Created By

mitchy8125

Rate this Story

Embed

Love, hope and tragedy.
Chapter two.

“If you’re still in love with me, why did you split up with me?” Jamie questioned, sitting down opposite Amber on the dining table. He stared at her unreadable face over the damp leather jacket in between them.
“I don’t know,” Amber answered, watching the wall behind him rather than at him. She couldn’t bear to make eye contact.
“Oh, c’mon,” Jamie said sceptically, “There’s got to be a reason.”
“I don’t know,” Amber repeated, but this time her voice was shuddering with emotions, “Sometimes - sometimes I feel like calling you, but I can’t get myself to. And sometimes I feel like - feel like kissing you but I can’t bear to stand next to you.”
“Oh, so basically, you broke up with me because you hate me,” Jamie said with a tinge of impatience in his tone.
“I didn’t say that,” Amber said. She had finally managed to stare into his luminous green eyes - which somehow made an impulsive charge of cold air rush through her body.
“Okay then,” Jamie said, getting up from the dining chair and looking down at her with his clenched fists pressed against the table, “What exactly did you mean by that then?”
“I’m just saying,” She paused to think of the proper words to say, “Saying that I think we just need to take a break. At least until I think I’m ready for you.”
“Oh, yeah, I get it now,” Jamie said, rolling his eyes, “Apparently, I’m too good for you.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Amber said, now annoyed. She stood up from her chair too so they were almost touching noses, “I meant until I think I know what I want.” At this, Jamie took a step back.
“So you just decided to throw away everything that we had, just because you didn’t think you could cope.” There was a brief pause.
“You could put it like that.”
“You know what. Let’s just forget about this. Everything. I’m not going to want a girl if I don’t even know wants me,” Jamie said, trying to keep his voice level. He grabbed his leather jacket from the table, which was still drenched, and headed for the front door.
“No,” Amber said curtly, just before Jamie had reached the kitchen door, “Please, stay.”
“Why?” He queried, not turning around to face her.
“Because,” Amber said, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. In truth, she didn’t know exactly why she wanted him to stay.
“Because what?” Jamie asked, wanting an adequate answer. Amber, staring at his back expressionlessly, said the first but true answer that entered her mind.
“Because,” Amber started, “I’ve missed you.” Another uncomfortable silence engulfed them, this one longer than the last. Jamie, who didn’t trust himself to speak, turned around to focus on the watery eyes of his ex-girlfriend. Judging by her appearance, he guessed she was going through a great effort to stop herself from crying. They stood there statically, staring upon each other when he decided to break the silence.
“Strange. A few seconds ago, you said you couldn’t stand me,” Jamie said smoothly, taking a step forward.
“And I also said -,” Amber began, only to be interrupted - by Jamie’s lips pressing against hers.
At first, Amber didn’t know what was happening, but once she found out, she attempted to pull away. Although, when she tried, she couldn’t. Her eyes closed firmly, she laid her hands upon his hair, not caring whatsoever that it was still wet.
A great deal of thoughts seemed to dash through her mind at light speed, all of which she choose to pay no attention to. It wasn’t until she placed her hands in his back pockets did she realise exactly what she was doing.
Seizing her hands back and using them to shove Jamie away, she said, “I can’t believe I just did that.” She noticed that her voice seemed to shudder, and then she realised she was on the verge of tears. Jamie, who was breathing slightly loudly as if he was a whole lot more baffled on what had just happened, continued to stare at her tearful expression. But as soon as he noticed that another discomfited silence was to encircle them, he said, rather unsteadily, “I should go.” And the moment Amber had processed what he had said; he had already darted for the door, wrenched it open and rushed out into the bitter rainfall.

                                                               *

“So, how was your day, honey?” Tyler’s mother asked, looking at him from across the table with a large smile on her face. Tyler, who was picking apathetically at his food, looked up at his mother with an air of bewilderment.
“Since when do you ask that?”
“What? Can’t a mother ask how her son’s day went?” She asked, her voice a little high pitched. Tyler turned his gaze back to his plate and continued to pick at his food, all the while saying, “It was okay. Nothing special.”
“’Kay,” She said, “And how about yours, Jamie?”
She looked to her right, where her youngest son was sitting.
“Yeah, Jamie, how exactly was your day?” Tyler questioned, dropping his fork onto his plate with a loud clatter. His voice had changed somehow, from fully uninterested to fully formal.
“Er, it was all right,” Jamie answered. His eyes were on his older brother rather than his mother.
“Let’s get a proper conversation going on,” Tyler insisted, his voice a touch quizzical.
His mother and Jamie, both abandoning their dinner, stared at Tyler as if he had said something a lot more baffling.
“What?” Jamie asked, his eyebrows raised to such a height that it almost disappeared into his hair.
“Family conversation. C’mon. Let’s talk,” Tyler grinned, pushing his plate away and crossing his arms on the dining table, “Have you guys ever watched The Simpsons? My favourite character is that old woman. What’s her name again … Andy … Angie … Amber?”
Jamie, whose jaw suddenly dropped, asked, “Where are you going with this?”
“Oh, Amber! That’s it!”
“Isn’t it Agnes?” Jamie rectified, gazing attentively at Tyler’s deceitful smile.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t. Anyway, let’s move on. What’s your favourite colour?” Tyler asked, still wearing a fraudulent smile on his face and keeping his arms crossed on the dining table, “Mine is Amber.”
“Mom,” Jamie nearly yelled, standing up from the chair, “I’ve lost my appetite.” He took one final glance down at his mother, who had on an extremely puzzled expression, and then marched out of the room. A small pause followed after Jamie shut the kitchen door a little harder than he expected to.
“What, er, was all that about?” Tyler’s mother asked. She turned her head to face Tyler, who shrugged, carrying a fake, perplexed appearance. He then continued to eat his food, as if nothing had happened.
Jamie strode up the stairs in total darkness, his head throbbing painfully as if he had been punched continuously. He wondered, impotently, if his older brother knew about Amber, and if he did, how he’d found out. As he walked through the narrow first floor hallway, lightning flickered across his face, making his stunning, green eyes twinkle. A low rumble followed afterwards, one barely audible.
He entered a room to his left and, smiling at the bedroom before him, he toddled over to where his bed was and plunged himself on top of it. Although he wasn’t at all drowsy, before long, he wondered off into a deep sleep.

