Burnt Crashes

[Alliyah Jackson]

Y18 Winter Vacation. Australia.

"Thank you Kat, I don't know what I'd do without you." Gracing the lips of the sixteen year old, there hung a thankful smile. It felt good to let out the bad energy to a trustful friend. All she wanted to do was to vent out the stress she was feeling ever since her parents filed those pesky, little divorce papers. It basically broke her heart that her mum and dad were deciding to separate and they were the only individuals she knew ever since she was a toddler. She was curious ever since if her parents really loved one another from the start. All of that bad energy stuck inside her gut was what she loosed out onto her friend, Katherine. The brunette across her looked at her sympathetically and Alliyah, with no shame told her everything she did not want to tell her sister. Artemis was busy enough with school. Ally did not want to unload all of the negativity to an already busy bee. The afternoon was chilly that Alliyah still wore her coat inside a warm coffee shop where she was currently staying in for the past two hours or so. It was a good thing Katherine had some things to share as well, or the conversation would have to be one sided and Ally despised the idea of herself being the only one with the opportunity to talk in the conversation. She gave way when Kat wanted to vent out things regarding her siblings and studies, giving all her ears and empathy.

When it was time to say farewell, Alliyah stood up to hug Katherine for spending such a lovely time with her. She laughed when Kat said something about Alliyah not ordering anything at all for their whole meeting. "I'll grab a cup before leaving. We should really do this a lot more hun. Thanks again," said Ally before watching Kat exit the dainty coffee shop. Alliyah went up the counter to order, afterwards, fished for her wallet to pay the cappuccino. She took off the lid of the cup to feel the warm smoke rise to her nostrils. She smiled at the heavenly scent and readjusted her satchel. It was not yet five o'clock in the afternoon, which meant she still had the time to unwind and go around. The day was nice outside and the place was certainly not crowded with wizards and witches buzzing around. Ally opened the door to the coffee shop and viewed the scene before her with approving blue eyes. Ahead she saw a shop that seemed to have racks of garments and she abandoned the coffee shop and headed to the place she wanted to take a look at.

Rounding the corner to take a good look at it, there was a sudden impact that caused her to lose her balance momentarily then gaining it back. She felt pressure suddenly press onto her quite painfully. She instinctively stepped back, but the force unfortunately pushed her cup of burning cappuccino from her hands unto her coat and floral dress. She gasped in surprise and winced at the hotness of the liquid burning her petite hand. A soft hiss came out of her mouth as she shook off the hot liquid from her wrist to her hand. Also, she could not tell if what she felt pressing on her chest was realistically wet or something her imagination was making up. "Oh my God," gasped the English sweetheart as she looked up at the eyes of her pusher. She really was not able to make out his features when she uttered, "Run carefully next time alright?!" Alliyah felt her chest rise with the pain and shock combined in her system and she couldn't decipher if this guy purposely crashed onto her or something else. Alliyah refused to looked at her now ruined outfit, embarrassed by what she would see later on.
​

 

[Anton Dementyev]

Anton saw right through his friend's facade. Their effort seemed next to pointless, inviting him out to a seaside restaurant, accompanying him to the balcony for a few mimosas after lunch. He saw through it all because he knew their ulterior motive. They wanted to drag him out of his apartment for the day, and catch him off guard only to nag him further about his future. As if their tri-weekly owl's weren't enough to make his blood boil. He had to deal with their nagging in person now too. Difference was, he could ignore the owls; not their nagging face to face. He didn't understand their argument in any sense of the word, and didn't ever plan to. What Anton saw with these people, was they had no lives outside of work and needed to fill their free time making him miserable. He knew he could mooch of his parents for the rest of his life if he wanted, and they needed to realize he was perfectly happy doing so.

"I'm stuck." Were the only words to escape Anton's mouth. Through various protesting, neither of his friends gave in. No matter how much he pleaded, excused, attempted to explain his current state of mind they never understood. He began to wonder if everyone his age knew what they wanted to do with their lives. It was almost like their life span had been implanted in their brain at birth, because while everybody he knew planned for their future, not once had Anton thought about it. A free spirited kid now turned eighteen year old, Anton never thought he needed to have a future planned out. Thus the reason he didn't care about it until his friends started pressuring him. His whole life he went where the road took him, taking things day by day. Why did that all have to change now? Anton was responsible enough to take care of himself, regardless if he had a future or not. It didn't matter to him because he was happy. Happy until his friends decided to butt in at least. "You just don't get it!" He banged his fist against the table. Anton was sick of listening to their crap by now. He departed the restaurant in a huff, not caring he made a scene and forced them to pay a rather hefty bill. It was the least they deserved for stressing him out today. They had some nerve, calling themselves his friends, when they took every chance they could to dig into him about this.

Not even the sunny weather could calm him down. Anton usually loved the gorgeous Australian weather, but today it did nothing to lighten his mood. So he walked for as long as he could. It was an attempt to get the rage out of his system and it worked to some avail. But after wasting an hour away on foot he finally settled down on a bench. Knowing he'd be stuck with his right-wing friends the rest of the day, Anton didn't want to return home just yet. The idea was tempting though, to show up and guilt them into saying sorry, and maybe with enough persuasion they would buy him dinner too. In the meantime though, what Anton needed was a distraction. Anything to help him avoid those whack job friends a few minutes more. This distraction came in the form of a pretty blonde girl leaving a nearby cafe, cup of hot coffee in hand. She immediately caught his eye. The timing was near perfect, Anton already had a plan in mind. The blonde returned to his feet and sped towards the girl. He didn't consider he could end up soaked in coffee, but as they collided he somehow ended up coffee free. Only one simple word described her reaction; priceless. Anton wanted to soak up this moment for as long as possible.

