She blinked at me, fragile and overwhelmed, but something in her shifted—a spark of relief, maybe, or the tiniest bit of trust. I held her there, in the car, letting her lean on me while the worldoutside waited. Because I didn’t care about the world right now. Not when she was here. Not when she was mine.
I didn’t give a damn what I had to do, she was mine and she was going tostaythat way.
Chapter
Eleven
FRANKIE
Idon’t remember saying goodbye.
Not really.
One minute Archie’s hand was still warm against my cheek, his eyes doing that impossible thing where they looked both furious and gentle at the same time—and the next, I was sitting alone inside the car, air slamming back into my lungs like I’d been underwater too long.
He’d said he’d be right behind me, that he just needed to run home for a minute and change then he’d “be there in no time.” For this bizarre moment that seemed both trapped in amber and stuck in fast forward, I clung to his assurance. I drove away still tasting coffee and confusion, running my thumb over the same spot on my lower lip like it could tell me what the hell just happened.
The road blurred by in soft streaks of morning light. I kept catching glimpses of violet hair in the rearview mirror and feeling like I was looking at a stranger. A stranger who made terrible choices and kissed people she maybe shouldn’t have—unless everything she’d been told was a lie.
And God, I wanted it to be a lie.
The steering wheel was slick against my palms. I rolled the window down just enough to let the wind hit my face, hoping it would clear my head. It didn’t. My pulse was still stuttering, trying to decide if it belonged to the girl who used to follow the rules or the one who’d just let her best friend kiss her like the world was ending.
The worst part?
I kissed him back.
He wasn’t even the first of the guys I’d kissed now and—who was I anymore? Coop. Jake. My heart did a vicious squeeze at the memory of Jake and his reactions. Now Archie.
Archie.
Somewhere between panic and wanting, I’d stopped thinking and just… let go. I could still feel the shape of it—his breath, the tremor in his hands, the tiny, broken sound I’d made that wasn’t protest.
Now?
Now I was supposed to go to school like nothing happened.
“Totally fine,” I muttered to the empty car, forcing a humorless laugh. “Everything’s fine. Definitely not unraveling before first period.”
Traffic thinned as I hit the last stretch toward campus. The sun had started to climb higher, throwing gold through the windshield. It made everything look too bright, too ordinary. Like the world had the audacity to keep turning when mine had just cracked down the middle.
My phone buzzed against the console.
For one wild, stupid second, I thought it was Archie—maybe saying he was already on his way, maybe saying something I wasn’t ready to hear.
It wasn’t.
Mathieu:
Still picking me up?
My heart dropped so fast it made me dizzy.
Oh, God.
Mathieu.
I’d completely forgotten. Forgotten him, the plan, the promise. Forgotten everything except the chaos that was Archie’s mouth and Maddy’s words and my entire life flipping inside out.
