CHAPTER 1
Fire is a strange thing. Watch it next time you see it. Does it dance? Or does it stay the same and flicker occasionally as warning to those who think of touching it? And what of those who do touch it? Are they truly in pain? Or are animals just not used to being as warm as that? Fire destroys everything in its path. But then there are also plants that can not escape from the dormancy of their seeds unless fire clears the way for them. Even the colour of fire is odd, a strange mix of orange red and yellow, though you can not see any one of these colours if you look for it specifically. It's as if when you want to get to know the flames you must know all of it, not just one special part. Fire is mesmerising and since the dawn of time all creatures have been drawn to it, even though they know the dangers of getting too close.
Will was my flame, and I was constantly drawn to him. We'd been best friends since we had met at age two, and now we were in year twelve and still as close as ever. Our friendship bothered me sometimes, as there were parts of it that we had to keep secret, we'd both agreed that we only saw each other as friends and neither of us wanted any one to get the wrong idea about our feelings. An example of something they could get the wrong idea from was our sleeping habits. We often chose to sleep in each others bed's rather than our own as a comfort.
Our night time routine had started four years ago when my mother had died. My father who had loved her dearly had changed so dramatically after that day that he'd blamed me for what had happened even though a person can't cause a cancer. The blame had quickly turned in to hatred and after a while the only reason he would stop ignoring me would be to hit me. Will had seen most of this happen and I had told him all the details that he'd missed, though I was careful to leave out certain parts. After a while Will had noticed I had been spending most of the night awake and had come in through my window every now and then to keep me company. Two years later his grandparents had died and he's needed the same comfort that I still needed occasionally, so it became natural to climb in to bed and just hold each other until we fell asleep.
Which is why when I woke up that morning, I was surprised to see Will was already up and out of bed. He smiled when he saw me and whispered "Mum's leaving for work early this morning; I'd better get back to bed before she leaves".
I nodded sleepily and waved to him as he turned and climbed out the window.
"See you at my place in half an hour?" he asked before turning and jumping out the window, already knowing my answer. I watched from my window as he ran across the grassed area between our houses and climbed up the wall into his room. He was a beautiful boy, the kind all girls fawned over, and even I had caught my self imaging what it would be like to feel his lips on mine. He had short blonde hair and eyes that were a light blue and seemed to reflect the light from a summer sky.
I was quickly woken from my day dreams about Will by my father throwing open my bedroom door. "I heard voices in here" he said half yelling, half grunting.
I feigned confusion, knowing it was useless, and tried to block the smell of alcohol that was flowing from my father out of my mind. Fortunately Will had already returned to his house and after a few minutes of inspecting my room he was forced to admit there was no-one there.
"I'm going out" he slurred, wobbling forward slightly as he did so "I don't want to hear about you annoying those neighbours"
I nodded slowly, scared that if I spoke I would give away my fear, and sighed with relief as he left, glad that I had been spared my father's wrath. For now at least.
Fifteen minutes later I had made my way down the stairs and Will's house. As soon as the door was opened I was greeted by an overexcited Ally, Will's younger sister, jumping on top of me as was normal for her. When she let go of me I held her at arms length and admired her. She was as lovely as her brother, with the same blonde hair, held off her face with a black ribbon. Her eyes were as blue as her brothers, but bigger and darker. Her face was heart shaped and around her neck was a thin red ribbon tied into a bow at the front. She laughed at my admiring her, and stepped off me.
Ally led me into the kitchen, where she returned to the arms of her boyfriend, Liam. Also in the kitchen was Will's twin brother, Kye, who nodded a greeting as I entered and turned his eyes back to his book, it was his final VCE exam on Monday.
"How are you Jordan?" Liam asked holding a cereal box just out from Ally's reach
"Alright I suppose" I laughed as Ally jumped up trying hard to reach the box.
At that point Will entered smiling his mysterious smile. Will laughed at Ally for a while before grabbing the box out of Liam's hand and filling his bowl with it. Ally watched his actions unblinkingly and when he'd filled his bowl she looked at him her eyes wide in a gaze that would convince any normal person to give her what ever she wanted. Will was used to this look though and as punishment for even trying he held the cereal out of her reach for another two minutes. Kye smiled at this and patted his brother's head, "He's learning".
"Finally!" Ally exclaimed as Will put the box down on the table and turned to his breakfast.
"What should we do today?" Will said looking up at me with his charming smile.
I shrugged and shook my head, my usual response to that question. Kye noticed this lack of response and charged in like a tiger. "Well seeing as you have no plans for the day, I have a proposition for you, little brother." He said. Will raised his eye brow, curious, and allowed Kye to continue. "What do you think of Kisa?" he asked causing an unwanted lump to grow in my stomach.
"Who's that?" he asked and I tried not to let the relief show on my face.
"You know red hair, cute face, big…eyes, she is in your chemistry class" Will continued to look at him blankly "Arrgh!" Kye frowned at him. "Cameron's sister"
Will finally clicked at the mention of his brother's best friend. "Oh, her".
"Yes! Her! So what do you think?"
"She's ok" Will replied.
Noticing his brother's cluelessness Kye repeated the question "what do you think about dating her?"
Will's face lit up in surprise and he looked to me for help. I shrugged and looked away, feigning disinterest. "O-okay," he said, and a strange look of fear crossed my face.
"Awesome" Kye exclaimed "you're picking her up in an hour."
When breakfast was finished Will and I made our way up to his bedroom, where I sat and watched him play his piano for a while. We often spent our time this way, him playing, me listening. He was an excellent pianist and had taught me to play as well, though I had never been as good as he was.
"Hey, I've started a new piece" he said suddenly changing the tune he was playing into something I hadn't heard before. "Do you want to hear it?"
I nodded my response and lay back on his bed, looking up the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been there since he was six years old. "What's it about?" I asked
"It's our life stories"
I laughed "but that would be such a mess"
Will smiled back at me and continued playing. He was right though, the more I listened the more I heard it. The piece was two melodies, each twisting and intertwining, but never joining. The sound was chaotic, but at the same time it still managed to be beautiful. Suddenly the music stopped "I'd better get dressed now, if I have to pick up Kisa".
