The pizza parlor wasn't nearly as crowded as Thorne thought it would be. While all of the seats were filled, there wasn't a line out the door and certainly no rowdy teenagers hanging off one another or noisy chatter. It was actually quite peaceful for a Saturday evening. Of course, it did take thirty minutes to get to and halfway there, Thorne thought Kai must have been pranking him. But when he pulled into the parking lot of the tiny pizza shop, he saw Kai and Cinder standing outside, waiting for him.
"Hi Thorne, glad you found it okay," Kai greeted him as he held the door open for them.
"Yeah. It wasn't too bad," Thorne replied, ducking inside.
Thorne followed Cinder past tables with families and dates, towards the back where a round table with a reserved sign sat. She and Kai began to sit down when a small middle-aged woman walked up to them, a bright, warm smile spread across her face.
"You're finally here! Where's Ze'ev and Scarlet?" she asked as she hugged both Cinder and Kai and gave them kisses on their cheeks.
"They'll be here any minute."
"And how did we do?"
Kai's eyes lit up. "We won of course! I mean, it was kind of scary there for a minute, but Wolf pulled it off with a last second conversion!"
The woman smiled and nodded approvingly, her eyes twinkling. She looked around the table. "Where's Crescent?"
"She had to go home and finish a paper, but she's really sorry she couldn't make it. She said to tell you hi and that she'll be here next week," Cinder answered.
The woman nodded again, her gaze finally falling on Thorne. He gulped. "Hi, I'm—um—Carswell Thorne, but everyone just calls me Thorne," he said, holding out his hand.
She smiled warmly at Thorne and took the offered hand. "Thorne, I'm Maha, Ze—Wolf's mom."
"He's Cress's friend," Kai clarified.
The woman turned to Kai, raising an eyebrow. "He's not your friend, too?"
Thorne saw Kai blush, but it wasn't necessary as he was blushing enough for the both of them. Thorne rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, but before Kai could answer, the tiny bell at the front tinkled indicating that someone had just walked in.
Wolf and Scarlet came in, arms wrapped around each other, eyes gazing into one another's. Thorne was impressed that they were able to make it to the back of the restaurant without running into anyone or anything, but he supposed they have had plenty of experience with that sort of thing. They were practically glued to each other's side and he couldn't remember a time when he didn't see one without the other. Thinking about it now made him wonder if he would ever have that with anyone. Cress's face crept up in his thoughts and he quickly stomped it out.
Wolf let go of Scarlet long enough to wrap his arms around his mom and picked the tiny woman off the ground. "Mom!"
Maha laughed and batted at his arm. "Put me down so I can get your pizzas started."
Wolf chuckled and put his mom down. She patted her hand against his cheek and turned to give Scarlet a warm embrace before hurrying off to the kitchen.
"Ze'ev! Get your friends some drinks!" she called out, and Thorne could have sworn he saw Wolf's ears turn slightly pink.
Wolf went around the table taking their drink orders, until his gaze fell upon Thorne. He raised an eyebrow as if he had just noticed Thorne for the first time, which was probably the truth.
"Um—ginger ale?"
Wolf eyed Thorne for a heartbeat and walked off to get the drinks. Thorne tugged at his shirt collar.
Cinder snickered next to him. "That's Cress's drink."
Thorne perked up. "Really?"
Smirking on the other side of him, Scarlet answered, "Yeah."
Thorne pondered what it meant that he and Cress had the same favorite soda when he realized that he was being a dork and it didn't mean anything. Wolf came back with a tray of drinks and passed them around before slipping into the seat next to Scarlet's. Kai couldn't hold in his excitement any longer.
He practically punched his friend in the arm and exclaimed, "That was amazing! A backflip! An honest-to-stars-backflip!"
Wolf grinned.
"So how much of a hard time did the team give you tonight?" Cinder asked, twirling her straw around in her cup.
Wolf shrugged. "Doesn't matter." He wrapped his arm around Scarlet again and pulled her close to kiss her cheek.
Scarlet blushed.
Thorne looked down at his drink.
Cinder rolled her eyes. "Enough with the PDA," she groaned.
Kai laughed and reached over to give Cinder a big wet kiss on the cheek. She pushed him away and wiped her face with a napkin, but laughed along with the group.
