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We take care of Frankie.
Jake: Agreed. She wants to date.
We date.
Bubba: Count me out on Mat.
Not hurting Frankie.
Archie: Whatever. She’ll be fine.
Jake: It’s for the best.
Bubba: Keep telling yourself that.
Later
Archie: Why is she calling you Ian?
Coop: What happened last night?
Jake: Dude—wtf?
Bubba: Rule #7, mind your own business.
Chapter Sixteen
Just a Minute
Wednesday turned out to be both weird and wonderful. Weird and wonderful Wednesdays. Maybe I should get a t-shirt made with that on the front. The weird came in a few places. When I got up that morning, there was a note from Mom on the fridge along with a couple of twenties.
She had to take a quick trip out of town, her flight was super early that morning, she probably wouldn’t be back until early on Friday morning, and then she’d likely go straight to work.
Definitely weird.
But not the weirdest.
Coop showed up as I fed the cats, and he’d brought donuts. There was a little place around the corner, and he’d gone to grab them. In addition to the chocolate covered donuts, donut holes, and even a few with sprinkles, he’d even brought me apple fritters. They were fresh, too. Sweet and sticky and perfect. I wanted to devour both right there, but we had to get to school.
The scent of them taunted me the whole way there.
Ian—I had a hard time even thinking of him as Bubba anymore, because Bubba was my friend, but Ian was the guy I made out with—leaned against his bike waiting for us when I pulled in. He snagged my backpack out of the back for me and helped me get it on. He definitely qualified as one of the wonderful parts. I half-worried he was going to kiss me right there then I stressed a little when he didn’t.
Dating, however, was not an excuse to have a nutty. He did sling an arm around my shoulders, and I wrapped mine around his waist as we headed inside with Coop and his stacks of donuts.
Archie had the coffee, and Jake waited for us. He patted the seat next to him and caught my backpack for me as I slid it off. Ian grabbed the chair on my other side. It was laid back and nice, the guys were teasing, and I was hyper aware every time Ian brushed his leg against mine. Just before the bell when Archie and I had to leave to head to government, I bumped my hip to Ian’s as we stood and then called him Ian.
Amateur mistake. One none of the others missed.
Thus added the weird wrinkle of Archie poking me for an answer all the way through government. Since when was Bubba Ian? For his part, Ian said he didn’t mind. But he also wouldn’t tell me if the guys were giving him a hard time. He just told me he could handle it.
He walked me most of the way to French and blew me a quiet, almost subtle kiss before heading on. Five minutes into French and I realized I had a problem. I liked Mat. He was—a sweet guy. Fun and funny. I owed him for helping me with that project. I was so glad we’d had that time together.
But I didn’t want to date him. I wanted… I wanted Ian. I wanted Jake. Archie. Coop. I wanted to date them and four was more than enough. Maybe he’d been onto something when he kept calling them my boyfriends. I’d already asked him to the party on Saturday, but afterward—I’d break up.
Though, was it breaking up if you’d only gone out a couple of times? Maybe just let him know I only wanted to be friends. That sounded far more reasonable.
Had a first date and decided I didn’t want to date the same guy in one week. So weird.
