Bloodstream
Chapter Nine: Inferno
State-wide Fencing Tournament.
The title of the poster immediately caught my eye. It was after school, I was supposed to be meeting Phoebe outside the front gates of the school but I was sure reading this wouldn't take too long.
I got a little closer to the poster, allowing myself to read the details, I'd definitely want to tell Phoebe about this once I did meet up with her.
Abadeer and Co.'s State-Wide Fencing Tournament will take place on the 31st March - 1st April. To qualify you must attend a selection tournament at the nearest Ministry of Fencing qualified club to you, the top four from each tournament will be entered.
The thirty-first? That was only a couple of weeks away, I would have to hurry up and find out when those selection tournaments were pretty damn soon if I wanted to enter.
I continued to stare at the poster for a few more minutes before remembering I was supposed to be heading to the school gates. I quickly made a mental reminder to ask Coach Billy about the tournament, then I turned around and headed for the front of the school, where Phoebe would hopefully be waiting.
As I exited the main classroom block I saw her leaning up against the fence that branched off of the gates. Her ruby eyes were scanning the area for me, looking bored as she waited for me to show up.
"Hey!" I called out to her from a distance, praying to glob that my tongue would continue to function as we conversed.
Phoebe straightened up, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she heard me, "Hey Finn!" She said, smiling. I loved the way she smiled, it made me feel like nothing else in the world mattered as long as I could make her smile.
"So…" I said, trying very hard to avoid stuttering, "Where do you think we should go to practice?"
Phoebe put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment, "I dunno," She began, "But I was thinking that maybe we didn't need to start training right away."
I raised my eyebrows, wondering what her intentions were, "So what do you have in mind then?" I asked.
"Well…" Phoebe again put her hand to her chin, I got the feeling that she wasn't actually thinking this stuff up on the spot and that she had planned to ditch the training all along. At least that's what I hoped she was doing.
"Well?" I said prompting her to continue.
"Maybe we could go to the main street and get milkshakes or something." She said quickly, "Just relax a bit before we start training you know?"
"That sounds an awful lot like a date." I jested, not really knowing what was coming out of my mouth, just doing what my gut told me.
Phoebe then did something I had never seen her do; blush. In all honesty it looked adorable, her rosy red cheeks going an even darker shade, making her ruby eyes seem all the more brighter.
"Yeah, I guess it does." She said plainly, regaining her posture. "But it'd still be cool with you right?"
"Uh, yeah, of course." I agreed.
"Great!" Phoebe's eyes lit up, a smile flourishing across her face,
"Let's start walking then!"
We arrived at the shops a few moments later, Phoebe was excitedly telling me about the owners of all the different stores. To be honest I wasn't really listening to anything that she was rambling on about, I just watched the way her lips moved as she talked, the glint of wonder in her eyes about everything she ever came across. She was just so amazing…
"...So Miguel, you met him the other day, runs Death's-" Phoebe suddenly stopped talking, her gaze freezing down one of the alleyways of the mall. "Do you know that guy Finn?"
I followed her line of sight, seeing a man with an odd yellow hat, it was Dan, the Magic Man. He was frantically beckoning for me to come over to where he was standing, obviously not wishing to draw attention from Phoebe, but failing in his endeavour. I shot him a look that told him I didn't want to be bothered right now, but he didn't seem to be getting the message.
"Wait here a second." I said to Phoebe, before walking towards where Dan seemed to be performing some kind of strange dance as he motioned for me to approach.
"What?" Phoebe asked, a puzzled look on her face, "Who is that
Guy? What's going on Finn?"
"Don't worry about it." I reassured her, hoping she wouldn't try to question me even further. "Just stay here while I talk to him, okay?"
"Okay…" Phoebe said skeptically, it was obvious that she didn't trust what was going on, but I would have to amend that later. I arrived at the alley where Dan was standing, making sure to let him know that I was pissed off.
"You have picked the worst possible moment to bo-" I began before the lunatic cut me off.
"I know this is sudden, and I said you'd only deliver once a fortnight." He began, his entire body was vibrating and he was talking incredibly fast, "But I need you to drop off this package at the usual spot, I'll give you the same cut as last time."
"No!" I exclaimed, "I'm kind of in the middle of something here and I can't have this shiz jacking it all up!" Delivering drugs alone and unidentified was one thing, but if anyone found out… especially Phoebe, it would ruin me.
"Come on, just do it, it won't take long!" Dan seemed to be getting more frantic as I declined his offers, "Just please do this."
"I said no." I finished, turning around and walking out of the alleyway to signify the end of the conversation. There was no way I was playing Dan's drug mule with Phoebe around… there was no way I would be risking everything that I had worked so hard for over my first week here… I was not going to risk this normal life.
I arrived back to where Phoebe had been waiting impatiently for me, obviously wanting to know why I had made her wait while I talked to the strange man.
"He was just one of my brother's college friends." I lied, hoping that I didn't look as uncomfortable as I felt, "Wanted to talk to me about some, er, surprise, uh, birthday party for my brother."
"Really?" Phoebe gave me a hard stare, "When's your brothers birthday?"
"Oh, uh, not for another six months, the guy had got the dates mixed up." I gave a fake laugh, hoping my story was believable enough.
"Alright then." Phoebe said, I could tell she hadn't quite accepted what I had told her, but hey, it would do for now. "Come on then, let's go get those smoothies!" She suddenly grabbed my hand, leading me towards one of the smaller shops.
The skin of my palms rubbing up against hers sent a warm feeling rushing through my body. It was like I had been out in a blizzard since I was born and had just discovered fire. I tightened my grip on Phoebe's hand, hoping that I would never have to let go.
"Here it is!" She pointed toward a small storefront with a bunch of large plastic fruits decorating its exterior. There was a small sign above the entrance that read 'Party Pat's Punch and Smoothies'.
