Free Foolish Games by Leah Spiegel Page A

some sightseeing while I’m here,” I insisted since it would be the only sane thing I was doing now that I found myself in this crazy crossfire of he said, she said.
    “Sightseeing…how about shopping instead?” he offered.
    “Deal.” I popped the last remaining piece of the croissant in my mouth and rolled off the bed.
    Riley slicked back his damp hair, grabbed up his black duffle bag and tucked his computer underneath his arm. After glancing around the room for like a nanosecond, I stepped into the hallway. Riley on the other hand moaned, “Goodbye, five star hotel. I will miss you.”
    “Living in the van is not that bad,” I said as I pulled out my cell phone and Riley finally exited the hotel room.
    “Whatever you say.” He heaved a sigh.
    “I’m going to text Lizzie to see if she wants to come along.”
    “And I’ll take those.” He reached out for his dark aviators that were on my face, but I gently slapped his hand away mid-text.
    “I need these more than you,” I reminded him.
    “Ah, so true, so true.” He smirked.
    Turning down the hallway, away from the elevators, I looked back at Riley and waved for him to follow me towards the stairwell.
    “Where are you going?” Riley stopped, thinking I must have gone the wrong way.
    “No more elevators for today.” I rolled my eyes while thinking about Hawkins locking me in one of them earlier.
    “Okay.” He laughed while following behind me to the steps.
    “That was fast,” I mumbled to myself when Lizzie texted me back. “It says she’ll meet us at the van.”
    We headed down the steps and exited the side door of the hotel. Once outside, I grimaced from the brightness, even with the aviators on. It was another hot summer day without a single breeze in the stagnant air. Perfectly sculptured evergreen trees framed the outer edges of the parking lot. A line of tour buses glistened in the sun along the back of the lot. In front of it were two lanes of expensive vehicles. You would have thought it was a Mercedes car dealership if it wasn’t for my pale blue clunker mixed in with them. I looked back and forth questioningly at the parking lot. Where were all the fans? Last time the parking lot was filled with them. A girl hollered, followed by a few low whistles, catching my attention. I searched for the source and discovered that the entrance was roped off, keeping the fans out. I didn’t know why the fans were being pushed back to the edge of the hotel today. I thought about Hawkins’ warning that now wasn’t a good time to be around the band and became instantly afraid. How unsafe was unsafe ?
    Opening the door, I recoiled from the heat coming out of the van. I tossed the keys over to Riley who opened his door and mirrored the same reaction so we waited for the van to cool off. Over my shoulder, Lizzie was quickly crossing over to us from the side entrance of the hotel. She didn’t even hesitate as she flung back the side door and got into the van. We were both waiting for her to run out of it in a screaming rage, but to our surprise she didn’t.
    “Can you hurry?” she asked in a small voice from within the van.
    Riley and I just shrugged at each other before we slowly eased ourselves into the scorching hot van. I shoved the keys into the ignition and turned it on. Trying not to touch the hot steering wheel, I floored the gas to the ground to create some air conditioning the old fashioned way with the windows down. 
    “I’m so glad to be out of here,” Lizzie groaned.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked her.
    “Warren’s smothering me!” she said with exasperation. “All he wants to do is talk about hockey. It’s a puck and some ice, calm down already. Apparently, The Stanley Cups are going on—”
    “Stanley Cup,” I corrected her.
    “Whatever, once again…who cares,” she said. “And it’s all he talks about. I mean I get it, he’s a Canadian, blah, blah, blah. I just need a break.” She exhaled loudly.
    “So it’s been