Pandemonium

“Stop, please.”

“What? Afraid someone will see us?”

I shook my head ‘no’ in response, opening up my locker and placing some books inside of it. “We’ve been going out for a while now, I don’t really care what they think at this point,” I told him, turning to face him.

“Then what’s the problem?” he asked, placing another kiss on my neck.

“MATT!” someone shouted, causing him to jump up slightly and remove his hands from their place on my hips. He straightened himself out, and the softened look on his face was replaced by another, more normal, expression.

“What do you want, Brian?” he asked his friend, who was approaching him with a girl in tow.

Brian shrugged in response, coming to a stop in front of Matt and me. The girl he was walking with stood a few feet behind him. Her aura yelled, “I’m better than you and you know it.” Yeah, that’s what they all managed to yell.

“Nothin’, man. Just came to see if you wanted to walk with us to lunch. But apparently you’re still here with your girlfriend, the Queen of the Nerds,” Brian said.

A look of rage started to appear on Matt’s face, but as I placed a comforting hand on his it managed to disappear. I then turned to Brian and said, “I thank you, for bestowing that title upon me. Tell me, Haner; is that the latest trend this week? Half dressed?” Yes, I was referring to the girl standing behind him.

The girl gave me a minute glare, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her feeble attempt. Through my peripheral vision, I saw a girl standing down the hall, her foot tapping and a look of impatience gracing her face.

“Brian…” Matt warned. Brian didn’t respond, simply walking away from us with his bimbo of the day.

Grabbing my afternoon set of books, I shut my locker to see a beautiful pair of hazel eyes boring into mine. “Golden Eyes, get to lunch. I’ll see you this afternoon,” I told him, using the nickname I had always used. It was the first thing I called him when we met the first day of pre-school.

“Wait, you’re not going to lunch with us?” he questioned.

I shook my head ‘no’. “Alice and I have to go work on a Chemistry project. But I’ll see you later. Go to lunch, before someone thinks you’re skipping again.”

Matt smiled and grabbed his backpack from the floor. I myself turned to leave, until I was turned around and slightly pinned up against the lockers. A look of pure mischief was present in his eyes, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Placing a hand on my cheek he pressed his lips to mine, letting them linger there for a moment.

“SAPPHYRA, NOW PLEASE!” Alice’s voice echoed through the now empty halls.

Matt slowly pulled away, a smile present on his face, causing those adorable dimples to appear. “Now I think it’s your turn to leave, before Alice blows a fuse.”

“Bye,” I said, quickly giving him a peck before grabbing my backpack and running towards Alice. I slowed my pace down as I grew nearer to her, knowing it would annoy her. I stopped a few inches short, standing there and looking at her with a huge smile plastered on my face.

“Come on, come on,” she ushered me, “before they get all of the good computers in the library!”

I rolled my eyes at the girl, but walked on with her anyway.

‡

School ended sooner than expected. Before long, we were leaving to spend our wonderful weekends doing whatever we felt like it. That was the life of El Modena High School students. It was January, the middle of fuckin’ winter, and it felt like a lovely summer’s afternoon. But snow was grand as well. I always loved visiting my relatives in the east, especially during the winter.

“Doesn’t it burn?” Alice asked Matt. The three of us were currently walking to the park, something we did every Friday. It was freedom day, and we were allowed to do anything we wanted.

“Alice what are you talking about?” I asked her, just as Matt laced our fingers together.

“The sun, Matt, doesn’t the sun burn your skin?” Alice burst into hysterics, and I couldn’t help but join her. A look of anger overcame Matt’s face. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and the expression left as soon as it came.

“Now, Alice, that wasn’t very nice,” I said to her, a few laughs escaping me.

“I think it was hilarious.”

“And just because of that, Alice gets no Italian Ice,” Matt said, a wicked smile appearing on his face. I elbowed him, looking up at him. Matt groaned, caving in quickly. “Fine, Alice gets Italian Ice.”

Alice gave me two thumbs up, our way of thanking each other. I gave her a cheesy smile in return.

“Wow, how old are you two again?” Matt looked at us as though we had gone crazy.

