With a crash the glass doors were flung open and both light and people welled out on the patio.
Sofia tried to look small and inconspicuous against the bush. She needn’t have worried about being spotted. Everyone on the patio was thinking about themselves and occasionally the person whose tongue they currently had in their mouth. They hardly noticed her. Sofia glanced at the guy behind her.
“I’ll go…” she started to say.
Then she caught sight of a couple that were making out in one of the chairs to her right. A girl wearing a light pink, silky dress was sitting atop a guy who was wearing a Kansas State sweater. Locks of glossy, black hair covered both their faces until he reached up to brush it behind her ear.
Sofia leaped sidewards and collided with a bush shaped like a flamingo. She recognized that girl. Rachel. Sofia blinked and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Maybe Rachel and Jefferson had broken up. Sofia couldn’t blame her for not wanting to be stuck with him. No one in their right mind would ever…
“Yes, it’s getting a little…” the guy beside her stopped yelling abruptly as his gaze settled on the kissing couple.
Someone opened the door again and light spilled out on them just as he took off his mask and Sofia suddenly knew exactly who she had been talking to. Blast it all.
Thomas looked at the couple. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, wouldn’t believe what he was seeing. He took off his mask to see better. Hurt cut through his chest and for a moment he couldn't breathe. He jumped when someone touched his arm. That’s right, the nice girl he’d been talking to before about the Gilmore sculpture. He couldn’t fall apart in front of her, just couldn’t.
He turned his face from whatever it was that was taking place in the garden chair in front of him and wished that he could pretend like hadn’t seen it. He looked at the girl beside him and wondered if she’d noticed his reaction, if it had shown on his face when his heart broke.
Someone opened the glass doors again and the girl’s face was suddenly in full view. Thomas felt like someone had pulled the ground away from under him. During the short moment that their gazes locked he recognized both who she was and that she had seen everything. His knees buckled.
“Wow, take it easy, it’s okay, you’re okay,” she said and grabbed hold of his arm so he wouldn’t fall.
“Let me go!” Thomas shouted and shook her off.
Rachel looked up when she heard his voice and all the color vanished from her face. Or perhaps that was the dead-cheerleader-make-up?
Thomas took a step forward. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, he just knew that he needed to hurt the guy in whose lap she was sitting. Hit him and keep hitting him until the pain in his chest was gone. He tried to take another step, but someone was holding him back. Sofia. Of course.
“Are you deaf? Let me go!”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? Let me go!’
“Not when you’re this angry! He’s not worth it,” Sofia yelled, holding on to him.
“That’s none of your business!”
“I have seen documentaries about how easy it is to land yourself in juvie here! You’re not throwing your future away like this. I won’t let you.”
He froze and turned to glare at her.
“You won’t let me?”
“That’s right. I’m not going to do our project all by myself while you’re locked up for assault!”
“You let go of me or I swear, I’ll…”
“Thomas?”
Rachel had disentangled herself from the guy on the chair and was coming towards him. No, no. He couldn’t stand to be near her now, he didn’t know what he’d do if he was.
He looked from Rachel to Sofia and tore his arms lose so violently that she almost fell over in those ridiculously high heels she was wearing. Then he ran towards the doors. He had to get out of here.
Sofia watched Thomas run away over the patio and disappear into the crowd in the living room.
“Why did you let him go?” Rachel shrieked and pushed her so that she bounced against one of the sculpted bushes.
Sofia miraculously managed to remain on her feet. When Rachel came at her again she pushed back.
Rachel landed on her backside with a yelp. The guy in the garden chair hurried over to her, but Sofia didn't wait to see if she was okay, instead she rushed back into the house.
She’d never admit that she was running after Thomas, so she told herself that she was just hurrying inside to avoid Rachel. While she was doing that she might as well make sure Thomas didn’t hurt anyone. He’d seemed… volatile.
Stuck in the middle of the crowd she straightened and pushed through the dancing people in the direction she hoped Thomas had taken. She couldn’t shake the feeling that, although he was an idiot, he shouldn’t be alone right now. For everyone else’s sake, of course.
Dodging elbows and jumping legs, she managed to get to the front yard in time to see him get into his car. She took a step out the door at the same time as the car pulled out of the yard with a roar. She watched the red tail lights disappear into the darkness and cursed. Why did she care? He was going to be alright, of course he was going to be alright. She bit her lip and stared out over the yard.
Suddenly someone pulled her back inside and before she could protest she was stuck in a lambada, the guy behind her holding on to her hips so hard she had no chance of getting away. When his hands wandered to her backside she finally managed to twist and catch him in the solar plexus with her elbow. He went down like a ton of bricks.
She leaned over him and explained to him in no uncertain terms her opinion of little boys who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves before walking off in search of Jock. The guy on the floor groaned when she accidentally kicked him in the crotch as she stepped over him. Maybe these shoes weren’t such a bad idea after all.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” someone muttered in her ear, pulling her close.
