Feed the Flames

..::^~Ronan~^::..

Saturday had finally rolled around, the week going by faster than I thought. I sat in the grass of the courtyard, with my legs outstretched and crossed. In one hand, I held the Oxford version of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. I leaned on the other hand, with which I played around with the grass. I twirled it around in my fingers, tugged at it, and ripped it from the ground. I only moved to change the page. Typically, I would rather be alone in my room, but today was too beautiful to miss. The sky was clear of any clouds, showing its deep, but bright blue. The sun shone, making everything seem more inviting.

When somebody began to sit down next to me, I ignored them. I didn’t know who it was, and frankly, I didn’t care. My eyes didn’t leave the words of the page, and the stranger did not talk. I could hear their breathing, however. We sat in a comfortable silence for ten minutes until they spoke up.

“I never took you for a reader. Especially not Shakespeare,” It was Frank. I hadn’t seen much of him this past week. I lowered my book as I looked over at him, and cocked a brow.

“Why is that?” I challenged. He smirked a little.

“I don’t know. The way you were dressed when you first came through the doors of the school,” he shrugged. I remembered; baggy clothes, Docs, and shaggy hair, “You just looked like you couldn’t be bothered with life.”

“That’s because I couldn’t have been bothered with life,” I confirmed, going back to reading my book.

“This place isn’t all that bad. Of course, it’s got its quirks, but it’s alright,” he said. I was beginning to figure that out. Despite the penny loafers and plaid skirts, either people left you alone, or they were friendly. The students actually focused on school.

“I guess not. It still gives me the creeps,” I admitted.

“The creeps? Why is that?” he asked. He sounded slightly worried, but I brushed it off. It was likely just my imagination.

“We’re deep in the forest. Our school is a castle with torture towers,” I said, earning a chortle from Frank.

“Torture towers?” He repeated.

“Torture towers,” I was unable to hide my smile.

“Shouldn’t you be with your little clan,” The voice wasn’t Franks. Actually, I recognized that voice. It was Liam from Geometry. We both looked up at him – and it was the first time I actually got to look at him. He had piercing blue eyes and full lips. He also seemed really tall, but then again, I was sitting down on the ground. Frank looked at me quickly, and then back at Liam. His jaw clenched and unclenched. Suddenly, I felt myself becoming slightly annoyed with Liam. The feeling slowly began to escalate, and I wondered what he was doing here.

“Shouldn’t you be with yours?” Frank shot back.

“I don’t really have one, Frank,” Liam replied coolly, “However, we can talk about yours. Every. Little. Detail.” He smirked sadistically, and despite the fact that I was now severely annoyed with him, it was really hot.

Frank let out a deep breath, and then looked back over at me, “I’ll talk to you later, okay.” He got up and left. Liam took his place on the ground next to me, and the feeling of annoyance began to dissolve. It was a very odd sensation. Once again, I shook it off.

“Macbeth, huh? I’ve always like Hamlet a little more. Even Romeo and Juliet,” he said.

“There’s nothing like falling in love and killing yourself,” I said, smiling a little. On the topic of suicide, I mentally killed myself at least ten times after I said that.

“Sometimes, tragedy is romantic. However, I prefer both parties to be alive when I’m in a relationship,” he said, looking down at my feet. I followed his gaze and suddenly felt self-conscious. It was these goddamn penny loafers.

“Well, that does make things easier,” wait. Was he flirting with me? No. No I didn’t do this stuff. I was too physically and emotionally awkward. The need to throw up began growing, and I was on the verge of panic. Luckily, despite my stupid comments, he managed to laugh.

“So where are you from?” he asked. This was good. He was asking questions I could answer. No opinion or stupid comments needed.

“I’m from a lot of places. My dad is in the military, so we moved around a lot,” I told him.

“Oh? How did you end up here?” This was the first time I talked about my family since it all happened. Every time I thought about it, I had a horrible feeling of sorrow. However, talking about it could make me feel better.

