The Elementals; Fire

Chapter 27

"I'm going to Sally's, she called me to confirm she wasn't dead, so I'm going to spend time with her and have a catch up" Luka made an acknowledgement sound, like he had just clicked why I had left so suddenly.

"Right, well that's good, and understandable. Listen, the reason I was calling was to see what you were doing the rest of the weekend?" I perked up at this, each weekend he asked if I was joining us on training, and training always excited me, it was making me stronger, on both my body and power, and it was also helping me with other things, like helping me to stop getting so out of breath when I ran up the stairs at my home.

"I'm not doing anything tomorrow night, same time at yours?" I was already planning in my head what areas I wanted to train on, when he interrupted my strategies.

"I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to go out for our first date?"  I felt my eyes go wide, and for a second, I  was speechless.

"First date?" I managed to squeeze out, it wasn't an attractive sound though, I'll admit.

"Yes, first date. I feel like it's only appropriate seen as you're my girlfriend now, and I want to actually spend some time alone with you." I thought about it, and he was right. In the time we had known each other, the only time we had spent time alone was when I was going to confront him about Sally, and he in turn told me he liked me, and asked me, quite romantically I must say, if I wanted to be his girlfriend.

"Sure, that would be lovely" I squeaked out, but on the inside of my head, I was cheering.

"Great, text me your address and I can pick you up, and formally introduce myself as your boyfriend to your parents"

"That sounds good" I couldn't wait to tell Sally, she loved romance.

"Alright, well I see I have stunned you into minimal speech, so make sure you have a good night Layla" and then he hung up. My mind was in a complete daze, and I didn't know why, seen as I knew this was coming eventually. I guess it just made it even more real, and my thoughts were distracted on all the drive towards Sally's. My thoughts were of where we were going to go, and what I was going to wear. I was thinking about if my curly hair would be better in a bun, or down. Whether I should wear jeans or a dress. Or most importantly, I guess, whether I would be able to keep my fire in check for the night and not burn anything down, you know, the usual girly things. I pulled up to the gate that protected Sally's house from the world, and waited for it to be opened, and as per usual, it opened straight away. Whilst I was driving up the driveway, I looked back towards a certain favourite space that was tucked away behind some trees, thinking of the memories of a loose bar where we would sneak out and back in when we were younger, and laughed, wondering how we never got caught. I wondered if it was still there, but brushed the thought from my mind when I pulled up in my usual parking spot at the front of the house. Quickly sending a text to my mum to let her know I had arrived safely, I got out and locked my car, heading to the front door, and without bothering to knock because let's face it I have been coming to this house regularly for years, I went straight in, nearly knocking someone over in the process.

"Oh Gosh, I'm so sorry!" The woman straightened up and turned to look at me, and it turned out that person  was Sally's mum.

"Layla, what a lovely surprise, I didn't know you were coming over today.

"Hi there Mrs C, it's been a while since I've seen you. Sally told me she was feeling better so I thought I'd come over and pay her a visit" Sally's mum was really over doing it on the staring, but in the limited times I had seen her, she's always been like that, so I'd just accepted that it's what she was like. Still, it didn't stop me from being freaked out by it every single time.

"Oh, of course, I wouldn't get too close to her though, it was really bad. She called us when we were in America, and we had to stop our meeting to fly back immediately." That was something I didn't envy about Sally, her parents were constantly gone, and seemed to care more about their work rather than their only child, but I always tried my best to include her in my family and Tamara the same, so hopefully she managed to get some family love from there.

"Well I'm sure we're all glad that she's alright. Are you planning to stay for a while now that you're back?" Her smile widened a little bit more, and I felt mine falter and almost cringed. I understood now why she was the brains and her husband, Sally's dad, was the person who was always at the front. This woman wouldn't be able to seal any deals on the account that she looks like a good old- fashioned crazy woman.

"Yes Dear, we are actually. I think some home and family time is finally in order" This made my smile become more genuine, Sally would love that.

"That sounds brilliant Mrs C. Is Sally still in the back?" She nodded her head and I started to make my way there, passing through the kitchen on the way, and seeing Sally's dad on the way.

"Hey Mr C" He turned his attention to me and smiled back. I secretly always preferred him anyway, he didn't scare me as much.

"Hey Kiddo, how are you?"

"I'm alright thank you, are you?

"I'm a lot better now that our little Sally is better, is that why you're here?"

"Yeah, I've been going through my rant in head and trying to make it as stern as possible" He laughed, a fatherly laugh that matched my dads, and it made me feel right at home.

"Yes, she told me about that, it's just bad luck that she breaks her phone and then gets poorly, although each time she breaks her phone I always tell her when it's fixed to write your numbers down, hopefully this time she learns." We both had a laugh at that, and I mentally made a note that I was going to just write my number down for her in case this happens again.

"I'm going to see her now; she knows it doesn't take me long to get here so she'll be wondering where I am."

"No worries, we will see you out there in a bit" and he turned back around to finish what he was doing. Everything seemed normal, there wasn't that much awkwardness between the parents, to say that they weren't here three quarters of the time, but nothing was out of place. I looked at all the photos that were on the hallway as I made my way to the back door, my eyes landing on a recent family photo of the three of them, and they genuinely looked happy, and I wished that it would stay that way for a while. I prepared myself to go out and see Sally, trying to keep the genuine excitement off my face to see my best friend. What I wasn't prepared for when I stepped outside, was about thirty people I didn't know stood in Sally's back garden all looking at me, with the three closest people at the front making me stand still in shock. I met Sally's eyes before my eyes went to the two familiar faces. The familiar faces being the ones of the woman and man from last night. The very same couple who were the current leaders of the Shadow Creatures.