"We are not going to get arrested." Allie laughed, but Beck didn’t look like he believed her.
"With you three, who knows what could happen."
"Fine," Frankie replied to him, but she didn’t look pleased at all by his overprotectiveness. "I will text you later."
Her answer seemed to suffice Beck, and he nodded before leaning into my window slightly. "Allie, drive carefully, please."
She saluted him with her hand. "Aye, aye, Captain."
He rolled his eyes but put his hand down on mine where it rested on the window seal. He didn’t say a word to me as he gently squeezed it, then backed away from the car. Allie started the engine and began pulling away.
"Oh my God. I’m so embarrassed." Frankie buried her face in her hands, but I was still looking back at Beck. He was running his hands through his hair in that way he did any time he got frustrated, and I knew that he was honestly worried about Frankie going out with us tonight.
"Do not be embarrassed. We know your brother, remember?" I knew him better than I was willing to talk about tonight.
"This is true." She laughed. "You all know how he can be."
"Exactly." Allie turned out of the driveway and onto the street. "Plus, he probably should be a little bit worried because it’s girls’ night!"
Allie’s laughter was contagious, and I couldn’t help feeling excited to be out with two girls that I genuinely liked. I barely even knew Frankie, but I already like her more than most of the people I had met.
"Where are we heading first?" I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my feet on her dash.
"Milkshakes and cheese fries, then we’ll see where the night takes us."
"Deal." Frankie’s smile was so big and genuine, and it didn’t stop the entire ride to the diner Allie highly recommended.
It felt awkward while the three of us looked over the menu, and even more awkward after we ordered and the waiter took our menus away. It was already pitch-black outside, and there were very few people eating in the diner.
"So, Frankie, what’s it like to be Beck’s sister?"
"Allie!" I whisper-yelled at her and kicked her under the table.
"What?" She looked between me and Frankie. "I know you’re thinking it."
"It’s all right." Frankie chuckled. "He’s an awesome brother. He’s a bit overbearing as you all can tell, but he has the right intentions."
"Does he work out a lot?"
"Oh my God, Allie." I buried my face in my hands just as the waiter set our milkshakes on the table.
"He can’t look like that naturally. He has to work out a lot."
"He does." Frankie laughed. "If he didn’t, he’d be huge. He eats like a pig."
"Josie, what’s it like for you to be Lucas’s sister? Or stepsister, I mean."
She tucked her hair behind her ear, and I knew that it took a lot for her to ask that question.
"It’s weird." I was honest with her. "When I first moved in, I felt like he was the only person that I could talk to, but now…" I shook my head because I couldn’t bring myself to say that I no longer trusted him after I knew what he did to her.
She seemed to understand that too. "Do you not get along with your dad?"
"No." I laughed. "Not at all. I don’t really know him that well, to be honest."
"What about your mom?" She took a sip of her milkshake, and I stared ahead. It was a simple question, an innocent one, but it still hurt like hell.
"She passed away this past year. Cancer."
"Oh my God." Her face was filled with shock. "I’m so sorry. I didn’t know or I never would have asked that."
"I know." I gave her a small, reassuring smile. "It’s okay. It’s good to talk
about her."
The three of us were silent for a moment, and Allie gently squeezed my hand on the bench beside her.
"I was really close with her, actually. I was basically her mini-me."
"So, that’s why you moved here?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "My dad didn’t have much to do with me until she passed away, but he refused to let me live alone until I was eighteen. The judge sided with him."
"I’m so sorry."
I waved off Frankie’s concern. "It is what it is. What about your parents?
You get along with them?"
"Yeah." She nodded, and I could tell she was uncomfortable. People typically were if they had to talk about their parents after just finding out that I lost one of mine. "My dad is amazing, but a major workaholic as you two know."
We did know. I saw Mr. Clermont’s car at the country club more than anyone else’s.
"My mom’s my best friend. That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?" She shifted in her seat.
"Absolutely not." I smiled at her. "My mom was my best friend too."
"They’ve both been super overprotective since everything happened with Lucas." Her gaze flicked back and forth between me and Allie, and I felt so damn bad for her. "I think that they think they’re helping, but sometimes I just want to be left alone. You know?"
"My parents just want me to find a boyfriend." Allie rolled her eyes playfully.
"Really?" Frankie laughed.
"Yes. My mom thinks I’m going to become some sort of a troll or something."
"Didn’t you and Carson used to have a thing?" Frankie asked just as the waiter set a huge plate of cheese fries between the three of us.
"We were friends." Allie was quick to correct her.
"Did he know that?" Frankie laughed, and I couldn’t help laughing with her. I knew that Allie didn’t want to talk about whatever happened between the two of them, but the face she made when Frankie asked was too funny to keep a straight face.
"He definitely knew that. He was the one who made sure I knew that."
"Ouch." So Allie was the one who had a thing for him?
"Yeah." She nodded toward me. "I was his friend who didn’t realize she was firmly planted in the friend zone."
"I don’t believe that." Frankie picked up a fry and shoved it in her mouth.
"He definitely had a thing for you, or still does. He gets super grumpy any time anyone talks about you."
"Trust me, he doesn’t." Allie looked so uncomfortable, but she kept talking. "Plus, from what I hear, he’s been fucking anything that wears a skirt."
Frankie winced. "That’s what I’ve heard too."
Allie looked down at the fries then away from both of us.
"What about Beck? What’s the real deal with him and Cami?" I had no intentions of asking her anything about her brother tonight, but I needed to change the subject off Carson, and he was the only other thing I could think of.
"Well." Frankie took a long drink from her milkshake before she spoke again. "They’ve been friends or dating for a long time, but it’s like they’re never really dating. It’s just like they are always there for each other."
I don’t know why, but that hurt far more than it should.
"But not in that way," Frankie quickly clarified. "I haven’t seen him be interested in Cami in years."
"But he still sleeps with her." I was talking more to myself than her.
"I don’t know, honestly. But that’s what everyone says."
"He says it too. He told me that before the two of us ever did anything together. He told me that they were just a convenience thing. That…" I almost told her that he was helping Cami cover the fucked-up decisions she was making, but I stopped myself. That wasn’t mine to tell. "It doesn’t matter."
"Do you still like him? Like really like him?" She looked at me with such sincerity that I couldn’t lie to her.
"Of course, I do."
"But you don’t trust him." It wasn’t a question, but I answered her anyway.
"Not at all."