[Picking up from the last chapter...]
I looked in the mirror and cringed at my reflection. I looked horrible. My eyes were swollen from all the crying I did today and I looked tired, even miserable. I quickly showered, changed out of my pajamas, and applied some makeup on my face. I went downstairs and put my boots on.
"Heading out with your friend?" my uncle asked. I nodded. "Have fun." He gave me a small smile and walked away. I love my uncle. He knows when I need space.
I stepped out the door into the bakery. The bakery was dark and eerily quiet. I slipped out of the bakery and locked the door behind me. The sun was shining but it wasn't warm. It was cold. I made my way to the subway station.
It only took 20 minutes to reach Marigold Park, the park we agreed to meet at. Marigold Park is famous for their marigolds in the spring. There was no sign of spring in this park on this winter day. Even though nothing was growing, Marigold Park was still a sight to see. I looked at my watch. It was 11:58 AM. I looked around for Niall but his blond hair was nowhere to be seen. I decided to sit down on a park bench facing the large well-manicured grassy field which had a playground in the middle of it. I watched a little girl go down the same slide ten times in a row to pass the time. Bored out of my mind, I looked at my watch again. It was 12:15 PM. Did he forget? I fished out my phone, ready to call him.
"Looking for someone?" I looked up to see Niall grinning at me.
"You're late," I replied dryly.
"Sorry, I slept in. I literally woke up 20 minutes ago. Can we grab some food? I'm hungry and I didn't eat breakfast."
"You mean lunch?" I teased.
"Ha-ha," Niall replied, rolling his eyes.
"But in all seriousness, what's open on Christmas day?"
"I passed by this Thai restaurant that was open on my way here. Are you up for Thai food?" I nodded and followed him to the restaurant.
The restaurant was crowded which surprised me. I didn't expect that many people to be here on Christmas day. Niall and I were both seated in the back. I studied the menu carefully, trying to decide what to order. Everything sounded good. I finally settled on chicken Pad Thai while Niall ordered beef Pad See Ew. We made small talk while we waited for our food.
"Would you look at that? It's Rich B*tch. What a small world," Niall said out of the blue. I turned around to see the pompous girl I saw on the subway two days ago at the door. The pompous girl sharply turned to glare at us. I quickly turned around to face Niall and Niall looked out the window. "There's no way she could've heard us, right?" he whispered.
"Not possible," I replied. "She's at the door and we're in the back. But you do have a big mouth."
"Shut up."
Our food finally arrived and we ate our food. The pompous girl got a table to herself a few tables away from us. I lifted my head to face Niall.
"I have a lot of questions to ask you," I started. Niall stared at my with his icy blue eyes.
"And I'll answer them. Just not here, though." I was surprised by his answer but it made sense. Even though the restaurant was crowded and loud, anyone could hear our conversation. I'm pretty sure we'd get weird looks talking about superpowers but they'd probably think we were comic book nerds or something.
The bill arrived and I fished out my credit card.
"I got it," Niall said, beating me to the punch. "'Cause I'm nice and all."
"Aw," I said. "Don't flatter yourself. For all I know, that credit card could be stolen." Niall burst into laughter.
"Good one," he managed to say, pounding the table.
After lunch, we decided to take a stroll through the park. A million questions were racing through my mind. It was hard deciding which question to ask him first. After minutes of thinking things through, I found the perfect first question to ask.
"What's your story? How did you find out about your powers?"
Niall laughed and shook his head. "It's a funny story, really." We stopped walking and I turned to face him. "I was playing freeze tag with my three cousins. I was the fastest runner out of all of them and I was 'it.' Whenever I tagged my cousins, I'd shout 'freeze' and thought nothing of it. It wasn't until I tagged my last cousin that I found out I froze them all literally. I panicked because I didn't know how to unfreeze them but I eventually figured it out. My cousins were dazed and confused after I unfroze them. They had no idea what happened but they knew they never wanted to play tag with me after that." I smiled at the silliness of his story. It was a whole lot better than mine.
"How old were you?" I asked.
"Ten, I think."
"Same here!"
"Really? Ten must be the age, then. But enough about me--what's your story?" I frowned but told him my story anyway. Once I finished my story, he whistled. "So you're Violet Reed, the lucky one." My eyes widened in shock.
"How'd you know? And don't call me that! I'm not lucky at all," I snapped.
"Sorry. I remember hearing about the fire when I was a little kid. It was the big mystery fire because one: they didn't know what caused it, and two: they had no idea how you survived but now it makes perfect sense!" I frowned and Niall noticed my change in mood. "Don't kick yourself, Violet. You didn't do it on purpose."
"I know...it's just--" I sighed. "I can't help it. I think about my family every day. I always wonder what it would be like if the fire never happened." I dug my hands in my pocket and nuzzled my face further into my scarf.
"Is this your first time meeting someone like yourself?" Niall asked. I nodded.
"What about you?"
"You're the second person." My eyes widened in shock. I lifted an eyebrow to signal him to continue. "When I was twelve, I met this girl at recess who predicted it was going to rain the next day. I laughed in her face because we were having a sunny streak and there was no way in hell that that was going to happen. Even the meteorologists said the whole week was going to be sunny! The next day, it actually did rain. Don't get me started on her 'I told you so' speech. Turns out a freak storm formed off the Atlantic Ocean catching everyone by surprise. She could sense the storm was coming because she can manipulate the weather. Surprise, surprise. She created that freak storm because we were having a drought and we really needed that rain."
"She sounds like an amazing person. I'd like to meet her some day."
Niall frowned. "She moved to California that summer and I never heard from her since." I was disappointed that I wasn't going to meet her.
We went back and forth for hours asking each other questions. I found out that Niall lived a pretty normal life; I was slightly jealous. He finished university recently and currently works as an accountant at a law firm. Not to mention he works as a robber part-time. (I was joking about that last part).
Niall found my life interesting, to my surprise. I'm anything but interesting. He thought it was cool how I lived above a bakery and worked as a baker. He said that if he worked at a bakery, he would eat everything. He made it his mission to stop by some time.
Before I knew it, it was 5:00 PM. We agreed to meet up again later that week and then parted ways. It felt good to talk things out with Niall. I never told anyone about my powers besides my family. I felt like a large weight was lifted off my shoulder. I smiled. Spending the day with Niall brightened up my mood. It felt good to have a friend I could relate and talk to.
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Things are going to get interesting.... :p
It might take a while for the next update, sorry! Life is getting busy. :/
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Fireproof // H.S.
FanfictionThere's something odd about him. He's no ordinary customer, I can tell you that. He's here for a reason. A reason I have yet to figure out. A girl with a secret is being watched by a mysterious boy. [h.s. au]
