Rekindled Flames | ONC 2024

Chapter 5: Willow Tree

Several days before my life would go up in flames, Josie met me in my backyard late on a Saturday morning. I expected a bubbly and a bounce in her step, but as she appeared around the corner, a lifeless smile was all that greeted me. I ushered her into the shed and once she sat on the couch with me, I begged her to tell me what happened. 

We weren’t unfamiliar with moments like this. Unfortunately it became a common occurrence to the point that I could tell by the smallest hints on Josie’s face whether anything had happened. She couldn’t hide it from me no matter how she tried some days.

This time she didn’t try to hide, slipping her arm out of her sweater as I asked her to show me. A bruise the size of my hand was forming on her upper arm. It didn’t look all that bad, but I knew by Monday it would be worse.

“Cynthia got angry with me again last night. I can’t even remember what it was about. She must hate my guts,” Josie said, pain grating her voice. I took her into my arms, careful not to squeeze.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart," I said. Some days, when she wasn't with me, worry would eat me alive. I had no way to really help her. I was only a teenager. My father and my step-mother who could help were so wrapped up in each other that they barely knew my "best friend's" name was Josie. All that was left were the teachers at school. "Why don't you wear short sleeves on Monday?"

She pulled out of my arms and gave me a long suffering look. "I told you before, I'm not becoming the laughing stock of the school."

I nodded. "Right, I understand. Will you tell a teacher then?"

She sighed and put her head in her hands, but my hand didn't leave her back underneath her sweater. "It's not worth it, Linds. It will only make it worse."

- - - - -

“Anything…” Josie murmured as she thought of what to tell me. My gaze drifted back and forth from Millie and the breathtaking woman beside me. The ends of her hair caught the golden sunlight, illuminating into little flames. She tapped a rhythm with the pads of her fingers on her thigh. I wanted to hold that hand so badly, but I couldn’t forget that it had once held the matches that had stopped life in its tracks for me. Such a simple action had changed the trajectory of our lives drastically in the blink of an eye.

I swallowed thickly at the memory.

“Okay, well, on a positive note,” Josie began, voice light and cheery, “I recently took up reading with the extra time I’ve had to myself and I absolutely love it.”

I chuckled.

“What else? Uh, I’m obsessed with penguins now and I have been for years. I don’t know how it started, it just… did,” she said with a laugh.

“Penguins?”

She hummed. “Believe it or not.”

I smiled at the image in my head — Josie surrounded by anything and everything penguins. I should have seen that coming from a mile away. 

I stretched out my body on the chair, the sun heating up my skin to a degree that’s almost scorching, but something about it relaxed me. Being enveloped in warmth felt like the best possible circumstance right then.

“Linds?” My nickname falling from her lips got my attention fast. “What do you actually know about me?”

I furrowed my eyebrows, confused by the question. 

She rephrased it. “I mean, have you followed me at all? Do you know about the fucked up shit I’ve done?”

If my full attention hadn’t already been bought, then it had now with the sudden profanity. I shook my head. “No, I don’t think I do.”