Free Temptation: A Novel by Travis Thrasher

something.
    She wants to escape. She wants to use me as an escape.
    “Sure.”
    So I follow her.
    Just like the gaze of pretty much every guy in the room.
    They’re surely wondering the same thing I’m wondering.
    Who is this girl, and what am I doing with her?

24. The Card Game
     
    Lily pours herself a diet soda, and I haven’t yet managed to say anything to her when the host of the party comes up.
    “Having fun yet?” Ray asks me.
    There it is again. That look.
    Ah, now I get it.
    This is a really weird déjà vu. At the last big party here, I was with Jocelyn. The girl he used to date. I never learned their history, but it was definitely a history.
    Now Lily.
    Not that I’m here with Lily, but I’m one of the few guys here she knows.
    Lily turns around to look at Ray. Somehow she seems to move her lips to make them more pouty, more sexy.
    “So who’s your friend?” Ray asks me, but as he speaks he looks at Lily.
    Lily just laughs. “Harris pointed you out. This is your house, right?”
    “Yes. I’m Ray.”
    “Of course you are. Nice party.”
    A stream of fireworks goes off in the back. The music changes to another loud, bass-heavy song.
    “So you’re going to be a senior at Harrington this fall?” Ray asks.
    “Looks like it.”
    She’s not smiling anymore. Her eyes are cold and sharp. Something tells me this sort of scene has happened many, many times before.
    “So I missed you by a year.”
    “Ah, yes. The tragedy of it all. Otherwise, who knows what could have happened?”
    Ray doesn’t seem to be getting her sarcasm. Or maybe he’s just undaunted by it. After all, he’s the prom king and homecoming king and blond king and all that stuff.
    “College is a long way off,” Ray says.
    “I’m even farther,” Lily says, then grabs my untucked shirt. “Come on, biker boy.”
    I feel like she’s babysitting me. Yet as I follow her, I can’t help but feel a mild bit of satisfaction. Not that I hate Ray. He’s just—he’s just a guy I’ll never be. A guy I’ll never be best buddies with.
    Lily is actually a little taller than me in her boots. More heads turn.
    We get out of the main room where there’re the most people and the loudest sounds. In the next room a bunch of kids are sitting around a glass table, playing some kind of card game while another group stands around them, watching.
    I know this.
    They’re playing with cards that I recognize. The same kind I found at the mysterious cabin that belonged to Jeremiah Marsh.
    At the other party, Jocelyn got angry when I asked about the cards.
    Dial down the curiosity factor, she told me. Don’t go there. Those weren’t tarot cards, okay?
    But this time I’m not the only one curious.
    Lily moves past a couple of guys and looks over.
    “What are you guys playing?” she asks.
    The faces look at her but don’t speak.
    “What kind of cards are those?”
    Nobody says anything.
    “Uh, hello? Anybody? Is this some kind of Solitary special club or something?”
    I see the cards and their different designs, a stack of cards with black back sides on either side of the table. And there it is again. The ashtray with something glowing in the middle.
    “You really want to play?”
    The voice seems to surprise everybody. It’s Ray, who has followed us in here.
    Lily looks at him, then nods. “What is this?”
    “This—why, Chris didn’t tell you about this?”
    I can feel my face start to turn red, but Lily either doesn’t see it or doesn’t care.
    “No, Chris has more grown-up things to do with his time,” Lily says.
    There are a couple of muffled chuckles. Ray smiles even wider, as if he’s holding some big secret.
    “You really want to play this game, huh?”
    “Yes, I really do,” Lily says in an exaggerated, mocking way.
    Everybody else is watching us.
    “Fine. Go ahead. Dave, get off the couch. You guys move too. Lily wants to play.”
    “So does Chris,” she says.
    I really would rather haul tobacco leaves than play this