Love from the fire

Romance

We are now on the boat, heading towards another place. There aren't any other people. Unless you count whoever is steering the boat.

We are on the outside bit. The gentle waves and bubbles in the water contrast from the flames we saw earlier.

Gray turns to me. "If the two of us were to have a love story, what would you call it?"

This question threw me off. It came from nowhere.

"Well... Uhhh... Why do you ask? Didn't you say you had a crush on one of the twins?" I stuttered. Stupid me, stuttering like an idiot.

Slowly and carefully, he took my hands in his. My heart beat accelerated and my face heated up. I'm new to romance, so my actions are fair.

"I said at the time that I was joking. Don't you remember? You asked what I was doing or something that day. I then replied with 'oh, planning how I'm going to ask June out' and then you thought I was being serious when I was actually joking." He then laughed at either his own joke or my stupidity.

It kind of irritated me. "Ok, but what does that have to do with anything?" I asked with attitude.

"A lot. Actually, I'm bold enough to say everything." He replied with a grin. "You wouldn't be here with me, or have done any of this with me if you didn't like me. Would you?"

That's it.

"I-" But I couldn't find the words. I was speechless.

"You probably can't see it, but you're blushing." He teased, moving closer to me. I tried to moved backwards slightly, but there was no space for me to move. I was trapped.

"I like you. And if you give me some more time, I'm sure I'll love you soon." He chuckled cutely.

I looked away in embarrassment. "I like you as a friend." Was all stupid me could say.

"Only as a friend?"

"Maybe a best friend, then." I replied.

"For now, that's ok. Anyways, if our love story were to have a name, I would call it 'love from the fire' or something along those lines. You want to guess why?"

I thought for a moment, then replied, "Fire is from when we burned down the school. Love is... Don't know."

"At least you tried. I feel like, if the two of us were to fall in love, its origin would be the fire. Both the physical fire of our past that unites us and maybe an emotional fire too."

"I see." I nodded, not exactly understanding.

We spent a good amount of time outside of the boat, just chilling in the fresh air and watching the ocean below us. Gray also sang a few times. He's a nice singer.

It was night time now and we were going to head inside the boat to sleep for the night. By the time it's morning, we'll reach our destination and we'll continue our journey from there.

As I drifted to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking about how I've now abandoned my old life to start a new one. I want to give this new life a chance and see if the both of us can be happier. I hope we can.