“Aww,you’re going to rain on my fun,” he teased, but there was no real recrimination in his voice.
Ian:Hugging her and putting an arm around her is normal, but all of us kissing her—she’s not sure she wants to flaunt that.
“Okay,I didn’t actually say that.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it’s what you meant. It’s what’s got you worried. We kiss you, other people see it and comment. Then we get posts like what Sharon did.”
I grimaced. “Does that make me awful? I’m not ashamed of any of you but…”
“But dating all four of us no matter how we try to swing it right now is weird,” Ian said. “I get it, Frankie. Just like…I know you made out with the other guys, and not a huge fan, but it doesn’t make me wanting to kiss you any less intense.”
I licked my lips.
Coop:Then no one kisses. That’s fair.
Ian:I’m taking her to Homecoming. I’m kissing her at Homecoming.
“Everyone deserves that kiss pic, besides…”Ian said. “I reiterate my earlier point, I like kissing you.”
“You were my first real kiss.” It just slipped right out. I couldn’t even remember if I’d mentioned it before, but the phone’s vibrations punctuated the silence.
Jake:If you’re not comfortable with all of us kissing at school, then Coop’s right, none of us. Might be easier on you with the bitch squad.
Archie:It’s up to Frankie. What do you want to do, babe?
“See,you say something like that, and I want to kiss you again—right now. But you’re all the way over there.”
“Tomorrow,” I promised him. “I’ll be over there tomorrow. Get to ride on the bike, too.”
“You bet,” he said. “And ugh…fine. If you want to keep the PDAs down, it just means we might need extra when we’re away from school. We can do the down payment tomorrow.”
I laughed, and my second line rang. “Hang on a sec, Jake’s calling.”
Answering it, I said, “Hey, I have Ian on the other line, gonna conference.”
“Cool.”
I conferenced it in. “Hey, I got Jake with me.”
“I found Coop,” Ian said drolly.
“I already had Archie,” Jake said, and we all laughed.
“Conference call, nice. Sorry I fell asleep on all of you.”
“No problem,” Archie said. “You were beat. You snore really cutely.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned.
“See!” Ian chortled.
“You do, Frankie. Course, I’ve also heard you snore like a bear in winter, so I’ll take the cute one.”
“Coop, you’re close enough for me to come find you and hit you.”
“True,” he said, almost bemused. “That might be my secret plan. Besides, you snore. It’s a fact.”
Archie chuckled. “It’s really not that bad.”