“Fifteen. But you’re only a year older than us, mister,” I told him. Alice shrugged, parting from us and making her way to the line for Italian Ice.

Matt only smiled, that dimpled, heart-melting smile of his, and led us to one of the park benches. Luckily, it was strategically placed under some shade, so the breeze we received was cooling and comforting. I placed our hands on my lap, using his shoulder as a nice pillow. Matt rested his head back, taking a deep breath as another cool breeze passed by.

“So, it’s my dad’s birthday today,” Matt said, his voice sounding a bit exhausted.

“Aw, how old is Gary turning?”

Matt laughed, lifting his head up and looking down at me. “I lost count when he hit forty. But that’s not the point. Mom and Dad were wondering if you’d like to come over. They already see you as one of their own,” he said.

My eyes moved from their position on an impatient Alice still on the Italian Ice line, to Matt’s striking hazel eyes. “Whoa…” was all I managed to get out.

“What?”

I blinked a couple of times. “Did you know that your eyes have little green specks in them?”

“PHYRE!”

“Sorry, sorry,” I laughed, placing a quick kiss on his cheek. “What were you saying? Something about zebras and kangaroos?”

Matt groaned, just as Alice appeared with three Italian Ices, one lemon, one mango, one rainbow.

“Ew, you guys aren’t going to go all mushy on me now, are you?” she asked, handing Matt his lemon Italian Ice and me my rainbow Italian Ice. “Oh, and you owe me six bucks, Sanders,” Alice told him, causing him to choke a bit on what he was swallowing.

“Alice what else did the guy fuckin’ do for you? Give you a lap dance?!”

“Matt!” I hissed. He looked over at me, eyebrows furrowed.

“It’s alright, Phyre. If he knew better, he would have known that one needs to be sitting in order to receive a lap dance, or else it’s not called a lap dance.”

Matt was about to reply back, when I cut him off. “Hurry up and finish that ice. Mom wants me home before Ambrosia gets there.”

“Isn’t she old enough to take care of herself?” Alice asked.

“Yes, but…”

“But what?” Matt inquired.

“…I don’t know.”

‡

“Well, tonight was interesting,” Matt said, stopping the car in front of my father’s house. Yes, this weekend belonged to him, so I was to stay with him until my mother decided to pick me up on Sunday.

“Aw, come on. We had fun. Your dad almost burning the house down with the candles was pretty exciting,” I laughed.

“Yeah, for you, my mom, and Amy.”

“Is my baby mad that he almost got burned with a killer candle?” I mocked him.

“Harty-har-har, you just keep laughing it up,” he said, bringing his face closer to mine.

“I will,” I smiled, our lips now mere inches apart. As our lips were about to make contact, a rapping sound was heard at my window. My father was standing there, signaling for the window to be put down. I sighed, doing as he instructed.

“Good evening Matthew,” my father greeted him, his Italian accent present.

“Good evening Mr. Paretti,” Matt greeted him in return.

“Matthew, I’d like to thank you for having her home before curfew. I can trust that neither of you did anything illegal while out.”

“DAD!” I whined, while Matt only laughed.

“No, sir, we did nothing illegal. My parents send their greetings.”

“Please send them mine in return, Matthew. Sapphyra?”

“Yes, father?” I said through gritted teeth.

“I want you inside in five minutes, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I expect you to have a safe ride home. Good night, Matthew.”

“Good night, Mr. Paretti.”

My dad slowly walked back inside, and I knew what he was doing from the get-go. “Walk faster!” I yelled from inside the car, windows now up.

Matt laughed. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s eating up my minutes. Trust me, he always does this. He’ll give me five minutes and then BAM! He’ll take four minutes and forty-nine seconds to get inside, making me run before he turns all Sergeant Paretti on my ass.”

Matt’s laugher increased, and I couldn’t refrain from slapping him on the shoulder. But then he turned to me, a dimpled-smile present on his face, and the annoying feeling that was once present had then left. Not caring if my father saw or not, I crashed Matt’s lips onto mine. I pulled him onto me, just as his tongue had gone to search for my own. But as soon as the euphoric feeling was about to start, he stopped it, pulling away.

