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“He blames himself,” Coop said.
“What?” Jake looked at us. We’d be in with Frankie, but the advocate was helping her shower now that they’d done everything.
“He blames himself,” Coop said with a sigh. “He pulled back, she broke up with him, and last night when he was supposed to be her date, she got hurt by someone on the team. He blames himself.”
“Well, he can get in line,” Jake snapped. “I’m the one who let her go to the bathroom, and I let her get water from Cheryl. I was supposed to be getting her a drink, I should have just taken it over to her while she was talking to them.”
We all blamed ourselves. As much as I wanted to tell Jake none of this was his fault, I didn’t disagree with him.
We could have done things differently.
On all fronts.
Things I should have said to her, to them. We should have made it clear from the beginning. We shouldn’t have been competing at all. Jake was right, there was room for all of us.
“He saved her,” Coop said with a certainty I wanted to share.
“Not soon enough.”
There was no response to that.
What could they say?
We’d all fucked it up.
Jake
One day later…
“I can do it,”she told me as she climbed the stairs. We’d all blown off school. Fuck ‘em. They’d kept Frankie overnight, and none of us left except to come back here and feed the cats. Bubba brought back a change of clothes for her the night before.
It was smart. She didn’t want to be in that hospital gown, and they’d taken her dress and her jewelry. Coop had her phone and keys and stuff. But…she didn’t want us hovering. Frankie had never been frail or fragile, even if I treated her like spun glass. I wasn’t an idiot—she was tough as they came. She put up with all of us, didn’t she?
Still, she looked somehow far more delicate, especially with her wrist all bound up and her face bruised. Every single time I saw that bruise, I wanted to kill something.
Bless Coop’s mom, she’d come to the hospital that morning and helped us wrangle with the staff to discharge her. Archie had been ready to call the lawyers in. Hell, even Jeremy showed up and, though a little more worrisome, so had Joe, Bubba’s dad.
Between them, they managed to work it out.
I’d called Mom the night of the incident at the dance and again yesterday. She and the girls were making food, I had to go over and pick it up. Ready-to-heat meals, stuff that would be easy for Frankie to fix.
Bubba’s mom had sent stuff already, and Coop’s mom said something about doing the same.
Frankie would have food. She loved to eat, even if she’d barely said a word as she picked at the breakfast sandwiches we’d picked up. The fact that she didn’t touch the hash brown worried me more than anything.
Ahead of us, Archie unlocked the door and Coop followed. Bubba hadn’t come with us to bring her home. I didn’t think his reticence had anything to do with not seeing Frankie hurt. The guy didn’t think she wanted to see him, and he didn’t want to bother her.
It was stupid as fuck, she needed all of us, but I’d kick his ass later.
Frankie moved slowly through the apartment. The cats rushed out to greet her, the volume of their meows climbing as she made her way to the sofa.
I half-thought she’d go to her room, but she settled on the sofa, and the cats jumped up. The fact that there were fingermarks on her arms just fueled the fury that seemed right at the edge of boiling. Every single mark on her, I wanted to erase and then pound into Mitch three-fold.
Walking around that corner to see Bubba tearing into Mitch had been like a slow-motion horror movie. Because right behind them, I caught a glimpse of Frankie’s red dress, sprawled on the floor like blood.
I’d also never seen Bubba like that before. Even seeing red and ready to tear into Mitch—which trust me, the kidney shots I gave him probably had him pissing blood—the fact Bubba kept hitting him after he was down gave me a small sense of satisfaction.
Until the moment Coop stood, cradling Frankie, and the world just stopped. It sucked all the oxygen out. There were voices in the hall. Staff from the center were there. Someone called the cops and an ambulance.
