Games of Fire

by Airicka Phoenix

  “You know you’re being stupid don’t you?” Joe said, annoyance pouring through every word. “He’s going to get back with Tiffany.”

  “Oh hush you!” Jessie said kindly. “This is exciting news for our Sophie!”

  “Especially since this could mean we could be rubbing shoulders with the elite of Westwood High by next week!”

  The elite pretty much summed up every pretty person at Westwood High, a crowd consisting mainly of cheerleaders, jocks and student body council members. Being popular had never interested her until the year Brian Fisher moved to River Port. She still wasn’t overly anxious to join the rowdy group, but her friends were excited about it.

  “Since when did you care to join the High Table?” Joe asked Lauren, rapping the end of his pencil hard on his open textbook.

  Lauren scoffed. “Since Roy joined the football team!”

  If their high school had been prison, then Roy Praxton would be the go-to guy for all the contraband stuff you weren’t allowed to have. He could get anything for a fee and threw some of the wildest parties around. He was also Brian’s best friend which made him a shoo-in for the High Table. Sophie had never fancied him, but Lauren was half in love with the guy and had already picked all the names of their children.

  “And when she’s queen, Sophie’s going to hook a sister up, ain’t ya?” Lauren was saying in her best southern drawl.

  Sophie laughed, shaking her head. “And here I thought we were friends because we both had the same Hello Kitty lunchbox in kindergarten.”

  Lauren flicked a dainty wrist. “A girl needs more than a lunchbox nowadays.”

  Bill arrived at their table then, a large, round tray propped on his hairy forearm. Everyone but Joe received a brimming plate of burgers and fries. He threw himself deeper into the history paper he was writing.

  Sophie nudged her plate of fries closer to him. He pretended not to notice, but she nudged harder, until it hit his forearm, nearly upending on his open textbook.

  “I can’t eat all of this by myself,” she told him as she did every time.

  There were three things Joe hated more than his father, being pitied was one of them. The other two were his childhood and, more recently, Spencer. But it was never pity on her part. She had never pitied anyone, but she disliked that Joe always went along with their plans knowing he wouldn’t be able to afford a simple plate of burgers and fries. He was the sole supporter in his family and any money he did get went into supporting his mother. How could she fault him for that, or even let it bother her. He was a great friend and that’s all she cared about.

  “Liar,” he muttered, grudgingly taking a fry, and bit into it. “I’ve seen you and fries. You practically eat them by the truckload.”

  Sophie laughed, opening her mouth to respond when Lauren jumped in.

  “Well, don’t look now, but I think Mr. Fisher is trying to get your attention!”

  Sophie turned her head over her shoulder and sure enough, Brian was waving her over. Her heart stuttered in her chest. She turned back to her friends, her eyes wide with barely suppressed excitement and terror.

  “What do I say?”

  “Talk more about your Irish grandmamma,” Lauren teased, earning a playful scowl from Sophie.

  “Go!” Jessie said.

  Bottom lip caught between her teeth, Sophie slid out of the booth. She tugged at the hem of her sweater nervously before starting over. Brian rose out of his seat when she reached his table. The others at the booth ceased their discussion and watched her curiously. Sophie ignored them, focusing completely on Brian.

  “Hey!” she said.

  He smiled. “Roy’s parents are out of town and we’re having a party there Friday. Want to come?”

  There were several seconds of confusion as Sophie tried to decipher his question. It was said simply and in English, but she couldn’t figure out why he was asking her, or if he was even serious. It honestly made no sense. Why would Brian Fisher be asking her to a party?

  “I’m sorry?”

  Brian chuckled. “Did I talk too fast?”

  Blushing, Sophie shook her head. “No, I’m just not sure I heard you right.”

  “Well,” he said evenly. “Roy …” He pointed to the handsome boy in question, bent over a slice of pizza. “Is having a party Friday night at his house. I would like for you to come.”

  She’d never really met Roy, never said two words to him, but they shared History together and she felt like she practically knew him because of Lauren, but going to his party just seemed weird considering that’s all they shared. “Roy’s fine with it,” Brian said, misunderstanding her hesitation. “I already talked to him and the others. You’d be my guest.”

