Gasoline | BxB

-6- Moth To The Flame

"Where were you?" Mr Young snapped suspiciously as Henry entered the house, Henry sighed kicking his shoes off then heading into the living room.

"Was with friends, we wanted to get together after the funeral" Henry lied confidently his gaze flickering from his Mom to his Dad showing no sign of a fib.
 

"Without telling us?" Mr Young prompted his eyes narrowing at Henry.

"Sorry, forgot" Henry replied with a shrug taking his blazer off and hurling it onto the back of a chair.

"How are you feeling, about everything?" Mrs Young questioned.

"Fine" Henry answered shortly, he didn't wanna talk about it.

"You need a girlfriend, you're 15 Henry. Me and your Mom met when we were 13" Mr Young told him scornfully taking a sip from the beer can clutched in his hand.

"Not yet Dad" Henry responded uncomfortably "I'm waiting for the perfect person" he added, in reality he was just confused sexually. He was definitely into boys, and maybe into girls. Just like he'd told Maddox. That was true, but the idea of being with multiple guys at the same time was also floating through his head. He'd never heard of a threesome or a foursome before. He knew people did that kind of thing when having sex, however he'd never heard of it in terms of a regular relationship before.

Jogging up the stairs Henry entered his room settling down on his bed. He produced his phone from his pocket and opened a google tab.

He stared at the search bar his brain whirring, he then sighed and typed.

'Can you date more than one person at a time?' The search loaded then threw lots of results plus articles at him. He scrolled down ignoring articles about cheating or being unfaithful trying to find what he was actually looking for.

Finally he spotted a page that caught his eyes. It read:

'Polyamory, what does it mean?'

Henry clicked it seeing the thumbnail picture depicted 3 boys kissing and holding each-other. He scanned through the paragraphs processing the information it gave him.

What he was feeling wasn't just him? It was real. Other people felt the same way. There was even a name for it. Being Polyamorous. It meant 'characterized by or involved in the practice of engaging in multiple romantic (and typically sexual) relationships, with the consent of all the people involved'

For the first time Henry felt seen. He felt like it wasn't just him being weird or a black sheep. What he was feeling actually existed. As he read further down it all began to make even more sense to him. 

The article even included exerts from actually people in Poly relationships, It made Henry actually feel like he fit in somewhere. One question then caught he eye.

'How to broach the subject of Polyamory with a crush' Henry paused. His mind had instantly gone to Maddox, the sassy blonde. Realising he had a crush on Maddox he continued to read, after he was done he felt alleviated. Maybe he could actually fit in somewhere one day.

It had said only 4-5% of the USA population were Poly, so the likelihood of Maddox being Poly seemed pretty low, but not impossible. Even if the blonde wasn't, other people would be. There are plenty of fish in the sea as people so often say.

Henry leant back thinking more about if Maddox would find it weird, how he'd react if he told him, would he hate him?

Abruptly snapping himself out of the doubtful, negative thoughts Henry grabbed a box of matches he kept in his desk drawer. He headed into the bathroom locking it then opening the box inspecting the small, splinter like sticks in there.

He gingerly picked one up observing it in the harsh bathroom light. He then made a decision, grabbing one of his Mom's scented candles off the windowsill he placed it gently onto the clean white sink.

Next he scraped the match he'd picked up against the edge of the box, it quickly burst into a littlr flame a beacon of yellow heat on the edge of the small splinter, deftly Henry lit the candle then blew the match out tossing it into the bin.

He watched the flame inside the scented candle dance around melting the wax slowly creating a pool of liquid beneath it. Cautiously Henry reached out hovering his hand just above the lit wick. He could feel the heat on his hand as he held it in place, it was nice. It felt nice.

Lowering his hand Henry felt the heat become greater starting to sting his hand slightly. He retracted watching the flame continue to bounce around inside the candle as a sweet aroma filled the room. It didn't smell like pure fire due to the candle being scented which disappointed Henry a little.

He glanced briefly into the mirror watching the candle light up his face illuminating his features a bit more than the bathroom light above was doing. Feeling a pit forming in his stomach Henry reached out, his hand was shaking as he lightly dabbed the flame with his index finger.

Hissing in pain he retracted clutching his finger in slight agony, it was turning a reddish pink color now but that nor the pain bothered Henry, he was only annoyed he hadn't kept it there longer. Using his thumb now he extended his hand again towards the candle.

Quickly he jabbed the candle with his thumb more aggressively than before "SHIT" He shouted retracting and jumping back, the candle had gone out as his thumb had touched it. The stinging sensation was much more painful this time, thinking fast Henry whipped the cold tap on allowing ice cold water to descend onto his burnt thumb.

"Language!" His mother yelled angrily from downstairs.

"Shut up!" Henry yelled back.

"Don't speak to your mother like that you impudent child!" His Dad replied loudly, Henry just sniggered to himself about pissing them off still holding his thumb under the stream of freezing water, it had gone numb now but the pain was still significant.

Eventually he pulled back from the water, he gazed at his thumb stonily seeing it bright red. It didn't matter though, the feeling had felt so good. Despite the pain he wanted to do it again. So he once again lit a match leaning in to light the candle.

Then he rested his elbows on the sink watching the small flame flicker around, taking a deep breath Henry reached down shutting his eyes and biting his lip harshly as his finger came into contact with the flame.