“Only in the absence of my face,” he said with another grin and a wink before prancing away.
Sofia shook her head, but she was smiling as she quickly transferred the two remaining pizza slices from his plate to hers. Whatever Jock might be after, he knew her well enough to know that the best way to sway her was through food.
“What the hell was that?” Denise asked, sitting down next to her.
“Hello. Good, thank you and how are you?” Sofia replied sweetly.
“Hello. You and Jock exchanging saliva in public now?”
“Apparently he wanted everyone to think we’re officially dating.”
“And you let him?”
Sofia shrugged, but a grin was playing over her lips.
“After weeks of him hounding you about your Facebook profile you let him lay one on you at lunch?” Denise continued skeptically. “Stop looking all mysterious and tell me what’s going on.”
“First of all, Tessa might have dared me to kiss him when I talked to her yesterday.”
“I like her,” Denise said, munching on her own food. “When’s she coming to visit?”
“Christmas. I can’t wait,” Sofia said and took another bite of her pizza.
“I’m going to get all the dirt on you.”
“Ha! I have a spotless past.”
“Yeah, right,” Denise said with a snort. “What was the other reason you let him kiss you?”
“What?”
“You said first of all…”
“Oh, yeah. Though I reckon it should count as me kissing him. I mean, I was the one in control of the…”
“Sofia,” Denise interrupted.
“Fine. Secondly, look at who’s sitting at the table closest to us,” Sofia said, finishing off the last slice.
Denise looked up and gave a low whistle. “I have seriously misjudged your capacity of evil underhandedness.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Most people do.”
Denise elbowed her in the side.
“What? I’m just saying, I’m nice until I’m provoked,” Sofia said. “I know it’s petty, but if I walk up to her and punch her in the face they’ll give me detention.”
“Mm,” Denise said absentmindedly. “I’m not sure who looks more upset. Gemma or Jefferson?”
“Jefferson?” Sofia said, surprised enough to look across to the other table. Thomas was glaring at her. She shivered. If looks could kill she’d be a shriveled up corpse. “He has no reason to be angry.”
“I know. Interesting, isn’t it?”
“Not particularly. He’s most likely pissed he’ll have to spend more time with me now. Or because his best friend has terrible taste in women. Which he does,” she added.
“Maybe,” Denise admitted. “Anyhow, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to me next weekend. We could continue that game.”
“Sounds good. I had a great time yesterday,” Sofia said with a smile.
“I can’t believe you made it past level three in your first attempt,” Marlene said, joining them at the table. “It took us days, remember Claire?”
Claire merely nodded, her eyes transfixed by Sofia’s food as she eased into her chair. Sofia had learned to ignore the stares, but the look on Claire’s face made her aware that she was still hungry.
“I’m going for a second helping. Anybody want anything?” she asked before picking up her tray and heading back to the counter. Claire continued to stare at the table and shook her head.
“Get one slice for Denise and me, please,” Marlene said with a glance at Denise who had just finished her fish fingers.
Sofia was relieved to get away from the tension at the table. She was getting an extra slice for Claire too. She might have to force it down her throat, but it shouldn't be hard to overpower a girl who’d been starving for weeks. Besides, Sofia had a feeling both Denise and Marlene would help her do it.
“Four slices of cheese pizza, please.”
The lady behind the counter placed four slices on a plate. These looked even more drenched in fat than the previous ones had. She wondered how they’d managed that.
The canteen lady cleared her throat and Sofia startled.
“Is that it?” the lady asked in a hollow voice.
“Yes, thank you.”
The lady pointed to the cash register where it said how much she had to pay. Sofia smiled half-heartedly and placed the money on the counter.
Making her way back to their table through the crowded room was a challenge. This was what she’d always imagined army training to be like. There were the static hurdles, such as tables, and the more challenging, moving obstacles. Bags, entire persons and chairs were coming at her from all directions.
She dodged arms, jumped over legs and made a nice pirouette around someone who suddenly decided to stop dead in the middle of the room. Having come halfway through the canteen she started to smile. She was getting good at this.
Then someone pushed their chair out right in front of her, she tried to swerve, but her foot caught on it and she fell. As if everything was happening in slow-motion she saw her tray fly from her hands and up into the air.
Despite the thick layers of sticky cheese, the pizza slices came loose from the plate. They pivoted away and continued in a higher orbit before landing with a splat around the same time as Sofia’s face hit the floor.
The first thing that struck her, apart from the floor, was the complete silence that suddenly filled the room. Already dreading what she was about to see she slowly raised her head. Thomas Jefferson was staring at her, his face and the upper part of his shirt now covered in cheese and tomato.
“I… er… tripped,” she managed to whisper.
“Yeah? You tripped did you?”
She nodded, embarrassed beyond belief and too mortified to meet his gaze. She hated making a scene. That had been the worst part of going to the movies the Friday two weeks before. Not the derogatory comments from Gemma and Rachel, but the fact that everyone was looking at her. She shivered.