“Matt,” I whined.

“You’ve got a minute left. Get inside before he goes Sergeant Paretti on your ass,” he told me.

I groaned, stepping out of the car. As soon as I slammed the door shut, Matt honked the horn, telling me to return again.

“What?!” I asked, slightly pissed at the fact that he cut me off.

“I love you.” The dimples appeared again as he stole a kiss.

“I love you, too.”

And with those words said I closed the door, turning and walking to the front door. Dad had left the door slightly ajar, and once Matt saw that I had opened the door fully, he sped off, back home.

I proceeded inside of the house, taking cautious and careful steps. Voices could be distinctly heard from inside, a heated argument going on. But they couldn’t be distinguished between male and female.

BANG!

A crash was heard. Just one single crash was all I heard. I ran to the source of the noise, the sight I saw would be one forever etched into my mind.

There was my father, throat slit, stabbed, lying in a pool of his own blood. I let out a shrill scream—

I jolted out of bed, a layer of cold sweat present on my forehead. The bedroom door flung open, my mother and step-father looking alert as they stepped inside.

“Phyre, what’s wrong?” my mother asked, both she and my step-father entering the room. They both sat down next to me, one on either side, each placing a comforting hand on me.

“The dream,” I told them, resting my head in my hands. “It was different this time.”

“Honey, you remember what the doctor said. Your dreams will start out the same, but take you to different scenarios…this happened two years ago, they’re not real,” my step-father told me.

“Thanks for pointing out the known, Captain Obvious,” I told him. I sighed, rubbing the bit of sleep I had out of my eyes and getting up from bed. “Don’t worry about me; you two should go back to bed. I’m sorry to wake you,” I apologized.

“Phyre, where are you going?” one of them asked me.

“Kitchen,” I said, turning away and heading out the door. I don’t want to fall back asleep, not yet.

I continued to the kitchen, finding something, ANYTHING that could keep me busy for a while. I turned the small television on, getting some ingredients out of the fridge and making myself a sandwich. After having my after midnight snack, I decided to go back to bed. Hopefully while there, I wouldn’t fall back asleep. And if I did, I prayed to anyone listening that the dreams wouldn’t return.

Resting in bed, my mind couldn’t help itself but wander inside of those boxes I had locked up inside of it. The boxes of my past…and the boxes of things I never wanted to let go. One box in particular was opened: Matt’s. As all of the memories of the wondrous angel with golden eyes, who had been a huge part of my life, flooded back into my mind, I couldn’t help but let the tears fall. They were held up inside of that box with him.

A short while during my crying session, there was a knock on the door. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes, instructing the person to come inside. It was my sister, Ambrosia.

“Matt?” she asked. I nodded in response.

And with that one word spoken, the tears came by tenfold. Luckily, they were silent ones, but they fell as hard anyway. It was as though with each tear that fell, each drop of glue that was used to mend me together was being destroyed.

“Aw, sis,” Ambrosia said, climbing into bed next to me and allowing me to cry on her shoulder. For being the younger sister, she’s always been there to take care of me.

“I miss him, Amy. I miss him so much,” I whispered, the tears subsiding. “And the shitty thing is that I’ll never see him again.”

“NO!” Ambrosia sternly said, giving me a good shake. “Don’t say that, please. Do you trust me?”

I looked up at the blonde. “Of course I trust you. Sometimes I trust you more than I trust myself.”

“The trust me when I say this. You will see him again. I don’t know when, or why, or how, but you will see him again. And he’ll be just as ecstatic to see you as you will be to see him.”

I chuckled, a small smile creeping up my face. “You think?”

“I know. Just keep thinking those happy thoughts, something good will come out of them. Oh, mind if I crash here tonight? My room’s an igloo,” she said, her attention span changing the topic in an instant.

I laughed in response. “Sure,” I said as she accommodated herself. Before she could fully settle into sleep, I placed a big, wet kiss on her cheek.

“I love you, too, Phyre.”

And as I closed my eyes to return to slumber, it all started once again.

“Stop, please.”

“What? Afraid someone will see us?”