On Fire

Author’s Note: Hello! This had to get out before the contest ended so Saph may or may not have written the last bit because I was at school. Also random fun fact: I wrote the ending before we even formed the plot :)

Who knows, maybe I’m at school while typing this :3

ANYWAYS, I wrote Aliyah’s POV for the first ⅔ ish, and Saph wrote everything for the rest. BEFORE YOU GO ROASTING ME ABOUT MY WRITING ABILITIES, let’s say that Saph writing the rest saved this from being thrown in the fire XD. I edited the part that she wrote, so that counts for something, right? 

*silence*

Okay, never mind. We spent lots of (uncoordinated) time on this, & I hope you’ll like it!!

***

Aliyah’s POV

I was reading Anne of Green Gables while lying down on my towel. A cool breeze flowed through my hair, along with laughter from the surfers nearby. The warm summer sun heated the white sand under my feet, and my umbrella-shaded my face from the harsh sun rays so I didn’t have to put on sunscreen.

Ew, I thought as the mention of sunscreen crept into my brain.

“Who wants to try and dunk Logan?” a voice said, drifting from the direction of the water.

I sat up, placed my bookmark in my book and took off my sunglasses to get a better look.

A group of boys near the shore were surrounding one of them, one with dark blonde hair and mesmerizing green eyes. 

“I do!” said one with dark hair and tan skin.

I stood up, leaned forward and squinted my eyes so I could see.

“Three points to whoever gets Logan first!” said the first one.

The dark-haired one grinned wickedly as everyone backed up and let him get close to Logan.

He rubbed his hands together and jumped on top of him. Logan struggled against the dark-haired one, refusing to let his hair touch the water, even though it was already wet from surfing. They wrestled back and forth until the dark-haired one pushed Logan’s head into the water and yelled out in victory.

Logan’s POV

Andrew dunked me in the water as I got out, shouting “AYYYYY, THREE POINTS FOR GETTING LOGAN!” Shaking my head, I shoved him away and shook the water out of my hair. 

“Anyone want hot dogs?” 

Actually, that was probably a silly question. What was I expecting to hear from a group of hungry guys staring at me like a pack of wolves waiting for food? 

“OF COURSE, DUDE! HOT DOGS ON LOGAN!” 

The guys cheered as I rolled my eyes. I think half my money went to feeding them. 

As I was heading to our spot on the beach, I didn’t notice the girl standing nearby, and accidentally brushed against her. Her dark blonde hair swayed as she looked up at me with startled blue eyes. 

“Sorry.” 

“It’s- I- Okay.” 

It was adorable to watch her face turn red. So I made it redder by shooting her a smile and a wink. 

The blush crept up her neck. 

Grinning to myself, I grabbed a drink from the cooler and joined the guys who were ordering food at the stand. I took a sip as I watched Jake flirt with the girl next to him. He didn’t stand a chance with her. 

Looking back at the girl I just brushed, I smiled as I watched her quickly look away after meeting my gaze. She looked familiar, one of those quiet girls at school. 

“What’s your name? Aliyah?” 

She jumped and looked at me, nodding her head yes. 

“Wanna join us?” 

Her eyes widened. The blush was back. 

“S- sure”, her voice was high-pitched and nervous. 

I shot her a grin and motioned her to come closer. 

What was it with this girl and blushing? 

Aliyah POV 

I think my face was on fire.  

Logan Kiergan asked me to join him.

I walked over to his table and stood in front of him, not knowing where to sit.

“Um, I’ll just sit over here. . .” I said nervously, raising my leg to sit at the furthest seat of the table.

“No, come sit here!” Logan exclaimed, pointing right across to where he was sitting.

I didn’t know what to say so I just walked over, placed my palms on the table and sat down.

“So, how are you doing?” He asked, his green eyes sparkling in sunlight.

I had no idea where to put my hands. Or my legs. Or my eyes.

Especially my eyes.

My vision darted from him to his surfboard to his lips and back again. I settled on each for about a second and rotated through all of them, in some sort of a daze.

“Aliyah, are you okay?”

I shook my head and came back to my senses. “Yeah, I’m good. What about you?”

Logan laughed, running a hand through his dark hair. “Don’t you try and change the subject on me. Everyone says they’re good but that’s probably not true. How are you, actually?”

I met him 30 seconds ago and now he’s asking me personal questions, right off the bat.

“I’m. . . good.”

He raised his eyebrow skeptically. “Well then. What are your hobbies?”

I fiddled with my necklace, a habit formed when something made me really nervous.

“Um. Studying. Playing piano. Writing.”

