My Life As It Is

Chapter Nine

I found a friend...

After three years, finally, and I think she will be one of my favorites.

Tay and Ría joined up and clicked instantly. They chattered away happily for the rest of the week, but still adding me into the conversations. Those two equaled a very odd and quite often dirty chat.

On Friday, I text Ría and ask her if she wants to come over for Saturday, for, in other words, a sleepover.

She replies almost instantly.

Ría: Heyyy! Yeah, I can come, what should I bring?

Storm: Cool! You can just bring some clothes, and we will go swimming at the beach too, so bring some togs. Watcha up to?

Ría: Okay cool. Not much, just reading a new book called Silence is Golden.

Storm: Awesome, I've read that before. I gotta go now, cya tomorrow at my place just before 12. Bye!

Ría: Okay cya later!

Feeling restless, I remember that there is an old graveyard a few minutes walk from our house.

I shiver, thinking about my father, how I'm still in the same house with so many horrible memories, thoughts, feelings, and sites.

The restless feeling came back with more vengeance, and I want nothing more at that moment to get out of that house.

"Tay! Your coming for a walk to the cemetery whether you like it or not!" I yell shakily out to upstairs. Almost instantly I hear a groan and an answer.

"Oh hell no Storm! It's blimmin' storming outside! You can go, but you ain't getting me to come." With his words, I look out of the window and see the blurred droplets of water pouring down from the open sky and supposedly 'storming' as Tay said. In my opinion, it wasn't cold, it was actually warm, and so it was the perfect weather to go to a cemetery.

I creep upstairs and open the door to the bedroom.

"Boo!" I yell from his doorway, watching with amusement as he jumps and slams the book he was reading into his own face.

I chuckle, shaking my head at him silently.

"Odd, I thought you would have thrown the book at me and not yourself."

I duck just in time to miss the thick book. Leaning over it I read the title.

"The Hidden Protector. Nice, I've never read it before. Now," I grab his ear and pull him from the bed. "Now, you are coming with me. You don't want to let an unstable teenager wander around in a cemetery alone and in the rain in the night do you?"

A growl erupts from his throat, but I still drag him with me.

Letting go at the bottom of the stairs, I move towards the desk in the lounge to grab two rain jackets, a torch and my phone which I store in a pocket in the jacket.

Once we are at the door, he grumbles some nonunderstandable words and stops.

Kicking him in the butt to keep him moving, we walk out the door into the rain.

"Romantic, is it not?" I say, fake seduction oozing out of my voice as I turn the torchlight on him.

"Huh. More like two wet idiots walking to a cemetery at 9 o'clock at night, looking very stupid."

"Well aren't we lucky to be in an area where not many cars come past very often then," I tell Tay in a matter of fact way. With me knowing the path to the graveyard, I lead the way through the rain.

Arriving at the cemetery, I see the big old metal gates already open a crack, and I feel a shiver go down my spine.

Moving my torch beam around onto Tays' face, I notice a look of haunting cross his face before he blinks rapidly and covers his eyes from the light.

"Oww! What are you doing?" Once the words come out of his mouth we both hear a loud noise from the grave beside us, then a gasp.

"Holy shit! Ow..." A rough voice rings out quietly over the sound of hard rain.

I quickly shine my torch at where I heard the noise, subconsciously moving closer to Dante.

When the yellow beam lights up a mop of red hair, I call out to see who it is.

"My names Fire! Do you mind facing that thing somewhere else so I can see please?" As the boy says this I notice his red puffy eyes.

"Oops, sorry." I move the light away, shining it instead towards us.

The rain eased up at that moment, and as it did the light somehow lit up the area we were in enough for him to see us and for us to see his face go white for a moment before he hides it.

"Are you okay?" Tay questions, moving towards the boy called Fire to help him up.

Fire nods his head, before looking directly at me. "Your the mayor's daughter aren't you?" He questions, making my eyes go wide.

"Ah," I feel my voice shake. "Ah, yeah, I am. Why?"

"No reason," he says, but I hear the shaking in his voice as well.

"Well, I'm Storm, and this is Dante, but you can call him Ta-" Fire cuts me off before I can finish.

"Oh! I love that name, Dante... I'll call him that," he says.

Dante looks at me with wide eyes.

"Okay, well, we better go now, see ya," I wave as we start to walk out.

"Wait! Do you go to the school here? Can I have your numbers?" He yells out before we leave.

"Um, yea, and yip sure," I say, a bit confused.

We exchange numbers and leave, just as it starts to rain again, heavier than ever.

"Race you home!" I yell over the pounding rain at Tay, pushing him playfully.

"Oh, your gonna' get it!" He yells back, laughing.

Long story short, Dante won.