Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
FRANKIE
L eaving Mathieu was harder for me than for him.
I didn’t make a big production out of it.
He was excited about his semester here in an American high school.
It was one of the things we’d bonded on over the summer.
As I watched him walk down the hall, it was a reminder all over again about the clock on our relationship.
When winter break came, he would be flying back to France and to his family. I rubbed a spot on my breast bone where my heart seemed intent on punching its way through. I slipped through the door of my first period class and dropped into a seat near the back.
Archie followed me right through the door and grabbed the desk next to me. I could practically feel him staring at me, but I didn’t want to meet his gaze. I made it through most of the class not focusing on Archie but when the bell rang, he blocked my path.
“Lunch?”
I stared at him.
“I have to get to class.”
“So do I,” he countered, then snagged my book bag before I could. “I’ll walk you there and you can have all that time to say yes.”
I rolled my eyes as he set off with my bag.
Dammit.
I hurried after him. “Archie…”
“Hey look,” he said, a slow grin on his lips. “You remembered my name.”
“Don’t be an ass,” I grumbled, refusing to laugh at the smart-ass tone. It was so Archie.
“Can’t help it, babe,” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “I was born to be an ass.”
I snorted, about to protest again when I realized he was heading on a direct route for my next class. “Coop gave you my schedule.”
“I’ll never reveal my sources.” His smirk, however, was one hundred percent Archie. I wanted to punch and hug him in the same moment. “Now,” he said when we were at the classroom door. “Lunch?”
“No promises.” I took my bag from him. “I want to see how Mathieu is doing and it’s his first day.”
A muscle twitched in Archie’s jaw. “Bring him with.”
After this morning? “Are you serious right now?”
“Yes,” he said, locking his gaze on mine. “Say yes, Frankie.”
“How about I’ll think about it?”
“That’s yes,” he murmured, releasing the bag and when I raised my brows, his grin grew. “It’s yes, but you’re not letting me off the hook. See you at lunch.”
He strode off before I could say anything and I stared after him. What the hell had gotten into him? Into all of them? Had they always been so…
“Hey,” Bubba said and I swallowed my irritation to pivot and face him. He really was the only one I’d had any kind of conversation with over the summer. Even if dropping into his birthday party at Archie’s place had reminded me why I’d been so angry with them and their double-standard.
“Hey.”
“I saved you a seat.” He motioned for me to go ahead of him and sure enough, he had parked some of his stuff on the desk next to him. “Thanks for being in the class still. Not sure I’ll make it through without you.”
Right. We’d discussed doing this together last spring. Before…
“Sure,” I said with far more cheer than I was feeling. Archie’s behavior had always been…over the top but this felt different. He was mad. No matter how he tried to cover it.
Math blew past us and I caught Bubba’s grimace at the homework. Thankfully, he didn’t kidnap my backpack or follow me to my next class. It was French. Madame was one of my favorite teachers, but Mathieu was also in it and to my absolute delight, serving as the TA.
The warmth of his smile boosted my mood and chased away some of the grief from earlier. It even helped when Rachel Manning claimed the desk on my other side. She was so—relaxed.
Considering how abrasive she could be, we had a kind of like-hate relationship. That same bluntness, however, had opened my eyes and… “Hey Rach,” I said by way of greeting as I sat down.
“Bonjour,” she replied in the most Texan way possible, horrible accent and all. I cracked up and some of the tension choking me all day evaporated.
I got a couple of minutes with Mathieu after class. “Archie has invited us to lunch with the guys. We don’t have to join them…”
“Of course not. Madame, however, and a couple of the other French teachers have asked me to join them for lunch. I believe they want to talk about France and more. I can change it…”
Okay, I was a little jealous. I never got invited to lunch with the teachers. Except, it would give me time alone to deal with the boys and maybe that would be better. Fighting with them was hard enough. Fighting with them in front of Mathieu was worse
“Don’t. Getting to know them is important too,” I told him. “And I have work this week. So, I know we’re both going to be busy at times.” I’d already given him my schedule. “But I can share you with others.”
