If I Told You [Completed]

Fire?

edited

A couple of days later, Stephanie decides to bring Sawyer on a hangout with Julia. She arranged a small campfire for them to sit around, with marshmallows and graham crackers and chocolate to make s'mores, which she had learned Sawyer had never tried.

The sky was a dark blue shade with little speckles of stars. The view was beautiful and that's why Stephanie picked this day to do it. She looked up into the sky and smiled at it.

She led Julia to the campfire first with a blindfold tied around her head.

"Where are you taking me Steph?" Julia says as they walk towards the fire.

"You'll see in one moment."

They stop in front of the campfire, and Stephanie takes Julia's blindfold off, revealing the bright fire.

Julia gasps and turns toward Steph. "Whoa! This is so cool Steph!"

"Thanks. Stay here, I'm going to go get Sawyer now." She says, leaving Julia there.

She grabs Sawyer, placing the blindfold on him, struggling slightly because of his height. He laughs at her attempts and crouches down to her height to help her. She finally puts the blindfold on him, and they walk towards the fire together.

Once in close vicinity, with the smoke reaching his nose, he froze. His hands fall to his sides as his body tenses and freezes. He's no longer smiling; his expression was unreadable.

He squeezed Stephanie's hand indicating for her to stop. He lets go, his hands shaking.

Sawyer brings his shaking hands up to his face to take off the blindfold slowly. His eyes slowly adjust to the darkness around him.

The moment his eyes settle on the fire, his fists clench by his side. The bright orange flames contrasting with the dark sky as they dance against each other in the air, the small sparks of fire floating in the air. His head hangs low, and his eyes are shut.

His breaths are shallow as he stares at the fire blazing in front of him. The bright orange flames bring him back to a time that he never wanted to go back to.

His eyes start to fill with tears that threaten to spill out and he just lets them. The world blurs around him as he starts to sway slightly. The breaths that come in never seem to go out, making it hard to breathe for him.

His hands shake by his side and his knees start to feel weak. He falls to the ground with a thud and sits there on her knees.

Tears are streaming down his face now, dripping down onto his clothes. His heart beats faster as he struggles to breath. It feels like he's being choked slowly, constricting his breathing.

Stephanie stands there, not knowing what to do. Her first instinct is to ask what's wrong, but she knows not to do that from her own experiences. Instead, she goes and hugs him. It was difficult since he was sitting on the ground, and she was not. She crouches down to the ground to sit down, and her arms wrap around his neck as she tries to let him know that he's okay.

Sawyer finally opens his eyes and looks next to him, his eyes glossy with tears. He wraps his arms around Stephanie as he breathes slowly, calming down slowly.

Stephanie's hands rub circles on his back slowly, calming him down. She didn't ask what was wrong, but she let go of him, whispering.

"It's okay Sawyer. I'm here." Her voice is comforting, soft and reassuring.

She tells him to stay there for a moment as she gets up to leave, going to tell Julia that the hangout was called off. Stephanie apologizes hurriedly for the cancellation, but Julia assures her it's fine.

Julia leaves after they hug, and Stephanie walks back over to Sawyer quickly.

He had calmed down by now, but Stephanie knew that they should get home now.

They walked back to their car. They were silent and their hands were interlocked, the action speaking much louder than the words that they speak.

The car ride home was the same: silent, with their hands still together. The silence wasn't awkward, it was more comforting and a nice, comfortable silence. It wasn't a kind of silence that someone feels obligated to speak to break it.

Once home, Sawyer goes straight to his room, shutting the door behind him as Stephanie slowly follows him inside the house. She watched as he closes the door behind him, concealing him from her eyes.

Stephanie stands outside the door with her hand hovering over the door, ready to knock, but she stops midway. She sighed softly as she pulls her hand away, turning around with her back to the door. She slides down the door until she reaches the floor with her knees close to her chest.

Sawyer stands on the other side of the door, his own hand hovering over the doorknob. He pauses his actions and exhales. He slides down the door as he looks up at the ceiling.

He hears the muffled sobs from the other side of the door. He puts his head in his hands as he breathes slowly.

Stephanie cries only get louder as time goes on, the sounds echo and reach Sawyer's ears as his own eyes get teary.

Sawyer sits down on the other side of the door, not wanting to open the door and explain to her. He stays there as he stares into the window that showed the bright white light of the moon.

Slowly, he hears Stephanie gets up and go to her own room, leaving Sawyer in his place on the ground.

Sawyer sighs into his hands once she's gone. He gets up from his spot on the ground as well and walks towards the bed that lay in the middle of the room. He gets into bed, staring at the ceiling thinking about the day.

He closes his eyes and drifts to sleep, laying there as he stares at the ceiling. His cheeks are stained with tears as he falls asleep, laying on his side.  

i love making the characters suffer