I held up my finger. "One drink."
She grinned, knowing she had won this battle and clapped her hands together. "That’s all I’m asking for, just one drink."
We stood, walking to where Will was pulling a beer out of the cooler, and I quickly grabbed one for myself. I watched Frankie’s every move as she brought the beer to her lips. She hated it as much as I did, but that wasn’t the point.
Frankie hadn’t felt this much freedom in a long time, and I watched the smile slip over her lips as the first taste of alcohol slid down her throat.
But I couldn’t help thinking that Beck would think this was a terrible idea. If he was here, I bet he would demand that she didn’t drink, that he may even jerk the bottle from her hand, and even though a part of me knew that he would probably be right, I wouldn’t stop her.
Not tonight.
I would sip my beer by her side, and I would make sure that she was having a good time.
We all got along with Allie’s friends easily, and before I knew it, one beer turned into two. Then somehow I let Frankie talk me into the third. But that smile stayed on her face the entire night, and I didn’t want to let her down. She was having so much fun, and I knew it had been so long since she’d had true fun with friends who weren’t her family or constantly thinking about what had happened to her.
It was just us and fun, and pretty soon, everyone else at the pool disappeared into the background.
It was nearly midnight by the time the three of us lounged across each other on the damp pool deck. Allie and Frankie had been swimming. Frankie had left all her clothes on, but they didn’t hinder her at all. I had only kept my legs in the entire time because I wasn’t comfortable enough with these people to strip down in the pool with them.
They had most likely seen the video of me and Beck, even though not one of them said a word about it, and I couldn’t stop myself from looking at each of them and wondering exactly what they had been thinking about me.
"Are we gonna sleep under the stars tonight?" Allie was staring up at the dark sky, and luckily she hadn’t drunk a single drop.
"My parents are cool and all, but they probably’ll frown on me bringing you all home drunk."
"I’m not drunk." Frankie giggled, and even though the sound made me smile, I knew she was at least a bit tipsy because so was I.
It was on the tip of my tongue to offer to sneak them into my own house.
It wouldn’t take much sneaking either. My dad nor Amelia would notice us coming in at this late hour, but there is no way in hell I was going to take Frankie back to my house. Not with Lucas there, but probably not ever.
I would never put her in that position if I could help it.
"We can go back to my house." Frankie raised up on her elbows. "My parents won’t say anything. I don’t get in trouble for anything these days."
That sounded like a terrible idea.
"Or we could just sleep in the car," I suggested, making both Frankie and Allie laugh.
"Beck won’t notice us coming in. He has baseball workouts in the morning, and he’s probably been asleep for two hours by now."
"Aww, Beck’s a good boy, huh?" Allie giggled, and I loved hearing the sound of my two friends being so happy and carefree.
"I don’t know." Frankie looked over toward me. "Is he, Josie?"
I slapped her arm, causing her to laugh harder. "I cannot believe you just asked me that, Frankie."
"I’d wager that he’s not good at all." Allie wiggled her eyebrows at us.
"For Josie to be this twisted about him, he’s got to be pretty bad."
Frankie dropped back down onto her back. "Oh my God. That’s so disgusting."
"You’re the one who brought it up." I rolled over on my stomach and rested my chin on my hands. "Do you want to hear all the nitty-gritty details about your brother?"
"I think I’m going to be sick." Frankie playfully gagged, and I couldn’t help laughing.
"At least you’re not denying that you are in fact twisted."
"I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean." I rolled my eyes.
"It means that you like him. You can’t stop thinking about him. You want to have his babies."
I looked at Frankie like she was insane. "You two were meant for each other." I pointed between them. "Yes. I like Beck regardless of him being a complete and total ass to me. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Yes." Allie’s answer was quick.
"But it still doesn’t mean anything." I shook my head.
"It doesn’t have to." Allie looked over at me. "Whatever happens between you and Beck is up to you. No one else."
"Not true." I groaned and laid my forehead down against my arms. "My dad has made it very clear that I am to be nowhere near Beck Clermont."
"What’s he going to do if you are?" Allie teased, but she had no idea the power that my father held.
"He’s threatened to take the money my mother left me and her house."
"What?" I couldn’t decipher one voice over the other. They both shot up and were looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces.
"Yeah. He made it very clear."
"What are you going to do?" This was from Frankie.
"I don’t really have a choice." I pushed up off the ground and got to my feet. "I’m going to have to stay away from your brother whether I want to or not."
"And do you want to?" Her voice was much calmer, and I knew that she was worried about how I was feeling.
"I honestly don’t know, but let’s not worry about this tonight." I dropped
a hand down for both of them. "Let’s go sneak into one of our houses."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BECK
It was after one o’clock in the morning, and I had to resist the urge for the hundredth time tonight not to grab my phone and call Frankie.
I knew that she was probably just at Allie’s house or doing something fun, and even though I knew Josie was pissed at me, I knew she would never do anything to hurt her.
But I still wished that one of them would have let me know they were okay. Because it had been a long time since Frankie had decided to go out, especially on a school night with two girls she barely knew.
My mom and dad were happy that she’d gone out. Neither of them giving a shit that she was going to skip school, and I did share their same enthusiasm, but I was still worried about her.
My mom had told me to stop acting like a worried mother hen and to let her have a little fun. And I knew by the look in her eyes that she was just as concerned as I was, but she was even more concerned by the way Frankie had changed.
"Shit." There was a loud whisper in the hallway, followed by sounds of uncontrollable laughter.
"Which one’s your room?" I couldn’t tell who was talking, and I could barely hear any response from the uncontrollable laughter.
My parents’ room was downstairs and basically on the opposite side of the house, but they had to hear them come in when they were this damn loud.
I jumped out of bed and quickly made my way to my door. All three girls were holding onto each other, and they were leaning against the wall next to Frankie’s bedroom. Frankie looked like a drowned rat, but she was laughing
so hard that she could barely stand up.
"Shh." Josie held her finger up to Frankie’s lips, but she was laughing herself.
"What are you all doing?"