Live like Wildfire

Chapter One

Of the people Eleanor would kill, she had met William first.

The botanical garden was an unusual place for a first meeting. For her, because her colour-blindness prevented her to see more than just brownish shades of yellow and blues. For him, because he didn't seem like the type to take his studying to a quiet bench hidden away in the gardens where little visitors ever came.

Eleanor couldn't remember how their conversation started. She wish she did – it felt important. But all she could remember was the heat wave and the burning, harsh light of the sun which irritated her sensitive eyes so much that she started wearing sunglasses even indoors, just to give her eyes a rest. The heat wave and the splashing of failed attempts at skipping pebbles in one of the garden's romantically small ponds.

Maybe that's where their story had started: the pebbles and the pond. Still, who was the first to throw a stone was unclear.

What she did remember, was how the conversation went on beyond that initial, hazy start.

'I just moved here,' Eleanor said.

'You're a first year, then?' William asked and she hummed in agreement.

'Psychology.'

'Ah, that's cool. You'll be in my little sister's class then.'

Eleanor liked to believe that she was better at skipping stones than William, but there was no way of knowing if that was true or just wishful thinking. She'd read somewhere that memories get deformed over time and ever since that moment, she treated her own mind with what seemed to her an appropriate dose of suspicion. Those theories were based on humans, of course. But still.

'Not sure if I'll see her,' Eleanor said and she giggled nervously, as if she wasn't sure if she had just made a joke. 'They say there are about two hundred students enrolling in the course this year.'

'She'll be at the party tonight,' William said. When Eleanor didn't reply, he added: 'The party that I help hosting.'

'Oh,' Eleanor said. She'd never been to a party, but William's words seemed like an invitation. 'What kind of party?' she asked.

'It's for all new students. Didn't you get the email?'

Eleanor shrugged. 'But I'd love to come,' she said quickly. 'It sounds like fun.'

'It will be. I'm hosting it,' William said.

He had smiled at her. She remembered that clear as day. It was a confident smile, that told her that the party would be good. Not because he was necessarily great at organising things, but because he loved parties and knew how to throw one.

In her memory, William always wore tank tops. It wasn't very likely due to the weather, but she simply couldn't picture him without bare arms. He had probably owned sweaters too, to wear them with his sleeves messily rolled up to his elbows. His eyes were warm and sparkily, and made him more attractive than his loyalty to the university gym, although he would probably never understand that.

The afternoon grew older and Eleanor confessed that she wasn't sure what the quickest route to her hotel was. She'd come to the botanical garden after a lot of wandering around, and she wasn't the best when it came to maps. William laughed and offered to walk her there. It was on his way anyway, he assured her.

They walked and talked and said their goodbyes.

'Will you be at the party later? It's possibly the only positive experience you'll have at the university building,' William said.

Eleanor nodded.

Looking back, she wondered if that had already been the beginning of the end – or if the end had only come much later. Maybe she could have been okay.