A Strange Fire (Florence Vaine) (22 page)

 She shakes her head. “He won’t, not
even
for a few months. He
can’t. You don’t know anything, Flo, so stop acting like you do.”

 Suddenly, she seems angry, and even though she’s not exactly the
friendliest of people, I’m taken aback by her swift change of emotion. These
kinds of things affect me more so than the average person, since I have to
contend with the drastic colour change as well as the general shift in mood.

 I wonder why it is that Ross won’t leave his family temporarily so that
he can go travelling with his girlfriend. There must be a good reason for it.
Then I think of Alex, and whether he’d say no to Layla if
he
were her
boyfriend.

 I cough, and before properly thinking it through, blurt out, “Frank said
Alex has a thing for you, did you know that?”

 Layla laughs. “Frank should keep his mouth shut,” but her anger has
subsided and she seems to be in a better mood now. “But yeah, I know that. What
has it got to do with anything?”

 “I don’t really know,” I tell her, “I – I just thought that maybe Alex
wouldn’t be so against the idea of leaving Chesterport if he were your
boyfriend.”

 She lets out a heavy sigh. “You really
don’t
know anything, do
you Flo?” she looks at me for a long moment. “Alex would be just as incapable
of leaving his family as Ross, it’s not a personal issue, it’s a de -” she
stops herself, “never mind. Anyway, Alex and me, that’ll never happen. He
thinks we’re soul mates, but he’s just a boy and boys are idiots.” Layla smiles
when she looks at me this time, it’s the first thoroughly genuine smile she’s
given me so far.

 “How do you know it’ll never work if you don’t try?” I ask.

 Layla pulls up another blade of grass, this time twining it in and out
between her fingers.

 “Because we’re too alike, Alex can’t see that, even though it’s
blatantly obvious. We’re both loud, opinionated, sarcastic, volatile,
over-confident,” she lists these traits as though they are neither positive or
negative, just simple fact, “and ‘like’ doesn’t mesh with ‘like’, that’s why it
wouldn’t work. Ross is my opposite, he’s calm, intelligent, co-operative and
fiercely loyal. He’s even my opposite in appearance, everything about him is
light and angelic, while I’m dark through and through. As they say, opposites
attract.”

 “A lot of those old s-sayings don’t even make sense,” I tell her in a
quiet voice.

 “Well the one that says opposites attract makes perfect sense, it’s
scientific, I think. I mean, just look at you and Frank. I don’t know about
you, because you’re sort of hard to read,” she looks at me a moment, cocks an
eyebrow, then shakes her head, “but I can tell Frank’s mad about you. He
follows you around like a love sick puppy, watches your every move, hangs on
your every word. And that’s all because you’re his opposite in every way, just
like me and Ross. You’re quiet, shy, and sort of scared at times, plus you’ve got
that stammer, though it seems to be getting less frequent,” she shrugs now,
“and Frank’s confident, out-going, fearless, and lot’s more things that you
certainly are not. Get my point now?” she asks, happy with her reasoning.

 “I agree that our personalities are very different,” I reply, “though
I’m not sure Frank’s as smitten with me as you think.”

 “Then you’re blind,” says Layla with a dismissive sweep of her hand.
“Oh,” she sits up straight, looking off to the left. “Here they come,” she
announces with a grin. I look and sure enough I see five bodies nearing us in
the distance.

 Well, that definitely
was
quick. It takes another minute for them
to get close enough to see properly. Frank and Alex are struggling with each
other to take the lead, while the other three are close behind. Then Frank
gains the upper hand, overtaking Alex by several strides. He is beautiful in
that moment, as his body powers on ahead, a speedy swirl of orange flames and
olive toned skin. When he makes it to the finish line he topples into the pile
of t-shirts, exhausted. Alex comes in second, Ross third, Benji fourth and
Kevin last.

 “Frank won,” says Layla, looking to me. “He must want to impress you,”
she grins and then stands up, dusting off her white skirt and making her way over
to the boys.

 I stay where I am. All five boys together create a massive
conglomeration of fiery colours, particularly concentrated after such a
competitive situation. I need to wait for them to cool off. The auras would
overwhelm me if I were to race straight over. Once I see the excitement die
down, I finally approach.