Stiffly, Thomas turned around to walk away while pulling pieces of dough, cheese and tomato from his clothes. Too late she remembered that even though he was an idiot she should apologize.
“I’m sorry!” she yelled after him.
He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. “Sorry? You’re sorry?”
“Yes. I’m sorry,” Sofia said, barely managing to meet his eyes without cringing.
He scowled at her. “I get that you’re mad at me, but I never dreamed you would stoop to throwing food at me. What are you, three?”
The people around them laughed. Sofia turned crimson as she fought back the tears that were threateningly close to spilling from her eyes. She had an embarrassing tendency to cry when she got upset. She wouldn’t cry. Not over pizza and not in front of him.
“I did trip and I’m sorry,” Sofia ground out.
“Yeah, right. You can at least admit what you did. I made you angry at the movies and now you…”
“I have better ways of getting even with you than throwing food.”
“Do you? Like what? Throwing yourself at my best friend?”
He had turned around and was now walking back towards her. His shoulders were tensed in anger and his hands had closed into fists. Sofia gulped. Belatedly, she realized that she should have gotten up from the floor. She didn’t think that he would keep from kicking her simply because she was already down.
“I didn’t…”
“Don’t bother. Do you think you’re the first girl who’s tried to get accepted here by going after my friends? Though I have to say, none of the others have moved quite so quickly.”
Sofia was suddenly angry enough to stand up. She didn’t even care that people were watching.
“Are you jealous?” she asked, proud that her voice was steady.
He looked as if she’d slapped him. “Why would I be jealous?”
“You tell me. I know you’re a close friend of Jock’s, but I didn’t know you were in
love with him.”
She heard the collective intake of breath, but she didn’t care. She did, however, like the way Thomas’s mouth opened and closed as he tried to get his head around what she’d said. He took another step forward.
“How dare you? Jock is like a brother to me.”
“How dare I?” Sofia said, moving forward so that they were standing toe to toe. His light blue eyes looked glacial. “How dare you accuse me of using him? You don’t know me.”
“I don’t have to know you. I don’t want to know you,” he hissed. “I just want you to get the hell out of my life.”
“I’m not in your life. You’re the one who keeps popping up in mine, following me ar…”
Sofia cut off as he smacked a piece of cheese pizza onto her cheek, rubbing it into her skin.
“Stay away from me,” Thomas hissed and let the pizza slice fall to the ground. He gave her a final glare and turned to walk away.
When Thomas finally finished practice that evening and walked out from the changing room it was with a heart that was getting decidedly heavier for every step he took. He got into his car and turned the key.
The training session had been alright. It was the rest of the evening that he wasn’t looking forward to. Thisbe had said that he would inform their parents.
“They need to know,” he’d said.
Thomas would gladly have cleaned the canteen single-handedly using his toothbrush if that would have kept his parents out of this.
He had tried to walk away from her, he had, but there was something about the tilt of her head and her face that had made leaving her there on the floor impossible. He clearly wasn’t as in control of his emotions as he’d thought.
Thomas leaned his head against the steering wheel. He shouldn’t have walked back to her. He definitely shouldn't have taken one of the pizza slices still sticking to his shirt and smeared the cheese and tomato sauce all over her obnoxious face.
“Stupid, stupid,” he muttered as he started the car and drove home at so slow a pace he was hardly moving forward at all.
Jock wasn’t speaking to him, but the rest of the guys hadn’t been able to let up on taunting him. At least he’d been able to get rid of his stupid nickname. No one would call him Iceman now.
He told himself that he’d walked away. Eventually. After her face had been covered with a thick layer of cheese. By then it had been too late. He had displayed what his father would call unforgivably bad behavior, he knew that. There could be no possible justification for what he had done. The way she’d looked at him just made him want to…The hamburger that hit him in the back of the head with a loud thud had been a surprise.
“OUCH!”
When he’d turned around he’d seen Sofia, pieces of sticky cheese still clinging to her face, glaring at him so ferociously he’d automatically taken a step back. For a second everything had been still. Then someone had yelled “Food fight!” at the top of their lungs and the room had erupted into chaos.
Thomas grew more and more agitated the closer he got to the farm. Despite keeping well below the speed limit he still reached the large stone house faster than what he would have liked to.
He drove into the garage in front of the house and parked his car. As he got out and locked it, he tried not to think about what was waiting for him inside. He trudged up the driveway to the front door. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and walked inside. The lights were on, but the house was silent. They would have heard the car and know he was home. The silence did not bode well.
He squared his shoulders. Nothing to do about it now, but ride it out. The thick, cream colored carpet muffled the sound of his feet as he walked towards the dining room. He paused for a moment to steel himself before going in.
The late summer heat had been steadily seeping into the house, but the atmosphere in the dining room was freezing. His mother was pushing the food around her plate as usual and didn’t look up as he entered the room. His younger brother, John, was also staring at his plate, the steak and potatoes untouched.