  “Oh!” Sophie glanced at her friends. Jessie gave her two thumbs up and Lauren motioned for her to turn back around. Joe looked like someone was forcing him to chew nails. His fury was a razor sharp blade carving the air. The elated feeling melted into one of guilt as she faced Brian once more. “I can’t. My friends …”

  “They can come,” Brian said at once.

  “Brian!” a cute brunette hissed, shooting Sophie the stink-eye. “You can’t just invite random people!”

  Brian barely gave her a glance. “It’s a party! The more people the better, right?” The question was aimed at Roy, who nodded in agreement around a mouthful of pizza, satisfying Brian. “Awesome. So, you and your friends are invited. Do you have a cell? I’ll text you the address.”

  Sophie fished into the pocket of her jeans and passed him her phone. His fingers danced with quick, agile movements across the keys. He dug his own phone out of his pocket and did the same. A moment later, he returned her phone.

  “There. You have my number now and I have yours. I’ll send you that text later tonight.”

  She had Brian Fisher’s number. She had Brian Fisher’s number! Beaming and feeling like she could fly, Sophie all but skipped back to her table.

  “Well?” Jessie said even before Sophie was fully within reach.

  Sophie held up her phone, a grin splitting her face in two. “Anyone up for a party this Friday?”

  Chapter Five

  “I already have a dress,” Sophie insisted, poking cautiously at a bright pink sequin number with giant red and green rhinestones spiraling in a floral design down the left side. “These look like I’m hitting the stage at a drag show convention in Las Vegas.”

  Lauren rolled her dark eyes heavenward, her glossy lips moving in what may have been a prayer for patience. Sophie ignored her, moving to the next rack holding a wide assortment of what looked like a flock of chickens had gone rampant through a paint factory. Each feathery dress was a wide range of colors and smelled of fresh paint. Sophie quickly moved away before the fumes did something funny to her brain, like forced her to buy something so horrendous.

  “You need to look nice for Friday!” Jessie said calmly from a rack of very simple sundresses. Sophie had already been through that rack, but everything reminded her of the ‘30s with their mute colors and white collars.

  “I can look nice in—”

  “In the single dress you own?” Lauren came to stand next to her, her dancer’s body moving fluidly.

  Sophie winced. “I don’t own just one!”

  Lauren blinked her big eyes. “You’re going to wear your church dress to the party?”

  Sophie threw up her hands. “I don’t like dresses! They’re impractical! You have to be careful how you sit and stand and you always have guys staring at your legs and trying to lift the skirt—”

  “Really?” Jessie joined them. “I love dresses and that’s never happened to me.”

  “Troy Hailey did it once in the second grade,” Lauren answered for Sophie.

  “In front of the whole class!” Sophie exclaimed, needing to drive her point home. “They all laughed!”

  “Aw, honey.” Jessie rubbed Sophie’s arm lightly. “That was so long ago. Grown boys aren’t like that!”

  Lauren snort
ed, walking over to a rack of jean skirts short enough to be headbands. “Oh they still try to lift your skirt.” She glanced over and grinned. “Only they try to get under it now instead of laughing at your frilly knickers.”

  Still burning from the memory, Sophie glared at her friend.

  “Don’t tease, Lauren!” Jessie chided, still gripping Sophie’s elbow. “I can understand how that would be upsetting, but you want to look nice for the party don’t you? We’ll get you a very pretty dress and I promise no one will dare do something so horrible.”

  With Jessie’s sweet reassurance, Sophie reluctantly agreed to seriously search for a dress. Four hours and about a thousand dresses later, Sophie slid listlessly into Lauren’s mom’s beat up Mini Cooper with two shopping bags. One held a dress both Jessie and Lauren agreed on, which was both modest and sexy, and the other a pair of matching shoes.