Frank smiles up at me when I near them, sweat glistening on his skin. Is
it wrong to find that attractive? He and his brothers are all lying on the
grass, chests heaving up and down as they catch their breaths. Layla is all
tangled up with Ross, and I avert my eyes because they are doing things that
possibly shouldn’t be done outside the privacy of a bedroom.

 Quite uncharacteristic for a bunch of teenage boys, none of the brothers
pay any attention to the canoodling couple. I sit down beside Frank.

 “Well done,” I say, congratulating him on his win.

 “Don’t I get a kiss for coming in first?” he asks, quite blatantly. I
look away and down at my toes. Alex, Benji, and Kevin laugh all at once. I
don’t answer.

 “I guess that’s a no then,” says Frank with good humour, he doesn’t seem
embarrassed or rejected at my lack of a response. I turn to him, and touch a
finger to his sweat soaked chest.

 “You’re drenched,” I say, making my observation clear.

 He whispers in my ear, “Maybe after I’ve showered then.”

 Again, I remain silent. He gets up and gestures for me to do the same.
“Come on, let’s go inside and I’ll get cleaned up.” I follow him while his
brothers stay where they are, barely noticing our departure. Frank leads me up
the stairs and back to his bedroom, where he switches on the television.

 “I’ll be five minutes,” he says, grabbing a fresh t-shirt and a pair of
jeans from his closet. I hover by the door, then go and sit on the bed, which
is sort of rumpled from when I’d taken a nap on it earlier. There’s a sitcom on
television that I watch while Frank disappears into his en suite and the noise
of running water starts up a minute later.

 I think of the day I’ve had and consider the fact that I never thought I
would end up here when I set out for the hospital with Caroline and Lia this
morning. Sometimes the best things are born of the worst things. I wouldn’t
like to have to go through the episode with the crazy patient again, but if it
hadn’t occurred then I wouldn’t be here right now. I would not have gotten to
have a barbecue in the sun with Frank’s family, and I would not have gotten to
talk to Layla and persuade her I’m not as bad as she thinks. Well, at least she
seems to like me just a little better than before, and I’ll settle for that.

 Frank emerges from the bathroom after only a couple minutes, fully
clothed in his fresh top and pants. He scruffs his hair dry with a towel, and I
laugh when he shakes some of the wet droplets at me, they land on my nose. I
wipe them away.

 We go back downstairs to the living room, which I haven’t been in yet.
It’s large with enough seats to accommodate a big family. Alex, Benji, and
Kevin are sprawled out on individual couches watching a DVD of
Lethal Weapon
.

 Layla and Ross are absent, but judging from how they’d been acting when
I last saw them it doesn’t take too much brain power to imagine where they are
and what they are doing. Frank lands on the only empty couch and I sit down beside
him, though with enough space between us both for my nerves. I’m already
thinking longingly of the pills I left back at Gran’s. The ones I promised
myself were going down the toilet. The phrase, like father like daughter
springs to mind just in time to make me ever more determined to get rid of
them. Any addiction will remind me of his. I will die before I allow myself to
become him.

 We sit and watch the movie for a while, and somewhere within that time
Frank hangs his arm over the top of the couch as an opening for me. It takes me
a long while to summon up the courage to take it. I scoot closer to him and
snuggle under the crook of his arm, resting my cheek on his chest. After a
minute he folds his arm around me and his hand rests on my shoulder. I feel so
safe and comfortable that I could almost fall asleep if it weren’t for the
noise of the movie playing in the background. I close my eyes nonetheless.

 As the credits run at the end of the film, Alex says in an overly sweet
voice, “Why Frank, you look content as a bee in a garden of flowers.”

 Frank shifts a little to get more comfortable. “Shut it Al,” he warns.

 Alex raises his hands and smiles in a gesture of surrender, before
closing an imaginary zip over his lips. I glance down at my watch, it’s half-seven.
I sit up straight. “I should probably be getting home now,” I say quietly to
Frank.

 He nods. “Sure, I’ll drive you.” Then he rises from the couch and leads
me out the front door, he snatches the car keys from a shelf on the wall before
leaving.

 It takes about ten minutes to get to Gran’s, we both don’t say much on
the drive. I look out the window and watch as the town passes me by, people
enjoying a late Sunday evening in the sun. Ever the gentleman, Frank gets out
of the car and opens my door for me before I can even grab the handle.

