Sofia: Phoenix Rising - Fire Within! Book 1
Chapter Seventeen

Standing in front of Lori’s floor length mirror, I look at myself stunned. She really does have a magic touch when it comes to beautifying people. The way she applied eye shadow and liner, gives my eyes a smoky doe-eyed appearance, causing my face to look like some magical Fae Queen. After slipping on my fiery red floor length party dress, I smile at myself. She applied some type of shimmery lotion causing my skin to look as though it is glowing and sparkles when I move in the light of her bedroom. I do not look like me from even just twenty minutes ago. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Oh, my, gosh, Lori! You are amazing. Your touch is like magic, whenever you give me make-overs!” I gush as I gaze into the mirror and look at her from it. She smiles at me, and I see a blush tint her cheeks pink at my compliment. Don’t get me wrong, she did a great job on herself as well, she looks like a fairytale princess in her pale pink dress that falls to just above her knees. All she would need is a crown and scepter to complete her ensemble.

Our eyes go wide as our gazes’ lock on each other because the doorbell chimes indicating that our dates are here. Bouncing up and down in our strappy heels, we both squeal in excitement as we dash out of her bedroom and make our way to her front entrance where the guys are patiently waiting with smiles on their faces. I stop short at the bottom of her stairs, taking a deep breath in as my eyes land on Ash. He is totally sigh worthy! The black suit suits him quite well. I look him over from head to toe before my eyes finally make their way back up to his intense blue eyes which seem to be drinking me in as well.

I give Ash a small smile, meant just for him before Blake takes my hand, drawing my attention to him; “you look gorgeous babe!” He grins an infectious smile, causing me to smile in return and then takes my hand, brushing his lips across my knuckles.

“Why thank you, kind sir!” I exclaim with a giggle. He always manages to bring the girly, girl side out of me. Offering me his arm, I tuck my arm into the crook of his and he leads me out of the house. Such the gentleman that he is, he opens the passenger door of his massive black truck, helping me inside it as I am not the most graceful in the silver heels I have on.

Blake throws his truck into reverse, backing out of the driveway. I catch him sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye as we head to the hotel Lori’s mom manages (because that is where the party is held every year), causing a smile to slip across my lips. I turn my gaze to the passenger window and watch what little scenery I can see in the dark, pass by. Too many thoughts try to invade my mind in the short drive from my house to the fancy hotel and yet I only seem to focus on one, Ash. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about another guy when I’m with Blake, going to such an extravagant affair such as this, but my mind says otherwise. I push the images of him into the darkest recesses of my subconscious as I see we are pulling into the parking lot. Blake maneuvers around to open my door and help me out and taking my hand in his, we head to the glamourous ballroom made of marble and chandeliers.

We find a table and sit for a few minutes while we wait for a few of his friends and their dates and Lori and Ash to show up before we hit the dance floor. A few dances in I decide to grab myself a drink and leave our collective group of friends out on the dance floor to make my way over to the beverage table. Snaking my way through the crowd, I finally make it and pick up a glass full of punch, I down it. It burns as it courses down my throat causing me to go into a coughing fit. Too late I realize the punch has been spiked. It takes a few seconds before I am able to breathe properly and then someone bumps against my arm. “Hey, watch it…” My voice goes quiet as I see Ash staring at me.

“Are you okay?” His eyes appear black in the dim lighting as he looks at me with storm clouds of concern.

“Yeah sure, no biggie. I should have known someone would spike the punch.” I wave my hand in the air dismissing the incident. “Are you having fun at your first American New Year’s Eve party?”

Ash shrugs his shoulders. “Eh, it’s alright.” He has an odd look to him as he says this, and I arch an eyebrow. There is nothing I want more than to know what could make this night any better. However, I don’t get a chance to ask because Blake comes up behind me just then, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“Hey babe, what you doing? Let’s get back on the floor.” I nod an okay to him, and then glance at Ash as Blake starts to drag me back towards the dance floor.

“Save me a dance!” My heart skips a beat as I hear Ash shout this to me. Looking back at him, I grin and nod my head yes. Blake then takes my hand, I’m not sure if he heard what Ash had yelled at me or not, but if he did, he ignores it and twirls me around the dance floor causing me to laugh.

