More Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) (10 page)

Sophie
stroked a petal. It was just so thoughtful to ring and ask Rose what flowers
she would like best. Especially as he must have known Rose would give him a roasting.
But her friends were right. She had to ignore his gesture. No good could come
of it.

***

The whole
school seemed griped with Valentine’s Day fever. The fact it had fallen on a
Saturday this year meant that the school had actually agreed to a Valentine’s
disco and everyone was a bit over excited. First, second and third year pupils
had the Main Hall from six until eight pm, then years four and over had the
room from eight until ten pm. Most of the older kids wouldn’t even make an
appearance until around nine.

Ellie
Parkhurst and Flora Kincaid were in Year Four, but Ellie’s boyfriend, Nate, was
in Year Six, so they were planning to show up late. It was a great relief to
them that they had been bunched in with the Upper School, which usually only
included years five to seven.

Ellie was
hugely enjoying getting ready for the disco, but Flora was a bundle of nerves.
Flora was madly in love with Ellie’s boyfriend’s best friend, Gabriel Brenner.
The trouble was that there were a lot of reasons why Gabriel would never notice
her. Gabriel was two years older than Flora, he was by far the most handsome
boy in the whole school, he already had a girlfriend who was a model and not a
schoolgirl, and he was damn elusive and unfriendly!

Ellie had
done her best to help Flora to get Gabriel to notice her. She had badgered Nate
into arranging things that the four of them could do together, but Nate was not
keen on being helpful. He claimed that Gabriel’s girlfriend was great and they
were good together and so he had point blank refused to talk to Gabriel about
Flora or be involved in any of Ellie’s plans to separate Gabriel from Vanessa.

The only
recourse left to Ellie and Flora was to try to get Gabriel to notice Flora on
his own. This had worked for Ellie when she had wanted Nate to notice her, but
it was not working now. Firstly, since Gabriel had become involved in the Year
Six School Play, he was rarely to be found in the Games Room or at any other
evening activity, and secondly, he generally ignored Ellie and Flora when
forced into their company. He was polite, but distant, and preferred talking to
his male friends than flirting with girls. It was all very frustrating.

But tonight
was the Valentine’s disco and Flora was determined to look as good as she
possibly could in the hopes that he might finally notice her. She and Ellie had
been to the chemist in Oakworth, the local village, and bought some make-up.
Ellie had done her best to give Flora a makeover and Flora was quite pleased
with the results. Her long blond hair had been brushed and curled and bounced
around her shoulders, she was wearing a new mini skirt with her long boots, and
a bright pink top that matched her new lipstick. She was feeling more confident
than ever before and really looking forward to the disco.

***

Gabriel
was in a seriously foul mood. Angry, hurt, depressed and another helping of
angry. He’d just rung Vanessa to see if she liked the gifts he’d sent her for
Valentine’s Day, only to discover that she had left the hotel she was supposed
to be staying at and moved into another one, three days ago. She’d forgotten or
just not bothered to tell him.

Vanessa was
working in Los Angeles on a modeling shoot and they had agreed that the
distance was too far for them to try to get together for the night. He couldn’t
leave school for longer than just the weekend anyway. She was supposed to be
staying at the Hilton but she had just blithely told him she was now at the
Excelsior, where she had moved to be closer to her friend Frances. She and
Frances were going to a party together that night. He had heard her mention
Frances a few times before and always assumed she was a female friend. Tonight
he had discovered that Franc
e
s was in fact Franc
i
s. A male
friend, who often escorted her out and about. A huge row had ensued and in the
end he had told her that if she spent Valentine’s Day with Francis then their
relationship was over. She told him not to be such a child, and that as her
boyfriend
was always at
school
he couldn’t expect her not to lead the life of
a grownup in his absence. He had told her to go and live it without him then
and hung up.

He was
tempted to walk out of school and go and get a flight to L.A. and punch
Francis’ lights out. But what good would it do? It wouldn’t make things better
with Vanessa and the school would not take it well. He could leave permanently
if he wanted to, he was old enough, but he had wanted to stay the extra year to
get involved in the Year Six play. There would be a lot of parents attending
who had jobs that might help him if he could come to their attention. Being an
actor was the most important thing in the world to him but he didn’t want to
rush off and sign up with an agency, he wanted to do it properly, he wanted a
place at a stage school. The best way to get one would be to get excellent
grades in his A-Levels at the end of Year Seven and then apply. He wasn’t sure
he could wait that long, especially with all the extra pressure from Vanessa,
but now that he had secured the lead role in the Year Six play he knew it had been
worth staying for.

So he
ditched the idea of chasing after Vanessa and decided instead to be tough about
it. Everyone always said he was a cold hearted bastard, and it was true that he
let very few people get close to him. Nate, Vanessa and his younger brother
were probably the only people he truly cared about. No, not the only people, he
loved his father very much, but he could never forgive him for remarrying after
his mother passed away. They had never been close again after that.

So what
would a cold hearted bastard do? He would screw someone else and Vanessa would
never hear from him again.

He walked
into the school disco projecting an outward appearance of being calm. It
was
pathetic still being at school, no wonder Vanessa was embarrassed by it. The
school disco was a joke too. He sneered with contempt at the gaudy valentines
decorations. He was here only for one purpose. To find a girl and use her to
wipe all thoughts of Vanessa from his mind.

