Catch Twenty-Two (Westover Prep 2)

My truck rumbles to life, a dinosaur amongst the brand-new Chevys and decked out Jeeps, but no one seems to mind, surprising considering just how mean some of these people are to others. I guess if you can throw and catch a ball then you’re okay by their standards even if your vehicle is a junker.

I hit a fast food place before going back to the Young’s house. Even though Mrs. Young told me I have free run of the place, it’s always weird raiding a fridge that doesn’t belong to me. Plus, it’s filled with healthy stuff, not the casseroles and meatloaves I’m used to bringing home from Mrs. Jacobson’s house. I eat my burger and fries in the parking lot rather than heading straight back to the house.

With any luck, Frankie’s door will be closed and her light will be off when I get home, making it easier to slip by and go to my own room. We’re due for a conversation, but I’ve been avoiding it because I don’t know how to open my stupid mouth and apologize. There’s just something about that girl that makes me want to kiss her and shake her at the same time, and so long as I don’t understand what I’m feeling, I can’t talk to her about it.

The food is gone too fast, but driving around and wasting gas isn’t economical, so I head back to the house, sighing when I pull up and see the porch light is off. I know the door is locked before I even reach for the knob, but that doesn’t stop me.

I’m standing there contemplating sleeping in my truck, but I know Frankie isn’t asleep. Dalton’s truck is still in the driveway which means they’re all inside.

I ring the doorbell, knocking on it when that goes unanswered. I’m ready to pound again when it swings open. Dalton is standing in the foyer glaring at me like I stole his lunch money.

Before I can even open my mouth to greet him, he rears his fist back before punching me in the face. When my hands reach up to my eye, he throws another blow to my stomach. The fast food I just ate threatens to come back up as I bend in the middle.

“What the fuck, man!” I manage.

I see his boots first, shiny, expensive things that would never cut it on a ranch, and I nearly laugh at the stupid thought, but then I hear his ragged breathing close to my ear.

“When Frankie is hurting, Piper is hurting, and no one hurts my girl.”

I stand to my full height, noticing I’m a couple of inches taller than Dalton, and I’m easily thirty pounds heavier—all muscle from working so hard all my life—but from the sneer on Dalton’s face, it’s clear that he doesn’t give a damn about our size difference. He’ll fight me just on principle alone, and I can respect that about him. His hands clench and open like he’s just waiting for me to make my move, but the girls are coming down the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Piper screeches as she clears the bottom step.

Frankie hangs back a little further, and it kills me that she’s afraid to approach, but deep down I know I did that to her. I made her not trust me. I put that anxiety in her eyes, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to make it go away.

“Just a little misunderstanding,” I mutter, finally letting my arms fall from my midsection.

“Hopefully, everything is clear now,” Dalton says through clenched teeth.

“Crystal,” I mutter, not pulling my eyes from his.

The slight nod he gives me is all I wait for before leaving the room.

I don’t walk toward the stairs because that’s where Frankie is standing and I couldn’t bear to see her flinch away from me, but then I hear them talking.

“Frankie, go pack an overnight bag. I want you to stay with me tonight. I don’t want you to be alone with him.”

That wasn’t so bad, but hearing Frankie say, “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” nearly kills me.

Less than five minutes later, the front door opens and closes, and I’m left alone in a house that isn’t mine, worrying about a girl I’ll never get close enough to touch again.Chapter 36Frankie

The stress of being in the same house with Zeke is killing me. I go to bed exhausted, yet I still wake up just as tired. This morning I woke up with a queasy stomach, all from the stress of him just being here.

I haven’t really spoken to my parents, so I have no idea if or when his mother will come to town and he’ll move in with her, but his presence is ruining me.

I worry about running into him at home even though after joining the football team his time is filled with practices, games, and of course Bronwyn. She’s constantly plastered to his side, looking like his better half, the tall, beautiful perfect yin to his yang. If her soul wasn’t as black as night, she’d be the epitome of perfection, but she uses every chance she can get to sneer at me, sometimes hissing like a feral cat. She doesn’t do it while she’s hanging on Zeke anymore, but that doesn’t stop her from being confrontational to me in the restroom or during our gym class.