                                                               *

Sunday went by somewhat quickly, a day in which Tyler struggled to get Jamie to speak about his outside life. Evidently, he failed and Jamie began to wonder even more if his older brother knew about his ex-girlfriend. Monday morning came into view after a little while, and with it came even more rain, lightning and thunder. This time round, it was nothing compared to Saturday’s weather. The rain was a lot more brutal and the thunder, a lot more deafening.
Tyler watched the rain lash hard against the car window as he sat in the passenger seat. He and Jamie, who was sitting in the back seat, were being driven to school by their mother. It was a shock to know that the school was still open - because it was regularly closed on days similar to this one. Tyler had always thought it was because the teachers were truanting.
“I don’t get why we have to go to school,” Jamie said from the backseat.
"Because i care about your education," Their mother said, her tone deeper than usual, yet hardly audible because of the sound of rain hitting violently against the car roof.
“And your taking a risk, you are. You can barely see outside the windshield.” Turning his head, Tyler noticed that what Jamie had said was true. He could scarcely see outside the windshield because of the rain, even when the windscreen wipers were on full speed.
“I can see perfectly well, thank you.” Tyler couldn’t help but let loose a little snigger.
In a few minutes, they arrived safely outside the outsized building of Shipley High. Unlocking the car doors and jumping out, they bade their mother goodbye and dashed up to the school through the implacable rain.
It took them pretty much around five minutes to reach the entrance. And once they tucked themselves away into the shelter of the school, relief washed over them - and fortuitously, one that didn’t make them wetter than they already were.
“I’ll see yah later, Tyler,” Jamie said, walking away from him and waving. Tyler noticed that his younger brother’s hair was absolutely soaked and dripping water everywhere - and then detected that everyone else’s were too. His own hair was one of the few that were water free - he had avoided it by defending himself with his jacket.
Looking around, he gasped at the number of students in the Main Hall. Because of the storm outside, everybody had leapt into the school to shelter themselves, as a result, making the school more packed than on a regular start of school day - for the reason that everybody would normally be outside, bathing in the warmth at a this time. But on the bright side, lessons had not started yet - but the bell was to ring at any second.
No matter how much Tyler searched, he couldn’t find his two best friends. He decided to walk into the crowd, which turned out to be a bad idea since it was jam-packed. After looking non-stop and failing for what felt like around five minutes, he choose to stop searching and later found himself strolling up a long corridor to his classroom.
Once he reached the end of the corridor, he didn’t go through the door in front of him, but through a door to the right - his science classroom - which was the first subject on his timetable. Walking in, he watched the empty classroom before him. No one was there - not even their teacher, Mrs. Abigail, who was usually always there on a morning. He took a few more steps, heading for his usual seat at the back, when he saw one of his two best.
Luke was leaning on his chair, sitting on his usual desk that he shared with Tyler.
“Hey,” Tyler greeted, walking up to him and taking the seat beside him. Luke, who hadn’t noticed that Tyler had walked in, looked up at where the unidentified voice had come from. Immediately after he saw him, he grinned and took off his earphones, saying “Hello.”
“What were you listening to?” Tyler asked, selecting that subject out of the rest he had stored in his mind.
“Listen,” Luke said, handing Tyler one of the earphones. He stuck it in his left ear as Luke fixed it in his right, and listened to the song. After a minute, he took it off and nodded, “Good tune.”
“Good tune?” Luke said, astonished, “The tunes incredible!
“Okay, whatever you say.” Luke chuckled quietly. Taking off his rucksack, Tyler rummaged through it, trying to find his science book and a pen. Once he had obtained them, dumped them onto the desk, put his bag beside his chair and looked back at Luke, he was greeted to a stagger.
     Luke was kissing him.