 20:15, but Frank thought that he would rather be early than late. Besides, Vito was expecting him at 21:00 at the latest, nothing wrong with being there 20 minutes early.

Frank changed into all black clothing and his other black jacket, hid his gun in it and went back downstairs.

"Dad, can I have my allowance now?" Bill usually gave him 10 dollars at the start of each month, but they hadn't seen each other before dinner today, so Frank hadn't gotten his money yet.

Bill took 10 dollars out of his pockets, "Here you go son. Don't forget you still have school tomorrow so don't go too crazy now."

"I know dad, I won't." Frank took his allowance, put it in his pockets and left the house.

Putting the money in his pockets was not too smart in this age, but Frank couldn't open his jacket because of the gun.

After walking out the door though, he took the 10 bucks out and put them in the free inside jacket pocket.