The look of shock that Jake sent toward Bubba was enough to make me wince. As for the cheerleaders, they looked pretty wrecked for being the ones to douse the guys.
“Miss Camden. Miss Ryan.” The vice principal’s voice rang across the suddenly less festive cafeteria as she marched across the room, heels clicking. “My office. Now.”
“Rhys. Benton.” Coach was not even two steps behind the vice principal. “Let’s go…”
“We didn’t do anything,” Jake started, but another hard look from Bubba shut him up. “Fuck me,” Jake muttered, then slanted a look at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah—are you okay?” Bubba doublechecked, giving me a once over. I was damp, and there were droplets of water on my face, but I’d missed most of the mess.
I nodded, but Coach whistled before I could say anything else and that earned another scowl from Jake. “We’ll be back,” he said, clearly pissed, as they grabbed their bags and went.
As they left, someone from the janitorial staff headed over to mop up the water and I just sat there, waiting for… something. Around me the cafeteria noise swelled once again.
My brain wouldn’t stop replaying the kiss. The way Archie’s voice had gone rough when he saidyou’re not my sister, the way I hadn’t pulled away.
Someone dropped a tray. Someone else shouted across the room. People were already posting new messages and images. My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I didn’t pull it out.
The whole world sat skewed, tilted unsteadily. Nothing was the same. Nothing. And me? I was sitting here pretending I hadn’t just detonated the only piece of normal I had left.
Chapter
Twelve
FRANKIE
Archie took a hell of a lot longer than I expected to get to school. By then, we barely had time to say more than three words once he and Coop got there. Coop looked like hell, but he’d just given me a tight smile and walked away.
“Give him time, babe,” Archie said, pressing a fresh coffee into my hand. “I’ll meet you in class.” Then he, too, was gone. I hadn’t even made it to my locker before the first bell, and our kiss had already metastasized into something with teeth.
Rumors didn’t walk at this school—they sprinted, hurdling over facts, logic, and dignity on their way to becoming full-blown melodramas. So it shouldn’t have surprised me that by the time I got to my locker, people were already whispering like I’d committed a felony instead of… whatever that kiss with Archie counted as.
Each murmuredDid you hear?felt like a shove to my ribs.
EachArchie? No way—right?made my skin itch.
Every side-eye might as well have read,Look at her. Who does she think she is?
I told myself to focus on the combination lock, but my fingers fumbled twice, then three times. My pulse felt too close to the surface, like it was vibrating through my bones. Maybeif I just pretended hard enough, the world would fall back into alignment. Or at least stop tilting under my feet.
I didn’t see Mathieu until his shadow cut over mine.
And even then I didn’t see him—Ifelthim first. A familiar warmth, the faint scent of soap he always used, the subtle shift in the hallway when someone tall and quietly intense stepped close.
“Frankie.”
His voice wasn’t angry. And somehow that was worse. His accent softened my name to a caress, but it wasoff. Not as gentle or teasing as normal.
I froze with my hand still on the locker door. “Hey. I’m sorry I didn’t make it over to get you. I was actually going to text?—”
“You kissed him.” No hesitation. No question. A verdict.
Shock punched me in the solar plexus. Rumors were one thing. But how the hell hadthis onehappened already? We hadn’t even been at the school. We’d been… I blinked once before the floor tried to drop out from beneath me. “Okay,” I said, because I couldn’t think of a real response. “Wow. That’s—where did you even hear that?”
The words came out on a shiver of icy chill racing through my system. My stomach bottomed out, my heart thudded so hard it was a pounding that reverberated in my ears.
“It doesn’t matter where.” He stepped forward, just enough that the metal behind me nudged the back of my spine. He wasn’t touching me, but it felt like he had me braced all the same. “Is it true?”
His eyes searched my face, dark and sharp and almost pleading—like if I said the right thing, he’d release the tension coiled through his shoulders.
