The bus station was quite close, so we decided to get there as fast as we could because, let’s face it, we were still hungry. Luckily for us, the last bus arrived after a while. We hopped on, it was almost empty. We sat facing each other next to the window. Finally we were going home.

“Long day wasn’t it?” I asked Flaming Star to break the silence.

“It sure was.”

He didn’t appear to be in a mood for talking, but I needed to pass time somehow. “So, aren’t you worried about how your father’s doing?”

“What, because I’m coming home late?”

“No, I mean those kidnappers have probably phoned him by now and …“

He cut me off. “Oh, yeah about that, that wasn’t his number at all. In fact I gave him mine!” That just shocked me.

“You did? Ok, I gotta admit that was clever.”

“That was nothing.”

“You’re awfully calm about being kidnapped. If you don’t mind my asking, has it happened before?”

He looked at me. “Well, yeah, a couple of times.” He said like it was nothing.

“You managed to cheer up a whole club with just a song! I only saw that in Equ- …“ I just realized that I was getting ahead of myself.

“In where?” I needed to change the subject somehow.

“Nothing!” He looked at me, like he knew I was lying!

“You do know that your eyes give you away instantly right?”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Your eyes, they’re calm and attractive, except when you lie, then they become messy. Just like the sea!”

That was weird. I didn’t know what to say, like I didn’t know what he meant by that.

“Are you trying to say that I have pretty eyes or that I’m not a good liar?”

He leaned back in his seat. “Using number one to imply number two!”

“Ha, ha, very funny!” I said in a sarcastic way to make him stop.

“Look, I get that you don’t want to talk about it. But you need to understand that, too, if you do want me to help with the project!”

I was surprised since he actually wanted to help and get the project done. But to be honest I almost forgot about it.

“So you do want to help! That’s something.”

“On one condition.”

“What?”

“You have to wear gloves, got it?”

“You mean like that princess in the movie? Fine, I get it. What’s next, my jacket?”

“Let’s face it, why would you need spikes on your jacket? If you ask me, I say it doesn’t look good on you, either. The one you worn that night was way better.”

“You think so?”

He didn’t say anything. We rode on in silence, for a while. He was looking out through the window the night landscape rolled by.

“So, you’re not mad at me for snooping around and stuff?”

He sighed and looked at me. His glare was serious, unlike what I had seen. “Look, ... It’s hard for me to trust people, and not just because I don’t want to, but because I learned not to. When I saw how close you seven were together, it reminded me of Steely and me. I thought you were like us. Just a little bittle not much. You showed me that what I do, I need to accept and control it instead of letting it control me. I was just getting along. You helped me solve my problems with my father, showing me that there are other ways. But you screwed up with your snooping around, even when I told you not to. But at least you get it now so I guess it’s all right.” He was looking into my eyes the whole time, and I just couldn’t turn my eyes away.

“You know,” I said, “At first I thought I couldn’t tolerate you because I thought you were nerve-racking. You always frustrate me with how good you are at fencing and other stuff. Your being so aloof and stubborn all the time, sort of pissed me off. But now I see that it was just hard for you to get use to this whole new atmosphere. And that, yeah, I goofed up a few things here and there, too.”

He smiled. I guess we worked on our problems, in a way.

He yawned. “Oh, man, I’m tired. I’m just gonna take a nap till we reach town.”

“Goodnight, Flaming Star.”
He looked at me. “Just Flame.”

“Goodnight, Flame.”

“Goodnight, Sunshine!”

At first I didn’t realized what he said, but then I noticed! “What did you just call me?”

But it was too late, he had already fallen asleep and was rattling the clouds in the sky with his snoring. I tried to sleep, too, emphasis on “tried.”

Author's Note

Make sure to cheek out other chapters too.

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.