Sofia: Phoenix Rising - Fire Within! Book 1
Chapter Six

“No freaking way!” Lori exclaimed enthusiastically as I joined her out in the courtyard for lunch. The weather is in the upper seventies today, skies are blue, and the leaves are fully changed from green to bright oranges, yellows, and reds, making it the most perfect autumn day. And thankfully it has warmed up enough to enjoy lunch period outside, we decide to take advantage of the sunshine and do so.

I grin widely at her. “Yep! He asked me out. I think I’m in shock.” I state as I crack my bottle of water open. She sticks her hand out to me and shakes it in front of my face.

“Phone!” She says dramatically, her bright pink manicured fingernails flashing across my eyesight. Laughing at her, I dig my phone out from my back pocket and hand it over to her. “Since I know you’re probably leaving very important details out of this conversation, I must see these messages for myself.”

Rolling my eyes, I take a gulp of water and then stuff some potato chips in my mouth. Crunching loudly, I begin talking, yes with my mouth full. “You know I’ve told you everything. I never leave details out, especially something as big as this.”

“Well, you did leave one detail out,” she says looking up from my phone. “You never gave Blake an answer!”

“What? You’re joking! I totally told him yes.” I reach across the picnic table grabbing for my phone.

“Nope! You did not respond back at all. You’ve basically snubbed the most popular guy in the entire school.” She laughs at me as my mouth falls open and I look at my text messages. Nope, she was not joking in the slightest. I’ve totally left Blake hanging!

“Oh my god. What do I do now? How do I respond to him when I’ve not said anything back in over 20 minutes! He’s totally going to think I don’t want to go out with him,” I whine.

Lori laughs at me but whatever she was going to say seems to be frozen upon her tongue because she has her mouth open but isn’t saying anything, not one word which is so not like her. Looking at her from my phone, I see a shadow has fallen over us. I tip my head back a bit further to see who has blocked the sun and my heart skips a beat. Ash stands overhead peering down at us, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“G’day, Sheila’s.” Without being invited, Ash takes a seat next to Lori which for some reason, triggers a spark of jealousy within me. I am shocked at myself for feeling this way. I swear I am not a jealous person, but the scene taking place before me is causing my body temperature to rise and I want to yell at them to stay away from each other.

“Sof? Are you okay?” Lori places her hand on mine, worry written across her face. This gesture causes anger to bubble up inside me. I can actually feel heat emanating off of my body. Lori pulls her hand back with a hiss, as though she was burnt. “Ouch!” She cradles her hand to her chest but stares at me. “Sofie, I think you should go to the nurse’s office; you’re burning up!”

“What? No, I’m fine,” I say as I place a hand to my forehead like mom always does to me. Uh, she’s not wrong, my body feels hot, but I feel fine. Luckily, I don’t have to answer because the bell indicating lunch is over is ringing. I sigh outwardly, relieved. The emotions swirling through me are causing twinges of pain to dance at the corners of my temple and as all the other students head inside, including Lori, I turn on my heel and head towards the parking lot weaving my way through the sea of vehicles until I replace myself standing in front of my car.

I have decided that I’m going to skip out on the last half of the school day, because it feels like the beginning of a migraine sprouting up.

“What th-, how th-,” I stutter flustered which in turn causes me to trip over my own feet, seriously, how many times in one day can I be shocked by or surprised over these guys?

Ash is leaning against my car, looking hot as hell with his leather jacket slung over one shoulder, held in place by his index finger and not a care in the world. His sunglasses are becoming an aggravation of mine because I cannot see his eyes and am unable to read his facial expressions, if he has any that is. “Um, Mr. Dritan, is there something I can help you with?” I lift both eyebrows in a ‘what the hell’ expression, trying to keep the surprise at bay.

Ash laughs at me and as the laugh rumbles through his chest, it has a very unnerving effect upon me. “Are you planning on leaving me stranded at school?” A smirk settles upon his lips, very, VERY, kissable lips I might add; and I silently question myself as to how in the world I could have forgotten that he rode to school with me this morning.

This blushing nonsense has got to stop! And of course, he notices too, as my face turns bright red in embarrassment. Gah! His smirk slowly turns into a grin, and I scrunch my face up in a scowl. Crossing my arms over my chest I say in a snarky tone, “honestly, I forgot I brought you. I’m sure you could hitch a ride home with Lori.” The comment comes out a little meaner than I intended it to, and I can hear the jealousy in my own voice. What in the world is coming over me? I am not that girl! I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from saying anything more in regard to that statement. “Well, if you want to ride home with me, you’ll have to ditch the rest of your classes because I’m not sticking around,” I add with a sigh, waving my hands at my car for him to get in. The last thing I need right now is to be caught leaving early.

Realizing I am serious, he hurries around to the passenger side and hops in. Once we are on the road, I glance over at him, “why do you call me Sheila? It’s one of the few words you use that I haven’t sorted out yet.”

He grins at me, and I want to kiss him! He is so flipping cute! “In Australia, Sheila means girl.”

“Oh, okay. That’s what I thought it meant but I wasn’t absolutely sure.” I smile back at him and then focus my eyes back on the road.

Ash looks out the window for a moment before turning his eyes back to me, “can I ask you a question?”

“Um, sure. Go for it.” I chew on my bottom lip, curious as to what he wants to know.

“The bloke you were chatting with this morning; is he your boyfriend or something?”

Thank the stars the drive back to our homes is less than 10 minutes because moments after he asks this question, I am pulling into my driveway; otherwise, I may have caused an accident with the unexpectedness of said question. I throw my car into park before twisting around in my seat and replying, “What? No, Blake was just being friendly. We have never really run in the same circle and honestly, yesterday and today are the most we have ever spoken to each other in twelve years of schooling. Why do you want to know?” I lift my eyes up to his face, so I can look him in the eyes, but then nerves take hold and I drop eyes quickly to look at my short jean skirt (that has ridden up my thigh a little higher than I would have liked making me feel very self-conscious), I mean, not that it would have mattered, those damned sunglasses and all…

“I um, I…” I tilt my head, curiosity getting the better of me and attempt to look at him once more. At some point while I had my eyes lowered, he removed his sunglasses revealing his nearly crystalline blue eyes. His eyes have lowered from my face to the seatbelt he hasn’t unclasped yet, and I see him fiddling with a loose thread of the woven band that has him locked where he sits.

Before he has a chance to say anything further, I see the garage door start to lift. “Oh, shiitake mushrooms! My parents are home. What am I going to do? If they see me sitting here, I’m going to be grounded for the remainder of the school year!”

Opening the passenger door, Ash hops out and then leans back in. “I’m going to open my garage door. Bring your Ute over and pull it in there.” I nod and frantically throw my car into reverse, speeding backwards out of my drive and over to his. As soon as I pull in, Ash hits the button to close his garage door. Opening my car door, I slide out and then heave a sigh of relief.

“That was a close call. I wonder what they are doing home in the middle of the day anyway. Thank the stars that the garage door opener works from far away otherwise I would so be busted right now!”

Ash grins and then asks; “do you want to come inside for a bit?”