Chapter 26

She squints to get a better look at me, then shakes her head.

“What’s going on, pretty lady?” I smile up at her, leaning my head against the dirty, graffiti-covered wall to get a better look at her.

I was seated behind the school’s gym. It was a really quiet, peaceful place where no one, including Aus and Drew, would think to look for me. It had trees and grass… Damn it, you get the picture.

Not a lot of people came around here, so I’m kind of surprised to see Sparks.

“I should be asking you that,” she grunts as she squats next to me, and my head lowers following her movements.

“Well, nothing is going on with me, I’m just chilling, sitting,” I count with my free hand, “Uhm, stoning.” I wave my eyebrows at her, and she frowns, instantly snatching the blunt from my other hand.

Damn, she moves fast.

“Give it back,” I stretch my hand out, but watch as she throws it on the pavement and steps on it.

Damn it, Sparks.

“It’s not healthy, and besides, you’re on campus grounds.”

“What the fuck, Sparks? Who do you think you are? The blunt cop?” I ask and chuckle a little after.

“I’m just trying to medicate… Wait,” I point at her frowning face. “Ever listened to medicate by Theory of a Deadman?”

My raised eyebrows are answered with a blank look from Sparks, and I huff. What kind of music did she listen to?

She shakes her head awkwardly before dragging the word “Noo.”

I look away from her. So, she comes here, steps on my blunt, and says she doesn’t know a song I like? What a fucking bummer.

“Why’d you crash my joint?” I ask, “And how the hell did you even find me?” I spare her a glance before looking away.

“Easy… I followed the scent,” she laughs.

“Like a dog?” I add blankly.

“Mh, right,” she pauses and sits on the ground, stretching her legs in front of her, “like a dog, says the one named Cainine.”

“Hey, leave my name out of this. Have you heard yours?” I mumble, my eyes fluttering shut as I allow my body to relax and drift away

“Flame Sparks…” I scoff, “Isn’t that like the same thing?” I tease, knowing that that had to be one of the most unique names I’ve ever heard.

“It’s not the same thing… I don’t know much about my name, but I’d like to think that it has some feeling behind it,” she speaks calmly beside me. “You know… Like it expresses the emotions, I made the one who named me feel” she sighs.

“Mmh… You’re saying the one that gave you the name gave it to you because you made them feel warmth?” I open my eyes and look at her.

This all seemed unreal; she seemed unreal, always looking golden and ethereal in the light of the sun, tiny drops of sweat making her skin glisten, her hair tied in a messy bun, and some strands dangling and brushing her face now and then.

I wish I were her hair.

“Yeah, something of the sort… I gave them warmth that flame does, and you know Sparks are beautiful…” just like her. “And they come along with the fire…” She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and looks at me, smiling softly as her eyes search mine.

Her eyes were so white, so innocent and pure. What the hell was she doing with me? I was the exact opposite of this kind of beauty.

“Yeah, well, the flame always dies out and so do the sparks…” I sigh.

“What the fuck are you doing here? I thought we were playing the silent treatment game.” I look up at the blue sky, wishing her gone from my sight.

I didn’t need a freaking reminder of what I couldn’t have because it was too good for me. I didn’t deserve it.

I didn’t deserve her.

“I was playing the silent treatment game-” she scoffs, “I mean, I was and still am mad at you for-“

“It was better that way.”

“Whoa there, I knew I was nothing to you, but to that extent?” I look down at her and see the humor in her eyes, then look back up and close my eyes, inhaling deeply.

“You are something that’s why-” I huff. I didn’t want to be doing this. I didn’t think I’d have to.

“That’s the fucking reason you should go on with your little silent game,” I mutter.

I wasn’t ready to have the “my daddy is dangerous” conversation with her, but I would if I had to.

“So, you want me to stop talking to you?” she whispers, and I’m pretty high, but I can hear how offended she sounds.

I was okay with her not talking to me for her safety, but I didn’t want us to be on bad terms. I had no intentions of offending or hurting her, that is, if she cared that much about what I had to say.

Hayley was someone I thought was the love of my life, someone who’d be permanently by my side, my home. I never noticed she was using me, just as I recently noticed, I was using her. We both ended up fucked in the end, or at least I did. I don’t understand what Flame is to me or the emotions and feelings going on between us, but I felt like I had to be clear about some things. Unlike Hayls and me, Flame and I were grownups.

“I don’t want that,” I shake my head.

“Then what the fuck? What’s going on? I thought we were friends.”

This sounded way too familiar, and I was getting the same questions because of the same person messing with me. And I still couldn’t be completely honest.

“Forget-“

“Bullshit… I’m not stupid, I was there that night.”

I suddenly feel exhausted, heavy, and guilty. It was my fault she was there that night.

“And that’s it, Sparks… The fucking reason you should stay away from me… That man-“

“Is your dad, I know,” she nods with a serious expression on her face. I run a palm down my sweaty face, already irritated.

If she kept on interrupting me-

“Yes, and he is also a huge pain in the ass. Sparks, you don’t get it, he’s not a nice man and he… He met you.” I cup my face with both my hands. “He’s not a good guy at all.”

Neither are you, Ali. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“I can protect myself…” she says, sounding so sure, and I chuckle. She’s fucking ridiculous and clearly has no idea what she’s talking about.

“I barely can, and he’s my dad,” I mutter and immediately regret it when her face twists into a pained, concerned expression.

“Does he hurt you?” she asks, her voice barely audible, and my terrible attempt at a mocking grin disappears.

My throat is dry as I clench my jaw and look away from her, trying to push the images back to where they belong.

“There’s more to it than that.”

I rub my nose and cough a little, feeling the effect of my decision to smoke all evening. And yes, the cold was worth the calm float-y feeling.

