Romance in Engulfed in Flames

I put my hands in my jean pockets nervously as I walked down the busy hallway. I can feel everyone looking at each other, judging each other; me. Everyone is dressed up nicely because it's the first day of 11th grade. Everyone wants to make a good impression, all well put together neatly. I tried to do it that way. On the first day of school I thought I would look cool in black dress shirt and red tie; as I look around I realize that I look more like a teacher than I do a student.

As I walked down the hallway I looked at my shoes so I didn't have to make eye contact with anyone. I managed to make it about halfway down the hallway before I bumped into someone. I looked up only to realize that she dropped her stuff and was on the floor picking it up. I stood there for a minute, looking at her nervously, observing how her long, crimson hair glimmered in the light. She was wearing a tank top and a short red mini skirt with black fishnets. I watched her pick up her books. She looked just as nervous as I felt. Once she got all of her books piled together she looked up at me as she tucks her hair behind her ears.

“Thanks for the help,” she said, snickering as her hazel eyes met mine. I looked at her nervously as I scrambled for an answer. I ended up saying, “no problem.” . I can feel my face igniting as I look down at the floor. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she said, “my name is Alyssa.” All I said was, “that's a nice name.”

“My name is Joey,” I stuttered.

“ Nice to meet you, Joey,”she said, reaching her hand out. “Oh, I like your icy blue eyes, by the way,” she said. I can tell she was nervous.

“Thanks” I said, reaching to shake her hand.

“Bye,” she said, quickly walking away.

After that, I went to the front desk and got my class assignment. When I walked in the room, everyone was talking to each other. I stood there awkwardly in the doorway looking around. As they looked at the sea of about 20 kids I recognized someone - it was Alyssa. I walked over to her desk beside her. Then I threw my backpack under my desk swiftly and I looked over at her. After a few seconds she finally realized that I was there and she looked at me confused.

“Looks like we’re in the same class together,” I said smiling. She nodded as she blushed.

“I can see that,” she said nervously. We sat there in silence for a few minutes until the teacher came to the front of the class.

At the end of the day I went to grab my stuff from my locker as I walked to the locker. I heard a voice yelling, “Hey ice eyes!” I didn’t think anything of it at first until the same voice yelled, “Hey… Joey!” I turned around only to nearly walk into Alyssa. She smiled at me as she held her hand out. I looked down to see that she was holding my backpack.

“Oh, thanks,” I said, putting my hands behind my head. How the heck did I forget that in my classroom?

At the end of school, I walked outside into the fresh autumn air. I could see the red pickup truck across the street. I quickly walked across the street looking around to make sure that no one was watching me. I climbed in the truck. I looked at Dave; he was sleeping.

“Dave,” I said, shaking his arm “wake up.”

“Hi,” he said groggily as he woke up. I smiled and rolled my eyes at him.

“Dave, you shouldn’t park so close to the school - you don’t want them thinking I know you,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said,stretching.

Dave is a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard and slightly gray hair. He looks nothing like me. Which makes it look weird when he picks me up for jobs. I’ve been working with Dave since I was about 14. How I ended up working for Dave was I needed money and good money, not the kind you make at a burger joint after school. This job pays pretty well and it’s a lot of fun.

“Here you go kid,” Dave said as he pulled out a piece of paper from his bag. “This is the floor plan of the house and any extra details you need to know,” he said as I grabbed it.

“OK so what are we looking at here.” As I looked over the paper, Dave said started the car.

“They want a lot of damage, like half of the house burned down.”

“OK,” I said, smiling looking down at the paper. “How much are we getting paid for this,” I looked at Dave, his eyes still fixed on the road.

“They’re gonna pay us 25,000”

“Nice,” I said. Give me over the blueprints for the House. The house has two floors. Both are made out of wood; there is a long carpet in the hallway. In the middle of the hallway is a pretty big liquor cabinet.

When we pulled up to the house it was a lot bigger than it had looked from the blueprints. I marveled at the sheer size of the house. It was white with black trim and it looked pretty new. I looked at the paper again and looked at the information that I needed to know. The house didn't have any kind of security system or anything and the key was going under a plant pot carefully placed on the outside front window sill. As I walked into the dark house, I could feel my heart racing. I made a beeline to the hallway. Even though it was dark I managed to memorize the layout of the house; I knew where everything was. I rolled up my sleeves and turned on the light switch. I quickly rifled through the liquor cabinet. “There we go,'' I whispered under my breath as I pulled out a bottle of vodka. I cracked the bottle open and put it in the center of the carpet. Then I cut off a piece of the carpet and shoved it into the bottle. I lit the piece of the carpet now doused in vodka. I watched the fire as it quickly engulfed the piece of carpet. The fire ate the carpet like a starving animal. I turned off the light and quickly left the house.