He chuckled, flicking a glance around before he dropped a kiss on my lips. A sigh went through me. PDAs were not always okay in the halls, but none of the teachers were looking our way.
With a caress of his fingers, he nodded. “If you want to avoid them some more, you can come to lunch with me.”
I did want to avoid them, but I also wanted to solve all of this. Somehow.
“Merci,” I whispered.
Then we had to part because I had to get AP Lit and there was Coop. Like Archie and Bubba before him—and Rachel for that matter—he claimed the desk next to mine.
Our very first assignment required partners, he smirked at me. We ended up spending the class arguing about the summer reading. It was almost fun. Somewhere between books, movies, and books that became movies, I relaxed.
This was Coop, and we had been friends practically our whole lives. I could be pissed at him for being a dick and still enjoy him being him.
“Yo,” Coop said as he caught my arm when I started to follow the flow of students toward the cafeteria. “Not that way.”
I hadn’t answered Archie yet, even if I did plan to have lunch with them. Coop, it seemed, had either gotten a different memo or decided to make the decision for me.
“We’re not eating lunch?” Yes, I played dumb while I let him drag me through the flow of traffic. The benefit to his height and laconic manner was most people did get out of his way.
“We’re eating lunch,” he said.
“Cooper!” Laura Zaverman—his girlfriend— appeared in front of us. She hooked her arm through Coop’s free one. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Yeah?” He barely glanced at her. “Don’t have time right now, Laur. Maybe later.”
“But it’s lunch…”
“Exactly.” He extracted himself from her grasp even as he kept a firm grip on me.
What did he think I was going to do? Vanish into the flow of the crowd?
Half-turned, but still moving, Coop pivoted to give Laura a once over.
The weight of those piercing gray-green eyes was impossible to deny, and Laura straightened, her chin and chest lifting.
Definitely not a coincidence. “See you later.”
He didn’t wait for her response, just tugged me to keep walking.
Laura’s gaze skipped from Coop to me. A part of me wanted to apologize because Coop was an idiot.
The rest of me just shrugged. Coop was also Coop.
If Laura wanted to swap spit with him, she should get used to it.
He did what he did on his schedule and no one else’s.
I knew that better than anyone else.
Then we were out in the blistering sunshine and I pulled away so I could get my sunglasses out. It was an oven outside, the heat rising in merciless waves from the pavement. I’d kill for a hat.
“Keep up.” Coop produced his own sunglasses and tucked them into place. The hot breeze rifled his hair as he led the way toward the parking lot.
“Let’s go,” Jake yelled as soon as we rounded the corner. He stood on the running board of the driver’s side of his sunshine yellow SUV. The thing was just so bright. He’d gotten it at the end of our junior year when he bootstrapped his class placement to the top ten percent.
“I take it we’re going off campus for lunch.” Yep, I was testy. Archie had invited Mathieu, told me to bring him, but here was Coop hustling me out of the school without asking and before I even answered Archie.
Archie already sat in the front passenger seat and Bubba had the backseat. Coop herded me into the middle between him and Bubba. I hated the middle, and he damn well knew it. The seat cushion there was not comfortable, but I stripped out of my backpack.
Bubba snagged it from me to drop it into the rear with theirs before I settled. Coop’s backpack followed. No sooner did Coop close his door than Jake settled in the driver’s seat, seatbelt on, and eased the SUV into motion.
Getting out of the parking lot was a pain in the ass, but if we went out by the football stadium, we could slip out a far less used entrance.
Bubba stretched his arm along the back of the seat, and the lack of space left me sandwiched between him and Coop. Leaning forward, I said, “Turn up the A/C?” Even with me in shorts, being sandwiched between the guys was going to roast me back here.
As Jake turned it up, his phone rang. He just hit ignore as Maria’s name popped up on the dash.
Jake and Maria. Archie and Patty, Bubba and Sharon, Coop and Laura. “Are you guys playing hooky from the girlfriends?”
That might actually explain the high-handed behavior.
