Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 8 ~ Dangerous, part 2

They turned in unison to look at her, and Elly immediately sensed the tension that had been in the room before she even walked in.

“Sien!” she said a shade too brightly.  “You made it.  Great!  And you actually brought chips, wow.”  She motioned toward the bag of Doritos he was holding.

“Yeah,” said Sien, a hint of strain in his voice.  “He let me in.”  He jerked his free hand toward Sam.

“Great.  Yeah, Sien, this is Sam Conner, he’s a friend of my dad’s.  And, uh, Sam, this is—”

“Your boyfriend Sien, I know, we’ve sort of met just now.”

“Right.  I mean, no.  I mean, he’s not my boyfriend.  Yet.  Or never, as the case may be.”  She laughed nervously, thinking, what the hell are you saying??

Sien didn’t say anything, just gave her a strange look, and Sam said bluntly, “So where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“My vodka, what the hell do you think?”

“Oh, that.”  Elly swallowed, thinking that she wouldn’t be near as flustered if Sien wasn’t just standing there in silence with a very unusual frown on his face.  “I couldn’t find it.  I think I must have misplaced it.”

“You misplaced it,” Sam echoed flatly.

“Yeah, I misplaced it,” Elly snapped back, getting defensive.  “Is this going to be a big deal to you?”

“Well, yeah, it’s mine and I want it back, Little Miss Temperance,” Sam sneered at her.

“Terribly sorry,” said Elly with a distinct lack of sincerity.  “I’ll buy you a freaking bottle of vodka and we can call it even, though it’s not like you’re hard up for money.”

Sam snorted derisively.  “You’re sixteen, you can’t buy vodka.”  Then he suddenly got a knowing look, and smirked, “Oh, I get it.  You steal my booze ’cause you can’t buy any of your own and if you take your dad’s he’ll miss it and know one of the kiddies took it.  Well if you’re gonna use me like that you can—” he paused, with a quick glance at Sien, and finished “—pay me for it.  fifty bucks.”

“Fifty bucks?”  Elly put her hands on her hips indignantly.  “That was not a fifty dollar bottle.”

“No, but I’ll keep the difference as payment for not telling your parents that you’re stashing the strong stuff.”  Sam’s smirked widened triumphantly.

“Oh yeah, like you can blackmail . . . .”  Elly drifted off, leaving her retort unfinished as she glanced at Sien.  It was bad enough that he was seeing all of this, but she couldn’t bring up the sordid secret she held above Sam’s head while Sien was standing there.  “I’m not stashing vodka, I didn’t take your bottle, but whatever.  I’ll give you fifty bucks just to get rid of you.”

“Actually, I’m gonna stick around a little while longer.  Gonna go say hi to your daddy.”  Sam turned leisurely and headed back toward the party.  “You can pay me before I leave, unless you’ve misplaced all your money, in which case we’ll have to come up with a different arrangement.”  He directed another seemingly casual glance at Sien and strolled away.

Elly shook her head and smiled apologetically at Sien.  “I can’t say enough how much I wish you didn’t have to see that,” she said ruefully.

Sien nodded, looking down at his bag of chips.  “So are you?”

“What?”

“Stashing vodka.”

“No!”  She hoped for a second that he would smile and just be teasing her, but instead he shrugged, rather petulantly, and nodded as if he didn’t believe her.  “Sam is a certified jerk.  He just . . . thinks everyone is as sleazy as him.”

“And he’s a friend of your dad’s?”

“Well, more like a friend of my uncle.  Or really, the brother of a friend of my uncle and my dad.”

Sien frowned, as if confused, and Elly rushed to clarify, “See, they’re all in a band.  My dad is in the band because his brother is in it, and Sam is in the band because his brother is in it.  But my dad is really talented and Sam isn’t, he’s a hack guitarist, he’s only in the band because his brother wants him in, and my dad is in the band because of his brother but also because he’s the best musician in the band.  Anyway, don’t listen to whatever Sam says to you.  Don’t talk to him, actually, that would be better.”

“Riiiiight.”  Sien cracked a smile finally, and observed, “I’m not sure I get the whole friend-not-a-friend-band-of-brothers thing . . . but I get that Sam’s a jerk . . . which seems to be the moral of that whole story.”

“Good.  Come on, I’ll introduce you to my parents.”  Elly reached to take him by the arm and show him to the backyard, but he stepped away from her touch, and she guiltily put her arms back down at her sides.

