Burn in Water, Drown in Fire

Burn in Water, Drown in Fire ~10~ Look After You

~10~ Look After You

I was starting to slip my arm from around Angel’s shoulder. I had calmed her down and she had fallen asleep in my arms. But I wouldn’t stay the night here with her. It would be too much of a commitment and too much explaining to do. I was even surprised that she let me in her house this late. But it was worth it. She was afraid of fire now. Yeah. Strong, independent Angel Hallow was afraid of in inanimate and uncontainable object like fire. All because Lulu brought a fire here…

“I figured it out,” I heard Devin’s voice say when I passed their kitchen so I could leave. I sighed and looked over to see Devin hunched over his microscope.

“Dude. It’s eleven o’clock. Chill with the experiment for at least the night,” I commented, walking over. He stood up straighter and his eyes were red.

“See! Your eyes are now green!” he examined.

“Um alright? Better than your red ones,” I commented.

“You’re falling in love with Angel—”

“What are you talking about!?” I exclaimed.

“Look. Sit, sit, sit,” he said, frantically. And I’m the one with ADHD? Um. I sat on the bar’s high chair. “You told me that right after you took the chemical, you got mad about Lulu’s situation. That’s it; anger.”

“So you just assume that because I’m mad at Lulu that I’d fall for her best friend!?” I asked, angered at the thought of me ever being in love with someone like Angel.

“Maybe you are!” he reasoned. He was going to wake up Angel with his loud voice. All my hard work putting her to sleep and he was going to ruin it, not only that, but his accusations for my own feelings…towards his own sister!

It went quiet and I looked over to see Devin holding up a lighter…but he wasn’t pressing the trigger.

“Your anger can control fire,” he said. Wait what? I started to calm down and the tiny flame died. Controlling fire? Are you serious? I stood up and walked out. Devin was crazy. His potion was crazy. His assumptions were crazy. H3ll, you know what? I’m crazy! For even taking the drug in the first place.  

***

I can control fire with my anger.

I had green eyes.

I was in love with Angel.

The first two were testable, the last one was not. I could look in a mirror for the second one and clearly see the bluish tint on my eyes that I assume, sparked from confusion. The first, was making me threaten to grab my lighter and see if I could control the tiny flame. The last one…was impossible.

There’s no way I was falling in love with Angel. If you asked me a few years ago, maybe, but not now. Not when Lulu’s place in my heart was starting to fade away. Not when…Angel’s brother is the reason to all of this contemplation. It wasn’t really possible to think of Angel in a different way after the hatred that she emitted towards me.

But it hadn’t been that way recently. In fact, she said it herself that she wasn’t interested in me because I saved her. She was…purely interested in me. As I was purely interested in her…

***

“What exactly are you saying?” Devin asked me for once.

“I’m saying that you’re right,” I informed. He smirked and eased up from my kitchen’s counter. “What? That’s it? You’re just gonna smirk and leave me be into the world of freaks?”

“Last time I checked, you said you were done with all of this X-men crap,” he reminded, walking around.

“Cuz I was—I am,” I assured. “I just wanted you to know that…you were right.”

“Ah, music to my ears,” he grinned.

“Yeah, yeah,” I rolled my eyes. “So…what’s your theory?”

“Eh,” he answered as he started to leave.

“ ‘Eh’?” I quoted. “You stress this to me this entire time and now you say ‘eh’?! I need a theory!”

“One theory and then I’m done,” he sighed. Isn’t this backwards?

He walked back and then started to tell his beliefs.

“Well you play with your lighter a lot, you said, right?” he asked. I nodded. “Well I think because Lulu triggered anger inside of you and fire was the closest element, it became a controlled ability only triggered by anger because that was the most recent strong emotion…well that is before you find some way to harness and counteract it.”

This made sense.

“But as regards to Angel, I think your attraction to each other is because your interaction with her during the fire was the most opposite feeling opposed to the anger, so—”

“So you think that I’m falling in love with your sister because my saving her, was the most recent and opposite emotion?” I spat.

“I don’t think so, I know so,” he stated. “It’s like…fate.”

“You don’t believe in fate, you believe in science!” I reminded.

“Sometimes science is all about believing…” he reasoned as he started to back up.

“Wait! Devin!” I called after. “You act like this is over!”

“It is!” he called before I heard the door shut.

So it’s fate that I’d be cursed—blessed, or cursed—with super pyrokinetic powers? It’s fate that I’ll always be attracted to Angel? And…that I’d fall in love with her, I know for sure. Sh!t.