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“To be fair, Coop’s been an idiot lately,” Archie supplied, oh so not helpfully. “It’s not a stretch to think he’d upset you.”
“Arch,” Bubba said with little censure. “Give her a break.” After a glance at his watch, he said, “We have a little time. Let’s clean this up and then we’ll figure out a way to apologize to Ms. Curtis.”
Did they really not listen to me?
“Yeah, Bubba’s right,” Jake said, then he put his hands on my shoulders. The warmth of his palms reminded me of how cold it was in there, and I half wanted to shake him off and half-wanted to just get a hug. The weight of the whole week seemed to bear down on me. Mom not being home, the flat tire, Coop dating Laura, the guys telling every single person at school I was off-limits. The chances of me getting a real date before high school was over had dropped from narrow to not a chance in Hell—and this… now they were fighting.
“I’ll clean up,” I told them. “Just—go.”
“What about…?”
“Hey,” Bubba said, drawing me away from Jake. He slid an arm around my shoulders. “Take a breath. We kind of stormed in here like a bunch of assholes. You just got off work. If we’re late, we’re late. We booked the whole experience—Arch, you can call them, right?”
“Yep,” Archie said. “I’ll take care of it.”
I shrugged out from under Bubba’s arm. “Stop it andlistento me.” Jake had already picked up the largest segment of the table and Coop had knelt to grab the splintered and broken legs. They really had done a number to it. And Coop was still bleeding… “Coop, you need to go clean up your arm. Jake, leave the table alone. Archie, I don’t want to go to the escape room…I don’t want to go out at all. I just…” I met Bubba’s worried blue eyes and had to fight the urge to scream. “Guys, I just want to call it a night. This is not what I had in mind and it’s been a really, really long day. So—just—go. I’ll see you later.”
Then I took the coward’s way out, I fled back to my room and shut the door. Tiddles sat in my window, Tabby poked her head out of the closet, and Tory began to purr from somewhere under the bed as I flopped down.I will not cry. I will not cry.
I was so damn tired.School. Work. Mom. College. The guys. The crush of it made it hard to breathe. Sitting up, I looked at the tear in my shirt again and sighed. It was new. I’d got it on a whim because I liked it and now… Stripping it off, I threw it across the room, then unbuttoned my jeans and dragged them off before kicking them into the corner.
I had just pulled open the drawer on my dresser when a light knock preceded the door opening. Really? Mom came back now? Of course, she did.
“Shit,” Jake swore, and I sighed.
Great. I was just standing there in a bra and panties… you know what. Who cared? “It covers as much as a bikini and considering what Maria wasn’t wearing when she was grinding on you at Bubba’s party, I’m pretty sure you can handle it,” I said. If I sounded hostile, maybe it was because Iwashostile. “Why are you still in my apartment?”
Jake leaned in the door and met my gaze, not once letting his eyes dip. “Because we screwed up, and maybe you weren’t upset before, but you are now.”
“I’ve been upset for months. Today is nothing new.”
Surprise stamped across his face.
“Yeah, I know. You didn’t know, right?” I threw his answer out for him. But the frustration swelling in me just seemed to redouble with every word. “Maybe you should ask yourself why I ghosted everyone. Or, I have a better question—why are you guys free to date who you want? Get off who you want? Almost have sex with whomever you want? ButI’muntouchable?”
The door pushed open wider. Bubba stared past Jake, but his ears went red, and he dragged his gaze from my chest upward swiftly.
“Nice,” was Archie’s only comment.
“Still wearing as much as I would in a bikini…and, shock, you are all still here.”
“To be fair,” Archie said, nudging Bubba over so he could squeeze inside. “We weren’t leaving you the mess or the explanation for one. For another, you’re our friend. We do care.”
Nice. They just skipped right past the rest of my comment. Slamming the drawer shut, I tugged the t-shirt over my head and then pulled out a pair of sleep shorts. They were old boxers I’d probably stolen from one of them at some point. Awkward if I gave a damn at the moment.
I stepped into them and tugged them up. “Nice,” I responded. “Could you possibly care about me a little less?”
“Frankie,” Bubba said, his tone soothing. “We’re—you said something a minute ago about dating.”
“Oh, you listened?” I smiled. Trust Bubba to actually hear me. Maybe Coop had, but I couldn’t see him at the moment. “Thank you, I appreciate that. Better than Archie and Jake are doing at the moment.”
Jake sighed. “I heard you, I just didn’t know what you were talking about.”
Despite the fact Jake said it with a straight face, Archie’s half-laugh, half-snort undercut the sentiment entirely. At least I wasn’t alone in staring at him. “Frankie…none of us are dating. Not you. Not me. Not them. Well—him.” He pointed past Jake probably to Coop.
“That’s not what I said,” I told him. “Why have the four of you told everyone I’m untouchable?”
“Well, we didn’t say that,” Bubba said slowly.
