Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
FRANKIE
W e weren’t even a full month into senior year and everything seemed to be upside down.
I had a boyfriend who was taking a step back to let me explore things with my best friends.
The same best friends who’d made me untouchable in the first place.
They’d chased off anyone interested because they thought I wasn’t interested in dating.
No matter how I twisted the thought, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. How had I missed them asking me out? Archie said all the times we went to mini-golf, but we’d literally gone dozens of times with and without the guys.
Bubba said he wanted me to keep my options open and he’d made a point to ask me to homecoming, quiet, and low-key so I wasn’t embarrassed. Even Archie—the one I would have guessed at definitely going over the top but he’d kept it pretty normal.
I had to wonder how that had killed him to not go the extra mile.
Then Archie had been the one to tackle all the staring at the party and asking me to dance.
He’d had my back. It was almost like old times, if you didn’t count the fact that Jake was the one who’d put me in the fire in the first place.
Instead of driving home, I drove out toward the lake just listening to music and trying to figure out where my head even was.
For once, I was relieved that there was no Coop at the car and no one in the passenger seat.
There had been no rose either, no the sender had taken to putting them in my locker now.
Someone knew my combination which made me suspect the guys even more, but you’d think if it was them, they’d have totally owned up to it. Yet, they hadn’t. When Spotify hit the latest Torched release, I turned it up.
I had four invitations to Homecoming, none of which were from my boyfriend.
At a traffic light, I beat my palm against the steering wheel.
None of this was fair. Who did I say yes to?
Which one? Or none? Because if I said yes to any one of them, the others would get hurt.
Now that the dating genie was out of the bottle, it brought more than my wishes to come true.
The urge to scream was right there. An hour later with no easy answers, I swung back by the apartment to feed the cats, then finally opened our group chat. It had been wildly quiet all summer, because I’d muted it so I wouldn’t be notified if they were talking.
Scrolling back, I could see a few messages. But right around the time they stopped talking in the group, they’d still be sending me individual messages and I’d just ghosted on all of them. All the outrage and justification I’d ridden on through the summer seemed to evaporate.
Tiddles wound around my right leg, his tail dragging as he purred.
I crouched to pet him as I debated what to send.
There really wasn’t an easy way to do this.
They’d all asked, even Jake, though his had also included an apology.
Coop asked me to trust him, but even if I already had plans, he just wanted to be there.
God, I missed them all so damn much.
Me: I know you guys are probably busy, but can we talk?
I rose to grab a can of Coke from the fridge. I hadn’t even cracked it open when my phone vibrated madly.
Archie: On the phone? Via text? Zoom? Or you want to come over? We can meet somewhere too. Hell, I can come there.
Coop : I can be at your place in five, I just got home. But what Archie said.
Bubba: I’m game for wherever. I was just working on homework.
Jake: I’m down. Time? Place?
A knock on my front door came hot on the heels of that last comment. I set the can aside as three little dots appeared to show someone was typing something. One glance through the peephole showed it was Coop.
I unlocked the door before opening it, letting him in along with a wash of sultry, sticky air. Ugh. He studied me with his gray-green gaze, his focus intent. “You okay?” He nudged me back before closing the door and relocking it. Then I had all of his attention.
“I’m—” I had no real answer for this. Was I okay? My phone vibrated in my hand.
Archie : You know, why don’t you guys just come here. I can get pizza ordered or Chinese or just about anything you want. We can lock ourselves in the game room for privacy. Edward and Muriel aren’t here so we have the place to ourselves.
I never thought I’d say this, but I was sick of pizza.
Bubba: I can be there in thirty. Mom just asked me to do a couple of things.
Jake: I can head out now, if you want. But I can skip if you’d rather I didn’t.
The last line from Jake wrenched my heart painfully. Almost too painfully. How had we managed to get to this spot?
Coop: Shut it for five guys, let me talk to her.
I blinked, then let out a wet laugh before shooting a look up at Coop. “That wasn’t subtle.”
“I didn’t need it to be subtle. Now, are you okay?” When he cupped my cheek, I wanted to lean into the contact. It was both oddly intimate and yet wildly familiar. This was Coop…
“Mathieu isn’t going to ask me to Homecoming.” The words sort of just fell out of me. “I told him that you guys asked me, but I wanted to know if he was going to and he said no.”
Coop’s eyes narrowed as he wiped away a tear that escaped from my watery eyes with a gentle thumb. “Do I need to kick his ass?”
