Jake:
She’s right. He loves them.
“We need to find out when senior skip day is.” The past few days all seemed to blur together.
“We’ll figure it out,” Jake said even as our phones vibrated.
Archie:
I’ll take care of everything. Leave it with me.
“See,” Jake said. “Archie has it. He’ll take care of it.” He winked.
Bubba:
What about presents?
Me:
Yes, we’ll need those too. But I think we start with roller coasters, then cake back at the house, and fun. Lots of fun.
We all needed the fun.
Archie:
I’ll take care of it, babe.
For the first time in a while, I smiled at my phone. Planning something good for Coop felt like the right place to put my energy. When I caught Jake grinning at me, I didn’t question it, just went with it and grinned back.
“Help me review that last chapter?”
“Get over here,” he said, grin growing wider, as he dragged a desk closer to his own. “Want to start from the beginning?”
“Yeah,” I said, relaxing as he flipped open his book.
“Pop quiz,” he started and I almost laughed. Because that felt good too.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
FRANKIE
Senior skip day was supposed to feel rebellious.
Instead, it felt like fluorescent lighting, bad pop music, and me pretending very badly that I hadn’t memorized the date of Coop’s birthday sometime around age six.
I’d kidnapped him right after first period—no questions, no explanations, justget in the carenergy—and driven us straight to the mall under the guise of “shopping.” Specifically, shopping for a Homecoming dress, which sounded productive and normal and not at all like I was avoiding thinking about literally everything else.
It was… not going well.
I made it maybe twenty minutes before my patience evaporated. Every rack looked wrong. Every mirror felt accusatory. The music was too loud. The lights were too bright. And Coop kept side-eyeing me like he was waiting for a punchline I was refusing to deliver.
“You okay?” he asked carefully, as I stared at a rack of sequined dresses like they’d personally offended me.
“I’m great,” I lied.
“Really?” He hummed. “Because you look like you’re considering arson or maybe stabbing those dresses with scissors.”
