Flames Babe

Leah looked up after taking a casual sip of the delicious drink. Rarely did she treat herself so. She had to be careful about gaining too much too fast. The baby could still be aborted.

"Yeah, it shows a lack of character," Leah explained. She let the false truth wash over her.

"Agreed," Nancy stated. She picked up a cookie off the table and pulled chunks of it off. She was saving the chocolate candy for last, the sweet kiss. She could get away with it, too. She only weighed a hundred and ten pounds.

The two of them passed the afternoon by gossiping. They traded tales of woe and heartache, who the latest celebrities were, and, of course, their summer vacation plans.

"I don't think we'll be going off to Europe this year. It's a cliché. I want to go somewhere exotic," Nancy confessed.

"I think we'll go to Thailand. If you can avoid the backpackers, the trip is a must," Leah bragged, trying to sound like she had class.

"Perhaps. I was thinking Australia." Nancy pulled a wayward strand of dark hair back. "You know, they speak English. That makes the trip so much more enjoyable, not annoying with a guide who tries to rob you every five minutes, like in Mexico."

Looking at the clock, Leah realized she needed to head home. Scott should be there by now, and they would go to dinner.

Nancy offered to drive Leah home. Leah accepted the offer, and off they went, two peas in a pod down the ice crusted road.

"Would you like to come to dinner with us?" Leah asked.

"Oh, no, it's movie night with me and Brad. I can't wait for it."

On that note, Nancy drove away. The door to the house was open. The workers were outside with cigarettes. Their breath was already discernable in the cold. A few blew off rings for fun. Those could be seen.

Leah wished they'd get back to work. She wanted the house to be finished, and she would have her glory.

Scott drove up behind her in his Lexus car. It was a soft, silver color and beautifully made. It rode like perfection as well, reminding everyone they were someone.

"Where are we going to eat tonight?" Scott asked.

"I was thinking we should go to the city. The local restaurants are a bore."

Scott sighed. He loved Leah, but he thought she was high maintenance at times. The other girls he dated had been even worse, trying to get into his pocket, but, as Leah told him, she was an heiress and could compensate him for his time once the money arrived.

Leah brushed the snow off of Scott's coat. Together, they returned to the car and drove off to the city where more luxury awaited them.

While Leah loved the town, she wished she could live in the city at times. It would have been more convenient with the pick of the litter and fancier things. Oh, how she loved new pearls. She liked them even more than sparkling diamonds with their numerous faces. Carbon was the gift of the heavens. Diamonds reminded Leah of life for reasons she couldn't yet verbalized.

The Lexus slid a bit in the snow. Not too many people were making their way down the treacherous roads. They'd preferred to play the safe card, not live on the edge.

Scott was generally a calm man. He took life one step at a time. He was thirty and needed to settle down, he thought. Leah would do. She came from good breeding, after all. And, unlike the golddiggers, she had inheritance to offer.

"Would you like to listen to the radio?" Scott asked, being a man of exquisite music tastes.

"Classical sounds nice. Mozart warms me up any day. The man was a genius, still is!"

Scott smiled at Leah, thanking God she didn't like rap or rock.

Another secret: Leah didn't know famous composures. She'd recently read a Wikipedia article. Her true musical taste was rock and roll. It made her soul jump to hear the men strum their guitars or flip them off into the crowd.

What a rush.

Leah felt a sadness in her body. As long as she was with Scott, the music would be off-limits. She couldn't risk him thinking she was trashy.

That's what she'd call her sister. Thus far, she had been able to avoid the details of Anne's life. Anne's fiery red head predicted her temper and inclination. She wanted nothing to do with the civilized world, a wild child, she took drugs and walked out of clubs drunk. Her parents had attempted to get her back, to hold her back somehow. However, she'd passed the age of help at nineteen.

It had been difficult to hide her from Scott. He had indeed met her family at a charity dinner that Leah had worked five weeks to pay for. Her mother knew the drill, and her father was too shy to speak up. They pretended to be from a higher class, talking about indie films and classics. Luckily, Alice agreed with the lie and had even told Leah to get pregnant, to explode like a bomb in Scott's life.

Scott put his arm around Leah's shoulder. She immediately felt the warmth. The sun was setting in the beautiful sky, staining it with hues of ruby and gold.

Nature even appreciates the finer things in life, Leah thought. In that moment, warmth filled her body. In some ways, she didn't care if Scott was rich. She enjoyed being beside him, with him. She'd bonded with him.

She remembered her prior love, Peter. He'd been a tall, athletic man. He played on the college basketball team. Oh, how Leah enjoyed being with him in the night. He pushed life into her, making her feel joy in explosions. However, her mother hadn't approved of the union, and she did everything to sabotage it, lying, cheating and insulting Peter.

"Babe?" Scott asked.

"What?"

"Do you think we should continue down this road? No one has passed us for miles. The snow is coming down, and I can't see as well." Scott turned up the heat on his side. Panic ripped through his veins, but he kept it within.

Suddenly, the car slid. It fell down a long, downward hill, stopping only when it hit the large tree. The noise of crushing metal ignited the woods.

Leah's eyes were closed. She was praying under her breath.

No luck.

"Scott? Scott?!" She opened her eyes and saw him cut up from his head to his knees. He was losing a lot of blood, which poured out like a thunderstorm.

"H-h-e-l me." Red ooze fell from his mouth. Tears mixed with the fluid and became one with the sordid scratches.

"Scott!"

"Do y-y-y-ou love me?" Scott asked, trying to numb the pain with soft words.

"Of course, I do."

Leah took her phone out of her purse. Unfortunately, they were too far in the country to get a good signal. Her bloody fingers stained the cold keys. She wiped the slime off of the top of her forehead.

No answer.

After a few minutes, she gave up hope. She took Scott's jacket.

"I'm cold," Scott pleaded.

Leah put the coat over her shoulders. It was either her or him, and she wasn't going to die out here, alone and cold.

She reached into the car for the gloves kept in the fold of the seat.

Well, it's just me, she thought.

Then the car exploded, taking both Leah and Scott in flames.