by Holly Renee
"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.
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?"
All three of them jerked around in my direction as if they hadn’t even heard the door open before Frankie started laughing all over again.
"I’m trying to get these two loudmouths into Frankie’s room." Allie was grinning, but she was the only one who seemed to have her shit together. "Don’t mind us." She waved me off. "Go right back to bed."
"Why don’t you let me help you?" I walked past all three of them and opened Frankie’s door. Her room had looked the same for as long as I could remember, and there were piles of clothes thrown everywhere from where she was trying to decide what to wear earlier tonight.
The three of them walked into the room behind me, and Josie didn’t dare look in my direction. She and Frankie were still holding hands, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. I didn’t know why I couldn’t take my eyes off of where their hands were clasped together.
"Do you know where her pajamas are?" Allie asked as she pushed her hair out of her face and looked up at me. "Her clothes are still damp."
I walked to Frankie’s dresser and threw three old t-shirts and three pairs of shorts onto the bed. "What the hell did you all get into?"
"A little of this and a little of that," Allie said nonchalantly.
"Girl code, Beck." Frankie plopped down on her bed before looking over at me. "We’re not telling you anything."
Josie snorted out a laugh, and Frankie quickly followed suit. They had clearly been drinking, and I couldn’t bring myself to be mad about it. Frankie was so damn happy.
"Fine. Girl code." I pointed to the three of them, but Josie was still looking anywhere but at me. "I’m going back to bed. Do you think you three can get into bed without waking up the entire house?"
"We’ve got this." Allie saluted me. "We’re sorry we woke you up, but actually I’m not." She shook her head and smirked at me. "You hurt my best friend."
Josie laughed again, but this ti
me her gaze finally met mine.
"And I’m sorry that I hurt your best friend." I didn’t let my eyes move an inch away from hers. I was standing in the middle of my little sister’s room in nothing but my underwear, but I just wanted to tell her how sorry I was again and again.
I wanted to say it until she finally heard it. Until she believed me.
"That’s not good enough, pretty boy." Allie snapped her fingers, and I jerked my gaze away from Josie. "Now bye-bye."
Damn. Allie had always been on my side, but not anymore. I held up my hands in surrender and walked toward the door. "Okay. You all have fun. The bathroom is through there." I pointed to the door at the far edge of Frankie’s room.
None of them acknowledged me again as I stepped out of her room and slowly shut the door behind me.
I could hear them laughing again as I walked back into my room, and the sound was barely muffled when I closed my door. I leaned my back against the hardwood and took a deep breath.
Josie was in my house. She was so damn close but still so far away.
I wanted to march back in there and drag her back here with me, but I knew I wouldn’t. If I wanted Josie to forgive me, then I couldn’t be a barbaric idiot who demanded things from her that I didn’t deserve.
Even though every part of me screamed for me to do so.
I pushed off the door and walked across my dark room to climb into bed. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and wondering what they were doing across the hall, but before I knew it, my eyes were feeling heavy again, and sleep found me even though I tried to deny it.
I didn’t know how much time had passed when I felt a weight press down on my mattress and warm skin sliding against mine. I blinked my eyes open, lack of sleep taking its toll on me, but all I saw was a mess of brown hair against my chest.
"Josie?" I shifted, but her arm was wrapped around my stomach and she tightened her hold. "Is everything okay?"
I reached down and pushed some hair out of her face so I could get a clear view of her. She blinked up at me, sleep filling her own gaze, before nuzzling into my chest.
"Can we just not make a big deal out of this?" Her breath puffed in and out against my chest, and I wrapped my arm around her back.
