Sometimes you have to choose between planting roots or growing wings

 

Frankie was crushed. Suddenly, Tori was off his radar. He called. He texted. 

It was heartbreaking. What was going on? He guessed he had friends, but none like Tori. Nobody knew him like Tori. 

He did his best to be a good co-worker, but he never really got to know people. Where ever he might go. Possibly, he didn't want anyone to know him because he knew he was never what he seemed. He was much more normal than he looked.

Some thought he was a Drag Queen. True, he liked to be fashionable, but not that extreme. Maybe he was metrosexual, but he didn't even like that term. He just wished people didn't want him to be something he wasn't. Of course, he did his best to go with the flow, but he didn't really socialize. He was actually a homebody who liked his upcycles of vest and shirts and sometimes even knickers. But as of late, he was a lounge lizard at home like anyone else in sweat pants and a black tank, constantly stretching and working on yoga poses when he wasn't at the hospital office building working with insurance claims. He was probably too boring for his old friend Tori. Although, in his heart, she was his first love and he knew now first loves evidently weren't meant to last and he cried more and ate more ice cream than he meant to.

He was so certain he could control his chocolate intake and just live on almonds. But he knew it was time to give it up before his stash was entirely eaten. He showed up where he thought Tori was staying.

"Oh, she doesn't live here anymore," the girl said who opened the door.

Frankie was in shock. He shoved the bag of assorted mini-chocolate bars toward her.

"What happened?" He came in looking for Megan or Cori. He doubted Caitlin would tell him anything. She always looked at him as if was just too fruity for her.

"Oh, I guess she moved out," Hope took the candy to the kitchen and tossed it in the freezer. She was definitely not addicted to candy.

"Moved out?" She could have left the country for all he knew.

"I live in her room now," Hope told him she used to live there not so long ago.

Frankie nodded wishing he could think of something to say because he didn't really want to go home to an empty condo.

"Do you drive? Do you need anything?" He asked.

She shook her head, no. As if she might be more of a homebody than him.

"So where were you?" He wanted to know.

"Colorado."

"Colorado?" Frankie looked at her intently. "I guess it's busy there."

"I wouldn't know," she sighed. She'd lived in a camp trailer in the woods.

"Did you like it?" Frankie winced thinking she should sit down so he sat down on the couch and made a spot for her.

"Not all the time," she said she was helping with research on bugs in the forest.

To him, she might as well have lived in a prison camp. He couldn't think of anything more dreadful than studying bugs, but someone had to do it.

"I hope you got paid well," Frankie said.

She shook her head no. She told him about her walk back to civilization.

Frankie was impressed and yet he felt sad for Hope. Why in the world had she gone on a journey like this?