Chapter 3 - Hiroki

We went into the school and as expected, everyone was whispering about the cafe incident.

Sadie walks over to us. "Looks like word got around quickly"

Hayden sighed. "Today's going to be a long day. I'm not excited."

I rubbed his back to comfort Hayden. The last thing he wants is to be asked 5 thousand questions about what happened with Aliana. "Things will lighten up Hayden, I promise."

"I hope so." He says leaning his head on my shoulder.

We start to walk to our next class which fortunately we have together too. There's comfortable silence for a minute or so until Hayden speaks up again.

"I'm worried for Aliana. She seems really freaking mad and I'm scared that she may act on emotions and do something bad."

We walk into the class and sit at two near desks. "If she does something bad then you have friends and family that are here for you. They care and love you too. You also have me too. I'm not going to let her get to you. She can be sad and mad but it's not ok if she takes it on you or your family."

Hayden nods and the bell rings to start class. Kids file into the class a couple seconds later. Some glancing at Hayden and I. We ignore the stares and take out our computers for class.

Someone behind me taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and it's Ace, he's a school friend but I've known him since last year. He stayed back in 4th grade so he should be a senior right now. I ask him what's up.

"Have you seen Aliana at school? There's rumors around that she's buying gasoline and matches and by the sound of it…she's planning to burn something to the ground."

I turn my chair around so I'm fully facing Ace. "Are you kidding me?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. I'd make sure Hayden's not alone for the next couple days because who knows what she may try to do. She's already threatening to burn something. We don't need that to escalate."

"He's going to stay at my place for a few days for safety reasons so that's covered already."

"Good."

I turn back around and tell Hayden what she is planning to do. He seems more anxious than before but I try to reassure him that everything will be ok. I'm not even sure myself that everything will be alright but it's worth it to try and think so. History class starts and everything is normal. We're learning about the Industrial revolution. We've been stuck in the unit for the last 3 months because our teacher is always absent or ends up crying over her husband that left her. I don't mind if it means less work.

Half way through class I get bored and look on Instagram to see what my friends are up to. Some are on stupid vacation to either Florida or Mexico. Lucky for them. I see a lot of posts about the famous Celebrity, Noah Charleston. Apparently his boyfriend was very abusive to him and did a lot of bad things to him. People hoarded around Noah's house and were yelling death threats at him. I hope his boyfriend gets arrested.

I tap Hayden's foot from under the table to get his attention. "You know that celebrity I'm friends with right? Check this out." I handed him the phone.

"Holy shit… you should check up on him just in case." He said, scrolling through the phone.

"I will."

I text Noah and ask him how he is doing and I put my phone away. Noah and I have been friends way before he got famous. He's a few years older than me and is in college. We are like brothers and inseparable. I put away my phone before I get in trouble.

After school is over we start walking over to Hayden's house to pack up some of his belongings before heading to my house. I also want to say hello to his mom and dad since I haven't seen them since school started. Hayden's house is like a second home to me. I feel the most comfortable and happy there. I guess that's why I feel as if it is a second home. As we near a block away from his house we start to smell a little smoke. We tense up.

"Do you smell that?" Hayden asks.

"I do. It smells terrible." I cringe at the awful burning smell that filled up my nose.

"You don't think it's…Aliana's cause…do you?"

We stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. Exchanging thoughts without saying anything. Then, we started sprinting to Hayden's house. As we got closer, we smelled more and more smoke. The air thickened and got warmer. The more we were panicking, the faster we ran. And then, we stopped. We stopped right in front of something we'd hoped we never would have to see.

Hayden's house. Burning down, crumbling, and collapsing. I froze in shock but Hayden was fast acting. His parents were in the house and he needed to save them no matter what. He took off his hoodie and drenched it in water with his water bottle. He put it over his mouth and ran in the flaming house before I could say a single word.

A couple minutes have passed and no sight of Hayden after he ran into the house. Noah comes running towards me in fright. I see his scars on his face and arms. Something happened to him, I can feel it.

"I came here as fast as I could." Noah pauses a bit to catch his breath. "What do you think happened?"

I frowned. "This definitely was not an accident and we think we know who did it. For now we need to focus on Hayden and his family. My house has two guest bedrooms for his parents and his sister. Hayden can sleep in my room. That can be a temporary plan before they get on their feet again."

"I also have a house I'm renting that Hayden's family can stay in. That way it's not super cramped in your house."

"That can work too."

I start to get worried about Hayden. It doesn't last long because he trudges outside the house with his parents on his back. The firetrucks and ambulance finally arrive too. Everyone is safe for now. We just need to find Aliana.

The ambulance takes in Hayden and his parents. Hayden's sister comes back from work and I tell her what happened.

"We think Aliana is behind this." I explain. "We also need to find a place for your family to live."

"This freaking sucks." Ayeka sighs.

"We'll figure this out soon."

Hayden gets out of the ambulance with his eyes a little pink. He was crying. He told us that his family is ok and insurance may cover the house damage but they won't have a house to live in for a while. My actions spoke before I could think about another possible option.

"Your family can stay at my house for a while until you guys get back on your feet." I didn't speak to my parents about this yet but they're out on a business trip for a while so they won't know.

Ayeka smiles. "Thank you, Hiroki. This means a lot to us."

"It's the least I can do." I smile back. "There's two extra guest bedrooms in my house and if it's ok with your parents, my room is big enough for Hayden to stay in too.

"That's ok with us." Hayden's mom says. Hayden's step dad just glares at me. What's his problem?

Hayden's step dad whispers something in Hayden's mom's ear. I couldn't point out what was being said but it definitely was a comment about me. Hayden's step dad and I never really got along. Nothing bad happened between us but he's always been on defense about Hayden and my relationship.

Hayden looks over at me realizing somehow that I'm feeling tense and secretly holds my hand. We stand there for a bit while the police and firemen sort everything out with his parents. Ayeka offers to drive us to my house and we accept. We packed all the things we could manage to receive and drove to my house to unpack.