Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
FRANKIE
T he sudden crash of their attention hit me like a hammer striking a gong. The vibrations of it rattled through to my bones. Mathieu gave my hand a squeeze. Or maybe that was me digging my fingers into him.
Over the years, plenty of their girlfriends had joined us at the table in the morning. They’d come and they’d gone. In all that time, not once had I brought someone to the table. All the irritation fueling my courage seemed to fall away as Jake’s brow tightened and Archie sat forward.
I let my gaze skip from one to the other. Finally, I settled on Bubba, because he didn’t seem as intense as the others. Sucking in a deep breath and determined to fake it until I made it, I summoned up a smile and pressed onward.
“Wanted to introduce you guys to my boyfriend, this is Mathieu?—”
“Your what now?” Jake interrupted.
“Boyfriend,” Coop answered. “He’s a dude. And her friend. Ergo, boyfriend.”
I didn’t roll my eyes because that was almost helpful. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Coop dragged out a chair. “Archie got coffee. Didn’t get anything for the boyfriend we didn’t know you had.”
Okay, so much for being helpful.
Jake stood and circled the table and I had to fight the urge to step right between. Jake and Bubba were both football players, tall, broad-shouldered, and over the past couple of years, they’d both put on a lot of muscle.
“Jake Benton,” he said in a tone that didn’t remotely offer friendship. “When did you meet Frankie and where?”
“Over the summer,” Mathieu answered easily. “And actually, we met in San Antonio briefly then I found out she lived here. We ended up talking and I am very glad for it. She’s wonderful.”
Mathieu gave my hand another squeeze then he offered his hand to Jake. All the air backed up in my lungs. Hostility rolled off Jake in waves and his ice blue eyes were chilly. He finally took Mathieu’s hand, but the greeting was brief.
Bubba rose and shouldered Jake gently. If nothing else, it made Jake let go of Mathieu.
“Ian Rhys,” Bubba said. “Friends call me Bubba though.”
“Frankie told me,” Mathieu said easily as he shook Bubba’s hand. “Would you prefer I not? As we do not know each other yet?”
Surprise flickered over Coop’s face before he caught me looking and then his whole expression shut down. Jake snagged my backpack and tugged it down my arm.
“You should sit,” he said, half pulling me away from Mathieu before I’d even realized what he was doing.
“Nah,” Bubba said. “Bubba is fine. Probably wouldn’t answer anything else.”
I was on the other side of the table and Bubba had Mathieu cut off as Coop pushed out a chair on their side. “Matty can sit with me.”
“Guys…”
I didn’t get to say more than that because Archie stood up abruptly and hooked his arm through mine. “Frankie needs a minute. In fact, Frankie needs five minutes. You guys entertain Frenchy. We’ll be back.”
“Hey—”
“Maybe.” Then Archie tugged me away from the table even as he offered me one of the coffee cups.
My options were limited considering half the cafeteria was watching us. The hum of conversation had dropped significantly since Mathieu and I walked in. My stomach bottomed out and sweat prickled over my skin.
The last thing I wanted was to be the subject of more gossip at the school. The untouchable badge was humiliating enough.
“I’ll be right back,” I said over my shoulder as Archie started walking. Mathieu frowned but Bubba cut off his line of sight. The only one not staring at him was Coop, who stared after me and Archie.
Archie, who didn’t slow down until we were out of the cafeteria and the door closed behind us, cutting off the noise. Then he pivoted and stared at me.
The glare in his brown eyes gave me pause. More, the hard slash of his mouth and absolute anger that seemed to be floating off him in waves.
I tugged my arm free of him and backed up a step. That just seemed to piss him off more and I lifted my chin. “Problem?”
It was like waving a red flag at a bull. Maybe I should have expected it. A part of me did expect the anger and the irritation—from Jake. Maybe from Coop. They always got bitchy about new people—guys now that I thought about it.
But Archie? He’d always been the most relaxed.
He’d also been the one with the most girlfriends too. They never stuck around for long. He didn’t seem to be that interested in them, or if he was, the interest waned fast.
“You’re way too smart to ask such a stupid question.” He practically ground out the words like they needed to be turned to grit between his teeth. “Who the fuck is Frenchy?”
“I introduced him. I would have given you a last name, but you guys got a bit dramatic.”
That was underselling it.
Archie’s hands twitched like he was going to reach out to me, then he folded his arms. “Frankie…”
“Don’t you Frankie me. I have a boyfriend. Shouldn’t be a big deal. If it is, he and I can sit somewhere else.”
