Tears Of Fire

Chapter Twentyone, Part One

I woke slowly; feeling more tired than when I had went to bed. Bed, I hadn’t remembered going to bed, just falling asleep. I decided it wasn’t important and sat up a little too quickly, feeling dizzy from sleeping so long. I knew what I wanted to do today, and it was probably what I should do. I stood up and stretched with my hands above my head and standing on my toes. I yawned and headed upstairs, not bothering to check my hair. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with one hand, the other hand on the railing. I reached the top of the stairs, and found no one there. I was almost wide awake now from the climb up the stairs. I found a hair elastic on my wrist and pulled my hair in to a messy bun. I walked to the kitchen, but like the main room, it was empty. I glanced at the clock. It was nine am. I checked the games room as the boys liked to call it. It was rarely used. It had a pool table, a foosball table, comfy chairs, a big flat screen TV, countless gaming consoles and games galore. In the loft there was a ping pong table, a coffee table, comfy chairs and too many board games to count. There was a big stereo by the stairs to the loft and up at the top was a control panel where you could control it from the loft. There were tall, skinny speakers in every corner and then some in random places. I swear we could have opened a Toys ’R’ Us. It was empty. I found myself wondering why it was rarely used, everything anyone could want technology wise was in here. There were, as Drake and Dallas had informed me, a couple lap tops in the cupboards plus some webcams, speakers, flash drives, programs they had yet to install, stuff like that. I walked out and knocked on the bathroom door. It was empty. I checked every room three times and they were all empty. I had to remind myself that they were probably sleeping in. They normally got up at six or seven. They were probably up late the night before. I went downstairs, checked all the rooms. Drake wasn’t anywhere but Dallas was fast asleep. I crept silently in to his room and snuck up to beside his bed. I considered going to get whip cream, or a glass of warm water. Or ice cubes. But in the end, I decided just to wake him up. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep. I jumped on to his bed.

“Wake up!” I said loudly, I didn’t yell, but I still said it loudly. I jumped out of the way as he bolted up, and ducked as a pillow made its way towards my head. I laughed and watched as he stumbled out of bed, his hair a mess. I ran to the light switch and flicked it on. He closed his eyes against the sudden bright light, and rubbed the sleep out of them.

“I hate you, you know that?” He asked me.

“No you don’t, you love me, remember?” I asked him. He swatted lightly at my head and I laughed when he missed, I watched him become awake slowly. He made his way slowly to the kitchen and I followed. He went straight to the coffee pot.

“No coffee, it’s bad for you.” I told him and threw him a granola bar. I hated them, they were high fibre and you could taste it. Dallas chewed on it like a dog with peanut butter. Eventually he gave up and spit it out. It tasted that bad. He turned to the coffee pot and I laughed. He chugged down a steaming cup of coffee and then put the cup in the dishwasher. He went downstairs to get dressed; I planned on staying in my pyjamas as long as inhumanly possible. Dallas came up the stairs wearing only sweatpants. He came and sat on the couch beside me, watching as I flipped through the channels. I hadn’t realised I was cold until I started shivering. I was in short shorts and a spaghetti strap tank top. Caves don’t really have heating so it was quite cold. Dallas put an arm around me and I gratefully put my head on his shoulder as he hugged me. He was so warm. I curled up in to him and he wrapped his other arm around me. I didn’t think anything of it, I finally settled on a random channel and groaned once I realised what it was. Petal; a detailed documentary on the long life of a tiger lily, how fascinating. Dallas’ chest rumbled with silent laughter and I tried to pay attention to the incredibly boring thing. I would have fallen asleep but I wasn’t tired enough. I got out of Dallas’ embrace and made my way to the seldom used games room. I pulled out a laptop and looked up the school. I would have to go back, I knew I would. I went back out to the couch and sat with my back against the armrest and my feet in Dallas’ lap. I logged on to it so that I could see what it was really about. I searched every page thoroughly and found nothing of Aria, Aura, Molly, Jade, Blaise or I. It both relieved me and worried me. Did this mean that they were doing it secretly? Who really knew what went on in their devious little minds? I decided to mainly be worried. Dallas saw my expression and patted my leg reassuringly. I put a hand to my head, as if to hold my sudden headache away. I was letting my problems catch up with me slowly. It was only 10:00 and my day wasn’t going that great so far. I heard running footsteps and opened my eyes to see drake take the converter from Dallas.