Chapter 25

Temi POV

Isa and I take the first flight back early the next morning. It's cold and way too early. Isa and I barely exchange words as we pack up things and make our way to the airport in an Uber.

I don't hear from my mom or Sophie before we leave. Not even a call or a text goodbye. But I'm too tired to care about all that right now.

Isa and I get onto the plane and I instantly fall asleep the second I am in my seat.

Thankfully, the flight is brief, and we arrive back in my city soon enough. The moment we arrive back in my apartment, I head to my room, falling asleep to the sound of Isa shuffling around in the living room.

When I wake up, everything is dark. I check my time to see it is 8pm. I somehow slept through the entire day.

I rise slowly from my bed, feeling groggy and extremely disoriented. As if on cue, my stomach rumbles loudly and I slowly make my way out of my room.

The first thing I see is Isa. She is sprawled out on the couch, with her mouth slightly open, and seems to be in deep sleep. It looks kind of comical, but I can tell she's exhausted. A feeling of guilt runs through me. After all, it's my fault that she's as tired as she is. I know how exhausting it is dealing with my stubborn self.

I continue to watch Isa for a little while longer. Oddly enough, her face looks relaxed. She doesn't have the set expression that she usually has when she's awake. I wonder what she's dreaming about, or if she's even dreaming at all. I wonder if she gets nightmares.

She is lying on her back, with her long hair sprawled out behind her head like a dark halo. It looks soft and, for a moment; I wonder if it feels as soft.

A rumbling in the pit of my stomach immediately reminds me of why I left my room in the first place.

Silently, I make my way over to the kitchen, deciding to make a meal of some sorts. Cooking is not at all my strong suit and I'm very aware of this as I move around the cupboards, searching for something easy to make.

I come across pasta and decide I'd warm up some pasta sauce to go with it. Simple enough.

I immediately get to work. I boil the water in a pot and pour enough pasta for Isa and me into it.

I move on to heat up the pasta sauce, thinking it should be easy enough, but I'm instantly proven wrong when out of nowhere a burst of flames rises from the stove.

"Fuck!" I yell as I jump back, narrowly avoiding getting burned.

"Temi!" I hear Isa yell from the next room.

The fire alarm in my apartment is blaring and I can barely think straight amongst all the commotion. I am fixated on a spot, staring transfixed at the fire in front of me that only seems to grow by the second.

In a second, Isa is in the kitchen. She takes one look at me, and another at the fire in front of me and immediately springs into action. I watch as she runs over to the stove and somehow puts out the fire, resolving my fuck up.

"Temi, are you okay?" Isa asks, now facing me. Her long hair is spread out in all directions around her head, and she's panting slightly, but still her eyes are fixed on me. Searching my face intensely. Her eyes are wide, but with a red tint of sleep in them.

I don't know what to say and instead start giggling. I am very aware of how much of a maniac I look like right then, but I can't seem to stop myself from laughing.

Isa, on the other hand, isn't laughing. Instead, her eyes are fixed on my arm. She comes closer to me, taking my left arm in her hand gently.

"Temi, you got burned," her voice is soft. "Luckily, it's not so bad, so we wouldn't need to take you to a hospital.

I look down and sure enough; I see a small burn on my left arm. Clearly, I did not jump out of harm's way fast enough, like I had originally thought. For some reason, Isa pointing out the burn seems to make me hyper-aware of it and I feel a dull ache in my arm.

"Come with me," Isa says, and gently takes my arm, leading me towards the bathroom.

I have stopped laughing now and let Isa lead me to the bathroom, feeling extremely jaded. The first thing Isa does is run my arm under cold water. It's soothing and seems to cool the throbbing feeling in my arm.

"Sit here," Isa orders, pulling the toilet seat down.

I follow her instructions and sit as she rummages through the bathroom cabinet. I feel like a child as I watch Isa. Her brows are creased in concentration and she finally brings out an ointment bottle and some bandages.

Without saying a word, Isa squats down next to me. She gently takes my arm before bringing her eyes up to look at me.

I'm so close to her, and she's looking at me with so much care, I suddenly forget how to breathe.

"This may hurt a little, okay?"

"Okay."

Isa applies the ointment to my burn, and it hurts more than a little. I bite down firmly on my tongue to keep from crying out. All the while, Isa is still looking at me, studying my facial expressions as she applies the ointment.

"I'll be through soon," she says. I give a strained nod in response.

"Fuck, Isa!" I groan once I feel a sudden pain shoot up my arm.

"I'm done," Isa says quickly, applying a bandage over the burn.

I can still feel the pain of the ointment on my burn and I clench my jaw as I nod in an attempt to keep a neutral expression.

Isa is still squatting before me, studying me with concern. "How do you feel?"

"On top of the world."

"Wow, sarcastic Temi is back? Thank God, I was really getting worried for a moment there," Isa says, grinning slightly at me. Despite myself, I return her grin but quickly avert my eyes so I'm no longer looking at her.

There's a moment of strange silence between us.

"So, um, what happened with the whole fire thing?" Isa asks, and I cringe in embarrassment.

A part of me does not want to respond out of embarrassment. But she did just take care of my burns and stop the fire.

"Well, um, I was trying to cook...to make dinner...I'm not great at it...but you know that now..."

A huge smile spreads across Isa's face and she doesn't even try to conceal it in the slightest. Despite how embarrassed I feel right then, I can't stop myself from thinking about how beautiful Isa looks right now.

I rarely see her smile. Mostly because I don't really give her any reason to smile. But her smile is beautiful and I stare at her for a little longer than I should because of how mesmerized I am.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Isa asks, her face morphing into one of concern because I'm staring at her like a lunatic. "Do your bandages feel fine?"

Isa's bed hair is stuck up at an odd angle, and for some reason this seems like the funniest thing to me, seeing as Isa is usually always so put together.

Hence, instead of answering her questions, I start giggling again.

"You're a bit crazy, you know," Isa says, laughing slightly. Reaching up, she pushes a braid out of my face. I don't know if I imagine it, but her fingers linger on my face for a while before she pulls away.

I'm transported to last night in New York City. I'm not sure what, but something definitely shifted between us. I know it and from the way Isa looks at me; I know she knows it, too.

I'm not necessarily sure what the new dynamic between us is exactly. All I know is that I enjoy not being angry all the time. I enjoy being in Isa's company.

Isa suddenly clears her throat, bringing me back to reality as she gets to her feet. I mirror her actions, and rise to my feet as well. She's standing close to me and I have to arch my head back slightly to look at her.

"I think we'll be better off just ordering take-in, seeing as we just narrowly escaped a house fire," Isa jokes.

I smile softly and nod my head in response. There's a tension in the air that we are both hyper-aware of.

"Would pizza be okay?"

"Sure," I say, trying to keep my voice as level as possible.

"Okay," Isa says, "and um, maybe we can have a movie night or something?"

I pause then.

A few days ago I wanted little to nothing to do with Isa. But turns out, she's apparently not as bad as I originally thought.

Isa is looking at me in anticipation, awaiting my response.

"Sure," I finally say, trying to sound as if Isa and I hanging out is the most normal thing ever, "just no horror movies."