As they waited for their pizza, they began talking about highlights of game and Wolf filled them in on the drama down on the field. Thorne was surprised to hear about all the trash-talk that went on and even more surprised about how good-natured Wolf was about it. Thorne was also surprised to hear that they, being Cress, Cinder, Kai, Scarlet, and Wolf, always came to the pizza parlor after every game to celebrate, win or lose.
"You don't hang out with the team after the game?" Thorne asked curiously. All their eyes shifted to him and he shrunk in his seat just a little.
"Nah," Wolf replied. "Everyone always goes to Carter's, but that's not our scene. We used to get crap about it, but who cares what they think."
Scarlet laughed when Thorne looked at them incredulously. "Wolf likes to play football and I like to cheer him on, but we don't normally hang out with them. Don't get met wrong, some of them are really nice people. Kinney is pretty cool and Winter, do you know her? She's great. Oh the whole though, we prefer the company here."
"And the pizza," Wolf added.
As if on cue, Maha brought out two piping hot pizzas and placed them on the stands in the middle of the table. They all began to move as if performing the steps to a choreographed dance they had perfected long ago. Kai passed out the plates that were stacked in front of him, Cinder made sure everyone had enough napkins, Scarlet doled out the slices, and Wolf refilled everyone's drinks. Scarlet nudged Thorne and told him that since Cress wasn't here he'd have to take over her duties of passing along the red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese.
Amused, Thorne couldn't help but smile as he slid the condiment jars back and forth as needed. This must be what it was like to have friends, best friends, and he wondered if this was the reason why Cress seemed so happy all the time. He certainly was beginning to understand why they were always around each other. One of them was always telling a joke or a story that made the others laugh and everyone always contributed. Thorne even felt bold enough to share some of the funnier stories about the places he had lived when he was younger. His dad was in the military and they had to move around a lot. That coupled with Thorne's shyness meant he never actually had any friends and now that he was sitting around a table of people who had been friends since the first grade, he never wanted to fit in more.
Kai found the story about the fried tarantulas in a Cambodian restaurant particularly funny while Wolf looked like he was about to throw up, which made the rest of the table laugh hysterically. Eager to change the subject, Wolf brought up Cress.
"So, how did the tater-tot's date go last night?"
Thorne could feel the heat rising up his neck and hoped it would stay off his cheeks. He kept his eyes down as he fiddled with the corner of his napkin, not wanting to look at any of them or rather not wanting any of them to look at him. He wondered if they all knew about his massive crush on Cress. Technically, no one knew because he would never admit it to anyone, but he assumed that all of his want and longing was plastered on his face whenever she walked by. He had hoped that he was invisible enough that no one paid any attention, but if the people sitting around this table could see it, could Cress have seen it too? The thought filled him with dread—how pathetic she must think he was—and he couldn't help but rub the back of his neck out of nervousness again.
"Not so great, but she's breaking up with him," Cinder replied, shrugging.
"Poor, Cress," Wolf said, pushing a hand through his already unruly hair.
"Hey!" Kai added, eager to end the quietness around the table. "This is Cress we're talking about. Heart-breaker of men. She's going to be fine. It's not the first time this has happened, and it won't be … the … last …"
Kai's sentence trailed off when Thorne ventured to look up and their gaze snagged on each other's briefly. Thorne had to hold every muscle in his body to keep from wincing. His eyes flickered back down to his napkin, but he was acutely aware that they were all looking at him. Or at least, eyeing each other and throwing sympathy glances his way. He cleared his throat and stood up abruptly, making both Cinder and Scarlet jump in their seats.
"I'm sorry. I—uh—have to go." He gestured to his watch, hoping they would assume he had somewhere to be, or that it was late and he needed to get home. He pulled out his wallet.
Wolf held up his hands. "Hey, it's okay. You don't have to do that."
Thorne nodded in acknowledgement, but still didn't make eye contact with any of them. "No, I insist. Thanks for inviting me." He placed a twenty dollar bill on the table and turned to leave.
Cinder managed to catch his eye for a brief second before he walked out the door.
Thorne climbed into his car and his heart hitched as he saw Cress's scarf lying in the passenger seat, faint notes of roses lingering in the air. He groaned, dragging both hands down his face.
AN: Thanks again to lettered for being an amazing beta and thanks for reading! I just loved Thorne hanging out with the Rampion crew.