“My mom and little brother were murdered. They went out of town for the state fair one day…and then they never came back. Their bodies were found a week later. Mutilated. Completely disgusting. My dad, now my only family, got deployment orders. He wanted to make sure I was taken care of, so he dropped me off here. Well, technically, he didn’t even drop me off,” I was still staring at my feet. I was wrong; talking about it didn’t make me feel any better. Liam was also silent, most likely at a loss for words. His silence was welcomed.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, placing his hand over mine. I looked over at him, and our eyes locked. I’d never felt so uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time, and it scared the hell out of me. I closed my book, and stood up so quick that I got a little lightheaded. Liam stood up next to help steady me.

“I have to go,” I said. I didn’t have anything to do, but I had to get away from him.

“Did I say something?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing with concern.

“No, I just – I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, and quickly walked away from him. I didn’t know where I was going at first. I was heading towards the castle, and found myself in the changing room for the dance studio. I knew this would make me feel better more than anything else would. I changed and after stretching, I put on my pointe shoes. I didn’t have music – I didn’t need any. I had music in my head, and that’s what I moved to. I plied, then went into fifth position en pointe. From a triple pirouette, I shuffled into a grand jete. My arms flowed gracefully around me. Soon, I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. I just moved.

I grew up being in love with dance. I didn’t care about much else. Yes, I exceled in school, but that didn’t make me happy. I had friends, and I loved my family. But none of them were dance. I grew up thinking that I would know when I was in love with another person. I would know because when I was with them, I would get the same feeling that I had when I danced. I haven’t experienced that with another person. I wasn’t ready to, either. I was young, and I loved being free.

As I turned across the dance floor, I thought I saw somebody peeking through the window of the door. This caused me to come to an abrupt stop. My toes were sore. My legs were sore. My arms were sore. Still, I felt like I was flying high above the clouds. I checked the wall clock, which revealed that it was nearly lunchtime. I took a shower and changed back into my uniform, and headed towards the lunch hall.

After grabbing my food, I spotted Gerard sitting alone at the table. He had a sketchpad out and his plate shoved to the side. I decided this would be the perfect time to approach him and see why he had a problem with me. I placed my dish down across from him and sat. He looked up at me, his eyes boring into mine. I felt like they were melting the skin off my face, but I stood my ground still.

“What’s your problem with me? What did I do?” I asked with a firm voice, but quiet so nobody else could overhear. He dropped his eyes back to his sketchpad and continued drawing. I looked to try and catch a glimpse of what he was working on, but it was tilted so that it was nearly in his face.

“You’re annoying,” he said blankly.

“How would you know?” I spat back, “You haven’t been around me for more than thirty seconds in total.”

“You’re going to fuck everything up,” he stared at me as he said this. He looked so angry, but he seemed to soften up for a second, “Everything.” He stood up, closing his sketchpad. He grabbed his plate and walked away. As he left, Mikey, Bob, and Ray sat down.

“He’s a diva. For that, I apologize,” Mikey said, not taking a moment to start eating.

“If it makes you feel better, you’ve won four out of five of our hearts. That’s more than anyone else has managed,” Ray shot me a smile. My face grew red as I began to pick at my salad. I didn’t know why I cared so much. I didn’t know him, so why did it matter that he hated me so much? I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding, and finished my meal.

__________
I was at the football field with Mikey. We were kicking around a soccer ball. We both made it clear that we hated the sport, but we didn’t want to waste a beautiful day.

“So have you found any of the secret passages around here yet?” Mikey asked as he kicked the ball over to me.

“Secret passages?” I asked, returning the ball.

“Oh yeah. They are all over the place. They go to some really weird places. There’s one that goes into the middle of the woods. Some that go to the roof. Some that take you to the nearest town. One takes you outside of the gate. Some just go to nowhere, but are really good hiding spots if you want to play hookie,” he winked. The ball flew past me, and I exhaled deeply.

“See what you did? I have to go retrieve that, now,” I said.

“I’m sorry, your royal majesty,” he smiled at me. We both adjusted our glasses at the same time.

“So, we’re going to go explore these passageways now, right?” I said. I had immediately been excited, and began to like the building even more.

