The loyalty in her voice matched the determined look on her face when I was finally able to turn and look at her—blessed red light. And in that sight, I saw something in her that matched something in me, too. Loyalty was a concept I understood. It’s just about the only virtue I held in my bones.
“Well, you’ve got your money now. But even without that…none of us, Alex and Jon and me, not one of us would ever let your mom go without. Even if you can’t be there with her day to day right now, I can make sure she has what she needs. That you both do.”
She didn’t have to thank me, but she did. She even left me with a kiss on the cheek that could’ve melted even Alex’s ice-cold heart to a puddle. Then she was bounding out of the car and up the cracked garden path toward her mom’s front door.
Maybe it was the emotional overwhelm of hearing Frankie’s story, embracing the way it hit me in a place deep within me that often went untouched, but it took me longer than it should have to notice that I wasn’t the only one lurking on this quiet, suburban street.
Across the road from me sat a similarly dark vehicle to the one I drove. Shiny and expensive, out of place among humble normal folk like Frankie and her mom, but as common to someone like me, someone involved with the Buteras, as any old nondescript silver sedan. And now that I saw it, I recalled something from the drive that hadn’t registered as I was so absorbed in Frankie’s words.
This car had been following us. Dark tinted windows, I had no idea who was inside, but I knew they were a threat. And I’d led them directly to Frankie’s Mom’s house.
The car was speeding off, screeching tires and all, before I could think about anything. Inside, it was just one refrain:Protect Frankie.
10
FRANKIE
“It is so, so good to see you, honey,” my mom said as I bent to hug her in her wheelchair.
It felt like I hadn’t seen her in months rather than just days, and we both hugged each other extra tight.
“It’s always good to see you, Mom,” I told her truthfully. “Sorry for the silence. I’ve…been busy.”
“You’re a grown up, Frankie. I just like to be sure that you’re safe.”
It took a lot of willpower not to tell her the full truth.Well, I feel safe with these three guys I’m staying with, against all the odds. But I’m not sure if I should trust that feeling.I still wasn’t used to hiding things from her. I hoped, despite myself, that it would never come naturally.
The worst part was how badly Iwantedto tell Mom about the guys. After years of having nothing to report when she asked me about boys, I finally had some experience, unconventional as it was, and it would be so much fun to dish with her about it all.
I always thought it was a waste that a goody two shoes like me was blessed with such a sex-positive, cool mom, and I’d always looked forward to the day when I could finally share the parent-appropriate version of my first time story with her.
Even if I didn’t have to hide the virginity auction of it all, there was no Mom-safe way to tell her about the three men I’d surrendered to.
So instead I smiled, hoping my expression came off as relaxed and normal. “Yeah, Mom. I’m always safe.” Well, I always had been before. “But, um, there is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
I hesitated, catching my reflection in the window behind her. I looked…different.
Softer around the edges, but somehow older, too. It must have been my mind playing tricks, seeming to visualize the new, de-virgined Frankie.
But it felt like something else, too. Like there was a new kind of life in me, one that had nothing to do with the quiet, predictable routines I used to cling to.
“I’m going to be gone more often for a while,” I said finally. “Just…spending time with friends. I’m, uh, trying to be more…well, no,lessof a homebody.”
“I’ve always wanted that for you,” Mom said, her tone growing quietly excited even as the guilt showed in her eyes. I took it as a good sign as I went on, even as my own guilt started to gnaw at me.
“I know. So…I might crash at their place sometimes. Not if you need me, of course. But I’m trying to get some newindependence, I guess. Since I’m, uh, not staying in school for now, I want some way of keeping myself busy. Feeling like, I don’t know, a real adult.”
Mom blinked at me, surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, honey, that’s wonderful. I’ve been telling you for years you need to get out more. Meet people. Do things that make you happy.”
“Yeah,” I said, with a small laugh. “Something like that.”
It was exactly what Devin had told me to do. Finding the truth in the lies. I did want to come into more of my own life, to step into the fact that I wasn’t a kid anymore. After all the adult fun I’d been having the past couple of days, it felt like the right time.
Mom’s eyes softened, then she surprised me. “You’re glowing. You know that, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “I am not.”
“No, really,” she teased, grinning. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re seeing someone.”