Sofia turned around to find Wayne grinning down at her. She grinned back. It was impossible not to. Wayne wasn’t technically all that good-looking, but there was something about the way his eyes twinkled when he smiled that made it difficult not to like him.
And then there was the impressive display of muscles. They were extra visible tonight with the shirt he was wearing completely unbuttoned, but also looked disquieting with the fake blood splattered over his skin. Sofia forced her gaze back to his face.
“Hey! Do you know where Jock got to?”
Wayne’s grin wavered. “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about you.”
“Right. Listen, I think Thomas might need someone to go after him.”
“He’s fine. He’s with Rachel,” Wayne said and pulled her closer to slow dance with her. It struck Sofia as a strange thing to do when the music was anything but slow.
“No, he left,” Sofia said, wondering if Thomas would mind if she told his friends what had happened. Then she wondered why she cared.
“Mm,” Wayne said, tightening his grip on her. It gave her an excellent opportunity to get up close and personal with all those muscles, but it made it difficult to talk so she pushed back.
When she turned her face up to speak she had to immediately dodge a kiss.
“Wayne! Stop that!”
“Why? I like you. I just want a kiss.”
“How much beer have you had? No!” Sofia said when he tried again.
“You said you and Jock aren’t dating.”
“We aren’t, but that doesn’t mean I want to be kissing you.”
Wayne looked like she’d slapped him. He let her go and took a step back. Sofia sighed and suppressed a frustrated groan. Nothing was turning out the way she wanted it to tonight. She took Wayne’s hand and pulled him from the dance floor, into a slightly less loud living room.
“I didn’t mean that there is anything wrong with you. I like you Wayne,” she said and tried to make her voice as kind as po
ssible. “But not… romantically. I like you as a friend.”
“And Jock?”
“Also as a friend. But I kind of like kissing him too,” Sofia admitted. To Wayne and to herself. She couldn't believe that she was talking about her feelings like this. And with Wayne of all people.
“I think you could kind of like kissing me,” Wayne said, leaning in.
Sofia placed a hand on his chest. “No.”
“But you said Jock…”
“It’s complicated,” Sofia said with a grimace. She hated complicated. She didn’t understand why she had let herself get pulled into it. “But that doesn’t make a difference to how I feel about kissing you.”
Wayne placed his hands on her hips, but he didn’t make another go for her lips. “I bet I could change your mind.”
Sofia was pretty sure he couldn’t, but decided not to tell him that. “Right,” she said instead and tried to get the conversation back on track. “I was serious about Thomas. Someone needs to go after him. He saw… er… he was upset and he drove off.”
“Did you piss him off again?”
“Not this time,” Sofia said, frowning at the accusation. “I… I… he needs a friend.”
Wayne raised both eyebrows. “Why do you care about Jefferson?”
Good question. She wasn’t exactly sure, but she knew what it was like to find out that someone wasn’t who you thought they were, knew how much it hurt. No one should be left alone with that.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m telling you, someone needs to go after him. I was thinking Jock could…”
“They’re not on speaking terms right now.”
“But they’re still friends. I’m sure they could make up.”
“Sure who could make up?” Jock asked from behind her, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared at Wayne’s hands on her.
“You and Thomas. He drove off and he was… I don’t think he should be alone,” Sofia said.
Jock raised an eyebrow. “How is that my problem?”
“You’re his friend.”
Jock studied her, his head tilted. Then he sighed, grabbed her hand and pulled her away from Wayne. “We’ll go after him.”
“What? No! I can’t go with you.”
“Why not? Would you prefer staying here, cuddling with Wayne?” he asked with clipped words.
Sofia blinked at his tone. Then she grinned. “Are you jealous?”
“Should I be?”
Sofia ignored that question. “Both of you should go.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“Yes, you are. I came here with Denise, Claire and Marlie. I’ll go home with them.”
Jock hesitated. “What happened to him?”
Sofia stood up on tiptoe so she could speak directly into his ear. “He saw Rachel make out with someone else.”
Jock cringed. “Ouch. Does he know you saw?”
“Yes.”
“And is the guy she was making out with still alive?”
“Yes. Not a scratch on him. Now go!”
Jock hesitated another second before pulling her close and kissing her. He made quite a production of it and Sofia wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or annoyed. He finally pulled back, grabbed a sulking Wayne by the shoulder and walked away before she could decide on which.
Sofia watched them go before heading back into the crowd to find Denise and the others. She’d been here long enough. Before she could do more than step out of the room, though, someone pulled her into a dance. She looked up into the face of someone she vaguely recognized from French class. He grinned at her and pulled her closer.
“Great music!” he yelled into her ear.
Sofia didn’t think the noise coming from the stage could even be described as music, but she nodded and leaned forward to tell him to let her go.
“But you just got here!” he protested. “It’s a party! You have to dance!”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Sofia improvised. “I feel sick.”
She pretended to heave and the guy immediately let her go and took a step back. That would have been fine if he hadn’t also tripped over someone’s foot, fallen over and wrecked an antique-looking vase.