“I thought you’d never ask,” his smile got wider, “right this way m’lady.” He held his arm out, and I linked mine into it. He took me behind the bleachers. The grass was high and untamed, unlike the rest of the polished grass on the school grounds. He tapped around with his foot, and once he found what he was looking for, he slid a part of the ground to the side, revealing a ladder which lead down, “You got a flashlight on your phone?” he asked. I nodded as I took it out. We descended into the ground, closing the hatch above head. It seemed like the ladder went down nearly two stories.

There weren’t many passage ways to choose from. It was dark in the tunnels, and the small light from my phone made it seem creepier. I held on tightly to Mikey as he led me forward.

“How did you find out about these?” I asked. I didn’t know how people were able to find this type of stuff. I couldn’t even find my glasses in the morning.

“I sleepwalk,” he admitted sheepishly, “I wake up in some really weird places.”

“That must be-” I couldn’t get out the rest of my sentence as I tripped. My phone flew out of my hand. I, being more concerned for my phone than myself, stretched my hand out in order to catch it. A split second after it was back in my hand, my knee harshly grazed the cement. If I hadn’t been turning in the air, I would have completely shattered my kneecap. My dance career flashed before my eyes. I wasn’t really in a lot of pain, but I lay on the ground still, taking deep breaths. My knee stung, but I would be okay. I could smell the blood pouring through my nose.

“Fuck,” Mikey said, his body stiffening.

“Make it stop,” I said, turning over to start dry heaving. Everything about blood disgusted me. The smell, the taste, how it looked, “Hurry.”

“Shit,” he said, and leaned down. He ripped off a part of his shirt and wrapped it tightly around my knee, “I know the quickest route to the nurse’s office,” he smirked. He picked me up bridal style, surprising me. He didn’t look strong enough to just pick somebody up. Then again, I weighed like five pounds.

“Don’t you need a light?” I asked. He had been maneuvering the tunnel in complete dark.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” he said, smiling a little. I turned my phone flashlight back on.

“You’re definitely the weird one,” I muttered.

____________

I tried to read, but the bandage on my knee bothered me too much. It itched like crazy, and it overpowered the words that were in the book. I gave up and closed the book. I stood up, which luckily, the graze did not affect. I did have to sit out of dance for a week, however. I drew one of the curtains slightly to the side so I could look outside and into the forest. There was some eerie about it, something that haunted me. I became entranced, and was interrupted by bright hazel eyes. They flashed through my mind – my vision. I jumped slightly as I dropped the curtain.

My phone started buzzing, meaning somebody was calling me. The only person who called me was my dad. I was excited, but at the same time I was furious that he sent me to this school. I answered without looking at the Caller ID.

“Hello?” I said, happier than I’ve sounded this past week.

“Hey,” Liam’s voice was clearly distinguishable. It was deep, smooth, utterly terrifying, and sexy.

“How did you get my number?” I asked nervously. Of course I couldn’t have gone with a simple ‘hey’.

“Oh, right, Abigail. Sorry about that,” he chuckled slightly, but you could feel the tension.

“Oh. Okay. Hey,” There was that special ‘hey’ I was looking for.

“So, I know this is random, but I wanted to ask if maybe you’d like to go on a picnic tomorrow? With me? I wanted to ask you in person, but sometimes I’m so impatient,” he tried to justify. My heart soared.

“Sure,” I said, without thinking, “I’ll go on a picnic with you.” I could feel my face turning red. Like, fire engine red.

“That’s great. I’ll come get you around lunchtime,” he said.

“That sounds great,” I said awkwardly, “See you tomorrow.”

“Can’t wait,” he said briskly, and then we hung up. I could finally go to sleep happy. I quickly left my room to go knock on Cell’s door. I hadn’t seen her all day, so I wanted to check up on her to make sure she was okay. She opened the door with book in hand. Her eyes were red and looked dry.

“When was the last time you blinked?” I quickly joked, and then handed her a piece of paper, “This is my number. I didn’t think about it until today. That’s just in case you ever need me or…somebody. So, uh, goodnight,” I said, once again, awkwardly. She looked like she was about to say something, but settled for a nod instead. I retreated back into my room, and let myself fall asleep.

©Shannon