I will kill Sam, she thought darkly as they walked across the house.

“This band.  I take it they’re successful?” Sien said, glancing around, taking in his surroundings.

“Yeah.  Have you heard of Ixion?”

“I have.”  He looked back at her, a little surprised.  “Your dad is in Ixion?”

Elly smiled, trying to keep away the pained look.  She was used to boys suddenly becoming more impressed with her dad’s credentials than anything about her personally, and she had been putting off the inevitably of Sien knowing about it and getting a chance to reveal his inner Ixion-fanboy.  Perhaps she shouldn’t have waited this long — it would be embarrassing if he started asking the guys for autographs and pictures.  Her dad would not really appreciate her bringing an overly excitable fan into the house.  It had happened before, when she or her brothers brought a friend home to find them unexpectedly turning into Ixion’s #1 Fan the minute they got in the door.

“Is your dad the singer?”

“No.  Lead guitar.”

“Oh.  That’s good, I guess . . . ’cause actually I can’t stand the singer.  He’s kind of whiny.”

Elly laughed.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”  She waved her hand dismissively.  “I mean, if you said my dad’s guitar playing sucked I’d have to kill you, but I don’t really care about what you think of Noah.”

“Oh.”  He failed to laugh at her flirtatious threat, and Elly wondered what was bugging him.  How long had he and Sam been talking before she interrupted them?  What had Sam been saying?  Elly clenched her fists reflexively as she imagined the worst.  If Sam did anything . . . anything to screw things up with Sien, he would be one dead lame-ass wannabe rock star.

“Is something wrong?” she asked boldly.

“Wrong?”  Sien lifted his eyebrows in surprise, but to Elly it seemed feigned.  “No,” he denied.  “Why?  Should there be?”

“No.”  They had come to the patio doors, but Elly halted, not quite ready to take him outside and introduce him to her parents.  “I just get the feeling you were bothered by that thing.  With Sam.”

“No.  Why should I be?  I’m sure he’s a jerk, just like you said.”

“Yeah, I know, you say that, I’m just getting the feeling—”

“I don’t know what you mean.”  Sien smiled stiffly.

“You just seem a little tense since you got here.”  In the back of her head a voice was telling Elly to back off and just take him outside, but now that she had brought it up she couldn’t just let it drop.  “I mean, different.  You’re not laughing at my idiotic, lame joke like you usually do and I’m not laughing at yours, because you’re not making any.  And then there’s the way you’re clutching those chips in both hands like that and I’m sure you’re crumbling them up.”

Sien looked down and eased up on the bag guiltily.  “It’s nothing.  I’m just nervous to meet your folks.”

“Well, it was your request.”

“I know.  Maybe that’s why I’m nervous.”

“Don’t be.  They’re just my parents, they don’t bite.  Well, my mom doesn’t anyway.”  She smiled and touched the side of his arm tentatively.  “My mom barks, my dad does the biting, they’re a good team that way, plus it’s just more efficient.”

Sien nodded distractedly, glancing out the sliding doors at the gathering.

“Sien.  That was another one of those stupid jokes of mine you’re supposed to laugh at.”  She hazarded a wink.  “If only to be polite.”

“Oh.”  He just smiled.

“Come on—” she patted his arm and turned him toward the doors as she reached to slide them open “—into the fiery breach with ye.”

He started to step through, but she had a thought and said, “Wait a minute.  One more thing.”

He waited expectantly.

“I didn’t steal Sam’s vodka, but you know I have had alcoholic drinks, despite my tender age.  I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“No.  Why should it?”

“Well, I could get into the whole aspect of breaking the law and also impairing judgment and motor functions, not to mention possibly forming an addiction that will ruin my life and damage my liver.  But if you’re okay with it, we’ll just skip to the part where I know this guy who lives in his mom’s basement and makes really good fake IDs.”

Sien looked at her uncertainly for a moment, then shook his head and smiled.  “I get it.  I missed my cue to laugh again.”

Elly nodded, embarrassed with herself.  “Sorry.  I run at the mouth when I get nervous.”

“I was beginning to think that.”

“I’m going to shut up now and you’re going to go make an excellent impression on my parents.”  She motioned outside.

“Eleanor . . . .”

“Yes?”

He shook his head again and walked outside.  “Nevermind.”