Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
JAKE
M r. G was always cool, part of the reason I’d signed up for the AP European History with Frankie was that Mr. G would be the teacher overseeing it. But that was only part of the reason. The rest was the blonde sitting two feet to my left and doing her level best to ignore me.
I could let it get on my nerves. I could let it piss me off. I could—I was more than capable of picking a damn fight. Thing was, I didn’t want to fight with her. So, I divided my time between the reading and watching her.
Her distance over the summer had stung. Even when Archie had his surgery, she hadn’t shown up, which was my first clue something had to be really wrong. I thought it was her bitch of a mother. Apparently, that wasn’t it at all.
Coop hadn’t mentioned her being out of town. Had he not known? I only found out later that she came to Bubba’s party. If I’d seen her there, I might have ditched to take off with her. But she didn’t return messages or calls. The only time I’d seen her had been when she was at work.
The fact she’d given me such a cold shoulder had pissed me off, so I brought Maria with me the next time. When the fuck had this French guy really entered the picture? Before the party? After?
When did she suddenly develop an interest in dating? Goddammit, I had a thousand questions and her ignoring me wasn’t working for me.
“All right, you have your reading for the week,” Mr. G was saying. “I need to go down and prep for tomorrow. I’ll trust you two to behave for the last fifteen minutes of the day, yeah?”
“You got it, Mr. G.” I almost fist pumped that he was leaving. Fifteen minutes with me and Frankie.
“See you tomorrow,” Frankie said, though she sounded a little less enthused. Her sigh as he closed the door confirmed it and that gave me more than a little pause.
“You really hate the idea of being alone with me that much?” The blunt question probably wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but I needed some guidance on what the fuck was going on.
Surprise flickered in those gorgeous green eyes as she finally looked at me. Surprise, not fear. That part was at least good. If she were afraid of me… Yeah, just no.
Lips pursed, Frankie glanced down at the book in front of her before flipping it closed. She put it and the notebook she’d been using into her backpack. I did the same, we still had thirteen minutes to go. Still, she was right, we weren’t going to do any more work.
Packed up, she twisted to meet my gaze again. “Are you going to yell at me too?”
Brows raised, I fisted my temper and gripped the edge of the desk. “Someone is yelling at you?”
“Well, expressing their irritation, I suppose.” The little shrug offered no comfort. “Not that any of you have the right to be irritated.”
“I think I’ll reserve the right to feel however the fuck I want,” I told her. “And I’ll defend your right to do the same.” The air around her crackled or maybe that was just me. “Who yelled at you?”
Since she hadn’t answered me earlier. I wanted a name. They wouldn’t be yelling again.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, then picked at something on the desk.
“It matters to me,” I reminded her. “You used to be able to tell me anything. If someone is picking on you, you know I’ll take care of it.”
“I’m a big girl, Jake. I can take care of myself.”
“Didn’t say you couldn’t.” Then I hooked my foot against her desk and turned it, with her in it, to face me.
She gave a little start, and there—for just an instant—the flash of a smile curved her lips.
I’d missed that damn smile. “I’ve seen your right hook.
Your left might need some work, but your right is vicious. ”
Another smile appeared, this one lasting longer. “Thank you, I appreciate the compliment.”
“Are you not going to tell me who yelled at you?” I cocked my head to the side. “Not Coop. He’s usually the last one to start yelling.”
“Jake,” she said on a huff of a sigh. “Don’t try?—”
“Probably not Bubba. He can yell, but he was pissed earlier that he didn’t really get to talk to you much at lunch.” Not that Bubba said that, but I knew the guy. Played sports with him. I could read the body language. “That leaves our pal Archie…”
Her lips compressed and there was my answer. So, Archie got in her face. While I understood it, even he didn’t get to yell at her.
“I’ll take care of it,” I promised and then reached over to put my hand on hers. Her gaze darted up to mine again. Her skin was ice and the air conditioning in here wasn’t that efficient. “You’re freezing.”
“I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. For a moment, I thought she’d pull her hand away but she didn’t. Small win, but I’d take it. “Jake—look, you guys…”
I flicked a look toward the clock then back to her. It was marching toward the bell. She showed every indication of bolting the moment it rang. We needed more time.
“Us guys?” I prompted her.
