Learning Phillip - 2. Chapter 2

"What? My old guitar?" my mom said while watering the plants.

"Yup, I just thought it is time to put it to good use, mom," I pleaded with puppy eyes.

"Okay, I can’t see why not, I’ll just look for it in a while, but you had better cook a pizza tonight honey, or else…"

"Yup, I’ll start right now, you’ll love it!"

I rushed into the kitchen once again, I loved cooking, especially pizza. It took about five minutes to make the pizza dough. Just three cups of flour with salt and oil, mixed with a teaspoon of yeast and some warm water, and that was it, ready to go.

After that, I decided to cook the sausage. I got tomato sauce and some garlic, but I didn't have any onion, and that was a very important part.

"Gotta buy some onions mom, I’ll be right back!" I shouted over to my mother, who was in our back garden.

"Okay honey, you got some money? " she shouted back.

"Yep, I have enough," I answered while opening the front door.

As I stepped out of the house and closed the door, I noticed someone running across the street. He had short blond locks that were swaying really fast, and even though I couldn’t really see him all that good, he seemed to be a cutie. A tall guy was calling after him.

"Hey, Brun, come here right now! I haven’t finished with you!" he shouted while running.

It seemed that this Brun guy didn’t want to obey, because he just kept running and soon turned around a corner to the right, so after a second they had both gone out of view.

Weird.

Anyway, I decided to hurry up so I could finish the pizza and start practicing with the guitar. The grocery store was just three blocks away, so five minutes after I left my house, I arrived at the place.

It was a pretty old building, and it had just one floor. Its outer walls were starting to get a little mossy, so the crimson color was just getting darker.

"Hello, Ms. Oakwood," I greeted as I went in.

"Oh… wow, hi Frankie, or should I say Frank? You are growing up so fast!" she said surprised.

"Thanks, Ms. O, so how is your daughter doing?"

"She’s great, starting her first school year."

"Wow, she grew up so fast! "

"Haha! You never change Frank," she giggled, "so what brought you here, honey? "

"A pizza, but for that I need some onions…"

"Oh, we have some of those over here," she said, offering to walk me to the green grocery. I followed.

We went over to a side of the store, in which there was a big fridge full of greens. Every color was used there by at least one vegetable or one fruit, it was like a rainbow. Ms. Oakwood handed me a plastic bag and pointed to the onions.

"There you are."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome, honey, you’ve always been," she said, looking lost in her thoughts. At that moment, we heard the store’s door open wide, and a voice came in.

"Hello, are you in here, Ms. Oakwood?" the male voice said. It was husky and had a noticeable accent, the voice seemed to belong to a middle aged man.

"Yes, I’m coming," Ms Oakwood stated loudly. After that she asked me, "Honey, you think you can handle yourself from here?"

"Of course, I’ll just grab some onions. "

"Great," the old lady said while walking towards the front door.

After I picked some onions and put them in the bag, I walked back to the front of the store. In front of me, the guy was talking to Ms. Oakwood. He was taller than me and had short brown hair, which contrasted with his green eyes.

I didn’t know why, but he reminded me of Phillip. They didn’t even have the same eye color, but I thought that they shared a kind of aura or something like that. Call me obsessed, maybe I am.

"Yes, maybe my son and I can help you paint those walls, I only have to convince him now," the guy said as I was approaching.

"Thank you, I really appreciate that, but right now I can’t afford to pay you, I barely have enough to buy the paint," Ms Oakwood said shyly.

"Don’t worry, we can do it for free, I’ll convince my son to bring some friends with him, it’ll be a fun afternoon!"

"Oh, Frank! There you are, I want you to meet Mr. Reed," the lady said.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir," I stated, extending my hand so he could shake it.

"It’s nice to meet you too, son" Mr. Reed shook my hand. "How old are you?"

"I’m 15, sir."

"Oh, just like my son, he’s 15 too" he smiled.

"Great, so, Frank, you could also come by and help with the painting, what do you say?" Ms. Oakwood interrupted.

"It would be great! I’m in!"

"Fantastic! I’ll see you both soon, take care!" Mr. Reed waved at us.

"Good bye, Mr. Reed!" Ms. Oakwood waved back. "So Frank, is that all you need?"

"Yes ma’am, here you are," I said, handing her the money. "It’s fine. Keep the change."

"Well, thank you, Frank. I will see you soon."

"Bye!" We waved to each other.

As I stepped out of the grocery store, I noticed three guys that were fighting one block away from me. It seemed like one man was caught between a blonde guy and a guy dressed all in black, which made my heart jump in fear for the other guy. I started running towards them.

