Love Lies on a Gravestone.

It was just a normal day in Brian’s life.

He got up half an hour after the alarm had rang and was almost late for school. He jumped off his bed, tried to find something to wear in the amount of clothes scattered on the floor and he promised himself that he would try and clean his room the next week end. Once he was ready for school, he ran to the kitchen, waved at everyone as he grabbed an apple and then left the house.

He got in his car and started the engine, driving off towards his high school. Pantera was blasting and he was banging his head along with the music until he finally reached the school and parked his car next to a black Escalade. He smiled to himself as he recognized the car as his best friend’s one. He locked his car and started heading towards the school entrance where he knew his friends would be waiting for him to show up.

With no mistake, they were here.

“S’up man?” asked Jimmy, slamming his palm against Brian’s.

“We should head towards class…” said Matt, nodding in direction of the hall. They all nodded and followed him.

As they walked past the different groups of people, Brian scanned the crowd. Girls wearing practically the same outfit, nerds to busy looking at the latest computer game on a magazine, the jocks flirting shamelessly with the girls from the cheer squad, and the list goes on…

Brian and his friends weren’t completely outcast, more like the kind of person people wanted to have on their side during fights. Matt seemed to get into fights a lot, along with Zacky and Jimmy. They also had a friend who was on the grade below them, but he was cool, is name was Johnny.

The day went by. Brian tried to pay attention to the lessons but failed and slept during most of them. At lunch, Matt got in a fight because some random dude started flirting with Val, Matt’s girlfriend and then a couple more lessons before it was time for him to head back home.

He took his time, joking with his friends, and smoking before he finally got in his car and drove to his house.

Sure, he wasn’t the most popular guy in the school but he had real friends, he also had a band and a family that loved him. Basically, he had everything…

Or maybe not.

He wasn’t aware that somewhere in the same town, someone’s life wasn’t as great as his.

**

“Brian! You’re going to be late again!” called her stepmother, Suzy, knocking on his bedroom door.

He groaned. “I’m up!” he mumbled rubbing his face and throwing the covers away, allowing him to get out of the bed.

He made his way to the bathroom, took a quick shower, brushed his teeth and all the jazz before he headed back to his room, picking up a black T-shirt along with jeans and swung his backpack over his shoulder, running down the stairs.

“Hey bro!” called Brent as he was eating cereals, seated at the table.

“Hey.” Said Brian, yawning. He took the time to drink a cup of coffee before leaving for school.

He got in his car and started the engine.

It was always the same routing every morning, nothing new. He drove off and took the shortest way to get to school, except that this time, the road was closed. He groaned in frustration and made a U-turn, turning left to take an other road.

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard and realised that he was going to be late. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at his surrounding. He wasn’t use to this part of town, he never came here because none of his friends lived here and there was nothing interesting to do…

He stopped at a red light and looked at his right. At the corner of the street was an old house, the kind of house you see in the old horror movies with the broken windows. He raised an eyebrow, wondering how a house like this could stay in Huntington without anyone complaining about it. As he looked closer, he noticed that the house wasn’t actually old, but it was also burnt. Someone used to live here, a family. He shuddered, wondering if they were still in the house when it happened or if they came back and the house was already like that.

He snapped out of his thoughts as someone honked. The light was green again. He pressed his foot on the gas pedal, driving away from the house. That was part of the reason why he didn’t like watching the news or reading the newspapers, because every time it was just about rapes, murders and accidents…

It was ten minutes after the lesson had started that he parked his car and ran to his first lesson. He sneaked in the room unnoticed as the teacher had his back turned to the class, writing things on the blackboard. He took his usual sit at the back of the class, next to one of his best friends, Jimmy.

“What took you so long man?” whispered Jimmy, eyeing his friends suspiciously.

“The road was closed, I had to take an other one.” Brian replied, taking his pencil case and notebook out of his backpack.

Jimmy nodded in answer and rested his head on his arms, falling back asleep.

Brian thoughts drifted back to the house, he wondered what could have happen. If it was an accident, a murder or whatever…

He couldn’t understand why he was so obsessed about this house, maybe it was because it could have been his.

What would you do if all of a sudden, when you’re coming back from school or whatever, you noticed that your house is nothing but ashes. Nothing’s left inside, no pictures, not even the tiniest thing. Nothing’s left expect for memories. The only thing that’s left, the walls, and for how long?

He decided to be more careful when he’ll left the house in a hurry, you never know what could happen…

The lesson was boring and it didn’t took much time for Brian to fell asleep, the burnt house lingering in his dreams.