Thomas looked to the end of the table where his father was seated, chewing calmly as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He probably didn’t. James Jefferson never let anything upset him.
He met Thomas gaze with a steely glance of his own. Thomas held it, knowing fully well that looking away would add cowardice to the list of his many transgressions. He would have to face up to whatever punishment his father had planned for him and tackle it head on. He deserved it anyway. His behavior had been unacceptable.
“Good evening Thomas. You’re late.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“Principal Thisbe called earlier.”
Thomas didn’t reply. He was vaguely aware of his mother looking at his father and he felt John’s large, dark eyes on himself.
“Apparently you were throwing food around.” Thomas blushed, but kept meeting his father’s stare. “Is this correct?” his father continued calmly when Thomas remained silent.
He wanted to scream that she was the one who’d started it, but he knew that not owning up to what he’d done would be seen as trying to shirk responsibility and that that in itself was punishable. “Yes, sir,” was therefore all he said.
“I hope you’re aware of how greatly you have shamed this family. I’m disappointed in you, Thomas,” his father told him as he put another piece of steak in his mouth.
Thomas couldn’t hold that cold stare any longer. He bent his head and looked at his feet instead, his eyes stinging. “I know, sir. It won’t happen again,” he told the floor.
“What was that? Look at me when I’m speaking to you, boy.”
Thomas blinked back the tears and raised his head again. “I’m sorry, sir. I…I made a terrible mistake. It won’t happen again.”
“I most certainly hope not,” his father said coldly and continued cutting up his steak. Thomas moved to sit, knowing fully well that this was not over.
“Oh no, we can’t risk having you at the table tonight. Can’t have you throwing good food around the dining room. No, you had better go straight to your bedroom and reflect upon your behavior. Goodnight.”
Thomas had just finished a two hour long training session. The steak smelled like heaven, but he didn’t protest. Part of him was so relieved that the confrontation was over and that the verdict declared that the hunger tearing through his stomach was of little importance. This was better, much better, than the agony of waiting to see what his father would think up for him.
“Goodnight, sir,” he said and walked out of the room.
He avoided meeting his brother’s and mother’s gaze and locked himself into his room. He lay in his bed and willed himself to sleep despite the protests of his empty stomach.
He knew he had a snickers bar tucked away behind the math books in his book shelf, but he wouldn’t touch it. He had behaved badly and deserved a proper punishment. He would not sink lower by trying to get out of it. Listening to his stomachs grumbling he hoped that Sofia was having an equally hard time. With a sigh he turned to his side and pulled the covers over his head.
The evening was turning out to be even more of a disaster than she had originally thought and at the time she’d made that prediction she’d been convinced she was being pessimistic.
Both she and Thomas had been sent to the principal’s office after the fight. Everyone had agreed that it had been their fault that the canteen had ended up looking as though a bomb had gone off in there. She’d had to spend three hours after school scrubbing the floor and walls.
Thomas had gotten off lightly. He only had to do detention next Wednesday since he conveniently enough had baseball practice this evening. Needless to say, that did not make her like him any better although she was grateful she hadn’t had to clean the canteen together with him. Thankfully Denise, Marlene and Claire had stuck around to help her. She’d owe them for forever.
The school had also seen it fit to call their parents. That was where things
had started to go wrong for her. She was now sitting at their new, ugly kitchen table, staring defiantly at the clock on the kitchen wall.
She wondered when she would be allowed to go to her room. Looking at the worried face of her mother she was guessing it wouldn’t be soon. Her father was restlessly pacing the room.
“I said I was sorry,” she repeated for the hundredth time, not taking her eyes of the clock. Would there be any dinner? She was hungry enough to eat a horse, but felt like this might not be the best time to bring it up.
“Should we ground you?” her mother mused as if she was seriously contemplating it.
“Oh come on, you don’t believe in grounding me,” Sofia said.
“How would you know?” her mother asked.
“I’ve never been grounded in my life!”
“Well, you have never done anything this stupid before either,” her father said and finally sat down by the table.
“The most stupid thing I did was going to that stupid school in the first place! But wait, that wasn’t my idea, it was yours.”
Her mother ignored this. “Food fight. You’re sixteen, you should know better than that. And you were sent to the principal’s office! This is not going to look good on your records,” she said in a frustrated tone.
Sofia wondered if her presence was at all necessary for this conversation since no one listened to her anyway.
“Did you not hear me? I tripped!”
“And the hamburger? Did it magically fly through the air by itself?” her mother asked exasperatedly.
“Genetically modified grains, it happens,” Sofia muttered to the floor.
Both her parents were giving her their concerned faces. She hated their concerned faces, they made her feel like she was five years old again.
“Look, does anyone here care about my story of what happened? About how he smeared cheese all over my face? Accused me of being desperate to fit in? Of using Jock to do it?”
“Sofia, we have been through this before. If someone acts childish towards you, you tell them off. There is no reason for you to behave the same way towards them,” her father told her gravely.
Fractured (Unreel series Book 1) Page 8