We're on Fire

The day is finally here. I am currently on my way to Birmingham for Uni. I was sat on the passenger seat while Gretchen drove. She offered to drive me up because she wanted to spend the last few hours with me since I’ll be there, about two hours away from London, and plus, she wanted to meet Liam. I’ve always hated long car rides because I get restless and bored easily. Thankfully, with Gretchen, I won’t get too incredibly bored because we always have a bunch of stuff to talk about. I laughed at that thought. I talk about him a lot to her and she always asks me stuff about him.

I am so glad I am finally getting away from this place. I was finally leaving the place I grew up; London has always been my home but I am incredibly glad to finally be starting fresh. A new town with new people is just what I needed. There were too many bad memories here from when I was younger growing up. It was all because of my father; my damn alcoholic abusive dad. As I stare out the window, I can’t help but begin to let countless memories overtake my mind.

I never liked being at home when I was younger, especially around my dad. He began to hurt me when I was eight or nine, somewhere around there. I would spend almost all my time over at Liam’s just to be away from him. He only lived a few doors down from the house I grew up in. His mum Karen still lives in that same house where they’ve always lived until he left for Uni. Even though we are almost two years apart, it doesn’t feel like it, never has.

I would stay there night after night, day after day. Karen has always treated me like I was her own daughter. I always felt more at home there than at my own house that was only a few doors down.

To escape my dad, I would sometimes lock myself in my room and keep myself busy with music or drawing, whatever I could come up with. That usually happened when I wasn’t with Liam. Eventually, he would find his way to my room and nearly break the door off its hinges to get at me in his pissed drunk state. I don’t know how or why he always took his anger out on me. My mum wasn’t in the picture, and hasn’t been for the longest time. When I was about six or seven, she divorced my dad and left me with him because she couldn't handle it anymore. It’s been years since I last heard from her or my dad, really.

There were days, I’d show up to school with massive bruises and cuts along my arms. All thanks to my dad. I’d always lie and tell anyone who asked that I slipped and accidentally fell outside when I was playing. I don’t know why or how they bought it. Liam was the only one who’s always known what really went on and who has been there for me when that went down. Basically, he’s the only one I’ve ever told about what he did to me. I had gone to his house to hang out for a bit after school and we were messing around out on the play structure in his backyard when we heard yelling. He was furious I had left without telling him where I was going.

I knew my dad from a mile away, especially when he was angry like that. I broke down in tears and clung close to Liam as we entered the house. He continued to get me to calm down and to stop crying but I couldn’t. We tried to stay far away from him, my bastard of a father, but he only came closer and ripped me out of Liam’s grip and drug me toward the front door.

Once behind the closed doors of our house, he began to hurt me. Just thinking about that makes me want to break down in tears. I always have the urge to break down and cry but I’ve cried enough tears over the years. I was glad I haven’t been in his presence for the longest time. It’s been a few years, thankfully. One of the things that scares me is the fact I still get nightmares about it from time to time.

“Ashy, you okay, love? You seem quiet, haven’t heard a peep from you since we left the flat,” I am pulled from my thoughts by the sound of Gretchen’s voice. I look over to see Gretchen looking over at me as she comes to a slow halt at a stop light.

“Uh, y-yeah, I’m fine, just…thinking,” I tell her simply with a small smile and run a hand through my semi long dark brown hair and push some hair out of my eyes.

“Thinkin’ ‘bout what?” she asks, curiosity in her voice as she begins to drive again once the light turns green.

“Just about everything, how my first week is going to go and orientation and all that,” I reply and shrug my shoulders a bit.

“I’m excited to see Liam, it’s been years!” I exclaim with a smile as I stare out the windshield.

It was only twelve-thirty pm and we still had a little over an hour to go until we were in Birmingham. I reach forward so I could mess with the radio dial. I wanted a little music playing because it was too quiet and I didn’t like it. After I press a button, music begins to pour from the speakers throughout the car. A song by Lana Del Rey was playing through the sound system; Born to Die.

“Can’t wait to meet this chap you call your “best friend”, call me jealous if you will,” she says with a hint of a laugh.

“Oh, you know I love you, babe,” I tell her with a smile and shove her in the shoulder a bit.

“Hey! I’m drivin’, don’t bother me or I’ll have to slap you and we might crash,” she warns and glares at me before turning her gaze back to the road in front of us. It is silent for the next few minutes. Gretchen is the next one to speak up, asking if I wanted to play a game to pass the time as we drove.

