Winter Fire (Book I of the Winter Fire Series)

I nearly overslept on Monday morning. My mother drove fifteen miles over the speed limit to get me to school before the bell rang, and I had to run to my first class. Laura and Dillon waved as I sprinted past them to my desk, but when I looked toward Brianna, she was staring back at me with an icy expression. I wondered if she could already know about Bren somehow. I kept my gaze shallow to avoid Tyler in the back of the room, dropped my backpack, and slid into my seat.

  I felt Brianna’s glare all through Math, and in every class afterward. I didn’t try to talk to her between periods, figuring it was better to let her tell me what her problem was than to assume anything and give her new information. It turned out that I only had to wait until lunch.

  I bought a bag of pretzels and a Diet Coke, then went to the table and sat in my usual spot. Brianna was standing at the other end, talking to Brian and Tyler, but she straightened up quickly when she saw me. She swished over to us, stopped at the very end of the table, between Dillon and me, and leaned on her hands.

  “So Jenna,” she said, her voice sharp. She flung her hair behind her shoulder with one finger. “What’s your problem?”

  “I don’t have a problem.” I cracked open my soda and took a sip, staring straight ahead over Dillon’s shoulder.

  “Well Tyler says you do,” she said. “Apparently you have something going with Bren?” She hunkered down lower when she said this, trying to get my attention. When I didn’t argue, she continued. “And when he found out you fooled around with Tyler at the bonfire, he and his stupid, trashy friends jumped him on the raceway. And then,” she slammed a hand down on the table. We all jumped a little and I cringed inside, wishing we hadn’t. “If that isn’t all bad enough, you told Tyler that if he didn’t lie to get Bren out of trouble, you’d tell everyone he tried to rape you?”

  “Brianna keep your voice down,” Dillon said. “That’s not funny.”

  “No it isn’t,” I said quietly, raising my eyes to Brianna’s. “It wasn’t funny on Friday either.”

  Dillon’s face paled. Brianna’s mouth opened and closed before she regained control of herself. “You’re a liar,” she said. “That was really trashy, what you did to Tyler.”

  “You seem to have a preoccupation with that word." I took another sip of soda.

  She slammed her hand down again, harder, but none of us reacted this time. “You just wanted to get your boyfriend out of trouble. And what’s worse…what is so, sooo much worse, is that you knew I liked him. What a crappy friend.”

  “You said you and Bren were just friends.”

  “Please,” Brianna said, one hand over her heart, her tone incredulous. “Everyone knew I liked him. Everyone.”

  “You did say you didn’t,” Dillon said.

  Brianna’s nostrils flared. “You’re defending her now? How long have you known me? And you’re defending her?”

  “I think you just pled my case,” Dillon said, pumping his eyebrows to lighten the mood.

  Brianna looked like a spider as she dropped her head between her elbows and narrowed her eyes. “Fuck off, Dillon,” she whispered into his face.

  “Come on Brie,” Laura said, twisting her hands together. “You’re with Brian now anyway. You don’t even…”

  “That’s not the point.” I watched a tiny droplet of Brianna’s spit fly past Laura’s head. She turned her attention back to me. “And don’t even think about telling anybody that story you made up about Tyler, because I’ll tell everybody the truth.”

  The truth. I jerked my head up and gave Brianna a hard look. “I’m not worried about what you’ll tell people. It doesn’t seem like honesty is the thing you’re known for around here.”

  Brianna’s expression froze for a few seconds, her eyes staring right through mine into some reflection of herself, and then her smile began to waver, to warp until it became something bitter and cruel. She leaned back a little and I thought she was going to go, but instead she said, “I slept with him you know. Bren.”

  I heard Dillon sigh, but couldn’t take my eyes from hers. My heart raced as I absorbed what she had said. She searched my face and then a satisfied smile broke on her lips. She walked around Dillon, her hand grazing his shoulders as she passed, and picked up an apple half-wrapped in a napkin on the far side of him. “And he was good.” She dragged the phrase out obscenely, and I felt a jab in my stomach. She ripped a tiny, vicious bite from the apple, and, still chewing, said, “I didn’t think you were that kind of girl, Jenna. Guess I was wrong.”

  “Do you want to go sit somewhere else?” Dillon asked as the blood drained from my face. I heard a pang and looked down at the dent my thumb had made in my soda can.

  “Don’t bother,” Brianna said, “I’ll go sit with the boys.” She tore another bite from her apple, pivoted, and sashayed back to the other end of the table, skirting around Brian to perch on his knee. I caught a brief glimpse of Tyler staring down at his food before I looked away.

  Laura put her hand on my back. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, not sure if I trusted my voice.

  “Bitch.” Dillon said.

  Tyler caught me at my locker after the last bell.

  “Get away from me Tyler,” I said. I rummaged around on the shelf, unnerved and forgetting what I needed.

  “Please just listen to me for one second.”

  “Go away, Tyler.”

  “I didn’t mean for that to happen. With Brianna. It’s just…everyone was asking what happened to me and I didn’t know what to say.”

  I dropped my Science notebook and he bent with me to pick it up. “Don’t touch it.” My voice was a ragged hiss. I snatched the notebook out of his grasp. “Just get away from me.”

  “I didn’t know what else to say,” he said again.

  “What do you usually say?” I turned back to my rummaging.

  He was quiet for a moment and I thought he was gone, but then he said, “I was afraid you were going to tell people what happened. I know you said you wouldn’t if I went along with you at the lodge…but I wasn’t sure.”

  “So you lied to everyone first?” I said.

  “Just Brianna. And Brian and Matt, but I don’t think they believed me.”

  I slammed my locker and spun on him. “Stay away from me Tyler. Don’t talk to me, don’t talk about me, don’t even think about me. Pretend I don’t exist.” I grabbed up my backpack and left him behind, wishing, as I heaved open the doors on the sunny afternoon, that I could pretend the same about Brianna.

  Chapter 18