Fire Burning

The Calm Before

The last day of summer break didn’t feel real.

It felt like everyone was pretending not to be anxious about school starting tomorrow, like we were all clinging to the last scraps of freedom we hadn’t already burned up in bonfires, beach nights, and whispered drama.

Addie decided we were going to hang out. One last group thing before everything changed.

By late afternoon, we were all gathered at her house—half in the backyard, half on the porch. The sun was golden, that lazy, late-summer kind of warm that made the air heavy and the shadows long. Someone had music playing, low and steady. Something with bass and slow vocals.

I sat on the porch steps with my slushie from earlier melting in my hand.

Jeremy was leaning against the railing a few feet away, sunglasses pushed into his curls, a smirk on his lips like he knew something I didn’t. Ari was closer—sitting on the step just beneath me, one hand draped across his knee, his other absently picking at the hem of his hoodie sleeve.

Madeline and Addie were laid out on a blanket nearby, arguing over which TikTok sound was going to be the most overused within the first week of school.

Alec was talking animatedly with Jonathan and Duke by the fence, pretending to show off some impossible skate trick with a flipped lawn chair. Jonathan kept calling him out. Duke just laughed, holding his drink and offering occasional commentary like a mock sports announcer.

Hades stood off to the side, arms crossed, watching it all like he was reading people without saying a word.

It felt normal.

Or it would’ve—if I wasn’t hyperaware of the way both Ari and Jeremy kept glancing at me when they thought I wasn’t paying attention.

“You okay?” Ari asked quietly, voice just loud enough for me to hear.

I nodded. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

His knee brushed mine, subtle. On purpose.

Jeremy’s voice came from the other side of me. “You sure? You look like you’re writing a tragic poem in your head.”

I smirked. “Maybe I am.”

“Then I better inspire a good line,” he muttered, stepping closer.

Ari rolled his eyes.

It was subtle—but it was there.

That flicker of tension.

Not enough to spark a fight.

But enough to make my pulse shift.

Addie suddenly sat up. “We should walk to the park. Light’s perfect right now. Plus, I’m bored.”

There were groans and stretched limbs and shuffling feet, but eventually, the group headed out. We split into a loose cluster along the sidewalk—Alec and Jonathan roughhousing up front, Addie and Madeline taking selfies behind them, and the rest of us in the middle.

I walked between Ari and Jeremy.

Which felt like its own kind of emotional Russian roulette.

And then I saw him.

At the edge of the street, near the corner café, leaning against the brick wall with a book in hand and headphones slung around his neck.

Riley.

He looked up just as we passed. Eyes on me. Just a flicker of a smile.

“Hey, Pride and Prejudice girl,” he said, just loud enough.

A few people turned.

I blinked. “Hey.”

Jeremy’s eyes narrowed. Ari’s steps slowed slightly.

Riley just nodded, like he wasn’t expecting me to stop. Like he knew I wouldn’t.

And I didn’t.

But I felt the heat of Ari beside me shift.

I glanced up.

His jaw was tight.

Jeremy muttered under his breath, “That guy again?”

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know what to say.

He was just a boy with a book.

But something about the way he looked at me made me feel seen in a way I didn’t know how to trust.

Ari’s hand brushed mine as we turned the corner. Not grabbing. Not holding.

Just there.

And I let it stay.

For now.

We reached the park just as the sun dipped low, casting everything in gold and violet. The boys split off toward the swings, acting too cool to admit they still liked them. Addie pulled out her phone and tried to get a group selfie that somehow included all of us while still catching the last of the sky.

It was chaotic. Loud. Comforting.

I sat on one of the picnic tables, camera in my lap, snapping shots when they weren’t looking. Candid ones. Duke trying to catch a grape in his mouth. Alec falling backward off the bench from laughing too hard. Jonathan flipping off the camera the second he caught me.

I got one of Ari leaning back with his arms over the top of the bench, watching the group with that unreadable expression he wore like armor.

Then one of Jeremy, half-smirking as he threw a stick at Hades.

I didn’t delete any of them.

“Last sunset of summer,” Addie said dramatically, flopping down beside me.

“You going to survive tomorrow?” Madeline asked.

“Only if I get a good schedule and at least two classes with hot people.”

Ari snorted from nearby. “That’s your bar for survival?”

“High standards keep the soul alive.”

Madeline and Addie kept bantering, but I tuned them out after a while.

The golden light slipped behind the trees, and for a second, everything stilled.

Tomorrow was the beginning of something.

I just didn’t know what yet.

And I wasn’t sure I was ready.

But sitting there, surrounded by all of them—familiar voices, overlapping stories, too-loud laughter—I wasn’t alone.

Not tonight.