#* by ade

Digging Deeper.

THIS BIO CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING TRIGGERS : injury

frankie’s the youngest of four boys, who considers himself to be the black sheep of the family—and to be fair, nobody has ever made the effort to convince him otherwise. he’s fully aware that he ended up disappointing every single one of his parents’ expectations with where his life is at right now and most of the time, he thinks he’s over it. frankie’s mom and dad are both retired doctors, his three older brothers all made big careers for themselves, doctor, lawyer, banker—there’s one of each, out there in the big cities, with wives and kids and things to be proud of. frankie was gonna go ahead and aim high too—maybe he wasn’t all that book smart at school but he was the star quarterback who won their team a fair share of games, which got him a football scholarship in california. it was going to be his ticket out of intercept, something he’d dreamt of for the longest time. there was pressure at home, to be perfect and deep down frankie knew he was not gonna fit whatever the hell his mom and dad had in mind for him. leaving meant freedom to do as he pleased and once the scholarship was secured, graduation couldn’t come soon enough

he got into UCLA, didn’t declare a major at first, toyed around with the idea of social sciences or psychology but held back with making a firm decision. football became his main focus—it’s why he was there after all. he was at practice or the gym practically 24/7, doing the best he could because the plan was, for the longest time, to go pro. maybe he wasn’t going to be like his brothers but he was going to make a name for himself. he had the talent, the drive and playing made him happy—frankie just needed his mom and dad to see it

about five months into his first semester, frankie suffered a shoulder injury but instead of letting it heal properly, he played through the pain and left the recovery for later. every now and again the injury flared up and reminded frankie to take it easy, which he wouldn’t do but because his body was still young, he bounced back easily most of the time. months passed, frankie finally declared social sciences as his major, mostly because he didn’t have any better ideas, and he kept playing as if his life depended on it. he kept winning and kept ignoring his shoulder which ended up coming back to bite him in the ass—it was one of his last few games before graduation, he was already on the verge of being signed to san francisco 49ers, when he got tackled so hard he passed out. a couple hours and a surgery later, it was clear that he was not going to be playing for a while. disappointed and bitter, he came back to new mexico, moved back in with parents and begrudgingly began his recovery

it was hell on earth, being back home—ever since leaving, the only times he saw himself coming back was for the holidays but now he was here, for however long it was going to take him to get better. frankie took it easy for once, took his time to rest, rehab, there was another surgery down the line, more rehab; time was flying but things were not looking up, he was still in too much pain and after a couple of consults with the best sports medicine specialists, courtesy of his parents’ connections, frankie got the sentence—he was probably never going to fully recover from his injury. maybe, hopefully, he would be able to go back to football later down the line but definitely not at professional level. the news sent frankie spiraling—that was his future down the drain 

it took frankie ages to figure out what to do after all that; he spent months angry and disappointed, floating around doing pretty much nothing. what finally made frankie do something with his life was pressure from his parents but that worked in the opposite direction of what they’d probably anticipated. what they wanted frankie to do was to go back to college—his accident happened a couple months shy of graduation so technically he never finished school and if he couldn’t play, then at least he should have the degree. frankie wasn’t really interested in that—after having his dreams crushed, finishing college was the last thing on his mind. and that was how frankie’s long chain of part-time jobs started—no business in intercept was safe. he waited tables, worked the kitchen, cleaned the school, worked five different jobs at astroland, helped out at the radio station, you name it. it was a point of tension at home—frankie’s mom and dad were furious that their baby wasn’t doing anything quote-unquote serious with his life. when the fights became too much hassle, he moved out and got his own place, much to his mother’s dismay. there was a level of control while he still lived at home and after the move, he was once again free to do as he pleased, just had to deal with weekly passive-aggressive phone calls. maybe it wasn’t the original plan but eventually, frankie settled into his life with a sense of peace and, dare he say it, fulfillment. for the most part, at least. he has friends, a roof over his head, his two jobs keep money coming and sure, he misses playing and often wonders how much better his life would be if he never had to come back but most of the time, the good outweighs the bad. things could always be better, different, frankie just needs to make peace with that. or he could still leave—seems like more and more people do it these days.

Extras.