“Okay, it will take about 3 minutes for it to become a blaze,'' I said, getting into the truck. Dave smiled at me as he started the truck

“Perfect,” he said, looking at the house. “Now let's not stick around to watch it burn.”

The next morning I checked my bank account. I got $12,500 which meant that the job went off without a hitch.that kind of cash will cover me for a while I thought scrolling through my bank statements on my phone.

Over the month I hung out with Alyssa. She’s super cute and cool. I like her. She invited me to a Halloween party. I bought some demon horns. I’m planning to just wear a tuxedo and the demon horns.

The night of the Halloween party rolled around. I decided that I wasn’t gonna show up empty-handed so I got Dave to buy me a six pack of beer. When I went to the house I stood outside for a bit just holding the beer. Until someone opened the door and invited me inside. The upstairs of the house seemed neat and organized. He quickly brought me downstairs,as he opened the door to the basement I could hear the music blaring. I put the beer on a massive table set in the corner of the room. It was already completely covered with bottles of alcohol and soda. This is gonna be fun I thought as I cracked open a beer.After a few minutes of walking around the crowded room,I found Alyssa standing in the corner talking to whole bunch of other girls. She’s wearing cat ears and a black dress that ends just above the knees. “Hey” I said walking over,me and Alyssa hung out just talking in the corner in the room with the rest of your friends. Until the music suddenly stopped. I could feel myself jumping immediately getting ready to run. Covered hands around his mouth as he said ”you know would make this party a heck of a lot more fun let’s play, spin the bottle”. We all stood there in disbelief for a few seconds until this kid,Put down an empty wine bottle and set it in the middle of the room. We all started to gather around. There were about 15 kids. Just sitting in a circle. As the main kid explained the game you see we’re playing regular spin the bottle we’re playing spin the bottle with a twist of every time it landed on you you got to go in the closet for seven minutes basically mixing seven minutes in heaven and spin the bottle together. After the first couple spins the bottle landed on Ashley. I could feel myself getting nervous as I watched her spin it. It spun

around about three times before it landed on me. I swallowed hard as all the kids in the group started to cheer. “This is gonna be fun” I muttered . As I finish the rest of my beer. Ashley grabbed my wrist as she lead me into the closet. As we got in the closet the kid closed the door behind us. The room was completely pitch black except for a little bit of light coming from underneath the door. We stood there for a couple of seconds I could hear Ashley‘s breathing getting heavier and heavier. It’s okay I said gently grabbing her arm. She said yeah I know I’m just a little bit nervous that’s all. She started to run her fingers gently down my face. I could feel myself smiling as she started to unbutton my shirt. We started to make out as she was slowly running her fingers down my neck. When she got to my shoulder she stopped. She kept running her fingers over my shoulders over and over again. Well crap, I thought. The mood is completely ruined. She's gonna start asking questions, She’ll be away. I could feel her eyes studying me even though we were in the dark. All of a sudden she turns on the light. I could feel myself start to get nervous. And she said ”what are those marks on your shoulders?'' I could feel myself gulp and I didn’t know what to say to her. There is nothing I said looking down at the floor. “The little marks are circular“ she said “are you OK” she asked. I could feel how concerned she was. “Hey it’s ok “I said they’re just burns there from a long time ago. “My dad used to put out his cigarettes on me, when I was little. I was basically the human ashtray”as i said it barely felt real. I looked up at her to see her reaction to what I said. She had her hand over her mouth and looked. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I buttoned up my shirt and said “OK I’m gonna leave now”. Before I could get up from off the floor she kissed me on the cheek. “I’m sorry that your dad‘s mean” she stuttered. I could feel my cheeks on fire as I said “it’s OK” grabbing her hands. About a minute later The door opened and the guy who started the spin the bottle game entered covering his eyes. “OK you guys put all your clothes back on and get the heck out” he said . I smirked as I left the room.

Shortly after that me and Ashley started dating . And I got my next job.