She took a step towards him to help him up, but a girl from her calculus class pulled her into a conga line. After that the party quickly deteriorated, culminating with the DeMoaners’ guitarist setting fire to his guitar and, inadvertently, the fake spiderwebs and long drapes behind the stage.
As the sprinklers came on Sofia was finally able, with the help of a well-deployed knee, to escape the human octopus currently trying to convince her to come upstairs with him.
Ten minutes after the screaming started she had managed the superhuman feat of pulling Marlene from her skinny dipping in the pool and back into her mermaid suit and Claire from some guy who was feeding her chocolate cake Sofia was positive contained an illegal variety of herbs.
Five minutes later she’s found Denise in one of the upstairs bathrooms where she was throwing up all that vodka that she had insisted on downing before going to the party. She had them all out of the house before the firefighters and the police arrived.
As they slowly made their way back to Sippleton on foot, since none of them was fit to drive, Sofia tried not to think about Thomas. She hoped that he was okay. Not that she cared or anything.
Annoyed with herself, she texted Jock to see if everything was alright. Why had she agreed to go to this stupid party? She stumbled on a pebble and nearly twisted her ankle.
“Ouch!”
“This was awesome, right? Wasn’t this awesome?” Denise said, leaning on her shoulder.
“I’m a mermaid!” Marlene exclaimed, skipping along next to them. “I belong in the sea!”
Sofia shook her head at them, while she concentrated on not falling over any more pebbles on the dark road.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Claire asked dreamily. “I’m really, really hungry. You know?”
“Finally!” Denise exclaimed, grabbing Claire’s hand.
“There’s a drive thru over there,” Sofia said, pointing.
“We can walk through!” Denise exclaimed with a laugh that nearly toppled her over.
“So long as we don’t have anything with fish,” Marlie said solemnly. “I’m a mermaid. The fish are my friends.”
“Of course we won’t have fish, we’re in Kansas,” Denise said. “We’ll have…” she scrounged up her face as she considered their options.
“Maybe we should get an Uber or a taxi?” Sofia suggested.
“Food first,” Claire decided.
“Corn!” Denise exclaimed. “We’re in Kansas, we’ll have corn! Or corndogs.”
“Dogs are also my friends.”
“Who cares? I’m hungry!”
By the time they all made it back to Denise’s place it was four o’clock in the morning. Sofia checked her phone again. Nothing.
14
Building Up
”What do you mean ’the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen’?” Thomas asked.
He glanced at the enormous building in concrete, glass and steal towering over them. It was supposedly one of a kind and that at least, Thomas thought, was something to be grateful for.
Some called it an architectural masterpiece and he supposed that was one way of looking at it. It was grey, it was big and it was ugly. It still symbolized Sippleton and he wouldn’t let anyone speak in a condescending manner about it. He told Sofia as much.
Sofia rolled her eyes. She was trying to be extra nice to Thomas these days. She knew he was hurting and had been since the party nearly two weeks ago.
She had tried talking to him about what happened, but he had told her to mind her own business. Even Jock had told her to leave it alone, which was just plain offensive considering that she was the one who had told him about it in the first place.
She clenched her jaw. It was hard to deal with Thomas being a prick now that she knew that he could be nice if he
wanted to be. He’d been nice out on the patio before he discovered who she was.
She shook her head. Better get in and get this visit over with quickly so she wouldn’t have to spend anymore time with him. At least Thomas didn’t slack off on their project. He was turning out to be one of the most disciplined people she’d ever partnered with for a school project. She tried to focus on that rather than her growing urge to punch him in the face.
”Come on, let’s go inside,” Sofia said and walked towards the entrance with her rucksack nonchalantly slung over one shoulder.
He could either remain there, outside the ugliest building in the world, getting soaked, or he could follow her. She stumbled on the concrete. It had been a mistake to wear high heels for this. She already knew the tight jeans had been a bad idea, but she had wanted to look professional. Besides, Thomas was tall and she wanted to be able to look him in the face when they argued.
She steeled her back and picked up her pace, hoping the increased speed would help her balance. Momentum was supposed to work that way, right? She heard him mutter what might have been a curse before hurrying after after her.
If the JBC headquarters was ugly and grotesque on the outside, it was classy on the inside. They were standing in a large hall, decorated from floor to ceiling with white marble. The centerpiece was a gigantic staircase leading all the way up to what had to be the sixth floor. Light was entering the room from numerous, tinted windows, rendering a yellow color to the all the white. Details in dark, carved wood on walls and furniture contrasted nicely with the light stone.
If it hadn’t been for all the cameramen and photographers that were running around, carrying their weird and large gadgets all over the place, they might as well have been inside a bank or a museum.
She took a closer look at the photographers’ shabby clothes and unshaved faces. Definitely not bank employees. The reporters weren’t any better. They were better dressed, but the amount of make-up they had on made them look more like they were getting ready for a performance in a circus than visiting a museum.
Fractured (Unreel series Book 1) Page 13