“I’m up for anything, I’m bored as hell,” I say with a chuckle.

We begin to try and think up a game to play. After a few minutes, I think of the ‘Alphabet game’ where you pick out a word that goes with the letter and go in sequential order. We play that for a while before we get bored again and come up with another game. There was a bunch of other games to play when you’re on a road trip but I can’t think of any.

The two of us talk for a while about so many random things. I was really going to miss Gretchen. We’ve known each other ever since I could remember. I think we met each other from some mutual friend of someone I worked with at this place I volunteered at for years, when I was sixteen. It definitely hasn’t been as long as I’ve known Liam since I’ve known him practically all my life since they moved in down the street from where I grew up. I remember I was almost seven when his family moved in and we hit it right off.

I begin to take in our surroundings. Wherever we were, I wasn’t familiar with it. As I stare out the window, I could see plenty of residential areas and housing developments. We even passed a few convenient fuel stations and stores.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask as I look around for anything like a sign of the town where we were. We continued to pass a few other little stores and businesses along with some more houses where people supposedly lived. I continue to look around for some sort of sign to see where we were but I don’t see anything.

“Who knows, all I know is I’m hungry and I can’t wait until we get there, want to stop at that diner up there?” she asks and points to a sign of a small diner.

“Seriously, Gretch? You ate barely an hour and half ago, you can wait!” I tell her and laugh a bit as I pull out my phone to find where we were. She just lets out a huff of annoyance and continues on driving.

I unlock my iPhone and see a new text message from Liam. It read: Where are you? Do you know when you’ll be here? Can’t wait to see you, Ash! x I laugh a bit as I read his message. Oh Liam… I think to myself; he’s always impatient especially when he’s looking forward to something, like me moving up there. I wonder how it was going to be with his mate Harry or whatever his name was.

I don’t respond to his message right away, because I wanted to find out where we were first. I would tell him after I see wherever the hell we are. I open up the ‘maps’ app on my phone to see we were close to Longford in Derbyshire, a little less than an hour away from Birmingham. We were gradually getting closer.

I go back to my messages so I could reply back to him. Close to Longford in Derbyshire, less than an hour away! Can’t wait either, Li! :) After I send the message, I lock it and drop my phone in my lap. I try and get comfortable in the seat and manage to push the seat back by the side controls on the seat. Once it gets back as far as I wanted it, I shut my eyes and try to drift off to sleep. I am soon taken by darkness as I fall asleep.



I let out a groan as I feel someone tapping me on the shoulder. I slowly open my eyes to find Gretchen pushing me lightly again, a small smile on her face. “Ash, you awake? We’re here!” I pull my eyebrows together in confusion as I sit up and bring the seat back up so I was sitting up right.

“What – we are?!” I ask still a bit confused as I look out the window. We were stopped in some car lot. I had no idea where but we were somewhere. As I take in my surroundings, I notice a bunch of things having to do with Birmingham University were everywhere you look, practically. There were signs with blue, red and gold, which were the university’s colors.

“Sure are, got here ‘bout ten minutes ago, stopped here for a bathroom break, ‘tis why we’re stopped now,” she says and turns to me, a Snickers candy bar in her left hand, and Peanut M&M’s in the other.

“Got you somethin’ too, ‘cause I’m nice,” she says with a smile and hands it over to me, a Snickers candy bar, which she knows is my favorite.

“That was nice, Gretch, thanks,” I give her a small smile and thank her as I take hold of the candy bar along with the water bottle. I take the cap off and bring the bottle up to my lips and take a sip. I tighten the cap back on and set it in one of the cup holders in the center console. After I set the bottle in the console, I pull my phone from my bag so I could tell Liam we were here.

After I unlock it, I go to my messages so I could shoot him a quick message. Just as I press the send button after I type up the message telling him we were here in town, I get an incoming call. I smile as I swipe my forefinger across the bottom of the screen so I could answer the call.

“Hello?” I ask, the smile never leaving my face as I stare out the window of the car and look to see where we were. We were in the lot of a convenience store and fuel stop.

“Ashton! So, you’re here?! Where are you exactly?” I hear him say on the other line. I glance out the window to see we were at a Shell station on Alcester Rd.

“Uh, we’re at a Shell station on Alcester Rd. Now, where are you? I’ll come to you, Li,” I tell him and look over at Gretchen who was occupying herself with her phone and occasionally popping M&M’s in her mouth.