“Then what?” she pushes. “I know it’s none of my business, and trust me, I wish I didn’t care for you, but I do… and I hate that I do, you’re so complicated,” she whines.

Sparks is lucky she is who she is; otherwise, I wouldn’t find her whining so adorable, or grin at the fact that she admitted to caring for me. She cares.

“What?” she furrows her eyebrows.

“You care?” My voice cracks from the sudden sore throat. And I hate that I probably sound as pathetic as I feel.

“It’s not about that,” she rolls her eyes.

“But I do, and I want to know why you look scared and angry half the time since he came. Why do your friends feel like they have to watch you all the time?”

My grin widens at her clearly stalkerish habits.

“I notice things, okay?!” she defends weakly.

“From the sound of things, you seem to notice me a lot,” I tease, but she just glares at me.

“Okay… Nik is his name,” I sigh and watch as her hard facial expression relaxes and softens. “He likes things his way, so controlling… There is nothing more important to him than his name and his business; unfortunately, I had to have his name…” I gulp.

I rest my head back against the wall as I try to conjure up more words.

“And so, I have to do what he wants… At least he makes it seem that way and forces it.” I speak my voice strained and my throat growing tighter with every word as I recall some of the ways he punished me when I didn’t get work done the way he wanted.

I push those thoughts aside before going on. “It would be nice if it were the normal control that a parent wants, the one they force their kid to go to school and shit, but no… In fact,” I chuckle a little. “Nik wanted me to drop out when I turned eighteen so I wouldn’t be distracted and so I could learn more about the family business from him.”

“What is this family business?” Sparks asks her voice full of curiosity, and I scoff.

“Let’s just say it’s not a family-friendly business…” I shrug, “He got me to beat people up for him, steal some shit here and there at times, not that I’m complaining, I enjoyed it sometimes.” I smile at the memory of the adrenaline rush.

“Teenage me found that thrilling,” I feel Flame stiffen beside me, “but it soon became too much and I… Well, I escaped.” I sigh, trying to calm the tension and emotions weighing on me.

I had to choose my words carefully here, or I would end up exposing something I wasn’t ready to.

“Now he has me right where he wants me, and I don’t think I can run anymore… I’m just so fucking tired, Sparks,” I try to swallow the lump in my throat.

I stiffen when I feel her tiny hand slide into mine that was resting on my lap. It’s always a foreign and warm feeling when she touches me, but I’ll end up appreciating it in the end way more than she knows.

“I don’t know what to say,” she whispers, and I look down to find her already staring at me. “I mean that’s a lot…” she blinks slowly, “It also explains a lot.”

“Like what exactly?” My eyes slowly trail her face, finding a little comfort in the fact that she wasn’t judging me at the moment or trying to run.

“You’re violent nature,” she chuckles, “you’re trained,” she adds, and I chuckle along with her.

It was sad and sick as fuck, but it was true.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she adds silently, and I smile.

Pity made me feel uncomfortable and weak. But I wasn’t feeling either at the moment.

“Now you get why I need you to stay away from me?” I raise a brow.

“No… What I’ve gotten is that you need help.” Sparks frowns, looking almost offended.

You never know what to fucking expect with her… I sigh and look away.

“What don’t you understand about this?” I’m a bit concerned about her level of intelligence.

“Oh, I understand plenty, but I also understand that you need all the help you can get,” she shrugs, and I scoff.

So fucking naïve.

“What can you help me with?”

Her presence was helpful enough for some reason, but she didn’t need to know that.

“I don’t know… Anything that comes up,” she sighs when she notices my smile, “I’m helpful, you know?”

“What I know is I want you safe and out of this.” I point at her as she shakes her head, no.

“I won’t feel at ease knowing you’re back to the unsafe life that you ran away from, and I could’ve helped with something.”

“I’d rather try to help and see the danger for myself and decide whether to back down or not.”

I huff, defeated, but all warm inside because she wanted to stay by my side. She cared so much that she didn’t want to leave.

“I can’t have you get hurt because of me. I know you think I’m selfish, but I’m not that selfish,” I smirk.

When it comes to Drew and Austin, it’s different; they signed up for this from the start. Sparks didn’t and shouldn’t. I have nothing to offer her. She’s way too good to sacrifice shit for me.

“Neither am I…” she retorts. “I also don’t like it when someone decides things for me; I’m grown enough to know what I want.”

She never gives up, does she?

“Let me be there,” she gives my hand a little squeeze, and I look down at our hands together, our fingers intertwined, then back at her.

I suddenly feel too tired to argue with her. In fact, I needed her close, needed her comfort more than anything. She was the only one I was comfortable getting that from.

And so, at that moment, I neither agree nor disagree with her. I sigh heavily and let go of her hand, stretching my body to rest my head comfortably on her lap, looking up at her.

“I know,” is all she whispers before resting her head against the wall as her hand finds its way to my hair

And at the moment, with the warm sun setting and the lovely evening breeze brushing against my skin, I look up at Sparks’ calming expression and feel her gentle touch in my hair and smile a little.

I release a breath it feels like I’ve been holding since she walked out on me, and fight the urge to ruin the moment by doing something stupid.

Once again, after a long time, I felt like I could fall and have somewhere soft and warm to land.

My eyes flutter shut, and I trust the darkness to swallow me with her by my side. I trust-

**

Ooookaay, another one done, whose way do we like of handling problems, Flame’s or Hayley’s?

I also added Medicate by Theory of a Deadman because everyone deserves to hear that song… let me make your taste in music better, people!! I know there are a lot of Flames out there

**
Re-editing me here, I hope it’s all good with you guys, umm so vote and comment, you shall not be shy!