  She loved shopping as much as the next girl, but she was almost certain Lauren was a borderline shopaholic. That girl could sniff out a sale from the parking lot. If they’d been the same size, Sophie would have just borrowed one of the many, many dresses Lauren owned. But Lauren was six feet of willowy curves in all the right places … a supermodel with a supermodel face. Sophie was five-five with an athletic build, a heart-shaped face and some reasonably decent curves. Anything of Lauren’s Sophie tried on only made her look like a child playing dress up in her mother’s clothes. Jessie was the same height as Sophie, but slightly on the rounder side and a lot of her taste ran toward floral printed dresses and frilly tops. Sophie was the only one of the group who loved her jeans and vintage t-shirts.

  “We’ll rendezvous at your house tomorrow after school and get ready for the party together,” Lauren said from the driver’s side as she dropped Sophie off at home. “What are you going to tell your mom?”

  Sophie glanced over at her friends. “What do you mean?”

  Lauren shrugged. “Well, is she going to let you go to the party?”

  Maybe because she’d never been invited to a party before, but the thought of telling her mother hadn’t crossed her mind.

  “I think she will …” But even she wasn’t sure of that.

  “Find out and text me?” Lauren said.

  “What about you guys?”

  The two exchanged glances.

  “I told my mom yesterday I was spending the night at Lauren’s,” Jessie murmured quietly, almost with a hint of guilt. “And Lauren told her mom she was staying over at my house.”

  Sophie frowned. “Why didn’t you guys tell me? I could have—”

  “No!” Lauren interrupted. “Your mom actually calls and confirms! You would have blown all our covers!”

  “We’re sorry!” Jessie said hurriedly.

  Sophie threw open her door. “Don’t worry about it,” she grumbled, throwing herself out of the car. “I’ll think of something.”

  With a wave, she slammed the car door and jogged up to the house. Her mom had left the porch lights on even though the sky still held a soft blue hue fading into darkness. Sophie pushed open the door and stepped inside. She shut it behind her and turned.

  “Mom! I’m …” Her words dissolved into nothing as she stared at the two sitting in her living room watching her with a look of polite interest and mild surprise, like she’d startled them by entering her own home. For a second, she wondered if she’d walked into the wrong house and had to glance around. Everything looked familiar and in the right place, except her mother wasn’t there and these two were. “Uh, hi!” she said uncertainly.

  Jackie’s unpainted lips bowed around the teacup she held to them. “Hello, Sophia!” She set the cup down on its saucer with a delicate clink. “Your mom said you’d gone shopping. Did you have fun?” She eyed the bags in Sophie’s hand.

  Sophie glanced down at them as well, having forgotten them for a moment. “Yeah, I bought a … a … dress?” The oddity of it had her nose wrinkling and her response coming out as a question.

  Jackie laughed. “You’re not sure?”

  On the sofa beside Jackie, Spencer said nothing nor did he seem interested in doing so. He was intent on polishing off the platter of chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies.

  “My friends kind of made me,” Sophie said. “I don’t like dresses.”

  “You bought a dress?” Her mom entered the room, hair bouncing on her slim shoulders with every excited step. Her face was a mask of elation, doubt and mild surprise. It was a wonder how anyone could pull of so many expressions all at once.

  Sophie held up the bags as confirmation of her mild loss of insanity. “Lauren kind of twisted my arm about it.”

  Her mother clapped her hands like a little girl told she was about to get a present. “Let’s see!”

  Sophie snapped the bag to her chest, gripping it tight. “I, uh, kind of would rather not!”

  Her mother’s smile slipped into a pout. “Why not?”

  “Because you’re just going to get all excited and weird.”

  “Well of course I’m going to get excited!” Her mother turned to Jackie. “Sophie absolutely refuses to let me take her shopping and Lauren has impeccable taste when it comes to clothes!”

  Jackie’s eyes brightened. “Oh then I must see!”

  Sophie tightened her hold on the bag, all the while edging toward the stairway, not trusting the two watching her like she had the last pair of shoes at a mass shoe sale. “It’s not a big deal. It’s only a dress.”

  “Well, what is it for if you won’t at least show us?” her mother pressed.

  Sophie stiffened. “What?”