 “Thank you.” I tell him as I get out. “I had a lovely day, despite the
bad start.”

 He just smiles down at me, since he’s a good foot taller, then asks,
“Flo, what did you see last Monday after school by that tree?”

 Damn it, I’d completely forgotten about that. Frank had been there when
I’d lost it with my invisible stalker.

 “You really don’t want to know.” I tell him on a sigh.

 “Try me.”

 “Do you promise not to tell me I’m crazy?”

 Frank grins. “You have my word.”

 “Well, I didn’t exactly
see
anything. I felt it. This is probably
going to sound mad, but since I moved here every once in a while I get this
sense that – that I’m being followed, which is ridiculous because there’s never
anyone there.”

 He frowns. “That doesn’t sound good. Do you mind if I tell John? He
knows a lot more about, well, about our world, maybe he’ll know something about
what you’re experiencing.”

 “Okay, tell him and see what he’s got to say,” I reply, wondering what
he means by “our world”.

 Frank nods, then says, “I’ll see you Monday,” before lifting my hand to
his lips.

 I’m as awkward as ever with the strangely antiquated gesture. Frank
drops my hand back to my side after briefly touching it to his lips. Then he
turns and gets back into the car, dipping his head to me as he pulls out of my
gran’s driveway.

 When I get inside I find Gran sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of
tea in front of her, it looks like it’s been sitting there for a while and has
gone cold. Her facial expression is vacant, staring off into the great beyond.
You could say that she’s either a million miles away or nobody’s home at all.
Her lavender aura seems a little faded, maybe she’s just tired.

 “Gran? Are you o-okay?” I ask softly, slowly her eyes lift to mine.

 “Florence,” she says in a small voice. “You’re home, that’s...good.” Her
hands are placed on either side of her teacup, and she gazes into the now cold
beverage as though looking for an answer. Her head dips downwards, then lifts
again when she continues, “There was a phone call for you a little while ago.
From a girl, I can’t remember the name.”

 “That’s all right, whoever it was they’ll call back if it’s important.”
I hesitate by the door, one foot in and one foot out. I don’t know if I should
stay and talk to Gran and find out what has her looking so dejected, or if I
should just give her some space. After a pause I decide to stay with her, it’s
a little frightening how sad she appears. I pull out a chair beside her and sit
down, placing my hand on her arm, the second my skin touches her she jumps and
pulls away.

 “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “Is something wrong Gran?”

 “No, no,” she replies, shaking her head and summoning a great effort to
plaster a false smile on her face. “I’m just a little out of sorts today honey,
it happens when you’re my age,” then she laughs, but it’s as fake as her smile.
She gets up from her seat. “I’m very tired Florence, I’m going to get an early
night.”

 Her walk, usually sprite and able, is now very, very slow and it takes
her a long time just to get to the door. I feel like maybe I should help her
upstairs, but she seems to dislike any sort of coddling. After she’s left, I
sit by myself in silence and worry. I hope she isn’t becoming ill. I’ve only
just found her and I don’t want to lose the only blood I’ve got worth loving.
The abrupt ring of the telephone causes me to jump and I hurry over to pick it
up.

 “Hello,” I answer.

 “Flo! It’s Caroline, oh my goodness the nurse told me what happened
today, are you all right?” her voice is full of nervous tension, and that kind
of jittery excitement that normally accompanies strange incidents like what
happened to me today at the hospital.

 “I’m fine. Just a few scrapes, nothing that won’t heal.”

 “Oh, thank God. I couldn’t tell if the nurse was playing down what
happened so that I wouldn’t panic. She seemed a little too keen to brush over
it all to be honest. I’m so sorry Flo, I never would have asked you to come
with us if I’d known anything like that was going to happen. I’ve never known
the residents to get out of hand before.”

 It takes me at least a quarter of an hour to convince Caroline that I
don’t blame her for what happened, and that my injuries are all superficial
cuts and grazes. After that she tries to wheedle information out of me about
what happened when I went back to Frank’s house. She’s curious because not many
people in town have been inside of John Danson’s farmhouse. Aside from two or
three close friends, the family tends to keep to themselves, Caroline informs
me.