“Broke up,” Archie said over his shoulder.
“Not dating,” Bubba said, his eyes still closed as he tipped his head back. Why the hell was he so tired today?
“Not my girlfriend,” Jake said with a flick of his fingers.
Coop, however, said nothing. When I glanced at him, he made a face.
Yeah. Really, what could he say? We’d run into her in the hall.
Five minutes later, we slid into the parking lot at Blaze’s. The pizza place was a longtime favorite of ours. I snagged my backpack on the way out of the car and Coop said, “You can leave it, it’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, but I brought my lunch.”
“We’re having pizza.” Jake tugged the backpack out of my grasp and slid it back in the car. “My treat. You skipped the pizza party in June, so now we’re making up for it.”
I hated when they paid for me. But Bubba and Archie had already vanished inside, and Coop gave me his smug, I-know-something-you-don’t look.
We had so much else to argue about. I let this go. “Thanks, Jake.”
“You’re welcome, Frankie.” He winked then shoulder-checked Coop as we passed him. Inside, the restaurant was darker, so it took a minute for my eyes to adjust. The smell of pizza hit me from everywhere. My stomach let out a growl.
Right behind me in line, Jake loaded his plate. We grabbed cups when we got to the register. He paid, and I waited a beat for him, then we got our drinks and went in search of the guys. They’d claimed a rear table with Coop following right behind us.
“Congratulations to us for having made it to senior year. Only one-hundred eighty days left until we graduate,” Archie said. He toasted us with his soda and I wanted to laugh.
I really did.
It seemed like forever and no time at all.
Instead of saying anything, I dug into my food. The pizza was perfect. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich I’d made would have satisfied the need, but it wouldn’t be this tasty.
Across the table, Jake stared at me as he bit into his slice. The weight of his regard was almost crushing. It didn’t help that Archie was also staring at me. At least Bubba and Coop were on my side of the table.
Still.
Their presumptuous behavior continued to annoy me even if it was as familiar as the halls of the high school. It was just the way they had always behaved. Pushy, occasionally kind, and always looking after each other.
I used to think that applied to me. Eating the pizza Jake paid for reminded me of that same feeling. But we all knew better. Twice, I’d considered asking them and twice I’d discarded the idea, words unspoken. For all that we’d hung out for years, I was and wasn’t a part of their group.
My choice.
Not theirs.
I didn’t run with any one crowd. I’d avoided pigeonholing at all costs.
I’d read the books and seen the movies. High school was often depicted as a nightmare gauntlet, but I hadn’t let it touch me.
I had too many other things I needed to do, and I wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking high school was the rest of my life.
Today, introducing them to Mathieu reminded me of all the times they made all the calls and I just went along with it.
No more.
A foot collided with mine. “Hey,” Bubba said, nudging me. “You’re not listening.”
Nope. I hadn’t been. Instead, I’d been thinking about the fight we needed to have.
The real one.
“You have my attention now,” I said, rather than apologize. I’d been apologizing for a long time.
I wasn’t going to anymore.
Archie studied me for a long moment and I lifted my chin as I met his gaze.
“Do we?” His murmured question shut everyone else up.
“Yes,” I answered easily enough.
“Good. Thanks for ditching Frenchy.” He actually sounded genuinely happy about it.
Coop groaned and Bubba sighed, but Jake said nothing. In fact, the muteness from him worried me more than the smugness from Archie.
“He had other plans,” I said. “Don’t get used to it.”
Archie’s good mood fled and guilt prickled under my skin even as I enjoyed puncturing his attitude.
“Maybe we save all of this for later?” Bubba suggested.
“Sure,” I agreed, reaching for another slice of pizza. “No problem.”
I put up with their girlfriends for years . They would learn to be polite to Mathieu or they wouldn’t be seeing me at all.
That idea was far more disquieting than it should be, but I refused to look at it too closely. Giving in had never gotten me anywhere and I needed to hold onto this anger.
If I didn’t, our history had long since proven they’d all just mow right over me.