A Fiery Situation

He really should have stayed at the café.

Smoke clouded the alleyway as flames exploded outward towards the street. Brandon could hardly hear his own thoughts over the crackling fire and angry yells on the other side. Another fireball flew towards him, but he managed to put up a wall of ice just in time before the flames could graze against his cheek. As he let the wall melt away, Brandon could see the silhouette of a man walking through the smoke.

He couldn’t help but shudder. He could feel this man’s anger radiating off of him. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the man had steam coming out of his pores. Or the glare. Or the fire. Can’t forget about the fire!

The man clenched and unclenched his hands several times as he said, “You think you’re gonna get away with this, huh? Huh, punk?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Brandon replied, backing up until he bumped into a parked car. “I’m really sorry, they just kind of got carried away, and…”

The flames intensified around the man, several veins throbbing and threatening to pop out of his head as he yelled, “I don’t want to hear any more excuses! Where the fuck are they?!”

“I-I really don’t know.” Brandon could have sworn the car behind him was melting for a split second as the man towered over him. Oh dear, how was he going to get out of this one without getting roasted? “But we can settle this without anyone else getting hurt, right? I-I mean, I can maybe…” A lump emerged in Brandon’s throat as he struggled to get the words out. “I, uh, could… pay for the damage?”

For one terrible moment, Brandon thought he was about to be burned alive. The heat turned up several notches, to the point where Brandon had to actively counteract it with the freezing cold.

The man stopped steaming, the flames around his hands smoldering into embers as he grumbled, “Fine. I’d rather have those brats paying it, but if you wanna save their asses, I won’t say no to the cash. But I expect you to pay me in full, got it?!?”

As the two exchanged information, Brandon feigned cheerfulness and relief to the best of his ability. Better that than to show the absolute dread he was hiding over the steep price he’d have to pay. His budget is going to get a beating, alright.

And he knew exactly who to blame.



“Yoooo, B.C., thanks for yesterday! You really saved my bacon!”

Brandon’s eye twitched ever so slightly as his friend dug right into a bowl of Pho like a half-starved hyena. People turned towards them in mild disgust as loud slurping noises filled the tiny restaurant and soup dribbled down the youth’s neck.  Brandon briefly wondered if his friend knew about napkins, but considering how he wasn’t even wiping down his shirt, maybe that was too much to expect.

“Yes, Josh, I really did,” Brandon replied with a frown. “To the tune of thousands of dollars, I did.” He shot Josh a glare as he continued, “Seriously, though, what made you think that was even remotely a good idea?”

“Dude, he’s a fucking Mets fan!” Josh snapped back, gold chains jangling around his neck as he slammed his fist on the table. “And they WON last night! They’re not even that good, and they win against the Yankees!”

“And that’s a good excuse for smashing his car window and spray painting ‘Yanks 4 Lyfe’ in the backseat?!? Jesus, how smashed were you when you thought of something like that?”

Josh gave him a dumbfounded look before scratching his head of blonde hair, looking as far away from Brandon as possible. “Well, shit, I forget… Maybe it was two cans or something, I dunno?”

“That’s… that’s not good.”

Brandon was glad his order of Pho arrived just in time. It was just enough to eat to keep his piehole occupied with something other than delving too deep into Josh’s motivations. Or yelling at him in a public space more than he already did. Anything to keep his resentment contained for the moment.

After several minutes of awkward silence, Brandon mustered up the courage to ask, “So, um, since I did you this huge favor… do you mind paying me back, just a little bit?”

He immediately regretted it as Josh immediately stood up with a terrified look and said, “Woah, I don’t got that kinda money right now! I don’t even have a job, bro, not even ones like you do!”

“I’m not asking you to pay me back right this second, or all at once! Just…” Brandon looked away for a second before continuing timidly, “I’m already doing a lot with my budget just to make sure I pay everything on time and so I can have nice things, and paying all those damages is really going to put that through the wringer… so if you could pay me back even just half of the amount sometime, it’d really, really help.”

“Still can’t pay you with money I don’t got, bro.”

Brandon’s heart sank as if it suddenly turned into a block of cement.

“N-not even a little bit? I-I’m not asking you to pay me now… but when you have the cash…“

Josh glared at him, sending a shiver down his spine. “Dude, really? I thought you were doing me a favor! You wouldn’t ask Emily any of this shit, would you?!”

The color faded from his face as Josh stared him down. “N-No, but that’s different!”

“Then why you can’t just let me live, man?! You know I don’t got the cash, so just fuck off about that!”

Brandon watched as his friend stormed off, pale as a sheet as everyone around him started whispering. He ate the rest of his food in silence, a mix of resentment and anxiety swirling in his heart and his mind. That could have gone better, couldn’t it? Well, maybe if he kept his mouth shut… but he had to ask. He already did so much for someone like Justin, and he hadn’t even thanked him for anything. It was only reasonable that he asked instead of just writing it off and suffering for it, right?

Well, it didn’t change the fact that he pissed off one of the few friends he had. No matter how right or wrong he was, guilt swallowed Brandon up like a giant orca devouring a baby seal. It was impossible to shake off, even long after he had paid for the meals, after walking home alone with K-Pop blasting his eardrums, or after finally sinking into bed at night.

For a moment, Brandon wondered why he even bothered at all. It would have been easier to let Josh handle the consequences himself.

But… he couldn’t let a friend suffer. Especially not against an angry pyrokinetic.

If only that could help him sleep better at night.