Burned

chapter 7

Charter’s POV:

I love and hate the stereotypical ‘white girl with Starbucks’. I understand completely why people would make fun of it, but at the same time being the lazy yet cute girl with the tasty latte and Ugg boots and soft scarf are well worth the critism. It was also nice that the local Starbucks was completely deserted at this time of night, so I was free of any snickers as I stepped out of the cozy café.

Turbo had recently gone on another ‘business trip’, which basically means I’m left alone while he spends his salary of a couple months on a trip to Vegas. Not that I really cared, in fact I was happier then anything. With Turbo gone, it meant long nights spent with mint hot chocolate watching Pitch Perfect and late night latte pickups, which what I was doing now. It also meant more time spent in peace writing for Bucky, working on my car, and filling my photography scrapbook.

Speaking of Bucky, the man was only charged with mistreatment of workers and now has to work under supervision of a police officer. I would have protested a harsher punishment, because after all, the man did push me out of a window, but once I was offered an actual job at the Chives Editorial, the newspaper company, and not just an intern position, I accepted. An actual job at the newspaper was something I had always wanted, but Bucky’s cruelty had always gotten in the way. Now that he had been practically hauled over the town council’s knee and spanked a couple times, he rolled over and gave me the position. I was so overjoyed, and even City Jackson, the snob in the fashion page, seemed to treat me with a little more kindness.

And it was all thanks to a certain flying boy.

Ever since Flame had rescued me from my fall, he seemed to disappear. Which made me sad because I was the only citizen in Chives that had actually been brought back to his hideout and been taken care by him. I have been closer to Flame than any other person in this city. That fact made me feel special, like I have this new level of understanding for Flame, and I want to strengthen it into something more.

My hobo-lad hands grasped my steaming cup as I walked carefully through the streets back to my house. It was freezing out, and my North Face was doing little to keep me warm. The sudden cold made me think even more about Flame. His little tree house hut wasn’t very cozy, and I wondered how he managed to stay there when the weather got to be like this.

As I made my way down the lonely city streets, the only light being the grimy street lights,  a shadow passed over me. I jumped, glancing around. The light flickered and I sighed. It must have been that. But soon another one flashed as the light bulb remained on and stable. I whipped around, my latte swirling around in my cup as I did. My heart sped up. Was it Bucky? Had he somehow become so psychotic he was finally going to take revenge on me for spoiling his wonderful plan to trap Flame? My lower lips trembled as my teeth struggled to close around it.

“If I knew any better, I would think you would pull some ninja move with your coffee…” A playful voice broke through and my eyes snapped open. My coffee fell to the ground as I gasped.

“Flame…” I breathed, a little too fangirlish for my taste. I used to take pride in not following the crowd of Flame’s fan club of groupies that ran marathons around the city, following the poor boy everywhere he went.

He leaned casually against the corner of the Starbucks. The black leather jacket he wore gave him the oh so sexy bad-boy image while his fiery red hair stood out thicker and even more touchable then the last time I saw him, if that was even possible. His eclectic green/be eyes sparkled as he grinned at me. I could practically feel the need to make some flirtations statement or some whist-full comment, but instead my extremely feminine mind spoke:

“You owe me another coffee…..” Oh yeah, full on flirting going on here.

Flame glanced down to the spilt cup and back at up me, his smile widening even more.

“Nice to see you too Charter…” I forgot he knew my name.

I found myself smiling along with him as he walked forward, his stance tall and unexpecting. I keep forgetting how tall he was, and this time I didn’t have the boost of my heels. Now I was just in flats shoes and it made me even shorter, especially compared to him. I almost expected me to be completely swallowed by his shadow.

“You shouldn’t be walking alone at night…” his voice sounded stern, his childish smile gone. It would make sense he would care about my safety’ after all, he was the protector of the whole town, and he did already save me once.

Finally, the girly, flirtatious side of my brain kicked start and started to work properly.

“Well how about you walk me home?”

I yelped when I was suddenly pulled to Flame’s chest, my flirty-aurora completely changed into one of shock. Flame chuckled, his arm tight around me waist as mine somehow found his broad shoulders. Flame’s playful laugh rang in my ears as I gripped him tighter, suddenly remembering about his zero-gravity abilities.

“Why walk a girl home when you can fly them?”