I got in the car and Dave drove me there.The blueprints for the house are simple. The one thing that I found odd was that they wanted the fire set specifically on the right side of the kitchen and that I wasn’t supposed to go upstairs. As I walked up to the brown house with black trim. I could feel myself getting nervous and I wasn’t even inside the house yet. Dave was parked down the street so he couldn’t see me either, which just made me more nervous. When I got into the house smelled like anti-septic like a hospital. As I set the blaze in the kitchen. I heard something upstairs. What the heck I thought . As I quickly and carefully walked up the stairs. When I got to the top of the stairs I heard a faint voice say ”Hi”. I turned my head and looked over only to see an old woman in a nightgown lying in the bed in the room across from me. I felt like I was gonna puke, this is really bad I thought. I walked into the room looking around and there was a wheelchair next to her bed. She can’t walk, I realized. Someone was trying to kill her. I could feel my heart sink. ‘Hi mam’, I said softly I need to get you out of this house. What she said confused. Who is in the Brink of tears as I said ‘this house is on fire and I need to get you out of this house’. OK, she stuttered. I could hear the fear in her voice. I picked her up and started walking to the stairwell. I could smell the smoke. Which meant I had about one and a half minutes to get out of the house before the whole downstairs became a fiery blaze. I held my breath as I quickly ran down the stairs. When I got outside I felt relieved to feel the cold air filling my lungs. I looked up as I the set the old lady down. A Girl with Crimson red hair was standing across the street. I looked at her for a second. then made a run for it. I know that girl I thought. I run down the street quickly heading to Dave’s car. That was Alyssa. I could feel myself start to cry as I saw his red truck in the distance. I flung open the car door. Dave jumped as I stood there trying to catch my breath. ‘What the hell happened kid’ Dave said confused. I took a couple deep breaths it managed to get out “there was someone in the house” ‘what’ Dave said gulping. His face turned white as he asked “are they OK” ‘yeah I managed to get them out of the house’ I said nervously “Dave” I stuttered. I can feel the tears running down my face ”I don’t want to kill anyone I didn’t’ know that she was in there”. “I know kid” He said getting out of the truck it’s going to be OK. “No, it’s not it’s” shaking my head “she saw me” “who saw you a person you took out the house’ Dave asked no I said shaking my head ”Ashley she saw me”. I looked up at Dave, his hand was tightly gripping my shoulder“get in the truck now” he said . I’ve never seen him so scared.

The next morning I checked the news. They were talking about a random kid Who saved a woman from a burning House. So I guess they think I’m a hero.

When I got to school Ashley hugged me. Maybe she didn’t know that I was the kid who saved that lady. “You’re so brave” she said. Oh crap she definitely knows. “I love you so much” she continued, hugging me tighter. “I love you too” I stuttered. She stepped away as she said “do you want to hang out after school?” “Sure” I said, smirking. “OK” she said “come to my house after school”. “Sounds good” I said smiling. She handed me a piece of paper with her address on it.

When I got to Ashley‘s house I could not help but Marvel at the beautiful House. The outside was white with a black trim. the front was door Crimson red the same colour as Ashley's hair. I knocked on the door. When she opened the door excitedly she was wearing a white dress with a flower pattern. In the house I looked around and quickly asked “where are your parents” “oh they’re not” home she said as she opened the liquor cabinet in their living room. “Oh” I said nervously as I walked over to her. Something feels really off I thought. As I stood there watching as she poured herself a glass of wine. Then poured me one. She seemed excited but at the same time nervous. “So where do you live in the neighbourhood?” she said after a few minutes of silence. When I looked at her confused she started tapping her fingers on the glass and she asked the question again “why were you in the neighbourhood when the fire started” I took a sip of wine “right place right time I guess” I said

“you know I couldn’t even see the fire from outside” she said tapping her fingers harder on the glass. “Weird” I said as I took a big swig. I could feel myself start to get shaky and nervous. As I watched Alyssa look everywhere except for at me. “OK, I think I’m gonna go” I said as I sat down the glass of wine. This is feels too weird I thought need to get out of here. “I wish you didn’t say anything” she said, just staring at me. I quickly open the door. Only for someone to grab me by the shoulder. “Joey Forrester” A deep voice man said is he held my hands near my back “you’re under arrest for arson tempted murder and breaking in entering you have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law” I gulped ,I could feel my heart racing as looked up at Alyssa she was still sitting in the living room. I could feel tears running down my face. “What the hell” yelled I could feel myself shaking. She turned her head and with tears in her eyes she mouth ”I’m sorry”.