Flames

two

It wasn't always this way.

We weren't always annoying pricks to one another.

Once upon a time, we were in love.

But we are no fairy tale, and happy endings don't exist.

At least not in our book.

*
Louis and I met our freshman year of high school. 

I was new here, for my father wanted a new start, somewhere far away where he could ignore the fact that my mother left him and I for another man. He wanted to forget she ever existed.

I wanted to forget she ever existed.

But being the shy girl I am, I wasn't able to gain enough confidence to talk to someone, and it seemed like all the kids at the new school didn't want to waste any energy in talking to me either. 

To make matters worse, it didn't take long for my dad to start drinking; the pain he was feeling from the decisions of my mother completely filled his heart and he couldn't find another solution than to drain his memories of her with alcohol. 

What once started as every weekend, eventually turned into everyday. 

It became a painful routine of going to school alone, and then going back to an empty house, waiting for my father to come home from the bars.

Luckily for him, his father was quite rich, and our entire income still comes from my grandparents.

But I'm too much of a coward to tell my grandparents about my father's ways. For all they know, he's the perfect dad.

Yet he's so far from it.

And just as I thought my whole world was slowly and painfully falling apart, Louis came into my life. 

It had been five weeks since I had moved here, my father starting to come home drunk, barely saying a word to me unless it involved getting him a beer or making him food. 

I was sitting on one of the lunch tables by myself, just like every other day, silently eating my food, when a tall figure suddenly stood across from me. 

I looked up from my half eaten sandwich to stare at a pair of lush blue eyes that were searching for something on my face.

I didn't say anything, too afraid to speak.

I just stared.

"Why are you alone?" He asked.

"What?" Was my immediate response.

My hands started shaking so I move them to my lap, hiding them from his cautious stare.

"Why are you alone?" He repeated.

I shrug, because honestly, it's the only appropriate answer I can think of.

He said nothing, nodding his head once as he walked around the table and took a seat next to me.

Not the usual across the table way you see in movies, no, right next to me.

I was quite surprised, and a little bit scared.

But he took a seat without a care in the world, smirking as he folded his hands on the table, yet mine remained settled on my lap, shaky and sweaty.  

"A beautiful girl like you should never be alone," he said after a moment of silence.

I took a double take, my eyes widening in response, my heart beating harder by the second.