"Leave him alone! Right now!" I heard someone shouting.

"Get the hell out of my way, old man! This is none of your business!" The guy in black shouted.

"Please, just leave me alone, I did nothing to hurt you!" The blonde guy cried desperately, pulling out of the guy in black's grip.

"You fucking faggot, come here and we’ll do it quick, there’s no need for anybody else getting hurt! You don’t want to be the cause of another death, now do you?" As the dark guy talked, he pulled a knife.

At that moment, I realized that this ‘old man’ was the guy to whom I had spoken at the store, Reed. And the other two… were the ones that had been running down my street, what was the blonde’s name? Brun?

While I was distracted thinking, some other words seemed to be spoken, so I focused once again in that conversation. As I did, I saw the blond guy named Brun running towards me, and the dark guy stabbing Mr. Reed twice.

While my brain was totally paralyzed because of what I had just seen, it took me a moment to decide what to do. I didn't have time to worry about Brun right now, as Mr. Reed was bleeding on the street. I began to rush towards Reed. I bumped into the assailant, who was chasing after Brun. He didn’t stop, he just shouted something incomprehensible and kept running. "Mr. Reed, how are you?" I said as I approached him.

"Oh god! It hurts!" he said with an agonized look in his face.

"Don’t worry, you’ll be fine," I told him calmly and then I shouted, "Ms. Oakwood, someone! Please call an ambulance!"

"Ah! They’re deep, aren’t they?" he asked.

"Let me see…" I knelt over his side and ripped apart his shirt. Oh God, even though the wound wasn’t that bad, the sight of blood made me feel dizzy. I couldn’t show that to Mr. Reed, so after I stared at his wound for a few seconds, I said, "Nah, it’s not a big deal, but I’ll have to stop the bleeding now, it may be a little painful," I warned him.

"Okay, I’m ready."

Luckily, the wounds were in Reed’s arm, so I had better access to it. I started pressing against his injury, but the blood was still coming, so I guided Mr. Reed's hand to his arm and told him to keep the pressure as I did it to the other puncture wound.

"I’ve already called an ambulance and the cops, is there anything else I can do to help, Frank?" Ms. Oakwood asked nervously.

"Yes, you can talk to him about something else, like the weather or some sport, have him focus on you, make him talk. "

I focused once again on the arm. The blood was crimson and Mr. Reed was pale. That’s when Mr. Reed spoke.

"Ms. Oakwood, could you please take the phone that’s on the ground and call my family? Tell them what happened," he said with a very husky voice.

"Of course I will." Ms Oakwood gave me an inquisitive look, so I nodded. She went to use the phone.

After a minute or so, we heard the ambulance coming. The paramedics took over with a nod, so I just stepped aside.

"Dad! What happened?" I heard his voice, god it was gorgeous, it made me forget all the blood.

"Phil?" I asked turning around. There he was standing with a very worried look in his face, staring at the paramedics loading his father on a stretcher. Even like that he was awesome, his hair was really messed up, but it looked kind of sexy on him, you know?

His mother was crying next to him, holding him back out of the way of the paramedics. The police arrived a minute later.

It took a second for Phil to drag his eyes from his father. When those eyes caught mine, I felt my heart jump at the pained look in them.

"Frank?" he looked bewildered by my presence.

"Is Mr. Reed your dad?" I asked.

He was nodding absently, his eyes wide as he stared at his father. His mother was now talking to one of the police officers, worriedly wringing her hands.

"I'm sorry about your dad," I said. "But I'm sure he'll be okay."

"What happened?" he croaked.

"I think he tried to stop someone from getting robbed," I mumbled, worried now about the guy who had been chased by the assailant with the knife.

An officer approached me. "Son, we need you to tell us what you saw."

I nodded, turning away from the amazingly gorgeous eyes of Phil. His mom called him a second later and he rushed off to be with her, probably to follow his father to the hospital. I quickly relayed everything I remembered to the police officer.

It seemed like forever, but finally I was able to go home. Mom was panicked by how long I was gone, and all the blood on me when I showed up. But I shakily told her everything, calming myself by focusing on making the pizza.

As I turned to set the table, I saw mom had found the old guitar. It was sitting up against the wall, as if waiting for me to pick it up.

It was a very old one, probably like 40 years. It was a very dark brown one and had some scratches, but seemed to be well preserved. Although the strings were old, I could get them changed soon.

Great, I have the guitar, now I only need to convince…