A hollow, if wet laugh escaped me. “No, I mean—no.” I shook my head. “He wasn’t being mean. He isn’t even breaking up with me, but he wants me to figure out what I want.”
“So, you ask him if he’s going to ask you, which is kind of like you asking him and he says no ,” Coop said slowly as if feeling his way through the situation verbally. “And you don’t need me to kick his ass—question mark.”
The fact he didn’t sound certain about whether he was stating it or asking again made me smile.
“No, you don’t need to. He isn’t being mean.
I promise.” I drew back and swallowed around the lump in my throat before I shoved the phone into my back pocket.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I tried to chase the tears away,
I hated crying.
“No. We’re not breaking up. Or at least, he isn’t. He likes what we have—which is pretty undefined at the moment so—” I spread my arms. “Whatever. I like him too. He’s—he’s a good guy.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Coop said easily and when I frowned at him, he spread his own arms. “I said I’d take your word for it. I don’t know him, Frankie. I’m never going to think anyone is good enough for you. Hell, we aren’t good enough for you.”
I must have gawked at him, because my mouth dropped open, then I snapped it shut. Shaking my head, I tried to ignore the vibrating phone in my pocket. “You’re such an idiot.”
“Sometimes,” he said, almost agreeably before he typed something into the phone.
“Be nice to them, I started this conversation.”
“I’m always nice,” he quipped, then paused a beat to meet my gaze. “Fine, I’m nice most of the time. What do you want to eat? Because Archie is about to order takeout from five different places if we don’t tell him.”
Exasperation underscored every single word as did the roll of his eyes that he punctuated the whole sentence with.
“He does that…”
“Yes, I know. It’s how he tries to fix things. First, are we going over there? Second, are you hungry? Third, what are you hungry for? And lastly, are you sure I can’t go kick Fren—Mathieu’s ass for you? Maybe he needs it more than you know?”
“Yes. Yes. Chinese. Moo Goo Gai Pan. And no, you might need to kick his ass, but Mathieu doesn’t.”
His long-suffering sigh made me smile again. My emotions were just all over the damn place.
“I’m going to wash my face real quick.” The last thing I needed to do was show up at Archie’s with red eyes or looking like I’d been crying. Not everyone would listen to me. Hell, I wasn’t even sure Coop would totally listen at the moment.
One step from the bathroom, the date hit me and I groaned. “Coop?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you ask Archie to order ice cream too?”
“Chocolate?”
“Or mint chocolate chip—no—both. Wait. Those and strawberry.” That all sounded so good.
“I’m telling him to make sure he gets the works for sundaes.”
“Yes!” I almost fist pumped then I hurried through washing my face. PMS sucked. Periods sucked too. But whenever I stressed, PMS just made it a thousand percent worse.
I was tempted to pull out my phone and check the messages, but I needed to get it all together before we left. ‘Cause I had to talk to Coop on the way there. I hesitated—maybe I should wait until we were there.
Better to talk to them all at once? Yes, I could practice with Coop. But that wasn’t really fair to the rest of them. Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back. Maybe dating was just a bad idea. Why did all of this have to be so hard?
“Done. I said we’d be there in thirty, and it only takes fifteen to get there, so we have some time.” Coop was right outside the open bathroom door.
Turning put me face to face with him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” In his short-sleeved dark gray t-shirt and dark cut-off sweatpants that he’d turned into shorts the summer before last because he shot up like six inches and they were too short. He was also bare foot.
“You forgot your shoes.”
“I’ll grab them before we go,” he said with a shrug. “You want to come out here and talk to me now?”
“Not really.” I twisted my lips, before I cleared my throat.
“Because…?” He prompted in that easy, coaxing tone that could usually convince me to tell him what I’d gotten him for Christmas or his birthday or just about anything even when I was trying to keep it a secret.
“Because, it involves all of us. Or at least me with each of you and talking to you first might give you an unfair advantage.”
“I’m good with unfair advantages.” His smirk was almost adorable.
“However, I will make the great sacrifice of saying, I’m asking as your best friend and not as the guy who wants to date you.
Or the guy who asked you to go to Homecoming.
If you’ll recall, I also said even if you picked someone else, I just wanted to be there for you. ”
He had said that.
“At the risk of shooting myself in the foot, you’ve had to listen to me bitch about relationship drama and stuff before. I’m offering to do that for you now, and I give you my word that what you tell me stays between us and I won’t use even an iota of it in my campaign to win.”
“You do, huh?” There was something utterly captivating in how direct he was being.
“Hey, for you? I can do anything.” He checked his watch. “We have ten minutes, Frankie. What do you want to do?”