“Hmm,” said Logan. “Cool. I like surfing, I come here almost every day in summer, I’m the quarterback in the school football team - cliche, I know - and I hate writing.”

I blushed real hard then, my eyes going back to their race on who could look at all of Logan the fastest.

He smiled, revealing bright white teeth that he might’ve had to scrub for 2 hours with whitening toothpaste to get THAT white.

“Uh, so. . . what school do you go to?” I asked nervously, my feet pivoting on its ball in boredom of nothing else to do.

“Westwinds High School, I’ve seen you around before,” Logan said, clawing my attention to his eyes as he said this

My eyes popped open in surprise.

“What?” he asked.

How have I never seen him before? It’s not like he’s that hard to notice. Actually, he would be the only thing I noticed.

“Oh, I didn’t know I went to the same school as you. Anyways. . .”

“Stop trying to change the subject Aliyah,” He said, grinning. “Whose class are you in?”

I might’ve thought he was a private investigator, from all the questions he was asking me.

“Ms. Peters.”

It was his eyes’ turn to pop open. “Me too! How have I never seen you before?”

“Oh, probably because you jocks sit in the back talking about whatever you talk about.” 

OH MY GOD DID I JUST SAY THAT?

I clamped my hands over my mouth while Logan laughed. 

Warmth shot up my cheeks, turning me so red I could’ve been mistaken for a tomato if you hadn’t looked closely.

“Hey Logan! We’re gonna go out for another run, wanna come?” a boy near the edge of the waves called.

“Sure I’ll be right there!” He yelled back. The boy near the waves made a thumbs-up sign with his hands and jumped into the water with his board in his arms. 

Logan turned back to me, his eyes locking with mine. 

“School starts tomorrow, doesn’t it?” he asked.

I just nodded.

“Hmm. Bummer. Well, you’ll be there, so it’ll be less of a bummer. See ya!” He said while getting up, grabbing his board and ran into the waves, joining up with other boys in swimsuits.

I just waved pathetically and thought, Wow. I- Wow.

Logan’s POV

I ran out the front door as soon as I heard Chase’s car pull up in the driveway, shouting a quick goodbye to my mother. 

“Thanks for the ride, man”, I said as I got in. If it wasn’t for the fact that my car was at the mechanic’s because of an unfortunate accident caused by a squirrel jumping out of a tree onto the windshield, I would’ve been able to drive to school myself. 

“No problem, dude”, Chase grinned. 

Then he became annoying. 

“Soooo…..you and Aliyah huh….” 

“We’re not together Chase.” 

“Yeah sureeee.” 

“I’m not kidding.” 

“Nah it’s fine man, she’s cute.” 

“WE’RE NOT TOGETHER!”  

“Well, you better ask her out soon.” 

“Dude, I just met her.” 

“But she’s cute!” 

“THAT DOESN’T MEAN I’LL JUST GO UP TO HER AND BE LIKE ‘HEY, WANNA BE MY GIRLFRIEND?’” 

Chase just laughed and focused on the road. 

“Well, a great time to ask would be at Dani’s party.” 

“Danielle? Since when are you guys on a nickname basis?” 

He grinned and ignored the question. “So are you coming?” 

“We’ll see.” 

He pulled up to the school and parked the car. 

We got out of the car and ran inside to our lockers. Then Chase nudged me. 

And then nudged me again.

“What?” 

Then I looked over to where his gaze was fixed at a girl by her locker. He looked at me and grinned as I saw what he was smiling at. 

Aliyah. 

Aliyah’s POV

I was standing near my locker, gazing at Logan’s face, when he saw me looking at him. My face went up in flames and I smiled while looking down at my feet awkwardly.

Logan smiled back and then poof! 

Danielle Baker.

That self-obsessed snob.

Appears out of nowhere like the fairy grandmother, but she’s more like Cruella DeTorture.

“Heeeeyyyy, Logan! How are you doing sweetie?” She asked, strutting up to him in her disgusting pink tank top and purple skirt so that she looked like she appeared out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

“Uh, I’m doing good,” Logan replies. The fact that he doesn’t ask how she’s doing made me smirk.

“I’m throwing a party on Saturday at 9 pm and I can’t wait to see you there! What colours do you have in your wardrobe? We could be matching, like blue and pink, grey and pink, green and pink . . .”

Danielle hooked her arm with Logan’s and with a final glance at a giggling Chase, Logan let her drag him away to who-knows-where, torturing him with the descriptions of matching ties and slippers.

