Don’t make it look so pretty burning.

The colours thrashed violently around her head as she whipped her back in time with the ruthless beat of the music. Her body, senselessly twisting and turning, moving in sync with anyone she can get her perfectly tarnished fingers on. Her eyes, they’re empty and cold and her once angelically white blonde hair is now streaked with magenta and crimson as it sticks to her head. Sweat ran in rivers down her face, and smeared her already running make-up.

The lights flashed around the over-crowed club, catching the smoke and lighting it up as it danced in the air. The alcohol raced through her blood and crashed around her head as spun again and colours exploded behind her eyelids. Moments and movements bled together, senses slowing down and grinding to a shuddering halt around her.

And he's hypnotized. Transfixed by the way she's rolling her hips in the intense way, and blinking her huge blue eye, now marred with smudged make-up.

He's moving his feet before he realises it, like a man possessed. He thinks he must be, to fall for her all over again, to get caught in her web. But he didn't care, he knew he was going to be eaten alive and he didn't fight it. He wanted it.

Her eyes fluttered upwards to meet him as he neared, looking up at his face behind long eyelashes. Oh god, she was smiling at him now. That cocky, self-assured smirk. And he was paralysed.

"Jeph." Her voice struck a chord in him. It had been way to long since the sound and it had changed too much. It hurt to hear.

What happened to that girl that he once knew?

When did her smile become so fake and plastic? When did her voice become so hollow? To everyone else she’s happy he expects. To the world around her she’s just another student, out to have a good time, she’s just happy. She always was the perfect liar. And he was always the only one who could she straight through them.

"Lils…"

But she wouldn't listen to him; she wouldn't let him finish what he was going to say. She didn't spend all that time practically slaving over those walls for him to break them down with a few words.

Instead she silenced him in the only way she knew how to.

Her palms flat against his chest, and then she kissed him harshly. Her lips pressed hard against his, almost bruising the delicate skin there. But he didn't resist. He was too intoxicated with her too do anything but pull her harder against him and kiss her back even harder.

He was lost in her, only registering they had even moved at all when he felt an icy bead of rain bleed down onto his forehead and run smoothly onto the fevered skin of his neck.

It sent a shiver running down his spine and he pulled back from her, but never once letting her free. The fingers of his right hand gripped tight around her left wrist. He was almost sure that he'd leave a mark from the force. But he didn't loosen up.

He need to make sure that she stayed this time. He needed to make sure that she didn't turn and run. He wouldn't let that happen for a second time. Not when he still bore the scars from the first.

"Let go Jeph." Her voice was almost threatening now. But still he didn't give in. His grip only tightened further as tears burned in his throat.

"I can't." His own voice was choked, and almost unrecognisable to him.

How did she do that to him? How did she get so under his skin? The way that no one else had ever been able to do.

She looked back up at him again; with those same huge blue eyes that sent him spinning. This time he looked at her again, up close. She was more burnt out than he thought at his first look.

"What's wrong Lils?" He asked her, his thumb now tracing soft circles on his wrist as he held it.

She didn't answer him, instead kept her gaze fixed firmly to the ground they were stood on. The rain coming down heavier now, but neither of them cared enough to make a move.

"Lily…" He used her full name. He never did that. Not since they were 4. But he was using it now and it made her cringe inside. It was too much of a reminder of who she used to be. "What happened to you?"

A short, bitter laugh escaped her throat and sensing his moment of weakness yanked her hand from his. He didn't even try to stop her. He had given up.

"Fuck you Jepha!" She almost screamed at him, eyes full of fire, "You don't get to come in here and tell me what to do. Shit, you don't fucking own me. You don't know me anymore."

She started to walk away from him and he didn't even try to go after her. She was right, everything she had said was right. And the truth hurt way more than he had though it would.

"Oh and Jeph…" She turned back around to face him for a brief second, "Don't come back."

And she was gone.

She was falling and he knew it. Killing her self ever so painfully slowly, but she couldn’t stop. She was addicted to the feeling, and he couldn’t blame her for that. He knew how good it felt to drown in the flames.

But she did with more style and grace than he had ever seen before. And if she this was her burning; she made the flames look so pretty. And he wanted to fall with her.