AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jake glanced past me for a moment, eyes narrowing and I turned. Maria was standing next to a car, phone in her hand looking over at us. When she turned her back, I sighed. Shit like this was getting us nowhere. Sharon had already gone after Frankie. Who knew what Maria or the other girls would pull? And why the hell had they decided to do it now? Frankie had been in our circle from the beginning, long before them, and she’d be there long after them, too.
Friends first.
It was the one thing that seemed to give her reservations about dating us, so I kept myself fixed to that point. I was going todateher and be her friend and prove to her I could.
It was the only way to do it.
Jake
“Let’s go,”I told Bubba, and it came out a lot gruffer than I intended, but fuck it. He was a big boy. Not like he wasn’t used to me snapping. It took everything I had not to march over and demand Maria tell me what the hell was going on.
Sure, Frankie said she’d defended Frankie to Sharon, but that didn’t change the fact she likely knew more than she was saying. At the same time, I didn’t want to get into it with her. Meeting her at the diner last Sunday had been bad enough. The fact someone took a picture of it and immediately posted it just added to crap falling on Frankie’s head.
I wouldn’t do that to her. Not again.
So, I left it alone.
After sending a message to Coop to let him know I was on the way, I headed out. Bubba would head straight to the Pit. Fine. Sitting out the game sucked, but it hadn’t been as bad as they probably thought it would be. I’d already qualified as one of the top three finalists for a scholarship I had forgotten I’d applied for. It meant I was getting at least ten thousand for school and possibly up to a hundred thousand.
As soon as it locked, I was taking Frankie out to celebrate, but I didn’t want to jinx it. I also didn’t want to rub her face in it because I was pretty sure she’d applied for that scholarship, too. After the other day with G and the fact he said she scored low on that practice test. Her face. I was never going to forget that disappointment. The others hadn’t seen it, but I had.
Part of why I wanted Archie to shut the hell up about it. I should never have told him, except he’d been there when I opened the letter. No, I didn’t want to jinx anything, and I didn’t want her to feel bad.
She was amazing, but she was taking hit after hit, and it was pissing me off. The Rachel thing might be funny later. Maybe. Still wrapping my mind around the fact another girl had made us look like a bunch of idiotsaftershe set Frankie up to basically walk away from us over the summer.
Yeah, I couldn’t totally blame Rachel for that. We deserved Frankie’s ire, but I could blame Rachel for telling Frankie when she damn well had to know it would hurt Frankie’s feelings.
Again, that was on us.
Coop was in the parking lot when I got there. His expression was tense as he had the passenger door open and slid inside before I’d even fully stopped. “What’s eating you?”
“I am struggling with my intense dislike for her mother,” Coop admitted. “And when I say struggling, I mean, I’ve known her mother as long as I’ve known her, and the woman is a selfish, self-centered flake at times, but I always thought she cared more.”
“People are who they are,” I told him with a shrug. My dad was a stand up guy that people admired and always pointed to—look at how honorable he was, distinguished service, the military loved him, blah blah blah. Yeah, he was so great, he constantly left Mom to do all the heavy lifting, and when she wanted to go back to the States rather than live in Germany, he told her that he and the girlfriend would be fine if she wanted to do that.
That conversation haunted me, even when Mom insisted it hadn’t been true. The problems between her and Dad were just bigger than the caring. He’d never had an affair, she tried to tell me, but that was also because she didn’t want me to blame Dad. I didn’t care. If he could say something like that to hurt her, then he could go straight to Hell. Mom had always been there, Dad couldn’t say that.
“That’s mature,” Coop commented, and I shrugged.
“It is what it is,” I said before turning around and scanning the parking lot on my way out.
“Her mom’s car isn’t here and neither is Archie’s dad’s, I looked. I also went by and checked on her cats. Figured she’d like to know they were all fine.”
“Did you send her pictures?” I had to know because that sounded like a Coop thing to do.
“I send her cat videos, of course I sent her pictures.” He grinned, and I laughed. It wasn’t that far to the Pit. My phone rang and it was Becca’s number, so I hit answer.
“What’s up, Squirt?”
“Mom wants you to bring milk and bread on your way home after the game.”
I snorted. No she didn’t, but I played along. “Sure, if I come home. I’ll bring it.”
“Ifyou come home?” Becca squeaked. “Dude you better come home, you keep spending school nights away, Mom’s gonna kick your ass.”
“A, it’s not a school night, and B, she already knows I might be crashing with the guys and Frankie tonight. We got lots to do.” I grinned as Becca swore. “If Mom told you to go get it and you forgot it, that’s on you.”
“Dammit.”
