To Be A Warrior

Chapter 53: Play With Fire

I suppress a cough as smoke rises into the air. Today I and some other runners were put over watching over the burn pit, which destroys the things we can no longer reuse and is too big for us to carry out of town to one of the dump sites where things all just waste away.

Despite the cold that surrounds me, I stay away from the flames, not wanting to smell the burning plastic that hides in some of the furniture that's been damaged and worn beyond repair. It's already bad enough that the smoke will be clinging to my hair and clothing once this is done, meaning I'll have to scrub myself raw in order to get the stench out. It's not often I'm assigned to this job. I can't remember the last time I was assigned to make sure none of the flames get too far or catch on to something we don't need as ash, but at least Phineas is enjoying it.

I glance over to the blond beside me, his eyes wide as he watches the flames lick and devour one of the couches we had to throw away because some of the children jumped on it until it broke. He seems so enraptured into the chaos, not exactly enjoying it, but more so mesmerized. I don't understand why he insisted on coming with me today when he could be inside with Milo playing board games or reading or watching a movie, but since he rarely likes to spend time with me, much less insist to, I allowed it.

"Don't get too close," I warn him, but he simply rolls his eyes.

"I know," He replies. "Me and Penelope used to set things on fire all the time."

"O-oh, right," I chuckle awkwardly. "I forgot about all the trouble you two liked to get into."

He shrugs. "We never really got into trouble, actually, because we made sure not to get caught. We were pretty good at being sneaky."

A more genuine chuckles leaves my lips. "That you were."

There's a beat of silence, the sound of the fire crackling seeming almost a hundred times louder than before, and then Phineas speaks again.

"Do you still think about her? Penelope?"

I blink at him in surprise. "What? Of course I do. I think about her all the time."

"I do too." The blond's face scrunches up, as if he is fighting to get the words out. "I miss her. She was my best friend. I haven't really made any friends since she died, and..." He shrugs. "I don't know. I just wanted to ask because sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who thinks about her. Milo seemed to have more trouble getting over Veronica's death than Penelope's, and Veronica didn't even like him like he liked her, and she's technically not even dead now. She's just JARVIS in reverse."

I blink. JARVIS in... Oh, he must mean how in the movies JARVIS' voice actor became the Vision, who had a human body, and now Veronica lost her human body to become an AI.

"I miss when we used to do things to tick Ian off, or when we'd play pranks on the teacher at school."

"I'm sure you could find other friends who would do activities like that with you." I rub the back of my neck. "I mean, I'm not suggesting you should try to find ways to make Abel's current leader mad, because that's Janine and she's terrifying, but..."

"Most of the kids in my class aren't all that interesting."

"You don't know that."

"Oh, I do. At least you like baking and running and reading. They just like to talk, which gets boring, especially if it's gossip." He rolls his eyes. "That's the worse. And if some of them do like to cause chaos, they break things that don't need to be broken, like the couch. Dustin and Patrick were the ones who did it. They thought it would be a good idea to do front flips on it. Idiots."