fire starter | l.s [1]

eight

Ruby and Zu followed Chubs into the back of the van, leaving Liam and I the front seats. Liam swung open the door to his side and climbed in. I walked to the other side of Betty, climbing in and placing my backpack neatly on my lap. Liam started the car up and looked into the back of the van, I did the same. Chubs and Zu were already setting up stuff for a maths lesson and Ruby was sitting with her hands folded in her lap.

"You guys ready?" Liam asked, resting his arm on the back of my chair.

Zu nodded with an encouraging smile, Chubs only hummed as he focused on the book in front of him. Ruby gave a thumbs up and I chuckled at that. Liam glanced towards me and I nodded at him. With the approval from the group, Liam wrapped his long slender fingers around the steering wheel tightly and began to back out of the parking lot.

I watched as the large structure slowly disappeared behind a sea of trees. The road was empty, as expected and the sun was shining brightly through the windows of Betty. Liam reached over the steering wheel to turn on the radio and an old song was playing softly through it. I rest my head against the window, watching the trees mush together into one big splash of colour and tapped my foot to the beat of the song,

"How long is the ride?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the road.

"About a day and a half," Chubs informed from behind me and I nodded.

The group had finally started to conversate while I pulled out one of the sketchbooks I had found and placed it carefully into my lap. I also picked a few different pencils, each a different shade of silver. Opening the book, I tapped a pencil against the spiral that was keeping it together. Drawing use to be my favourite thing in the world, when I knew what to draw. Holding a pencil now felt so unnatural. I didn't even know if I could draw anymore.

After a long time of staring at the blank page of white paper, I put my pencil to it and started to draw a flower sprouting from the ground. My hair was falling from my ponytail as I leant over the book, trying to draw carefully as Betty shook with every little bump she encountered. We'd been driving for at least an hour at this point and I've barely said a word. 

I looked up from my book to see the group smiling and laughing. Liam glanced at me for a moment and smiled the sweetest smile I've ever seen. It made me melt, I could have physically melted if that was possible. I smiled back at him, it was impossible not to when somebody smiles at you like that. There was no way to perfectly describe it, it just fit his features perfectly and made my heart bounce out of my chest.

Another few hours past and we were still hurdling down the highway. We hadn't seen any other cars as of yet, luckily for us. Ruby and Zu were sitting closely together while reading the same book they had been reading the day before.

"I'm just saying, Harry shouldn't have ended up with Ginny," Chubs shrugged, his hand was clutching the back of my seat while he talked with Liam.

"I'll agree with you there," I started, turning to face Chubs and Liam.

"So, you're both ganging up on me now," Liam shook his head, taking his eyes off the road for a second to glance at us.

"There's no chemistry," I argue, pushing strands of hair away from my face.

"You just haven't read the books," Liam sighed.

"I have actually," I protest, folding my arms over my chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ms. Granger," he smiles that damn smile that makes me feel like I've turned my insides out, "You're probably a Ron fan. They have no taste in characters"