"But she wants to." Allie wiggled her eyebrows at the two of us before shoving more food in her mouth.
"You don’t know that." I shook my head.
"Yes. I do."
"I don’t think it will matter at all, but I believe him. What he says about not posting the video. I trust him."
"So you think Lucas did it?" The thought had crossed my mind again and again, and I felt horrible that a huge part of me hoped that it was true.
Somehow I felt like I could deal with the fact that Lucas posted the video easier than if Beck did.
And it was just my foolish feeling for Beck that made me think like that.
"He’s done it before." She shrugged her shoulders.
"I just don’t understand what he would get out of it. You know? Like, what would be Lucas’s motive?"
"He got you away from Beck. Didn’t he?" Allie looked between us. "He’s been warning you to stay away from him since the moment you arrived."
"This is true." Frankie nodded.
"Okay. Enough about boys." I tried to clear Beck from my head. "Where are we off to next?"
"Let’s go swimming!" Frankie was far too excited about that idea.
"At night? In the ocean?" There was no way in hell I was getting into that black water at night.
"Are you scared of the ocean?" Allie actually sounded shocked.
"Am I smart? Yes." I looked between the two of them like they were crazy. "You can’t see what is under the water at night."
"We could go to my house and use the pool," Frankie offered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I’d much rather take my chances with the sharks."
She and Allie both laughed, but I wasn’t kidding.
"What if I message a few friends from my school? A lot of them go to the public pool to swim at night sometimes."
"How do they get into the public pool at night?" I looked over at my best friend.
She shrugged, but there was a smile on her face.
"Oh my God. They break in?"
"Break in is a strong term. A couple of the guys work there and have keys."
"I’m down." Frankie was practically bouncing in her seat.
"We promised your brother we wouldn’t get arrested," I reminded her.
"We’re not going to get arrested." Allie dug her phone out of her pocket
before typing out a message. "These guys do it all the time. Trust me."
I loved her, but I had a feeling I should probably not trust her on this one.
Her phone buzzed on the table after only a few seconds, and her grin lit up her face. "Told you." She shook her phone in her hand. "They are there now."
Neither of them wanted to hear my arguments on why this wasn’t the best idea. They were too busy paying our server and pushing me back out to the car so we could head that way.
"You know these guys well?" I asked as Allie parked her car next to theirs in the dark parking lot.
"Yes. Will is here. You know him. Plus, there will be other girls."
Will was here? I didn’t know why that suddenly made me feel nervous or like I was doing something that I shouldn’t be, but the only thing I could think about when she said his name was Beck. He would hate it if he knew we were here with him and these other guys.
But I couldn’t sit around caring about what Beck would hate.
He had made the decision not to have that right anymore.
The three of us locked arms as we made our way up to the pool. There were a few lights on, but the large overhead lights were pitch-black. If you hadn’t known that someone was going to be here, it would be hard to notice from the street.
We could hear laughter as we moved through the entrance and the smell of chlorine assaulted us. Allie was right. There were five guys around the pool, one of them being Will, and three girls.
They all looked up at us as we walked in, and I felt completely out of place.
"Hey, Allie." One of the girls waved, and I didn’t dare drop Allie’s arm as she led us over to a couple of pool chairs.
"Hey, guys." She pointed to me and Frankie. "These are my girls, Josie and Frankie."
If any of them knew either of us, they didn’t let on. I had expected to walk in here and get a million dirty looks or snide comments over the video, but no one said a word about it.
Allie dropped her shorts and tossed them on the chair beside her. She was wearing panties and kept her shirt on, but there was no way I was getting down to my skivvies in front of these perfect strangers.
Frankie wasn’t either. I knew it from the way her hand tightened around
mine.
The two of us followed Allie toward the water, and when she climbed in, I sat down on the edge of the pool and dipped my toes into the cool water.
Frankie joined me, and we sat side by side as she slowly dragged her feet back and forth.
"Hey, stranger." Will swam up to where we sat, and he had such a genuine smile on his face that I couldn’t help returning it.
"Hey, Will. How are you?"
He looked so handsome and so carefree, just like the first time I saw him.
"I’m doing well."
His grin was warm and inviting, and I tried not to think about how much easier things would be right now if I had just been into Will. Will didn’t look like he would be capable of breaking my heart. He didn’t look like he was capable of any of the things Beck had done to me.
"This is awfully lackluster in comparison to the ocean." He ran his fingers over the pool water. "But we’ve got to do what we got to do."
"Don’t you have school tomorrow?" All of them were out here swimming when normally I would already be tucked in bed.
He cocked his head to the side and studied me. "Don’t you?"
"Touché." I laughed. "This is Frankie. Frankie, this is Will."
Frankie nodded gently and her cheeks turned the lightest shade of pink.
"We’ve met before."
"Yeah." Will agreed. "You’re Beck’s sister, right?"
"Right." Her voice was tight, and I knew that she had to hate to be referred to as that. As if she didn’t matter except for being something to Beck.
"So, are you all going to be late or are you skipping tomorrow?" His chest was above the water, and I knew that Frankie was probably thinking the same thing that I was. Will was attractive. Hugely so.
"We’re not sure yet." I tucked my hands under my thighs.
"Well, we have some beer over here if you all want some."
"I’ll take one." I was shocked as hell by Frankie’s response.
"Yeah?" Will smiled and started moving away from us. "Let me grab you one."
I had the overwhelming urge to text Beck. I knew that wasn’t fair.
Frankie wasn’t doing anything wrong, and the poor girl was allowed to go out and live her life, but I felt overprotective of her. I didn’t know if it was
from seeing Beck’s reaction before we left or because of what I knew my stepbrother had done to her.
"When’s the last time you drank?"
"It’s been a long time." Frankie shifted beside me, and I felt like I already knew the answer. "I haven’t drunk since that night with Lucas."
"Are you sure it’s a good idea?" I didn’t want her to feel like she needed to drink or do any of this stupid shit to fit in with us. I already really liked Frankie, and none of this shit mattered to me.
"Yeah." She nodded her head before looking down at the water. She stared down at the clear pool for a few moments before she spoke again.
"Drink one with me." She grabbed ahold of my hand before looking back up at me. "I just want to feel normal for one night. I never get to go out without Beck and my parents or somebody watching over me, and I just want to be normal."
I couldn’t pretend that I knew what she was going through.
I had no freaking clue, but every word she said was like a stab through my chest. Because regardless of how she felt about Lucas or what she blamed my family for, I knew that every bit of her pain was due to him. And even though he would not take responsibility for what he had done, I felt this overwhelming urge that I needed to. I wanted to make it better even though I knew I didn’t hold the power to do so.