Stairways | A Surviving Summer FanFiction

Part 80 - Fire

You watch as Ari tends to his injured girlfriend and you can't seem to look away. You feel the heat from the dying barbecue hit your skin as you lean against the structure of the canopy covering it. Wren sees you looking. As Ari goes to get more ice, she flexes her foot around slowly, smiling smugly - she's faking. You knew it.

"I am seriously worried about that girl." Summer says as she tries to relight the barbecue, looking up at Wren as she goes back to playing the vulnerable little girlfriend when Ari comes back carrying a small bag of ice.

"Ari won't believe us." you shrug. He didn't believe you. He thought that you pulled Wren into the water on purpose.

"So now do you think we need a plan?"

"Summer-"

"C'mon, Y/n! She's going to keep doing stuff like this as long as they're together!" she presses. "Ari deserves to know who he's dating."

You sigh, knowing she's not going to give this up anytime soon. "Fine, let's go somewhere in private."

When Summer shuts the door behind you both in her temporary room in the house, she shuts the blinds at the window as you take a seat on her bed.

"Okay, we need a plan to break them up. This girl is insane," Summer says. "I can't believe she was faking all that. If she was that secure with Ari, why would she feel the need to turn him against us?!"

"Okay, yeah, I know what Wren's like, but," you sigh. "What do you propose we actually do, Summer? We can't just tell them to break up."

"No, but we can give them a little...nudge?" she says with a smirk. "Think about it - should Ari be with such a manipulative person? We'd be doing him a favour!"

You hesitate - you're still not exactly sure what Summer is proposing, but you understand what she means about Wren not being good for Ari. He should know what kind of girl Wren is, right? "To be fair," you say slowly. "If Ari could see who Wren really is, I don't think he'd want to be with her."

"Exactly! So we need to help Ari by showing him Wren's true colours," she says. "So, c'mon, will you help me?"

"Just to be clear, I'm doing this for Ari's sake." you clarify, and Summer smiles cooly.

"Of course. So am I," she says, sounding genuine. "So, Operation Break Up Ari and Wren commences today." she says, a satisfied grin spreading across her face.

"Do we have to call it that?" you ask, and Summer sighs in frustration.

"Well what do you want to call it?"

You throw your hands up. "I don't know, something less...mean?"

"Y/n, you're the one who said we're doing this for Ari's own good, remember? We're not being mean!" she exclaims, raising her voice slightly, probably getting frustrated at your indecisiveness. But this plan just seems a little...insane? And you can't agree to this without knowing exactly what Summer is planning.

"And sorry, how exactly is this plan going to work?" you ask.

"I don't know. We'll figure out the details later. For now, we just need to put up with Wren I guess-" she's suddenly interrupted by a loud banging sound from outside, and she peers out the window with a frustrated sigh. "Ugh, it's Baxter. Trying to get the barbecue started again. That boy is hopeless."

You follow Summer downstairs hurriedly to find Baxter kicking the gas canister for the barbecue in a rhythmic pattern, the can making a hollow metal sound which echoes around the garden.

"Yo, be careful!" Summer exclaims, and Bax looks up in surprise.

"Sorry," he holds his hands up. "Was just seeing if I could get it restarted."

Summer sighs, walks round to the other side of the barbecue and begins to help Baxter fiddle with the controls haphazardly - it's clear neither of them know what they're doing, and you're about to step in and try to help when the heat from a cloud of flames and smoke hit your face. You take a few hurried steps back as you watch the flames climb and alight the wood of the canopy over the barbecue. Baxter and Summer sprint around from behind the barbecue, their eyes wide and bodies stiff with shock.

"No, this...this can't be my fault, right?" Baxter says, panicked, running a hand down his face with an exasperated exhale of breath. "It can't!"

You turn to Summer, who looks panicked, but manages to take out her phone and hopefully call for the fire brigade. You're not sure how else you're going to put out this fire before it spreads to the house - if it did, you'd all be in big trouble. More than you will be now.

Ari and Wren come over, Wren supported by her boyfriend while she hobbles on one foot. "Baxter what did you do?!" she yells at her brother, but within a second, he's disappeared inside the house. "Classic Bax!" Wren exclaims. "Makes a mess and then leaves everyone else to clean it up!"

"What the hell is going on?" Poppy emerges from the house, Griff in tow, the latter of which seems incredibly subdued. Perhaps he's drunk, you wonder, however Poppy seems incredibly alert - coming right up to you and Summer and gesturing to the canopy now engulfed in flames.

"There was a little..." you struggle for the words. "Mishap, with the barbecue."

"A little mishap?" Bodhi repeats incredulously, then turns to Summer, who's holding her phone to her ear. "You are going to be grounded for life."

"Probably longer." Poppy adds.

"Yeah, yeah, I know guys, but I'm trying to get through to the fire brigade, can you just shut up a sec?" she says, and all of a sudden, Baxter comes running out of the house, carrying a basin of water which he flings over the fire. It does very little to control the flames, and as he turns to you all, Wren puts her hands up as if to say 'what on earth did that do?'. He runs another hand through his hair, looking flustered and incredibly anxious.

"Okay, they're going to be here soon." Summer says, a relieved smile flashing across her face for a second, but vanishing again when she sees the flames.

"You should probably call your mum." you tell Summer, but she shrugs.

"Maybe I'll call her after the fire's been put out? Or maybe I'll just wait for her to get back to the house." she offers, and you nod - probably for the best. You just hope there will still be a house to come back to.