"So, Josie." Carson took the seat on the other side of me, and I looked up at him just as Carrie saddled up to his side like a puppy. "What are your intentions with my friend?"
Allie scoffed at his question as I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?
I think my intentions are pretty clear."
"Are they?" He cocked his head to the side and stared at me. "He was a pretty big dick to you, but you've forgiven him. I can't decide if it's because you actually forgive him or if you're planning on fucking him over somehow."
"You're such an idiot, Carson." Allie rolled her eyes.
"No. He's actually got a good point." Olly leaned back against the rail that separated the boardwalk from the sandy beach.
"So, what?" I looked between the two of them. "You two don't think I should forgive him?"
"We didn't say that. We just don't want him to get hurt."
"But you had no problem with him hurting me?" In fact, they were almost just as guilty. They knew exactly what he was doing, and neither one of them stopped him. Neither one of them gave a shit about what he was doing.
"We didn't really know you." Carson shrugged like it explained everything. "And honestly, neither of us have much love for your family either."
Logically, I knew that. They loved Frankie almost as much as Beck did.
That was easy to see when they were around her. But that didn't mean that I had to be okay with what they did, even though I had truly already forgiven them for it.
"Lucas used to be our best friend too, you know?" Olly rubbed his hand down the front of his shirt as he looked over to where Frankie and Beck stood in line for apples. "He didn't just fuck over Beck and Frankie. He ruined our entire group. We used to be inseparable."
"I know that." I nodded. I had heard it all already, but I really hadn't thought about it like that. I hadn't thought about how Lucas's actions had affected all of them. "But I'm not Lucas."
"We know that." Carson nodded. "We just want to make sure that you're with Beck for the right reasons. He acts tough, but he's had a few rough years."
"Don't worry." I put my hand over my heart. "I'm with Beck for nothing more than his pretty face and his ginormous dick."
I thought Carson might actually fall off the bench as he laughed and grabbed his stomach.
"All right, Vos. I think I might like you." He stood, grabbing Carrie's hand, before patting me on the top of my head.
"I wasn't really concerned about it, to be honest." I looked back and forth between him and Olly who couldn't stop smiling.
"That just makes me like you more."
"Are they harassing you?" Beck held out the most delicious apple I had ever seen in my direction as he stared at his friend.
"Nope." I reached forward and grabbed the apple before quickly sinking my teeth into it. "Carson was just asking for advice on how to please a girl with such a tiny penis. Apparently, he's been getting a lot of complaints."
Beck laughed just as Carson winked at me. "Carrie hasn't been complaining."
Allie groaned next to me, and I couldn't just let him walk away with that parting shot. Not when he had just questioned where I stood with Beck and definitely not after the way he had been treating my best friend.
"Carrie doesn't seem like she complains about much." I pointed toward her with the apple that was good enough to make me moan. "She seems pretty content to just follow you around."
I knew I shouldn't have said it. I was being petty and cruel, and I didn't even know this girl. But Carson made me stabby when it came to Allie.
"Says the girl who had a sex tape on Instagram but is still out here with Cami's man."
The apple was halfway back to my mouth when her words registered. All I could do was stare at her, this girl I didn't even know.
"Fuck you, Carrie." That came from Allie at my side, and I knew that she was as angry as I was.
"He's not Cami's man." It was the only thing I could think of as her words repeated over and over in my head. I didn't care that she thought I was an idiot for being here with Beck after what he had done. I didn't care what anyone thought, but I did care that Cami still had some sort of fucking claim on him.
At least in everyone else's eyes.
"That's not what she said." She shook her phone in my direction. "She said that she was with him last night."
She thought she had something over me. Some secret information that would make me crumble, but she didn’t.
"I’m well aware of where Beck was last night," I said it as calmly as I could manage. "I trust Beck, and he already told me that he was with Cami."
"Drop that shit, Carrie." Carson's words were firm, and she actually had the audacity to look embarrassed.
"I was just saying."
"Well, don't." I stood and walked away from her. "If someone needs something from you, I'm sure Carson will snap his fingers."
I could hear Olly snickering behind me, but I didn't care. I was too busy focusing on not letting what she said get to me. Because it was. No matter how hard I tried to push it aside.
It mattered that people thought Beck was still hers. It mattered that I couldn't seem to compete with Cami even when Beck was here with me.
Beck caught up to me quickly as I walked away, and he wrapped his
fingers around mine without a second thought. "Don't let her get to you."
"I'm not." I shook my head even though it was a lie.
"You are, but don't. I'm yours." He squeezed my hand, and that one simple move, that one little phrase, calmed something inside me instantly.
"All mine?" I looked over at him and the way the setting sun seemed to glow against his skin. He was so damn gorgeous that it was unfair.
He didn't even try. He just was.
And I was a sucker for it even though I knew that I shouldn't let the way he was grinning at me flip my stomach. I couldn't do anything to stop it.
"All yours." He lifted my hand and brought it to his mouth, and I was mesmerized as I watched his lips meet my skin. "And you're all mine."
"I don't think I agreed to that part."
He narrowed his eyes at me just as he pulled me in closer. "Don't worry.
You did."
"Did I?" I cocked my head to the side and slowly ran my tongue over the caramel apple that was becoming sticky in my hand.
"Be careful, Josie." Beck wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me toward him. He kissed me, the caramel on my lips mixing between us, but he didn't care. "I'll start getting territorial, and you might not like that."
I would definitely like that.
Just the words made me press my thighs together.
"And what exactly would you getting territorial look like?" I ran my tongue over my apple again, and he watched the movement as if he couldn't look away.
"Josie."
"Yeah?" I asked innocently just before he grabbed the apple out of my hand and chucked it in the trash. "Hey! I was eating that!"
He wasn't listening to me, though. He was too busy pulling me through the crowd and away from our friends who were still a few yards behind us.
He tugged me forward until we reached the end of the boardwalk that was scattered with ancient arcade games, and he didn't waste a second before he pushed me against the side of the wall where a loud pinball machine was going off.
"What are you doing?" I laughed as he kissed my jaw with his hands on my hips.
"Kissing you," he practically growled, and I did nothing to stop him.