We walked inside the store, seeing a man with a green jacket behind the counter. He looked up at us when we came inside, his expression remaining completely blank, almost like he was deep in thought and was barely acknowledging our existence.
Phoebe strode up to the counter, "I'll have the Blueberry Smash, thanks." She said, then looked towards me, "What about you, Finn?"
"Uh, I'll have one of those two, I guess." I replied.
The man behind the counter just nodded his head before beginning to chop various fruits with great speed and place them in the blender. There seemed to be rythym to the way he was working, making it seem as if he was listening to some music that only his ears could pick up.
When he was done we paid for the drinks, this time I made sure that Phoebe didn't shout me anything, I didn't want to seem like some charity case.
"That cashier was a bit weird." I noted, trying to remember if he had uttered one word in the entirety of the transaction.
"Yeah." Phoebe agreed, "He thinks he's some new-age party god or something like that, you can't deny he makes great smoothies though."
I took a sip from my cup, "These are actually quite good." I laughed, "How does a 'party god' end up becoming a smoothie maker anyways?"
"I dunno." Phoebe smiled, "I'm sure the smoothies could come in handy at his parties, giving people drinks and all that."
"I guess that would be a good skill." I said.
We walked for another ten or so minutes, drinking the smoothies and talking. Phoebe did most of the conversing, telling me about the fencing tournaments of previous years, but I didn't mind that, I liked listening to her talk about things that she loved. She was just so passionate about everything she did, and I loved that about her.
Eventually we arrived at the park where Marceline and I had spent the last week practicing for my fencing trials.
"Hey Phoebe." I said, slowing my pace.
"Yeah?" She replied, turning to face me with those beautiful ruby eyes of hers.
"Do you think we should get into our fencing training now?" I asked her, "This park seems like a pretty good place to do it."
"Oh… uh, sure!" She said, seeming to reluctantly agree.
"You don't sound that sure." I said, wondering why she didn't want to practice, she loved fencing, why would it be different now? Wait… was she blushing?
"I just thought that we could talk some more, you know." She didn't seem to be meeting my eyes. "We don't really know each other all that well and since we're in the same fencing team I figured it would be a good idea to find out some stuff about you."
Did she… no, no way… but maybe… I mean, she didn't exactly deny this was a date when I told her what it sounded like… but did that really mean what I thought it did?
"Well, uh, what do you want to know about me?" I asked her, not entirely sure about how I would go about continuing the conversation.
Phoebe seemed to be in a similar state, "You did kickboxing at your old school right? I heard you were really good at it, like really good."
"I wouldn't say that…" I replied with sarcastic modesty, Phoebe giggled at that, bringing a smile to my face. "But yeah, I did kickboxing."
"So what made you change to fencing?"
I suddenly flushed red. I couldn't possibly tell her the real reason… but would I even be able to hide it from her? Marceline had easily seen through my cover-up story before.
"Well… I, uh, dunno really." I managed to stutter out, avoiding Phoebe's gaze. "Just something different I guess."
"Okay, that makes sense I guess." Phoebe said awkwardly, "I was just wondering because I ran into Marceline the other day…"
"What did she tell you?!" I exclaimed, "Whatever she said she was lying, I didn't join just because I thought you were really pretty on the first day and you kinda scrambled up my dome-piece! It was nothing like that at all, it was just because I wanted to-" Suddenly my rambling was interrupted.
Phoebe was kissing me, her lips sending waves of fiery emotion through my body. At first I was shocked that she was doing this, my mind seemed to be wondering what the hell was going on, but then suddenly my body took over.
I was kissing her back, my mouth pushing back against hers and my hands coming up to caress her rosy-red cheeks. Phoebe's own arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me closer into her.
This was nothing like I had ever felt before, the feeling of pure emotion stampeding through my conscience was more intense than any drug I had taken in the past. This was pure, there were no side effects, consequences or chemicals taking over my brain. It was just the two of us in tight embrace, all of our worries and cares evaporating like snow in an inferno as we kissed.
We pulled apart, the entire thing lasted no longer than ten seconds, but it had felt like hours had just passed around us. I stared at Phoebe, her cheeks were burning red and I could feel my own face was probably even redder.
"That was…" I began to say, trying to find a word to describe the experience; awesome, amazing, brilliant, nothing in the english language could begin to describe my feelings of euphoria.
"Sorry." Phoebe murmured, blushing even deeper, "I should have asked, I just made this awkward."
"No!" I exclaimed, "You didn't make this awkward at all."
"Really?" She asked, "Because this seems a hell of a lot awkward to me."
"Well maybe you did make it a bit awkward." I admitted, "But good awkward, like the kind of awkward you get when I cute baby does something stupid and starts crying but then you laugh but you feel bad about laughing-" I stopped myself, realizing how stupid I probably sounded. "You know what? I think this will explain it much better."
I leaned in and resumed the kiss from where we left off, Phoebe gave a soft sound of surprise as our bodies connected again, but she was quickly kissing back. I didn't know what I was feeling then, it wasn't just happiness, it was something much, much more than that, something that my sixteen year old mind couldn't explain.
It was something that I had lived for years without, but now that I had it in my grasp, I would never let go, lest my heart be ripped out with it.
The fluff has begun!
Would just like to say that this is my first time writing this sort of thing into a story and I am fairly sure I didn't do such a great job of it. But hey, at least it's finally there now, and there's a hell of a lot more to ensue.
So yeah, let me know what you think of the fic so far in the reviews, as always any feedback is greatly appreciated. Also, one other thing, the poll for your favorite character is now up on my profile, so make sure to check that out and vote. I will be doing a special chapter centered around the character with the most votes somewhere down the line.
Thanks for Reading! ~LivingTorch