  “What is it for? You never buy a dress so it must be for something.”

  It was impossible not to hesitate, not to shift and avoid her mother’s eyes. It reminded her of the time she’d been invited to Jason Ward’s birthday party in sixth grade. Her mother had spent three hours on the phone with his mother, making sure the children would not be left unsupervised, especially since boys and girls were invited. To ask permission to attend a house party with no parental supervision, alcohol and boys would insure an immediate phone call to Roy’s parents and bars on Sophie’s windows.

  “Well,” Sophie began, talking to the patch of carpet at her feet. “There’s this thing happening tomorrow night and I was hoping to go.” Way not to sound cryptic or guilty!

  “What kind of thing?” There was an edge to her mother’s voice now.

  Sophie fought not to fidget. “A date?” It wasn’t really a lie. She really did have a sort of date with Brian, but now she had everyone in the room’s attention, including Spencer, although he was still nibbling on a cookie, his gray eyes were fixed on her, waiting for her to continue.

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “A date? With whom?”

  The question threw her. She should have expected it, but at the same time, she hadn’t expected it at all. Her mother would never let her go out with a boy that wasn’t picking her up at the door, or a boy her mother had never met or even heard of. Brian had never been a topic of conversation in the Valdez household, not because Sophie hadn’t wanted to, but because the hassle just wasn’t worth it when she’d been so sure nothing would ever happen in that department. But her mother would ask too many questions, possibly even call to talk to him like Sophie was five and not seventeen. The last thing she wanted was Brian to realize how lame she was.

  “Uh …” Out of sheer desperation, her gaze flittered to Spencer. “With Spencer?”

  He stiffened. His eyes widened. The cookie he’d been in the process of eating hung half in and half out of his mouth. It would have been comical, except in two seconds flat, his expression hardened. He broke the cookie and chewed the half still in his mouth, all the while staring Sophie down like he wanted to vaporize her with his eyes.

  Jackie turned to her son. “You didn’t tell me you were taking Sophie to the party this weekend.”

  It was a toss up who was more surprised by this, Sophie or her mother. They both stared at the pair.

 
“Are you going to the same party?” Her mother caught herself much quicker. “Where is it? Will there be someone there to supervise? Will there be drinking?”

  It’s not a Church gathering! Sophie wanted to snap, but she was more focused on silently pleading with Spencer. She stared into his eyes, trying not to flinch at the fire leaping out at her.

  It was risky taking such a huge gamble. The guy wasn’t her biggest fan and possibly already had a date, probably with Maggie Chow, but she wasn’t asking him to go with her, just to cover for her so she could go, too. He didn’t even have to hang out with her or talk to her.

  He got to his feet, seeming very tall in the suddenly small room. He moved slowly until he was nearly on her toes. His words blew over her like glacial winds when he spoke, spitting each word out as if they were bitter. “Play your games with someone else.”

  Humiliation vaulted up her body in a flood of boiling water. It consumed her until she was certain she would burn from the inside out. Angry tears welled up in her eyes. She bit a hole into the inside of her cheek to keep them from falling. If he noticed, it was impossible to tell when he was storming past her as if being there made him want to kill someone. Her entire body jolted with the slamming of the door.

  Jackie was on her feet in a flash. “What on earth?” She turned towards Sophie’s mother. “I’m so sorry, Mary!”

  Her mother shook her head. “No! No, no, we can do dinner another time.”

  The two women exchanged hugs. Jackie grabbed her purse and jacket off the armrest of the sofa and hurried towards the door. Sophie didn’t budge when a hand rested lightly on her shoulder and squeezed.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Jackie said softly. “If you guys had plans I’ll make sure he keeps them.”

  When Sophie didn’t respond, Jackie left, closing the door quietly behind her.

  “Sophia—”

  Sophie didn’t wait to hear what her mother had to say. Self-loathing fueled her legs. She bolted for the stairs and barricaded herself inside her room. The bags in her hands sailed into the closet, knocking over hangers and falling to the closet floor in a spilled heap of material. She left them there as she locked herself in the bathroom for the hottest shower in human history.