“I’ll text you the address, you’re not too far off, actually, I’ll be waitin’ outside for ya,” he says with a slight chuckle on the other end. I laugh a bit and smile even though he couldn’t see me. I was getting more anxious by the minute, especially since I was so close within minutes to where I’ll be attending Uni. I couldn’t wait to see Liam and even more so meet his house mate, Harry. It was going to be quite interesting.

We soon end the call and I tell him I’ll see him in a few. I get the message he sent me of his address so Siri could tell us where to go. Gretchen and I are soon on our way, following the directions he gave me to wherever they lived. A good five-ten minutes later, we finally come upon the house that he supposedly lived in. my thoughts were confirmed when I spotted him standing on the front porch, a smile on his face and phone in the palm of his hand. Gretchen shuts the car off and slowly gets out after undoing her safety belt.

I undo my belt quickly as I can and open the door. Once I was out, I shut the door and run toward the boy with brown hair that was styled up in that stupid quiff or whatever it’s called. He was a lot buffer than I remember and had stubble on his chin and he had gotten taller, still towering over my height of 5’4”. He definitely wasn’t the same boy I grew up knowing; he now had tattoos cascaded down both his arms, a lip ring and a small black earring in his right ear.

“Ashton! You look great, love,” Liam says with a smile as he hugs me tightly and presses a kiss to my cheek. He wraps his big strong arms around my small figure. I smile as I hug him back and mutter a ‘thanks’ in reply.

“You been workin’ out Li?” I smile at him as we part from the hug and poke the strong muscle in his left shoulder.

“Yeah, every so often. What ‘bout you, love? You’ve shrunk,” he says with a chuckle. I pout and cross my arms over my chest as I glare over at him jokingly. He always liked to poke fun at my height since I’ve always been on the shorter side.

“Yeah, and you’ve grown, a lot…” I tell him with a smile. I glance over to see Gretchen standing there awkwardly, her eyes fixated on the pavement.

“Oh, Liam, this is my best friend, Gretchen,” I introduce the two and she looks up from where she was looking. She smiles politely as he comes forward and greets her with a friendly hug and a light kiss on the cheek. They part from the hug and I excuse myself so I could grab my bags from the trunk of her car. I had two or three bags stuffed full of everything I brought along with me.

I set my bags on the porch steps along with my water bottle and Snickers bar I dropped in my purse. We stand there for the next few minutes and talk before Gretchen decides its best she gets going because she has work early tomorrow. She works at the local dentist office as a front desk clerk back home in London. It was definitely going to take me a while to get used to calling this place home sweet home.

“God, Ashton, I’m going to miss you so much! You kick ass on the first day, alright? Love and miss you already, Ashy,” she exclaims, a sad look on her face as she looks at me. I feel my eyes begin to well up with tears as I look at the girl who stood before me. We hug each other tightly for the next few minutes.

“I’m going to miss you too, Gretch! So very much, love. I will for sure,” I say with a hint of a laugh and shut my eyes tightly to blink back the tears from my eyes. We pull away a few minutes later. I wave as she gets in her car and drives off, leaving me standing there with Liam who was resting his hand lightly on my shoulder.

I laugh a bit and wipe under my eyes and apologize to Liam. “Ugh, sorry, Li,” I mutter as I reach for my bags to carry them inside. Before I can get to them, Liam takes them for me without a word and heads toward the front door.

“Thanks Liam, you didn’t have to,” I mumble as I follow behind him.

He tells me it’s no problem as he continues on into the house. I shut the door after I walk in and begin to look around the front room. You could definitely tell two lads lived here because the place was a mess. It was definitely going to take some getting used to. I soon look over at Liam who was standing in front of me, a small hint of a smile on his face.

“C’mon, Ash, there’s someone I want you to meet…” he says and grabs my wrist pulling me toward another room. Where is he taking me? I think to myself as he leads me into the living room.

Things are strewn everywhere like they just threw a party of some sort. A tall guy stood there, brown curly hair, glistening green eyes that you couldn’t help but get lost in, a Rolling Stones t-shirt and the tightest jeans I’ve ever seen. His exposed arms were littered in tattoos and he had a bunch of piercings, one in his lip, an eyebrow piercing and one in his earlobe. He had a slight hint of a smirk on his lips as he stared at me. I couldn't help but want to know what his deal was, why he was staring at me like he was.

Notes

here's the next chapter!! :)
I have a LOT of great ideas in store for this, hope everyone's enjoying it so far!

what does everyone think so far?? drop a comment and let me know! feedback means so much, i really appreciate it!

also, check out the trailer i made for this, link is in the summary!! :D