-1-

When the bell rang, Amber wasted no time taking off down the hall. The decision to skip her next class was an easy one considering that she had already hit her sitting-in-class-with-Haddie's-eyes-burning-into-the-back-of-my-skull limit for the day, so she threw her stuff in her locker, slammed it shut and slipped outside. Discovering that her cigarette pack was empty she swore and threw it across the parking lot. And then she saw him, the reason behind the current life-altering drama in her life, the one thing she couldn't get out of her head, the one person she wanted to see and didn't want to see all at once. Steve.

He was on the far side of the lot, underneath an enormous Elm, leaning against its trunk and staring at her. As if her feet had minds of their own, Amber found herself walking towards him. He noticed her but didn't react, obviously afraid that if he moved too soon he might scare her away. She looked at him and tried to convince herself that she didn't like him, that he really was nothing more than a huge mistake. A momentary lapse of judgment she told herself, one that will NEVER happen again. Once she got close enough, he made his move. Steve took her hand in his and sent waves of electricity from her fingertips to her toes. She thought of that night.

"Amber, please. I can't stop thinking about you. I feel like a jerk but I can't just let it go." His bangs fell into his eyes and it took all of her strength not to move closer to push them out of the way.

"Steve. It was mistake. I've told you this a thousand times," she inhaled "it was a mistake."

"Why? Why is such a mistake for us to be together? Because I met Haddie first? She led me to you, Amber." He squeezed her hand then, almost in a way of silently begging her to understand.

"I don't like you like that," she lied pathetically. "I'm sorry I just-I can't. I can't" She was crying then, and cursing herself for not being able to hold it in.

"Amber," he looked her dead in the eyes. "I'm falling for you. And I know you feel the same way. You can't lie to me. You can't. Stop lying."

"Oh, God damn it, Steve. She my COUSIN. And you're…you're you. Why do you have to be you?" And then her arms were around his neck, and she was kissing him hard on the mouth. He pushed her backwards so she was leaning against the tree and tangled one hand in her hair, the other hand resting on her lower back. She thought she might be dying from kissing him, that's how good it felt. She closed her eyes and saw him the way he was that night, the way he was now. She felt him, the way she had on the floor of that gazebo. She had been with other guys of course, but he was the best. His slipped his tongue into her mouth and that was it. She lost herself completely in him, tangled up in the way he made her feel.

"Take me to your car." And he picked her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, still kissing her and headed to his car.

-2-

Haddie was bored. Chemistry had to be the most boring class ever especially now that she and Amber weren't laughing their way through it together anymore. Where was she, anyway? She had seen Rachel Krueger shove her into a locker earlier and she had been in English after that so Haddie knew that Amber was definitely in school today. And it's not like Amber skipping was a huge surprise or anything. But Haddie still wondered where her cousin might have gone. A little piece of her was even a little bit worried before she remembered that the stupid bitch she was worrying about slept with her ex boyfriend a week ago.

Haddie sighed. The whole situation sucked and honestly she was starting to miss Amber. Yes, she was still heated, and justifiably so, but she was still starting to miss her cousin. Maybe I should just get over it and make peace. I mean she's family; we can't stay mad at each other forever. She thought to herself. I'll talk to her after school and we'll be friends again and then we can finally watch that movie she was telling me about."

Feeling better about the whole thing, but still not even remotely interest in ions or whatever her teacher was talking about, Haddie stared out the window. She saw a couple kissing underneath the big Elm by the tennis courts. She sighed again, wishing she had someone to kiss. And then she realized something that made her bolt up, seething.

"Stupid whore." She muttered under her breath, staring at Amber with her legs wrapped around Steve's waist and heading to the side of the school that he parked on every day. They disappeared around the corner of the building and Haddie declared war in her head and forced herself to focus on ions, so she wouldn't have to decide what made her angrier: her cousin deceiving her again, or how in love they had looked together.