17

The pub was located opposite the dog-walking park. It was a traditional Victorian building set behind a large carpark that always had the same three cars present. This carpark was mostly used as an outdoor smoking area since the outdoor ban, as much as the landlady tried to discourage it.

Unfortunately, Tom and his friends currently loitered around the sloped disabled ramp, meaning Scarlett's group would have to pass them on the way inside.

Tom looked up, giving the lads a cursory glance before pinning Scarlett and Sienna with his stare.

"Ladies," he said in a cheery tone, blowing smoke in her face.

Both girls ignored him as they made their way into the pub, to the familiar smells of spilt beer and wood polish.

Tom and his gang entered just as they placed coins on the table, seeing a game in progress.

"House rules is that the winner stays on," Tom's best mate Dylan said to Adrian when they clocked the pile of coins.

"Well, I want to play him," Riley told them in a deadpan voice. He wasn’t intimidated by the group of human boys for the obvious reason and didn’t appear willing to pretend to be.

"Doubles?" Adrian suggested.

Tom and Dylan agreed as the other two lads joined the girls at the bar. Scarlett smiled at Matty and Rhys, who had always been alright with her, despite her issues with Tom. Matty had an enormous crush on Sienna, which was evident by the way he looked at her.

The poor lad couldn't tear his eyes away from her, but he didn't stand a chance. Especially not now Adrian was in the picture.

"That's your stepbrother?" Rhys asked her.

"Yeah, and his mate from back home," Scarlett confirmed.

"He's... tall," Rhys commented.

It seemed an obvious and weird thing to point out, but Scarlett nodded. She thanked Penny—the landlady—and carried the beers to the closest table.

Adrian whistled Sienna over, taking the beer from her without saying thank you. When Scarlett took a drink to Riley, he did thank her, staring into her eyes as he took it. She felt his fingers overlap hers slightly, lingering for just a second as the pint of beer exchanged hands.

She tucked her hair behind her ear, looking down as she returned to the table, not wanting to get in the way of the men's game. Getting whacked in the face with a stray pool cue was never fun.

Riley potted a couple of balls off the break and passed the cue to Tom, who potted a couple more. When it was Adrian's turn, Riley confidently told him to 'clear up.'

The other lads shuffled about, sipping their drinks, and trying not to look impressed as Adrian potted five balls in a row. After Riley finished up, Tom and the others announced their intention to leave. They said they were going to meet girls, but that was just a futile and outdated ploy to make her jealous.

"Sienna, there's a Day of Dragons tournament tomorrow after school. I'm going to play at the rec centre's cyber cafe if you want to come and watch?" Tom offered. He was back to his old tricks, trying to make the girls jealous of each other. A pretty sad move considering Sienna was all but drooling over Adrian. He must have picked up on the chemistry and was now trying to clutch at straws. People like Tom didn't really ever give up, even when they appeared to have moved on.

"No," Sienna said, looking at him like he was a turd she'd just stepped in. Sienna had that look down to a T.

"The top prize is only a grand," Adrian chimed in with a derisive half-smile. "Hardly worth it."

"No, the top prize is you get to meet King Cold," Tom corrected him.

"Ugh, fanboy," Adrian said, screwing up his face in disgust.

"Tom has this theory that King Cold never shows his face because he is actually a girl," Dylan interrupted. "And she thinks nobody will take her seriously if they know she's a girl."

"Nice theory." Adrian rolled his eyes. "But you're wrong."

"How do you know?" Tom asked, seemingly offended despite the fact it didn't affect him in any way.

"Whatever, we're going to be late," Dylan said, pulling Tom away before he could get any deeper into the ridiculous argument. It wasn't as if Tom was going to beat thousands of people and win the prize anyway.

Scarlett was relieved to see the back of him. There was a time when him leaving the room was the worst thing in the world. When his presence or lack thereof had the power to alter her mood. Now, thankfully, his hold over her was well and truly broken.

'Because of Riley,' her inner voice piped up. The thought made her uncomfortable. She'd only just met the guy. Falling this hard and this fast was the stuff of romance novels, but rarely worked out so well in real life.

"Your friends suck at pool," Adrian said once they had left.

"They aren't really our friends. Tom is..." Scarlett made a puking gesture and screwed up her face for emphasis. “You guys wiped the floor with them. It was pretty awesome to watch. I'm so happy with you right now.”

"Adrian used to play in the pool tournaments back home," Riley said. "He'd practice at my house and somehow get better me even though I can play any time I like."

"You have a pool table inside your house?" Scarlett gushed. "Wow... you must have the coolest parents ever."

"I live with my older brother," Riley said.

"H—how come?" Scarlett stuttered. She realised she was being overly nosy and asking a sensitive question the second it was out of her mouth.

Riley shrugged and looked away, but not before she read the sadness in his eyes. "Better than living on my own, innit?"

His reaction told her it was best not to pry any further. His parents had likely been killed in a fight over territory with another pack, probably when he was young. There had been a lot of trouble and fighting back in the naughties, leaving many broken homes, including her own. She decided it was best to change the subject.