UP IN FLAMES, eddie diaz

o n e

Fire filled her lungs as the girl, no older than sixteen, rolled over and coughed violently. Through half closed eyes she could just make out the ceiling as smoke filled the room, holding her body in a cocoon. "LAFD! Is anyone in here?! LAFD!" she heard voices calling out.

"Help." She croaked, barely even hearing herself over the cackling of the fire.

"LAFD!"

"Help!" She tried again, barely louder than before as tears sprang to her eyes. They wouldn't hear her, she knew they wouldn't. With one final burst of energy she reached her hand out and knocked over the lamp that was standing above her. Glass shattered and left tiny cuts across her skin, but she only smiled as she heard the pounding of boots getting closer and closer.

"Aye-o, Roni! Hurry up!" The voice of Evan Buckley called out as his fists banged against his best friends door. If you would've told him when he graduated academy that he'd be living with a girl he wasn't sleeping with, he would've laughed in your face. And better yet, his captains daughter? That would have got you locked up for insanity. And yet here he was, in his best friends loft apartment thanks to her finally convincing him to move out of his ex-girlfriends house.

Inside her room Veronica Nash was sitting up in her bed, running shaky hands through her sweat soaked hair. "It was just a dream." She whispered to herself. "Just a dream."

After a quick shower, a bite of Buck's toast, and a small food fight, the two were speeding down the highway in Buck's Jeep towards the firehouse. "And I went down a half percentage. Which may not seem like much, but if you really think about it, it's crazy impressive." Buck was telling Roni all about how he was going to be chosen for the fireman calendar, which really was just so Buck.

"Evan Buckley." Roni said, turning towards her best friend with tears in her eyes. "I am just so proud to be your best friend. You've overcome such-" Roni was cut off by Buck's hand in her face as he shoved her away gently, making the girl cackle.

"Oh shut up. I hate you."

"You love me." Roni grinned.

"Debatable." Buck denied.

"Need I remind you that I'm the one who saved your ass and got your job back for you, after you nearly got me killed?"

Buck groaned. "Are you ever gonna let that go?" He asked as he pulled up to the fire station and threw his Jeep into park.

"Nope." Roni said, popping the 'p' with another one of her infectious grins as she threw her door open and- quite literally- hopped out of the Jeep. The girls short stature was something that she'd never live down with her team. They were always laughing at her when she'd have to leap out of the truck or when they'd catch her standing on-top of the counter just so she could reach something on the top shelf. She never felt like 5'1" was that short, but when the closest other person she worked with was 5'8" it made her small stature much more noticeable.

Buck only shook his head and laughed as he threw his duffle bag over his shoulder and followed his best friend into the station.

"Good Morning my beautiful family!" Roni exclaimed as she skipped through the station and up the stairs towards the loft. You'd never be able to tell that the girl spent most of the night shaking and crying alone in her bed. But that was the whole point. She didn't tend to let anyone fully in, and she only got away with it because of her childish antics. The pain was still there though, hiding behind her eyes. Bobby saw it everyday, and Buck sometimes saw it too. But that was the thing about Roni, she didn't deal with her trauma. Instead, she shoved it away and hid it behind fake smiles and loud laughs and hoped and prayed that no one would see through it.