"Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell."
- Joan Crawford

A scream erupted out of the woman's agape mouth as she hurled forward on the bed, her grip on his husband's hand was twice the amount needed to break all of the man's fingers. The man's eyes bulged out with the small pupils as he shocked back his own pain of pain. The nurses quickly got to work cutting the inimical cord and cleaning the newborn baby who was making his presence known to the world.

That's me and I was born with heartburn.

The nurse who had cleaned the child was now rocking the baby while wrapping him in a pastel-blue blanket. That is until a flash of red flared before his eyes made the nurse's eyes go wide in terror. Flames came from his skin, lighting the baby on fire.

No, literally. My heart ran 100 degrees too hot.

The baby's mother, father, and standby nurse looked in shock as well. The nurse quickly strung to action and left the delivery room only to return with a tube of water and a bag of ice. Quickly they dunked the newborn—thankfully he did not sustain any trauma from this action.

***

I have to wear my conditioner patch at all times.

The child, now a young adult, bottoms up a white shirt. The skin near his heart is red and looks as though lava is burning the skin under his heart. An ice-looking patch is placed in the middle, making the perimeter of it his normal, tan skin tone.

It's meant to keep the temperature down.

Oh, and there are rules too..

Don't get too excited.

Control my anger.

But most importantly...

I can—

NEVER fall in love.

But that was all before I saw...

her...

She was sitting on a blanket, reading a book. I guess she heard me because she looked up. My heart jumped and told me to hide so I looked around before jumping behind a tree and a couple of bushes.

My jump was a little too high and I ended up grabbing a hold to a weak branch. I held on for dear life praying to the God that created me the way that she didn't notice me.

From the view, I had a good perspective to watch her—not that I was being weird about it. She went back to reading the book in her hands. A lazy smile could not help but burst onto my face, but then I heard a snap, and it quickly turned into a frown of worry.

"Oh no."

The branch broke off and my body made a thud as I hit the soft ground. I hid behind the trunk of the tree and dared only a single peek at the girl. My breathing was erratic as I tried to catch it. I took a deep breath before letting it go with a heavy sigh.

I looked down at my heart. A coral color could be seen through my white button up and the color was turning a darker shade of red.

I stood up, my hands fumbling around my pants as I tried to locate my back pocket. My eyes were glued to my shirt which had small smoke deposited sizzling out of the breast pocket.

My thermometer—which is a pocket watching looking device that helps me tell what my temperature is. I had finally found it and brought it out into my view. It was getting higher, passing 130 and 140 degrees!

I took a few more deep breaths, trying to calm my burning heart. Out of curiosity or maybe turning to distract myself I turned my attention back to the girl and her book. Her blanket was there and so was her book, but the girl was gone.

Where did she go!?

I turned around only to come face to face with the girl. She was standing akimbo, with her hands on her hips. Her face was in a resting position, if not a flight frown as she sort of tilted her head. Her eyes held no emotion as she looked sort of annoyed. She could probably see the red spot on my shirt but she did not react at all.

It explored in flames as I smiled, all my teeth showed this time. Some might describe it as an awkward smile, but I don't remember because I just stood there, behind my heart on fire.