Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | s i x t e e n

Chin up, shoulders back. Sawyer had given me advice on how to appear more confident when I walked into a room. Smile. Smile as if nothing in the world is bothering you right now. I force one onto my face. Just pretend like you don't see all of those red cups that people are holding. As long as you don't see what's inside, you'll be okay.

Someone passes by me with one of those cups in hand, and it takes all of my willpower not to tense up. I just have to find Rowan. Then, all of this will be over. Sawyer told me that I could call her if I needed a ride back home early, so I do have a backup plan.

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice says to me.

I turn to see Henri Chevalier. Oh, perfect. I'm sure he knows where Rowan is.

"You're Anna Silver, aren't you?" he continues. He gives me a once-over with his eyes, which is somewhat uncomfortable. "You look really great today. I don't usually see you at parties."

I laugh nervously. "Yeah, I don't usually go." I pretend to look around, and then ask, "By the way, have you seen Rowan?"

"Hawthorne?" Henri asks, shrugging his shoulder. "The last I saw him, he –" He suddenly pauses, and then smiles at me. "Oh, right; I saw him going back to his room."

"His room?" I perk up. "Where's that?"

"Oh, that's a little promiscuous; don't you think?" he teases.

I immediately flush with embarrassment. "No, it's not like that," I promise awkwardly. "I just needed to talk to him about something. You know, since we're in the ... mentorship thing and all that." Yup. That's my go-to excuse from now on.

"Relax, princess, I was just kidding." Henri motions towards the staircase. "I'll show you where it is, if you want. I know Hawthorne's place like the back of my hand."

I gratefully follow him upstairs. I notice that we're getting a lot of weird looks. I wonder why.

Henri leads me to a door near the front of the long hallway upstairs. The only other time I've been up here is when I first ran into Rowan. Back then, I'd been utterly terrified of him. And now I'm over here, searching for him. Oh, how the tables have turned.

"Check inside," Henri offers.

I warily open the door and walk inside. It's dark, because the lights are out, but I can see two people making out on top of the bed. At first I wonder if one of them is Rowan, but when my pupils get accustomed to the darkness in the room, I realize that neither of them are. He's not even in here.

Henri suddenly walks in behind me and claps his hands, scaring both the couple and me. "Okay, okay," he snaps. "Let's take that elsewhere. This is Hawthorne's room."

The couple glances at one another, and then scurry out the door. Henri rolls his eyes. "People these days."

"Well, he's not in here," I say. "I'll check somewhere else."