Isolated

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"So... did you guys screw again yet? Or are you prolonging it until the tension gets too high?"

I elbowed Francis from where I was sitting beside him against the garage wall. I knew it was only a matter of time until he teased me or brought up something like that. He did it constantly before. Why would three years change that?

"I knew you were going to say something like that! Only took five minutes of sitting next to you and a beer until you said it," I said, taking a swig from my own can.

Looking up to Francis, he smirked down to me and shook his head. "You can't blame me. It was always fun teasing you about that."

I was loving this already. Francis and I were already back to our comfortable and teasing selves with each other. I missed him a lot since I've been gone. I knew Francis longer than anyone in his family, including Luke. We have been friends for a long time and it felt great returning to that.

It was nice too that we didn't have to worry about Carter and could focus on talking. He was getting tired from where he was sitting in the driver's seat, slumped back. One hand cuffed to the steering wheel, the other clutched the bag of chips I retrieved for him. He slowly continued munching on them but I could see his eyes were getting heavy.

"Oh trust me, I remember. You were always relentless when it came to teasing me about Luke."

"It was always so amusing," Francis said, taking another drink before setting it down on the cement next to him. "So. I want a recap of everything that happened tonight. I missed out on all the drama. I was stuck talking to Brooke then coming out here."

I let him in on all that occurred the second Luke and I walked in and faced his family. Francis didn't look surprised when I elaborated about everyone's reactions when they saw me.

"I knew mom would go crazy. When she first learned you were gone, she reacted like a mom would to her kid disappearing."

"I could tell. I mean, just a second ago when I went in the house, I saw her. She told me she and your dad were heading to bed but insisted I would see her tomorrow morning. She said she would be up to see us off." That was emotional too along with what else she said. Jan told me again how thankful she was that I was here.

He smiled. "What about dad and Shannon? How did they react?"

The way Francis asked made me raise an eyebrow. "Well, Mike gave me a hug after Jan did. Shannon gave me a hug too but she wasn't that welcoming."

"She flipped out on you, didn't she?"

"You knew that was a possibility?"

He nodded. "Did you talk to her about it?"

"Yeah. She told me everything about what happened. About Luke," I said under my breath, looking down. I still was having a hard time with what I she told me. "I can't believe what he went through."

"He had a rough time, that's for sure." His words made me wonder if he knew as much as Shannon did. She did say that Luke didn't go to Francis with some things. However, what he said next made me rethink that. A light hit his eyes when his gaze found mine in curiosity. "Did she tell you about Clare's grave? I always did wonder if she found out about that."

My heartrate spiked instantly. I sat up straighter, facing him more directly. Was there more that Shannon didn't know? "No. What are you talking about?"

He was slow to answer. "Well... do you know what happened to your mom's body?" When I shook my head in answer, he continued. "Turns out, after the news spread about what your mother did to you, it brought her family - distant family too - a lot of attention. A lot of negative attention and they wanted to defend their name. So they paid for Clare to get a nice burial and headstone."