^^^

As the night crawls closer and closer to midnight all I am thinking about is dancing with Ash. I’ve scanned the crowd countless times in the last ten minutes to no avail. I feel as though my heart is shattering. Yes, dramatic I know but true none-the-less. Heaving a sigh, I decide to make my way over to where Blake is hanging out with a group of his friends. Just feet away from him, a hand appears from out of the darkness, and someone is tapping me on the shoulder. Before I know what is happening, I am being spun to face them. “Ash”, I whisper as I look into his beautiful shimmering eyes. He grins at me and then slips his hand into mine, pulling me out to the dance floor. “Where’s Lori?” I ask glancing around for a moment. The last thing I need is for Lori to think I’m trying to steal her ’man’, but honestly, I don’t even know if they are ‘together’ or just friends and at this moment I honestly don’t care. I only let that thought flicker for a second before I feel Ash wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me in close to him.

My heart soars! I have never been happier than at this moment. Questions try to roll through my mind; what’s going on? Does this mean that all this time I could have been with him? And more importantly, when he was talking to that lady about a twin flame, could he have been referring to me? I push all those questions aside for the time being. This is after all, what I’ve been waiting for all damn night!

Automatically I place my hands against him, leaning my head on his chest. I breathe him in, a woodsy, smoky scent that has me yearning to be sitting by a bonfire. A melodic beat pulsates from the speakers as we sway to the rhythm, and I lose all sense of time and space. Somehow, we have moved ourselves to a lesser lit area of the gym and I peer up at him. Our movements slow to where we are moving just our upper halves ever so slowly as we gaze into each other’s eyes. Just outside of the bubble that is ’us’, I can hear people counting down from ten and I know I should be looking for Blake, but I can’t seem to remove myself from Ash’s arms. Slowly, we tip and tilt our heads until our lips have connected. I sigh into him. The kiss so sweet at first is very quickly intensifying. I can feel the electricity running between us, more than just attraction, something almost cosmic. I am a hundred percent sure that he feels it as well.

Reality slams into me as the ballroom erupts in cheers and shouts of happy new year and then a loud upbeat song replaces the last one and people start crowding around us, jump and moving to the music. I stand frozen, looking at Ash shocked at what we have just done. Finally, I force words from my mouth; “oh no, I’m so sorry.” Backing away from him I mumble, “I have to go,” and then I turn and run away.

Bursting out the double doors of the exit to the hotel, the cold winter night air envelops me as I glance around before deciding to make my way over to the courtyard. Funny though, as I flop on the nearest black metal bench, I can’t even feel the cold, numb from shock at what I had done maybe? I place my head in my hands and let the tears I was holding in fall where they may.

A warm hand is placed upon my bare shoulder, enticing me to look towards the person it belongs to. The last person I expected to see is standing in front of me. “Lori?” She gives me a sympathetic smile before sitting next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders she pulls me into a half hug.

“Hey babe, what are all the tears about?”

Leaning away from her so I can look into her eyes, I stare at her questioningly, trying to read her expression. “I-I,” stuttering I turn from her so I can’t see her face; “I kissed Ash! I’m so sorry Lori. Please don’t hate me. I won’t ever do it again, I promise. Your friendship is way more important to me than some guy, I swear!”

“Oh my gosh Sofie, calm down. Ash and I are just friends. Honestly, the first time I kissed him I felt like I was kissing my brother. He felt the same way about me, being his sister. Besides, I see the way he looks at you. I’m not blind.” My mouth falls open in surprise as she says this so matter of fact to me. “I just kept waiting for you to realize you felt the same way about him. Except you never did and now here you are with Blake instead of the one you should be with.

“Oh no! Blake! What am I going to tell him? I mean I’ve sort of been wanting to end things with him, but he’s such a nice guy and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Knowing now though that I don’t feel the same way about him as he does me, I’ve got to put an end to it. If I break things off with Blake, will you be able to take me home?”

“Of course, sweetie. Go do what you need to do and then come find me in the parking lot.”

Nodding my head yes, I stand from the bench and walk back inside to find Blake.

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