Lightning (Thunder Sequel)

Chapter 12

Holo everyone!! (Sorry, I've been watching too much Simplynailogical lately.)  Anyways, since it's currently 1:45 AM on Wednesday for me, it means I move into my college dorm tomorrow.  In all honesty, I'm quite terrified of college but hopefully I'll be able to find time to update, preferably more often than I have this summer.  Wish me luck on beginning college, and without further ado, here is chapter 12.  (I apologize in advance for it being short.)

PS:  Part of this chapter was inspired by true events.

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Ryan's POV:

"Since we finished our class work for the day, how about I show you guys a cool trick with alcohol and a match?" Mr. Maxwell asks. The class responds excitedly. The teacher moves over to a cupboard where he pulls out a bottle of an alcohol solution that he pours onto a table. Then he lights a match and drops it into the alcohol puddle. The liquid instantly catches fire and the class watches in amazement at the interesting sight.

After a few minutes, the majority of the class loses interest in the science experiment. Benny stands up and walks toward the table whose flame has now gone out. I follow him and watch as he duplicates the experiment. After the fire starts to die down a bit, he decides to pour more alcohol on the flame.

"You should probably be careful with that," I warn Benny as another kid, Ed, comes over to watch us.

"It's fine," Benny says as he throws another match into the flames and pours some more alcohol over the flames.

Suddenly, what I can only describe as a ball of fire explodes from the flames, directly toward Ed. Just as quickly as it comes, it disappears. Benny and I stare in surprise as Ed pats out the small flame left on his shirt. For someone our age, Ed has quite a bit of facial hair, or rather, he did before the ball of fire completely singed it off. What used to be the start of a beard on his face now looks like random patches of facial hair that he missed while shaving.

After taking in the sight, I glance over at my friend still holding the box of matches and alcohol solution in his hands.

All Benny can say is, "Oops..."

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"That actually happened?" Kyleigh laughs.

"I'm serious! I saw the whole thing," I say after telling Kyleigh what happened at school today. Currently, she and I are sitting at the table in the dining room of my house, eating a dinner that my aunt prepared for us. I wanted to take Kyleigh out to a restaurant for a date, but she said she'd prefer to stay away from public places tonight. My aunt was generous enough to make the food for us, and then she went out for an evening walk.

"That's insane. I wish I was there to actually see it," Kyleigh says. She takes a bite of her food and comments, "This chicken is really good. Your aunt is a great cook."

After we finish supper, I say, "Oh, also, I helped my aunt make some cupcakes for dessert." I go to retrieve the box of cupcakes I helped prepare earlier and bring it over to the table. "I know it's still a few weeks away, but I didn't think it was worth waiting to ask," I tell her as I remove the lid, revealing the cupcakes that have HOMECOMING? written on them, a single letter on each cupcake written in blue icing with a white frosting background. "Would you like to go to Homecoming with me?"

With a surprised and excited grin on her face, she responds, "Of course I'll go to Homecoming with you, Ryan."

Satisfied with my little surprise, I set the box on the table in front of us and say, "Go ahead and eat one."

"Okay," she agrees, picking up the cupcake with a question mark written on top of it and beginning to peel the paper away from the side of the dessert.

"They're delicious," I say, "trust me."

I notice her smile vanish immediately from her face. She stops peeling the paper off the cupcake and stares at it for a few seconds. I can tell that something is bothering her, and I assume it's the same thing that's been bothering her for the past several days that she continues to refuse to tell me. "Kyleigh, is something wrong?"

She sets the cupcake on the table, and without looking at me, she asks, "How do I know I can trust you?"

Confused by her question and her sudden change of mood, I answer, "Because I ate a cupcake earlier."

"That's... not what I mean," she responds.

"Then what do you mean?" I ask. How could everything be great just a moment ago when I asked her to Homecoming, but now she says she doesn't trust me? Before she answers, I have a feeling I know what she is going to say.

"Well... I mean... You know what we went through this summer... And I know, you told me already that it's Andrews fault. I get that, but it's just..."

"You think I lied to you?  Kyleigh, I thought we had moved past all of this already."

"We... we did, but... I don't know." She places her elbows on the table and buries her head in the palms of her hands.

"Has going back to school been stressing you out or something?" I ask. "You seemed fine before we started school a couple weeks ago."

She lifts her head and looks at me. "Nothing's been fine since I got struck by lightning, Ryan. You didn't know me when my life was 'fine'."

"Then what is it?" I ask, really wishing I could help her feel better.

"There's just a lot of stuff happening, and I really can't talk about it. Sorry, I shouldn't have even brought this up. I'm sorry." She buries her face in her hands once again.

"Well, you are stressed out, I can tell that much," I state. She doesn't deny my statement. I wonder if there is anything I could do to help even if I did know what was bothering her. Probably not, after all, I'm no therapist. I'm just a concerned boyfriend who has absolutely no idea why my superhero girlfriend always seems so out of it. After a moment, I say, "You can trust me because I care about you, and I don't want to see you get hurt."

I gently pull her close to me so that I can give her a hug. She rests her head on my shoulder. For awhile, we sit in silence like this. Then, Kyleigh picks up her cupcake again and takes a bite of it. "These cupcakes are really good.  Once again, tell your aunt she did a really good job cooking."

"Hey, I helped make them, too," I remind her.

"Sure," she jokes. "You wrote the letters on the top of them.  I can tell it was your messy handwriting."

It makes me feel better that she is happy once again, but I know that even though she seems fine for the moment, she isn't completely happy.  I decide to let it be though, because she certainly doesn't need me pressing her for information right now.  "I think my handwriting is neater than yours."

"Hey," she laughs.  "It is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too."

Kyleigh ends the silly argument by swiping her finger through the frosting on her cupcake and placing the frosting on my nose.  Caught by surprise, I scrunch up my face as I wipe the frosting away.  Kyleigh starts laughing even more, which causes me to chuckle myself.

"But seriously," Kyleigh says before finishing her cupcake.  "Tell your aunt these cupcakes are delicious."