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Victor shrugged. “Had something else to do today?”
“No,” I said. “I was just wondering.”
Victor cursed under his breath as Gabriel’s fighter kicked his hard enough to knock him out of the setting and end the battle. The big flat screen television flashed with blood and gore from Victor’s fighter. Victor patted my knee, grinning. “You can come over when you want, you know,” he said. “You don’t have to wait for an invitation all the time.”
I blushed, knowing if it were up to me, I’d never leave. “Meh, you guys will get sick of me eventually.” I meant it to be funny and cracked a smile.
Nathan’s hand lifted from my shoulder and he chopped me on the head. “Shut up,” he said.
“What did I tell you?” Gabriel said. “See what I mean? She does do that girl shit. I knew it.”
I blinked in surprise, unsure of what they meant. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly, blushing.
“You were doing that thing where a girl disses herself to get more compliments,” he said.
“That’s not why she said it,” Nathan said. “She doesn’t like attention.”
“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked, resetting the game.
“Don’t you see her at school? She practically hides behind us. She’s totally oblivious when the guys are trying to make eye contact in class.”
My eyes popped open. “What? When do they do that?”
“See?”
Gabriel pointed a finger in my direction. “Just don’t say shit like that. That stuff drives me crazy. I can’t stand it when I’m telling a girl she’s pretty and she’s just giving me a load of insecure bullshit.”
I wondered if this was similar to what Silas was saying about the pouting and Gabriel asking me not to do it, but I didn’t know what to say to test it. I also wondered what girls he was telling such things to.
Victor sighed heavily, sitting back against the cushion of the couch. “Stop it. Sang’s not like that.”
“Gotta stop that stuff before it becomes a habit,” he said.
Victor passed the controller to me. “Your turn,” he said. He patted my leg and got up, walking around the couch to head to a part of the house I couldn’t see.
I picked up the controller, rubbing my thumbs over the buttons, feeling the warmth of Victor’s hands still on the smooth plastic. He didn’t hate me.
“You know how to play?” Gabriel asked.
I sat back on the couch, pulling a knee up to my chest, the other up against the couch in a half cross legged position so my feet were off the floor. “A little.” Total lie. The closest I got to a video game was watching one on television or on the rare occasions I could get on the home computer. Most of the time though I was so busy downloading new music that I didn’t waste a moment with a game. I wasn’t familiar with Soul Caliber and had no idea which character was better. I picked a scary looking one that resembled a zombie pirate.
Gabriel picked one of the girls in a skimpy outfit and half of her breasts hanging out. He pushed the button for the game to start.
“Kick his ass, Sang,” Nathan said. He lifted his hand from around my shoulder, folded his arms at his chest and leaned back to watch.
I pushed the buttons for my character to move across the screen, smashing buttons to get him to jump and do random attacks. I really wasn’t fighting as much as I was trying to figure out what the different buttons did. Still, I was scoring some hits against Gabriel.
We were halfway through when Victor came back with a bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino in his hands. He snapped the top open and stood over his old spot. Victor bent over, putting his fingers on my leg that had taken up space. “Move for a second.”
“Sorry,” I said, lifting my knee until it was pressed up against my body to get it out of the way.
“No hang on.” He sat down again, holding his drink up. He reached out for my knee, putting his hand on it and guided it until it was resting against his thigh and he left his hand hanging on my leg. “There,” he said.
Victor had distracted me badly and now it was even worse as it felt like I had my leg in his lap. His hand was on my inside knee. My heart thumped and I wasn’t even watching the game anymore. My eyes kept going to his hand.
“Hang in there, Sang,” Nathan said.
“I’m trying.” I started smashing all of the buttons at the same time. My zombie pirate did some special move I managed to unlock and drove a sword into the girl. It was enough to get Gabriel’s girl to die and the game ended.
“Ha!” Victor laughed. He held up his coffee in salute.
“How’d you do that?” Gabriel asked, pushing a button to skip the replay of the fight.
I shrugged, blushing. “Don’t know. Smash all the buttons?” I passed the controller over to Nathan, looking at him. “Playing?”
Nathan’s fingers brushed against mine as he took the controller from me. He scooted until he was sitting at the edge of the couch, putting his elbows on his knees as he played.
Victor held out his half-finished coffee to me. “Want some?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never had coffee. It’s bitter, isn’t it?”
They all laughed. Victor pushed the edge of the glass bottle to my hand. “Try a sip.” I hesitated and he grinned at me. “It’s sweet. There’s chocolate in this. It’s a mocha.”
I took it, wrapping my fingers around the chilled bottle. The condensation on the outside of the bottle wet my hands. I held it to my lips, letting the coffee wash over my tongue. It was almost like milk with a unique additional taste in it and a hint of chocolate. I licked my upper lip after. “It’s not bad,” I said.
“Want one?” Victor asked. “There’s more.”
“I’ll get her one,” Gabriel said, tossing the controller onto the couch after he’d already got knocked out by Nathan in the game. “I want one, too.”
We spent a good portion of the morning taking turns playing the game. I won a couple more times. Smashing buttons only worked for so long, though. Still, it was nice just to be included with them and with something where I wasn’t causing them any trouble.
The coffee, however, made my insides shake like crazy.
Around nine thirty, we headed out to Victor’s BMW parked in the driveway.
“Shot gun,” Gabriel called as we all approached.
“Sang gets shot gun,” Victor said.
“Aw,” Gabriel said. “She didn’t call it.”
“I drive, I get final say.”
I blus
hed again, trying to look sympathetic to Gabriel. Gabriel sauntered forward, opening the passenger door for me.
“Maybe on the way back?” I asked him.
He smirked and shook his head. “Just get your pretty ass in the car.”
I got in quickly, trying to mask how hot my face felt. He shut the door for me and got in behind me. I slipped my seatbelt on so Victor wouldn’t get after me about it.
A thrilling sensation swept through me as we started out of the neighborhood. I was leaving my family behind to go hang out with my friends. It was hard to fully enjoy it knowing I had to escape my parents’ house.
In the back of my mind I was worried my sister would sneak into my room and maybe take something else. What if my mother went looking for me in one of her crazy rampages? One of these days, I hoped I could get permission so I could feel more confident and fully enjoy going out. It was a fantasy I knew wouldn’t ever happen.
As it was, I had to settle for knowing for the moment there was nothing to do but enjoy the day as best as I could. There wouldn’t be very many opportunities like this.
I kicked my sandals off, putting my feet in the seat and drawing my knees up to my chest.
“What’s wrong?” Victor asked, his fire eyes catching mine again, the same intensity from this morning returning. “Are you cold?”
I blinked at him and shook my head. “No, I’m fine.” It was another warm day. I didn’t understand why he would ask. The car was cooling quickly with the air conditioner on full blast but it was far from chilly.
He eyeballed me for a moment, a lock of his wavy hair falling across his forehead. It was stunning against his beautiful face. He flicked the air conditioning lower on the dash. “You tell me if you’re cold.”
“Really, it’s okay. I’ll tell you if something’s wrong.”
“Will you?” he asked quietly but before I could answer, he was skimming through radio stations.
We got to the mall a little after ten. The parking lot was nearly empty but I guessed it was still early for some people on a Saturday.