He blew out an explosive breath. “It is a big deal.”
“Why?” I raised my brows as I stared at him. “You guys date like you’re eating potato chips. Can’t just have one. Always going back for more. I finally get a date, and a guy who likes me, and suddenly it’s a problem?”
I swore I could hear the clack of his teeth as they snapped together. “Not the point. First day of the school year is about us?—”
“It used to be.” The words slipped out before I could pull them back. Maybe it was the fact he’d dragged me out here and we were alone. Maybe it was his proprietary tone. Maybe it was the fact that guilt was actually scrabbling around inside of me and I refused to feel guilty.
“It used to be?” Archie asked, his voice going deadly quiet and he narrowed the distance between us until he loomed over me. “What the hell does that mean?”
I held his gaze and didn’t retreat. “It means that we’ve done things your way—all of your ways for years. You called the shots. You got to set the tone. You dated. You got laid. You brought your rotating door of girlfriends to hang out and I’ve been supportive every single step of the way.”
Anger flooded me, chasing away even the vaguest sense of unease. Anger and hurt. I jabbed his chest with my finger once for each of the past six words.
“I listened to your complaints. I helped you pick out presents. I warned you when they were taking things more seriously than you thought. And I was there for you. How did you guys repay me?”
“By protecting you and being your friend?” The rawness in his tone took me aback.
“You want an apology for that ? You can forget it. You don’t get to just spend the whole summer ignoring us, treating us like crap, then waltzing back in here with some stranger—who you can’t possibly know what he wants from you—then think we’re going to be okay with it. ”
“Sucks when you turn out to be wrong about the person you thought had your back.” I needed to defuse the situation. Some rational part of my brain made list after list of why I should.
But the rest of me? The part that cried herself to sleep the night after Rachel told me what they’d done? The part that watched for it in the days that followed and realized how much she’d underplayed it? The me who went to the spring dance by herself when all four of those assholes took a date?
That part of me? Yeah, that part wanted to slap him upside the head.
“Frankie, this isn’t you…” Archie said.
“Of course it’s me. It’s the me you don’t get to control anymore. It’s the me who dates who she wants when she wants and does with him what she wants.”
He jerked back.
“Yeah, not so untouchable now. Not anymore. You four think you’re so clever—chasing off anyone who wanted to ask me out. Making me feel like no one could possibly be interested in me, all the while, I’m there thinking you guys are my best friends. When you were anything but?—”
“That’s bullshit,” he snapped. “We’ve always been your friends. That will never change and I don’t know who put that shit in your?—”
“Did you guys warn off anyone who wanted to ask me out?”
“That’s not the point,” he said, waving his hand as if to dismiss it.
“Oh it’s very much the point. Matt Tanner. Jason Martin. Barney Jackson.”
The recognition in his eyes as I ticked off the list of names. Matt and I had been friends for about fifteen minutes in sophomore year. Then one day, he went out of his way to avoid me and never looked back.
Jason Martin and Barney Jackson had both been guys that seemed interested for a minute. I’d been tutoring Jason, but then he quit that and Barney changed classes to get away from me. I’d always thought I had done something wrong.
“Yeah, see—I know what you did. Rachel told me.”
That actually made him back up a step.
“She told me why no one would ever ask me out. Why I’d never have a date to a dance or to a party or anything else.
” I fought the sudden surge of hot tears to my eyes.
“You guys were supposed to be my best friends and the whole time—you were sabotaging me. So no more. Mathieu? He’s my boyfriend. Get used to it.”
Tears threatened to fall and I pivoted on my heel and stalked back inside. I was so angry that I dropped the coffee in the trash. A crime. But my stomach hurt at the thought of drinking it.
It felt like the whole damn cafeteria stared at me as I made my way back to Mathieu. His eyes darkened with worry so I forced a smile to my lips.
“How about we go check out the library,” I suggested as I snagged my backpack. I’d really had enough of the guys
“As you wish,” Mathieu said, then glanced past me. His expression tightened, but he just wrapped an arm around my shoulders after I grabbed my backpack. We left the cafeteria via a different door. I had no idea if Archie was still in the hall.
I didn’t really want to run into him right now, but the weight of three particular stares seemed to burn between my shoulder blades.
Misery made for poor company, but I’d almost found a way to stifle the tears by the time we got to the library.
Almost.