"There's no way I'm fuckin battlin' next friday, dawg." I tell Future as we walk across the lot towards the abandoned house, finally having a moment to speak 'alone' with him.
"You know damn well you're gonna battle if she's there." he says, looking in front of us.
Ahead of us is Tessa, arm in arm with her friends. As if she know's we're talking about her, she glances over her shoulder and smiles at me. The prettiest damn smile I've ever seen.
I already know I would do anything if she's involved- I'm already in that deep. Just not battle.
"'Cause you're gonna want to be the man, you know what I'm sayin'?" Future adds.
"A'ight, man. Just don't fuckin' push." I tell him. It needs to be my decision whether or not I battle- no one else's.
I barely finish speaking when Future punches me in the shoulder, saying, "Guess we all need to be pushed sometimes." I look at him, then knock him with my shoulder. "Ha. My bad, I'm sorry." He says when I do, and I think that's it till he shoves me so hard I stumble five feet away.
I can hear him laughing loud so I respond quickly, running at him and dodging Iz and Sol as Future continues to laugh and taunt me.
"You'll never catch me! And you never will!" He says in that weird voice we do.
I match it, doing my own as I run into the girl Sol and Future are with, "Out of my way freaky girl!" and jokingly pretend to punch her, running past to catch up with Future as I hear him cackling ahead. I hear Tessa's pretty laugh too and I smile at her as I pass, glad she thinks I'm funny and not weird.
The abandoned house looks like all the other abandoned houses in Detroit. Graffiti decorates the walls, windows either broken or boarded up. The yard is overgrown and there's junk everywhere.
Iz said something earlier about it being hard to take pride in our neighborhood when there's places like this next door. And he's right. Looking at this place brings me shame. And knowing what happened here makes me angry, disgusted and sad. This place deserves to be burned down and forgotten.
The guys and I go inside, armed with bottles of lighter fluid and some gasoline Wink was able to find around his place.
"It fuckin' stinks up here." I yell as I walk upstairs. Squatter's must have lived here at one point, but there ain't no working plumbing. That and all the trash littering the floors make a putrid smell.
Together we go wild, dousing the walls and surfaces with the flammable liquid. We makes sure to hit both floors and every room. Nothing will be left of this place if we can help it.
As the others go downstairs to continue, my attention is pulled to something below me. In the broken drawer on the ground that I've just soaked in lighter fluid, is a photograph. I pick it up, studying it.
We've been so busy focusing on what this place has become, we forgot what it was. A home. People lived here once. A family. A husband and wife, two kids. Normal and happy, by the looks of it. What the fuck happened to them?
As I imagine their story, I hear crackling behind me and I turn to see smoke and flames coming up the stairwell- my only exit.
"Hey, what the fuck, you guys?" I yell as the flames grow. I can't panic though. I need to get out of here.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Tessa's POV
All the guys are inside the house, preparing to burn it down, while the girls and I huddle together outside to keep warm. Gabi and Hanna tease me the whole time about Jimmy. But they like him and so do I. A lot.
This is insane, but apparently not too uncommon in this area. The place is an eyesore, like all the other abandoned places around the city, so getting rid of it won't be any loss. But the most important part is now no other little girl will get raped in this house because it's still standing.
All of a sudden I hear yelling and our heads turn to see a bright yellow light growing inside the house.
Flames. They lit it while inside still?
One by one, the guys run out of the house- Bob laughing manically. When they're a safe distance away, they look at their handy work and begin to celebrate.I smile at their antics and look for Jimmy's face to see his reaction, but don't see it amongst the group.
Where's Jimmy?
I look all around then back to the burning house, taking a step forward. He's still inside. But the panic barely sets in before a loud sound comes from the side of the house. I look over just as Jimmy jumps off the roof of some junk car. He must have jumped from a window or something. Whatever, as long as he's okay.
Jimmy doesn't come over to celebrate with the others, who are now jumping around and dancing. They've started chanting'The Roof Is on Fire' lyrics too. Instead he goes to stand by the broken swing-set in the yard. My feet move on their own, as I go to join him.
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Together we silently watch as the house continues to burn bright. It's almost beautiful.
"You know, when I was little, I used to want to live in a house like this." Jimmy pauses, "You know, how it used to be....You live with your family?"
"No, I live on my own." I reply, still staring at the flames. I wonder how much I should drop on him- this being technically only our third conversation, all of which occurred tonight. But now is as good as a time as any I guess. "Actually, uhm...I don't really have any family left. They've all passed away."
"Oh, sorry."
I look over to see him looking worried, like he's said the wrong thing. But he hasn't. How could he have known? I smile at him, assuring him it's fine and add onto what he was saying before, "I would have wanted to live in a house like this too."
The sound of sirens in the distance can clearly be heard now as I look back to watch the flames engulf the house.
"Tessa! We gotta go!" Hanna yells from her car. I'm sure she's worried about getting caught-as we all should be. But that's not what I'm thinking of right now.
Feeling Jimmy's eyes on me, I look back to him and I'm delighted to see the desire there. I know my eyes are the same. I hold them for a beat before turning back towards Hanna. She looks between Jimmy and I, and without me having to say anything she knows I don't need a ride from her. As she ushers everyone else into her car to leave, I turn my attention back to Jimmy.
"You wanna drive me home?" I ask him softly, taking a step closer to him.
"Okay." he nods.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> A/N
Short chapter but I hope you liked it!
I'm pretty sure this will be a sixteen chapter story...that's what it's looking like right now. I literally wanted it to be half that, a quick story haha, but of course I couldn't do that.