“Never mind,” she said, shaking her head. The slide of her blonde hair dropping over her shoulder had me wanting to sink my fingers into it. Fist it, tilt her head back, and then kiss her until she gave up every one of those secrets she housed behind her eyes.
“Talk to me,” I said, going for coaxing rather than ordering. “You’re upset and I don’t like it. I need to fix this. Whatever happened that made you cut town and walk away from all of us. Tell me… Let me help.”
Her lashes dipped downwards, hiding her eyes from me. “I don’t know if you can. Archie’s mad at me cause I’m dating. Coop’s acting weird cause I’m dating and…” She snapped her eyes open and pinned me with a look. “You…”
I guess Bubba wasn’t making the cut here. Probably in watch and wait mode. He could be patient as hell. Then again, she actually spoke to him at his birthday party.
Yes, I was jealous as hell over that.
“What about me?”
“You’re just like them. Annoyed that I have a boyfriend all of a sudden. You’ve been dating since freshman year and Archie is pretty much the same. So why is it okay for all of you to date and not me?”
“I never told you that you couldn’t date.” I never would have either. “Hell, I’ve asked you out on dates.”
The disbelief in her eyes wasn’t humbling in the slightest. Or insulting. “We’ve never dated…”
Fisting my temper with both hands, I fought to keep my smile from turning into a grimace. “Frankie, we’ve been hanging out for years. We ate lunch together every day for the past seven years—or however long. When it comes to the parties, you are the first person I ask.”
Confusion filled her eyes and I finally clenched on fist to hold onto that temper. “Jake—you and Maria were the item.”
“ Were an item as in the past tense. We broke up a few weeks ago.” It was two weeks when we made it official, but the summer had been one long experiment in how unhappy I was without Frankie even around to hang out with. “Never should have dated her in the first place.”
“Then why did you?” There it was, that directness I adored. She didn’t flinch away from my gaze.
“Because she was pretty and she was nice and…” I didn’t stand a chance with you.
“You wanted to get laid,” Frankie summed it up and now I grimaced.
“I’m not that much of an asshole.”
“No,” she said, actually agreeing with me. “You’re kind of worse.”
“Excuse me?” The temper I’d been holding back slipped free. “How am I worse ?”
She gripped her backpack and blew out a breath. “You, Archie, Coop, and Bubba. My best friends. People I thought I could trust with anything and everything.”
“You can. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Last spring, you know the dance was coming up and I kept waiting to see if someone would ask me. You guys were all making plans with the various girlfriends…”
“We included you,” I snapped. There was no way in hell we wouldn’t have included her. “Coop and I both told you we’d take care of your ticket. Archie would make sure the car picked you up too. Bubba said his mom wanted to help you find a dress…”
It would let us pay for it since she never had money for a lot of extras. The girls weren’t a huge fan of Frankie running with all of us, but I’d rather have dumped Maria and gone with Frankie to the dance more than anything else.
We could have skipped the damn dance.
“Included me,” she said, then touched her tongue to her teeth.
“ Included me? So telling every guy in school that I’m untouchable and no one should ever ask me out, was ‘including’ me?
You kicking the ass of any guy who looked at me twice— that was including me?
You four parading your girlfriends around while making sure I was always alone —was including me? ”
I don’t think she could have hit me harder if she’d actually opened her hand and slapped me.
“You broke my heart,” she admitted and my anger sank like a rock.
“All of you. My best friends and you made sure I was miserable and you had no intentions of doing anything else. So yeah, I pulled back and went away. The minute I get away from you four—what happens? I got a date. I found a guy who likes me for me, who made time for me. Someone I could explore all the things with that I wanted?—”
She broke off and I couldn’t move. Explore all the things? Was she talking about sex? Had Frenchy put his goddamn hands on her? I was going to break them off and beat him to death with them.
The earlier words registered. That choked off my fury for the pain reflected in her voice. “Frankie?—”
It was already too late, she had her backpack in hand even as the bell rang. She practically dove for the door. By the time I made it to the hall, she was gone in a sea of students.
I knew where she parked, I could go there.
Or I could go find out who the fuck she’d been talking to that filled her head with all of that. Because the pain in her eyes? That had been real.
She blamed me for that. Me and the rest of the guys. I dug my phone out of my pocket and sent a message to them. We needed to meet and we needed to meet now.