Trial by Fire

“Hey, man,” Scot said smoothly as he greeted Tristan. “Wow. Lily. I think this is a first.”


Scot faced Lily, taking in her altered appearance. He was a big guy, as tall as Tristan, if not quite as developed, and Lily had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. He stood close to Lily, smiling down at her in a friendly way. Scot had always seemed a bit too sly to Lily, like he was trying to find an angle on any situation, and she’d avoided him because of it. Now she wondered if she had judged him too harshly. He had a nice smile, she decided. Lily didn’t want to be the snide, cold loner anymore. She wanted to be a part of her class—if only for a few months.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Lily asked, smiling back at him.

“Are you kidding? I’m going to have to throw another party to celebrate you actually showing up to one of my parties.” Scot flashed his smile even wider, making Lily feel truly welcome. “Drink?”

“I’ll have a beer. Water for Lily,” Tristan answered. Scot raised an eyebrow. “Lily doesn’t drink,” Tristan stressed, a hint of a warning in his voice.

“That’s cool. I’m not drinking tonight, either,” Scot said as he waded through the crowd to the kitchen. He pulled a beer and a bottle of water out of a giant tub of ice on the counter and brought it over to them. “Just a heads-up. Miranda’s here,” Scot said as he politely opened the water bottle for Lily and handed it to her.

“Christ,” Tristan said under his breath, scanning the growing crowd.

“She’s downstairs in the family room. Dancing. Or stripping. I can’t figure out which at this point,” Scot said with a wry grimace. “Why don’t you go and talk to her before she comes up here and starts throwing things at you?”

Tristan glanced at Lily, silently asking permission.

“Go. Seriously. You need to take care of that,” Lily replied immediately, sounding much more encouraging than she felt.

“I’ll keep Lily company,” Scot offered. “Make sure she doesn’t get trampled by the hockey team.” He gestured into the kitchen with his head, where four beefy dudes were downing shots and doing a lot of unnecessary shoving and bellowing.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit,” Tristan finally decided. “Or I’ll be back in bits, depending on what kind of mood Miranda’s in.” He drank most of his beer in one gulp.

“Courage, man,” Scot said bracingly, fixing Tristan’s shirt.

“Thanks, dear,” Tristan replied, like they were husband and wife. Lily watched their joking around, feeling the warm glow of inclusion.

When Tristan had gone, Scot took Lily’s elbow and steered her in the opposite direction. “I think it would be a good idea to keep you as far away from Miranda as possible.”

“There’s no reason for her to be upset with me,” Lily said.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Scot stopped to admire her. “You really look great tonight.”

Lily dropped her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up. “Thanks.”

“Look out.” Scot grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her toward him suddenly, making her drop her bottle of water. Behind Lily, two drunk girls stumbled past, debating which path to the bathroom would lead them by the cutest boys.

“Sorry about that,” Scot said after the girls had left. “I’ll get you another.”

“It’s okay, really,” Lily began, but Scot had already picked up the bottle and was making his way to the kitchen. Lily took some napkins off a nearby coffee table and mopped up the spilled water as best as she could while she waited for Scot. He came back moments later with a glass of bubbly red juice.

“No more water. Sorry. The only thing in the fridge was cranberry juice and seltzer. I mixed them. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine,” Lily said, taking a sip of her fizzy cranberry juice. It tasted a little sour, like it had gone bad, but she swallowed it and smiled anyway. “You don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to, you know.”