I felt desperate for every part of her.
"Hey, guys. What can I get you?" Allie smiled, and you would never know that I had just fucked over her friend. If Allie was cross with me, she didn’t show it. Her smile was trained and friendly.
"I want a hot fudge sundae with extra fudge and a glass of milk." Frankie hadn’t even looked at a menu. The two of us had been eating here since we were born, and we knew it like the back of her hands.
"I’ll have the same." I nodded but still looked through the glass windows for a glimpse of her dark brown hair. "Is Josie here?"
I knew I shouldn’t have asked. I should have kept my mouth shut and left Allie out of it, but I couldn’t help myself.
Allie hesitated before slowly nodding. Her smile slipped then. She didn’t want to tell me anything more about her friend. She had always been kind to me, but she was loyal to her friend. "Would you like me to tell her something?"
"No." I tapped my fingers against the arm of the chair and looked back toward the door. "I was just curious."
"Okay." She took a step back, and I could feel her studying me. I could feel her trying to figure out what the hell my angle was. "I’ll get those sundaes started."
She disappeared through the door, and I forced myself to look away. I looked back at Frankie who was watching me and smiled.
I knew that she wasn’t buying a second of it. "Where are Olly and Carson?"
"Carson needed new cleats so Olly went with him."
"Why aren’t you with them?" She cocked her head to the side.
"Because I’m here with you." I placed my elbows on the table and looked over at her. She looked so much like me that it was kind of scary. The only real difference between us was that I was a spitting image of my father, but Frankie inherited lots of our mother’s softness.
"Mom wants to know where we are." She tapped on her phone screen.
"Apparently, you’ve got us both on the high alert watch now."
I chuckled, but she wasn’t wrong. My mom was almost as furious as my dad about what happened, but she handled her anger in a different way.
And her way always seemed to make me feel so much guiltier.
"Did you tell her we were here?"
"Yeah." Frankie nodded. "She said she and Dad are going to meet us out here."
I puffed out a deep breath. Of course, they were. Dad knew Josie was here, and he didn’t trust me around her. Not that I could blame him.
"Before they get here, who was that guy I saw hanging around your locker earlier?"
Frankie looked confused by my question, and it was adorable. "Who, Mike? He’s my lab partner."
"Lab partner?" I leaned back in my chair and grinned at her. "Is that code for boyfriend?"
I was just teasing her, and she knew it. Frankie hadn’t shown interest in any guy since Lucas.
"Absolutely not." She sat up in her chair just as Allie walked out carrying two glasses of milk. "I’m not interested in him like that."
Allie set our glasses down wordlessly, and we thanked her before she was gone again.
"What about anyone else? You thought about who you might want to go to the winter formal with?"
The winter formal was a big deal at Prep. Typically much bigger than prom. It was held at a different lavish location every year, and the party was far too over the top for a bunch of teenagers. This was the first year Frankie would attend now that she was a junior, and it was like a rite of passage.
"I don’t think I’m going to go."
"Why not?" Most girls had been looking forward to this damn formal since freshman year.
"Because." She said it like that one word explained everything. "No one is going to want to go with me. Plus, it seems lame."
I hated that she thought that. Any guy would be lucky to take her. "We’ll go together."
She looked at me like I had lost my mind. "I’m pathetic enough already. I will not be going to the formal with my brother."
"You are not pathetic." I practically growled out the words. Nothing pissed me off more than her thinking that. Nothing pissed me off more than knowing I had a hand in allowing her to think that.
"What’s pathetic?"
Frankie and I looked up just as we heard my dad’s voice. He and Mom walked out onto the patio hand in hand, and even though he was getting weaker, he still pulled out Mom’s chair for her to sit down.
"Frankie was telling me that she thought she could out-hit me on the ball field, but have you seen those excuses for biceps?"
Frankie smiled, and I knew she was thankful I changed the subject. She hated talking about herself anymore, but she hated it more when our parents talked about her.
It made her feel weak and invisible, and I only knew that because I had caught her crying one night after dinner.
"Frankie’s biceps are beautiful." My mom leaned over and kissed Frankie on the forehead before looking to our glasses. "Are we having dessert?"
"We are." Frankie smiled just as Allie came out with our sundaes.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Clermont, what can I get for you?" Allie smiled at my parents, and this time her smile was one hundred percent genuine.
"Hi, Allie." My father smiled up at her. "Can I get my normal burger and fries?"
"Of course."
"I’ll have the same and a water." My mom reached out and dipped her finger into my sundae before licking the chocolate off her finger.
"Okay. I’ll have that right out."
As soon as Allie left, they were on me.
"I heard Josephine was back at school today." My mother crossed her arms and leaned against the table. It was one of the things I loved most about her. She was never like most of the other moms I knew. She wasn’t a stickler for appearances and faked niceties.
She expected us to have manners, but she didn’t expect us to be perfect.
She never had.
"Where did you hear that?" I shifted in my seat. My mom’s eyes flicked to Frankie’s, only momentarily, but it was enough. "Seriously, Frankie?"
"What?" She held up her hands.
"I hope that you stayed far away from her. You know her father is on a warpath after what you did."
"I didn’t do it," I said for the hundredth time. It was one of the first times my parents hadn’t believed me. My father said I was jaded by rage, and he was right, but I still didn’t do what they think I did.
"You didn’t answer my question." She gave me her mom look that used to scare the hell out of me.
"You didn’t ask one."
My dad huffed and chuckled, but my mom continued.
"Did you stay away from her today?"
"Would you believe me if I said yes?" I crossed my arms.
"Probably not." At least she was honest.
"Then no. I didn’t stay away from her."
My mom rolled her eyes and knocked her hand against my dad’s bicep.
"Beck, we’ve talked about this. Regardless of what happened, you need to keep your distance from her. Her dad is not happy."
"Her dad can kiss my ass."
Frankie laughed, but my dad didn’t. He was serious. He thought the fear
of her father was enough to make me stay away from Josie, but he was wrong.
I didn’t care that Joseph Vos thought he could ruin me or that he thought I was trying to ruin his daughter. He was supporting the snake in his own house. His own precious stepson was the one capable of everything, and he was going to get away with posting Josie’s video just as he had Frankie’s.
I wanted to slam my fist into his face over and over again until he could never utter another word.
But I had been warned to stay away from Lucas too. According to my parents, the only time I was to have any sort of interaction with Lucas was during a baseball practice or game.