"I should be careful?" His accusing tone pierced the otherwise silent air. Anton wanted to make this about her, get right on her nerves, make her as angry as his friends made him. He'd chosen to take his anger out on a stranger, and didn't give a crap about the consequence. Until this girl stormed off he would gladly continue making her angry. "You were the one standing in the middle of a street like an idiot." Sneering, Anton took a step closer. He wanted to blame her for this whole ordeal, albeit none of it was her fault. "Serves you right for getting in the way."​

<i></i>

 

[Alliyah Jackson]

A not so pretty scowl held itself on Alliyah's thin lips. She held it with forgotten grace clearly etched on her features. The heated liquid that was piercing itself on the dress provoked her peaceful side all of a sudden. Now, she wanted to gap at him widely - disgust and shock combining itself. What a rude, egotistical cute guy. If it weren't for his attitude, Alliyah was definitely sure she would find herself looking at him from afar with the slightest piece of admiration. His words were what blew all of that away. She took a precautionary step backwards and felt her heart contract for every cruel word he uttered. Sugarcoated insults ran in her head like crazy and she dared not to show something that was a sign of weakness. Little did she know though that the frown that clung to her lips was something that gave away some detail about her feelings. Alliyah took a brief look at the clothes of the young man and was shocked to see that not a drop was spilled on him. Immediately she felt that it was unfair for she got most of the coffee inside the cup on her dress. Stepping forward, her lips tightened as she formulated words to bite back at his.

Hell, if shouting wasn't her thing what more was arguing in public with a total stranger. "Y-you, you..." Alliyah tried to find the right words to say but all insults that she thought of was something she found too harsh. She was always extra cautious with strangers, especially when they wanted to make a scene. This one did, obviously. "You crashed into me you blundering idiot!" Her accent was quite different compared to his; with the faded British-ness of it. The remaining coffee in the cup suddenly seemed so unappealing like the thought of her dress soaked in hot brown stuff. Alliyah pursed her lips and resisted to put her hands on her hips for a full effect. She could not go all sassy on a total stranger when she found it hard enough to look for a proper comeback. The arrogant aura that he looked to be carrying was getting on her nerves and she wanted to smack him, with a rock, on the head. He was looking at her like she was the one who had done something wrong here and the tourists/ordinary people passing by looked at them briefly as if they were out of their minds to begin such an argument on the street. Alliyah made eye contact with one when she decided she couldn't handle the pressure of keeping eye contact with the boy in front of her. It was too much and when she knew she would lose the battle she did not want to embarrass herself further.

The air suddenly was tense and its contagiousness soon reached Ally's nerves. She held out her index finger loosely in warning and shook her head disbelievingly. Alliyah's thoughts led her to think that this guy was making it seem that she was really the one to blame when he crashed onto Alliyah who was only wandering the streets of the place. "Don't even try to accuse me of bumping into you," breathed Alliyah heavily as she gazed at the other pair of eyes. True, she was looking far too ahead (at the cute shop, that was) and did not really notice that someone was nearing. Only when she did, it was too late for her to undo it. She had no Seeker reflexes that could dodge searing hot coffee. She wanted an apology from him, which she deemed was the proper thing to do. Strangers did that one thing before walking onto their respective sunsets right? They bump, they do small talk then they leave. No memories attached but a vague picture of their face. Alliyah expected this to be one of the many encounters like before and wanted to get over with. Who wanted to deal with an unmannerly young man even if he was not bad looking, by the way.
​

 

[Anton Dementyev]

Anton stifled a laugh. Her inability to utter a word proved what her appearance suggested, a dumb blonde in her own little world. He gladly provoked the girl further hoping she'd give him something to work with; a more fiery reaction. Without a word from her this would quickly turn dry and it seemed to be going that way. Anton fought temptation to leave hoping the girl would participate, make this fun instead of boring him to death. "You're ridiculous." He blurted. If it weren't for his current mood he might have flirted a little, acted friendly. Problem was, his so called friends got to him first; there was no going back to his peaceful, normal state of mind now. "Me? What about me?" Mercilessly, he mocked her lack of words and continued blaming her, appointing her as the villain even though he knew the role was meant for him. It was that hypocrisy which made it even sweeter. Stepping towards her, Anton attempted to look like the bigger person, like the winner of this argument, the argument he single handedly started. He wanted to have his way. He wanted to win and have this girl apologize; never mind she'd done nothing wrong.

"I'm the idiot?" Paying her accent no mind, he conjured a reply. "You were standing in the middle of the street!" It may have looked lazy on his part, repeating himself. He would have thought so too if it weren't for the dumb blonde in front of him. Repeating the same idea over and over to the girl seemed like the most effective -and only- way to get the idea into her thick skull. Narrowing his eyes, Anton barely had the chance to continue before her gaze darted elsewhere. If he didn't believe she was stupid enough before, this was truly the icing on the cake. Was holding eye contact too much for her brain to handle? Or did she forget about the argument completely? Incessantly, Anton was having none of it. More blatant and sarcastic than before, he continued to make his point, beyond caring if the girl was listening. "You really are the idiot here." If being blunt, to the point was the only way to get his side across he'd have to make do. Most of the time he forgot how stupid other people could be. "I mean come on." He gestured to her dress. "You're the one covered in coffee, and your clothes are probably ruined now."

Half smiling, Anton looked the girl up and down. "That dress looks kind of expensive too, doesn't it?" Honestly, he knew nothing about fashion. At this point he was lying himself stupid, talking even more crap (if that was possible) just for a reaction. She was giving him little to nothing here. How much did he have to work for a slap in the face? Usually it didn't take long but this girl was obviously different, she seemed more distracted than anything. Once she finally returned his gaze, Anton rolled his eyes in response. "Don't be silly, we both know this is all your fault."​