Fire Meets Gasoline : After Ashes

Chapter Seven : John & Mike

JOHN MCHALE. I glanced at everyone that seemed to have stopped in time while looking at me; Paula with bitterness, Cian with disbelief, and Mike with uneasiness, all of them were so different upon their expression that it made it even harder for me to figure how I was feeling. I turned back to Mike and was ready to tell him everything was going to be okay, but then a great bright light came towards us and the sound of buzz pierced our ears, Paula screamed loudly and pointed her long fingernails at me, Mike took something off the guy's shirt and ran to the car without looking back. My instinct told me during that somehow cold night that if I stayed Paula or Cian would accuse me of beating someone up, their vision of me would get even worse and I would just circle back to the point when I first came to LA, however running away would also seemed suspicious, but the reality is my heart was aching with the sight of Mike, I wanted to ask him so much. So I did what my mind told me to do without even blinking, I ran to the stranger's car and got in, leaving Cian and Paula with questions flowing above their heads.

The strangers inside the car were frightened with the sight of me inside the car, interestingly enough the driver looked to have seen me before, he saw through the mirror with eyes of terror of course, but once he took a better look at me, he seemed to give out a big sigh, unlike the women that sat at my left with her hand fixed to the door handle.

Mike, on the other hand, looked multiple times to the back of the car. I knew he wasn't looking at me, but rather the cars behind us, hoping it wasn't whoever was knocked out in the alley, but it was still gratifying to see his eyes shine with the street lights once again. It was when we were in the middle of an avenue, that I remembered I had a home to go to.

"Where's your house?" The driver apparently had read my mind.

"U-um, it's on v-Venice!" I stuttered.

It was a weird feeling being inside the car, there was a rush going on through but everyone stayed quiet with eyes on the road, it wasn't a car chase like in the movies. Although if it was I would've probably have died a few seconds in.

"What the hell happened back there?" I finally asked.

There was a hold coming from the girl on my side, she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if she could've, the driver simply ignored my question and kept his eyes on the road while having no idea exactly where my house was. Mike took a sip of a water bottle that he had on him, then finally took the courage to explain to me what happened.

"A guy-he was following us, all of us since a few days ago!" He said bluntly.

"A guy? Do you at least know why he was following you?" I needed to know more.

"Probably a homophobe wanting to cause trouble..." The driver finally spoke.

"You know that's not true at all!" The woman also took courage to say something "If that was the case he wouldn't have followed me first!"

The driver seemed more pissed off among all of them, it was like he didn't want me to know what was going on.

"Turn left!" I ordered the men as we were getting close to my house.

Once we reached my simple home, I took a while to be able to open the door, not because the car was almost from ancient times, but because I wanted to stay close to Mike again, I had a feeling that I would never see him again.

"Wait!" The woman screamed as I opened the door.

"Yes?" I looked back at her.

"Can I use your bathroom?"