“You all right?”
“I’m great,” I told him, and he stared at me steadily. Had I turned transparent at some point? I used to be able to do this without them noticing.
Jake saw through it sometimes. Well, so did Coop.
Fine, they all did. But they didn’t always call me on it.
“I know you’re worried about Jake and Bubba. Whatever it turns out to be, we’ll figure it out, okay?”
I nodded.
“And, Frankie?”
“Do you want to come over tonight?” I asked abruptly. “I know Jake usually comes over on Wednesdays, but…maybe you want to? Or I could go over there?”
He blinked. “Whatever you want, babe. Seriously.”
“I’d like to…I’ll talk to Jake, but…we haven’t really had any us time, and tomorrow is everyone.” And I really had to get myself in a place where I could deal with Ian being there.
“No problem,” he murmured, slinging an arm around my shoulder. “Let me know, and we’ll make it happen, okay?”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“Never have to thank me.”
Jake didn’t make it to Study Hall. There was no word from them. Most of my distractions didn’t work, so I settled for texting back and forth with Archie and Coop.
Both of whom scolded me for not studying.
I checked in with Rachel too, and thanked her for listening the night before.
She sent me back a thumbs up and then a link to an Instagram post.
It showed me flipping off Sharon and Sharon’s shocked face with the wordschooledin the caption.
That got all the heart eyes from Rachel, and I giggled.
It helped.
When Jake arrived at AP Euro, I damn near said to hell with our lack of PDA rule and hugged him. G gave him a long look, then asked how he was feeling.
“I’m good, Mr. G. Real good. Looks way worse than it is.”
“Uh huh. You two fine to handle studying on your own? I have tests to go grade.”
We agreed readily, and he left us to it. As soon as he was out of the room, I twisted to face him. “What happened?”
“We met with Coach and the principal. We’re not suspended, but there are no more strikes. If I get in another fight, I’m suspended for a week. He didn’t say expelled, but you could hear him thinking it loud.”
I winced.
“Bubba’s in the same boat—only now, he’s also riding the bench with me.”
Oh shit.
“Yeah,” Jake said with a shrug. “He also has to see Diane…and that’s why I wasn’t in study hall. They took us straight from lunch to her office, where he and I have to sit down and talk about our feelings at least once a week for the next couple of weeks, so we can learn to manage our disagreements more positively.”
I gagged, and Jake laughed.