Amber’s POV

“Krystal.”

Jessica snaps her head up as soon as she heard me say Krystal’s name. I take a long glance at Krystal’s face, but I can’t quite decipher what her look is. It’s either disbelief, sadness, or disappointment. Whatever it is, it’s not good. I stand up from the sofa and slowly make my way towards Krystal. However, I stop when she puts her hand up.

“Don’t.” She says shakily. “Don’t come near me.”

“But…” She puts her hand up again.

“I trusted you.” Krystal said with a small, quiet voice. “I’m so stupid.”

“No, you’re not.” I said softly.

“I told you my life story. My secrets. I told you everything about myself, and this is what you do? Did you ever plan on telling me about this? Did you ever plan about telling me that you found my sister?”

I feel my heart clench at the tone of her voice. She sounds so broken, and it’s all my fault. I’m the stupid one here.

“Of course I planned on telling you. I just didn’t know when and how.”

“Yeah, whatever.” She scoffed while wiping a tear that managed to escape from her eye. “I can’t even look at you right now. So here take this.”

She throws my jacket, the one that I gave her earlier when we walked together, in front of me and I bend down to pick it up. Before Krystal walks out the door, she takes a quick glance at Jessica and then turns around to walk out of the house. I put my jacket on the armrest of the sofa before taking a seat.

I feel a headache coming from all this drama and I massage my temple with my fingers. Since when did my life become this complicated?

“I’m sorry.” Jessica says shortly. I totally forgot that she was still here for a second.

I let out a deep sigh, trying to think of something to say. “It’s okay. She was going to find out anyways, whether I tell her or not.”

“I know, but I still feel bad. You guys were friends, really good friends from what I saw, and I ruined that. I’m really sorry Amber.” She apologizes sincerely.

“It’s okay. I can still fix it.” Well, I hope I can still fix it.

The door opens again and my mom comes stumbling through the door with bags of groceries.

“Amber! A little help here?” She asks sarcastically and it looks like she’s about to pass out.

I jump up from the sofa and grab the bags of groceries to put them in the kitchen. My mom was about to walk into the kitchen when she realizes that there was another person in the house with us.

“Jessica? What are you doing here? We don’t have a meeting today.” My mom says, confused.

Jessica lets out a small chuckle. “I know, Mrs. Liu. I just came here to ask Amber about something. But I think I should leave now. It’s getting dark.”

“Oh, are you sure? I brought home dinner. You should stay.” My mom says. I walk back into the living room and throw my arm around her shoulder.

“Mom, isn’t it obvious? Jessica doesn’t like us. Let her go home.” I said jokingly. My mom slaps me lightly on the side of my head.

Jessica shoots me a playful glare. “That’s not it Mrs. Liu. It’s just that I cooked before I came here so I have food at home and I’m already tired from work today.”

“Oh okay. I guess we can have dinner next time Jessica.” My mom says with a tinge of disappointment.

“Of course Mrs. Liu. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.” Jessica bows and waves. She turns to walk to the front door when I jog over to open the door for her.

As she was about to walk out, I stop her for a second. “I’ll talk to her and I’ll try to convince her to listen to your side of the story.” I say softly.

She turns her head towards me and gives me a big smile. “Thank you Amber. Thank you so much.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Now go home. Stay safe.”

She walks out the door, but then turns around to give me a small wave. I close the door and make my way into the kitchen.

It’s been a week since Krystal came to my house and saw me and Jessica. I tried texting her, calling her, hell, I even tried sending emails. She hasn’t showed up to school since last week, and I’m really worried. She was number one in the school, but since she missed all these days of school, her grades have dropped.

The bell rung and I was snapped out of my thoughts. All of my classmates rush out of the classroom and I didn’t even realize that it was already the end of the day. I packed all of my things into my book bag and was about to walk out the class when the teacher stops me.

“Hey Amber. Can I talk to you for a quick second?” The teacher says while wiping the lesson off the chalkboard with the eraser.

“Um, yeah sure.” I say, confused as to why she wants to talk to me.

“I was wondering if you knew why Krystal hasn’t been showing up to school. Is she sick? Personal problems? She’s just such a bright student and I don’t want her to fail her classes just because she hasn’t been attending classes?”

“I think she hasn’t been feeling well lately. But I’m planning on visiting her after school to check up on her. I’ll try to get her to come to school.”

“Oh okay. Thank you Amber. Tell Krystal that I miss having her in my class and to come back soon.”

“Will do. Have a good day.” I said to the teacher and walk out of the classroom. I make my way to the front gate of the school, thinking if I should just go home or keep my word and go visit Krystal.

 I decided to go with the second choice.

I finally reach her house after ten minutes of walking in this ridiculously cold weather. I bring my hands up to my mouth, blowing hot air into them hoping to warm them up. I lift my right hand up and press on her doorbell for about two seconds, then taking a step back to wait for her to open the door. After three minutes and still freezing my off, I rang the doorbell again. After getting no answer again, I just decided to bang on the door.

“KRYSTAL! OPEN UP! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE.” I shouted loudly with frustration. After that didn’t work, I decided to do it the hard way, and it’s pretty much the only way to get into her house.

I take a long look at the tall tree that just happened to be rooted conveniently right in next to a window that I could only hope belongs to her. After saying a quick prayer asking not to die today, I throw my book bag on the ground and walk over to the tree. I jump as high as I can to reach one of the branches of the tree. After getting ahold of the branch, I pull myself up to the tree.

I slowly make my way up the tree, and I’m shocked when I finally get near enough to Krystal’s window so that I can climb in. I expected her window to be locked and that I would have to break it to get in, but I’m surprised when it opens as soon as I pull it up. I guess I have to lecture her later on home safety.

Her room is dark and it looks like she’s not here. I guess I did all this for nothing. Letting out a deep sigh of frustration, I run my cold, numb fingers through my hair.

A PANG sounded loudly in the dark room as I felt something hard hit me in the head. The next thing I know, I feel my body hit the ground painfully as I look up to see who had just hit me.

Krystal. Krystal with a desk lamp that’s still plugged into the outlet on the wall.

“Oh my gosh. Amber! What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were a burglar or a .” She exclaimed as she bends down to check on me. I feel my head throbbing painfully and I see the room start to spin.

“I came here to talk to you.” This was the last thing I say before everything just goes black.

Oh my gosh! Poor Amber. But I'm so so so sorry for not updating. School has been taking over my life lately. But I'm back with this update and I'll try to update again soon and more frequently because now I'm not as busy anymore. But thank you for subscribing, voting, and commenting. It means a lot. Let me know what you guys think. I'll see all of you beautiful people soon :)