Page 17 of Up In Flames
“Where are we going?” Will asked as he slowly made his way through the parking lot toward the exit.
“557 Spalding Avenue.”
“I know that building.”
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then it squeezed, reassuring me without words. If I could have gotten away with it, I’d have clung to Will like a frightened child. The comparison wasn’t far off. Avoiding vehicles since the accident hadn’t been the best move, but it had been necessary. I’d made do, but eventually I knew I’d have to face things head-on.
The first few minutes of the drive I spent with my eyes closed. Bile rose up in my throat, and I concentrated on swallowing it down time and again even though it felt like I was drinking battery acid.
“Almost there,” he said, his voice calm and soothing. It was probably the voice he used on little kids who got their heads stuck in railings and other random places.
The truck came to a stop, and I peeled my eyes open when the engine cut out.
“You made it.” Will’s smile was blinding and earnest. It was a stupid thing for him to be so happy about, but at least that made one of us. “How do you feel?”
Like the world’s biggest loser. Like an idiot for being scared for so long without doing anything tangible about it. “I’m—” I took a breath and let it out slowly as I gathered myself and thought about how I wanted to answer. “I’m better than I thought I would be.”
Will yanked his keys from the ignition and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Come on. I’ll help you carry everything inside.”
I lived on the second floor of a three-story building. It was an older structure that had recently gone through a renovation to update the security doors and replace the elevator. It wasn’t anything fancy, and it was a bit on the pricey side, but the proximity to my new job had been a factor in deciding to move in.
The unit wasn’t anything special. Galley kitchen right at the front. It opened up to the main living area next. A decent-sized living room with a balcony. Another hallway that led to the bedroom and bathroom doors. It was an unremarkable place with an unremarkable view that looked out over the street. I’d unpacked, but it still didn’t feel like home yet.
Will set the groceries on the counter and started pulling them out of the bags.
“You don’t have to help with that.” I tried to argue, but he just looked at me and shook his head.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
I envied the way he moved through the world. Confident in who he was and what he liked. If I’d ever felt that way, it hadn’t been recently. The accident had robbed me of my friends and my sense of self somehow. It was like part of me had been lost in the wreckage, and I was only now realizing it. But now that I knew, I could do something about it.
I slid in next to Will and helped him unload the bags onto the counter. “Thanks.”
He glanced at me and winked. An unexpected thrill shot through me at the gesture, and I couldn’t begin to understand why. Or why I liked it whenever our arms would brush up against each other.
“Are you off today?”
“I go to work tomorrow morning. Why?”
I stared at the piles of groceries on my counter. “Want to stay for breakfast? We’re having… whatever you help me cook.”
“I think I can do that.”
Knowing that Will was going to stick around for a while longer loosened a knot of tension in the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t until the groceries were put away and the coffee was done that I realized the reason I was lighter and less tense was that I wasn’t as lonely. I almost felt guilty for being grateful theloneliness was gone, even temporarily, but I was able to shake it off and just enjoy Will’s company. It was nice to have a friend again.
CHAPTER 8
Will
Astructure fire had us up at one in the morning battling flames and trying to stop it from spreading to other nearby buildings. Attending a fire in the early morning hours always made me feel like I was in an alternate dimension. People milled around the edges of the darkness, wanting to get a better view. Onlookers were wrapped in blankets and thin jackets, and they all speculated about how it might have started.
The residents had been alerted by a neighbor that their house was on fire, likely the only thing that saved them. The family sat across the street and watched their home burn. And the most we could do now was make sure no one else’s house was lost to the tragedy.
Sometime after dawn, we were able to start packing it up. The distraught family left after the roof had collapsed, and it was clear that there’d be nothing to save. At least there were no lives lost. I so often wished I could do more, like it wasn’t enough to put out the fire. I wanted there to be more I could do for people in the aftermath.
We returned to the station exhausted and filthy. The fire had come in the last few hours of my shift. We worked a standardrotation of twenty-four hours on, forty-eight hours off, and I was definitely looking forward to grabbing a nap.
“Where are you going looking all nice?” I asked Briggs, who’d showered off and dressed in a pair of new jeans and a button-up.