He spotted
Nate sitting with Ellie and her friend. Nate nodded at him to come over but he
was in no mood to be around the happy couple. His eyes settled on the sleek
blond hair of Sophie Jones. She was single, as far as he knew. She had lovely
long legs and generous curves. Yes, she could warm his cold heart. He swept
past Nate, Ellie and Flora without a second look and went over to where Sophie
was chatting with Grace Porter.

Flora had
steeled herself to at least speak with Gabriel tonight, but one look at his icy
eyes and disdainful expression and she had chickened out. She could tell he was
in a bad mood. He was clearly pretending not to be, but his lips were tight and
his jaw was clenched. She hoped he was ok. It was killing her watching him chat
up Sophie and she longed to be able to smooth away his stress, but he would
bite her head off if she tried to flirt with him tonight. Oh well. She had made
all this effort, she might as well practice some flirting with someone else,
maybe the disco could still be fun. Flora determinedly smiled brightly and
within minutes a boy from her year had asked her to dance.

Gabriel
smiled ruefully as he watched Sophie check her phone for third time since
they’d started chatting. What an arrogant sod he was, he thought. He’d expected
her to be flattered by his attention and be a total push over. He knew he was
handsome, he saw no point in pretending otherwise, but though Sophie was
clearly enjoying his efforts to be charming, he could tell that her attention
was really elsewhere. He decided to leave her to it.

He wondered
why he didn’t feel more depressed about it. He’d struck out tonight with
Vanessa and now Sophie. But in his heart he knew he didn’t want to sleep with
Sophie, he wanted Vanessa. Paying her back was not going make him happier. He
would be better off being around his mates and just preying that she and
Francis really were just friends, as she had insisted. Not that it mattered
anymore, since they’d split up, but he felt sick at the thought of her spending
the night with someone else. Rather ironic, as he had nearly done the same
himself. Oh well, he would find Nate and exert himself to be nice to the girls.
That Flora had a sweet smile, he could let her gentle and cheerful personality
sooth him a little.

***

Sophie
didn’t know how she knew, as her phone was on silent, but she sensed it the
minute Jack texted her. She was at the disco but had brought her phone in a
small handbag.

Did you get the flowers? Jack

She’d
promised her friends that she wouldn’t contact him, but really she felt now
that she should have let him know they had arrived. The lilies would have been
pretty expensive. Surely it was rude not to at least acknowledge receipt? He
only wanted to know that they had arrived, it wasn’t like she was starting
anything with him.

She
was having a great time being chatted up by Gabriel Brenner but the temptation
to keep reading the text message kept pulling at her. Gabriel was amazing
looking and it was very flattering to be the object of his attention, but her
heart was elsewhere. Still, she reasoned, the girls had told her to move on,
and she was loving all the jealous looks she was getting. Gabriel hardly ever
bothered to chat anyone up, she was fairly sure he had a girlfriend who didn’t
go to their school, but maybe they had broken up. Anyway, she basked in his smooth
charm for half an hour before she literally couldn’t hang on another minute to
text Jack back.

Sophie
glanced over at Rose and Leo, they were so obviously in love. They couldn’t
stop touching each other. Even though at that moment they were talking to
completely different people, she could see their fingers entwined under the
table. At least they would never notice her leaving. But she knew that Grace
would confiscate her phone the minute she told her that Jack had texted her, so
instead she said she had a headache and was going up to their room to get some
painkillers. She half wished she’d told Grace, but she needed to do this or she
would never be able to move on.

Sat
on her bed she took a deep breath. If he didn’t reply within ten minutes then
she would go back down to the disco.

Yes, thank you, the flowers are beautiful. There is nothing to forgive,
so please don’t worry about it again. Sophie

She
chewed her thumb for a long minute before he replied.

I was thinking of visiting Alex and Ellie next weekend, could I take you
out for a drink afterwards?

Her
heart thumped, she shut her eyes looking for inner fortitude.

I don’t think so, but thanks for asking.
She finally put.

Dinner then?

Why
hadn’t he offered dinner the first time she wondered? He obviously thought she
was just playing hard to get. Was she? No. She had to have some self respect
and put an end to this.

I’m busy.

What about the weekend after?
He persisted.

Sophie
felt her defenses wobble. But then she thought of what Grace and Rose would say
and she thought of Gabriel. His attention had given her a confidence boost,
just what she needed to be strong.

I’m permanently busy.

He
didn’t respond again. She waited about two minutes before turning her head into
her pillow and sobbing her heart out. It was the right thing to do, but it felt
oh so wrong.

***

Jack
was in a bar with several friends and quite a few girls that he
had
been
considering making a move on. Instead he found he was staring at his phone in
surprise and wishing he’d sent Sophie flowers months ago. He looked at the
girls around him. None of them were a patch on her. He tried to think of
something to text back that would make her like him again but he couldn’t think
of anything.

Had
he totally blown it? He’d had a really hot, kind, funny, smart girl who was
really into him and he’d taken it for granted. She wasn’t playing any kind of
flirting game with him; it actually looked as though she didn’t like him
anymore.

He
turned as a girl called Kelsey, or something like that, tugged on his arm. He
talked to her for a bit but his mind was busy turning over how he was going to
win Sophie back. He had thought about her a lot since Christmas and somehow he
was suddenly convinced that she might just be the only girl for him. Now he
just had to work out what to do about it…