I looked at my feet and fiddled with the edges of my folder for a few minutes until someone tapped my shoulder. Harriet- my unfortunately only friend- was always bothering me by tapping me, so I turned around and began,” Harriet! Could you stop-”

It was Logan.

I looked up at him and started to apologize. “Oh! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry-”

He just grinned and said, “It’s fine. I’m just happy that I got away from that Barbie doll of Danielle.”

I giggled and asked him, “What class do you have first?”

“Homeroom.”

“Me too!”

Logan’s eyes lit up and he said, “You said you like writing, what’s your favourite genre?”

“I like horror and-”

I paused because he was now suddenly holding my hand. He squeezed it and after a pause, I squeezed back.

“Go on.”

I smiled. “I like horror and science fiction because . . .”

And then I jabbered off about writing genres while we walked to Homeroom together.

Logan’s POV

There was something about this girl. 

Maybe it was the way her eyes shined as she talked about all things nerdy. 

Or the way she would squeeze my hand whenever she got excited. 

Or maybe it was how she would blush every time I looked at her.  

We got to homeroom and I took my usual seat in the back, and rolled my eyes when I saw Chase wiggling his eyebrows like a maniac and looking at Aliyah then me and then Aliyah and me again. 

“Aliyah! Come sit here.” I shoved Chase out of the seat next to me and patted the chair for her to sit on. 

Chase just laughed and sat in another chair, still wiggling his eyebrows. 

Unfortunately, now it wasn’t just him. 

The rest of the class was giggling and the guys were grinning at me. Rolling my eyes once again, I looked back to Aliyah whose face was red. Like usual. She slowly sat down in the spot Chase had- ahem- vacated and started getting the things out of her bag. 

Class was boring as usual. Only this time, I could sneak glances at Aliyah. 

I brought out my phone underneath my desk and mentally smacked myself for not getting her number. Then I got out a pen and paper and wrote-

Can I have your number? 

Aliyah’s POV 

“HEASKEDMEFORMYNUMBERHEASKEDMEFORMYNUMBERHEASKEDMEFORMYNUMBER!!!” I squealed to Harriet that afternoon after school.

 We were at my house sitting cross legged on my bed as the radio played. Our mouths were stuffed with brownies and the room was filled with squealing- caused by me gushing about Logan. 

“OH MY GOD GIRL WHAT DID YOU DO?”

I took a deep breath. “I GAVE IT TO HIM!!!!!!” 

We burst into giggles as I thought about how he had stuck with me for the whole day, and I turned red as I remembered his text. 

Harriet noticed of course. 

“WHAT DID HE TEXT YOU??” 

“He- HE ASKED IF WE COULD GO TO DANI’S PARTY TOGETHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!” 

That’s when the room exploded in giggles and squealing and screaming. I was so glad my parents were still at work. 

Then Harriet turned serious. 

“WE HAVE TO GET READY, THE PARTY IS IN TWO HOURS!” 

“WHAT?” 

She dragged me to the bathroom and the next two hours flew away in a cloud of perfume, blush, and arguing about outfits. 

It was perfect. 

Logan’s POV

Holy cow- 

Wow. 

Dani’s party was a rager, but it was pretty boring, and it was like most parties. 

Drunk guys, loud music, everyone wasted.

Then the front door opened. 

And in walked Aliyah. 

Harriet left her at the door for her boyfriend, and Aliyah caught my eye and gave me a shy smile. 

Her long golden hair was down and she looked pretty casual, yet dressed up. 

I think- I think I blushed. 

I put the red solo cup in my hand down and walked over to her. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey.” 

“You look uncomfortable.” 

“Well, parties are not my thing.” 

“And yet you still came?” 

“Yeah, for you.” 

Yep, I was blushing. 

How ironic. 

Running a hand through my hair, I took her hand and led her to the quieter part of the house. 

“What do you even do at parties?” she asked once we had achieved solitude. 

“Pretend you're having fun. Watch your friends go crazy. Talk with cute girls.” 

Now her face was on fire too. 

I grinned at her and she smiled back. 

“So . . . what now?” 

“I have an idea.” 

“Oh really?” 

And with that, I kissed her.

~~~

Aliyah sat on the beach where she had seen Logan almost a year ago, when her crush had sprouted. The faint music of the party was drifting in her memory, the feeling she had received when he put his hand on her cheek and kissed her.

She fiddled with her moon necklace, the silver shining in the moonlight.

Aliyah whispered, “I wonder what it's like to love someone who stayed with you forever.”

She looked up at the stars, looking for answers as they twinkled their bright eyes back, listening, wanting. . .

Wishing.