Hey guys! This is in response to Elledreamer's challenge: Random Words. The words, sump, shrub, bassoon, fake tan, transubstantiation, wormhole, kilt, trifle, helium and Rear Admiral all had to be included. It's not an overly good one-shot, but I was bored and in need of a distraction, so enjoy!
Oh and I do not own Alpha Force, hangman or ten of the words that inspired this one-shot :D
Amber sat back on the banana lounge and thought. Not about anything much in particular, simply about where her life was at this moment in time. Looking around at her friends, she couldn't imagine a happier place. Or could she? She often had this thought and it often disturbed her. Particularly today.
She stood up and walked inside, watching her friends muck about in her backyard swimming pool as she closed the screen door behind her. The sudden rush of the air-conditioning was cool against her skin.
She had invited her friends to stay over the brief Easter break but now felt that she would rather be alone. She heard Li's voice from outside and reluctantly opened the door to hear her.
"What're you doing Amber?" Li shouted from the poolside.
"Just... getting a magazine to read," Amber responded pathetically.
She raced upstairs and grabbed a magazine – something girly that might take her mind off things. She slowly trod downstairs where the rest of Alpha Force was waiting for her, wrapped in beach towels.
"No Li! You must savour the moment!" Paulo held something in his hands up high out of Li's reach; Li bounced up and down below him in attempt to reach it.
Amber glanced at them, confused.
"Paulo's Mechanic Monthly just arrived," Hex explained sarcastically as he sat on the nearby dining chair. Amber sat down next to him.
"Actually it's called An Essential Guide for the Budding Mechanic," Paulo said, completely missing Hex's sarcasm. "I had my Dad send it over from Argentina."
Li scoffed, "What's in there anyway? 101 ways to avoid cracking a sump? Or is it just pictures of bikini-clad girls on the back of the car posters?" Li glared up at him.
"Now why would I waste my money on pictures of bikini-clad girls when I can see you for free?" Paulo waggled his eyebrows.
Li whacked him over the head. She went and sat down next to Amber and casually took the magazine from its place on the table and flicked to a random page.
"Well... it's better than Amber's," she glanced at her friend, "The Best Way to Fake Tan??" She said incredulously, "Really Amber, I thought you had more substance than that!" Li laughed.
"It's just a stupid magazine," Amber snapped, taking the magazine back off Li.
Hex gently placed his hand over Amber's, "Are you ok?" he asked quietly.
She looked down at the table, "No," she answered – almost silently – and made to walk upstairs, "Don't follow me," she added as she turned to leave.
She sat on her bed – somewhere in between bursting out into tears and punching something. Then she heard a knock at the door, "I thought I told you..." She was cut off as Hex opened the door and sat down beside her own the bed.
"Amber, talk to me," he said without a hint of push or sarcasm. Amber glanced at the photo of her parents on her bedside table and said, "Five years..." She couldn't bring herself to say the rest of the sentence, how do you put something like that into words? Oh, yeah, and Hex? It's the five year anniversary of my parent's death?
"I know," Hex said as he wrapped his arms around her.
Typical, thought Amber, he knows more about me than I do. Of course he would know.
"You can talk about it, you know," he whispered into her ear.
She, somewhat reluctantly, pulled away from him, "I know... I know," she said distantly.
"Hey!" Hex said suddenly, she turned to him in surprise, "I've got an idea," he continued, "I'll tell you something you don't know about me, you tell me something that's on your mind, deal?"
Amber smiled, "Deal, you first," she grinned.
"Ok, ummm..." Hex seemed stumped for a moment, "I played the bassoon in fourth grade," he said. Amber couldn't help but laugh. Hex smiled too, how he loved that laugh. He turned to look at her properly. She sighed.
"I dunno, Hex, sometimes I just feel so distant from them. But then other times it's like they're right there," she didn't know how to explain it.
"Like even though they're a universe away, sometimes it feels like there's a wormhole opening close by just for you to travel through to be with them again," Hex said.
Amber smiled slightly at his geeky interpretation of her thoughts, "Yeah, something like that," a pause, "Your turn," she said brightly.
"Is there anything you particularly want to know?" he queried.
Yes, Amber immediately thought, but there's no way I'm asking him that!
"What does your dad do?" she asked quickly to cover the silence.
Hex answered quickly, "He's a Rear Admiral in the British Navy."
Amber was more than a little surprised by this, but she didn't ask any more questions.
"You know, Hex, I'm not usually so depressing about this... I guess it's just because it's today and everything..." She glanced up at him.
"I know," he smiled.
Meanwhile...
"Tran...sub...stan...tia...tion," Li read, "That is so not a word!"
"Is too," Alex said, "Look it up,"
"Fine!"
Li left to find a dictionary.
Paulo laughed, "I think you won," he said to Alex.
Alex picked up the remains of their hangman game and threw the paper into the recycling bin. "I wonder what's up with Amber," he wondered aloud.
"I think that Hex will cheer her up," Paulo said at his side.
"I've got it!" Li said entering the room, "...Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine of Communion... Ok, so it is a word...you win!" she said, annoyed.
"Would you like to play again?" Paulo asked her.
"No!" Li shouted and stormed into the backyard.
"I think her ego may be a trifle bruised," Alex said, "Come on, let's go play some table tennis," and with that, they followed Li outside.
Amber pulled the large yellow photo album from underneath her bed. She opened it, resting it between her and Hex's legs.
Hex looked at photo upon photo of the Amber he'd never met. She'd obviously travelled a lot. There was her in Scotland, the gorgeous green shrub in the background gave it away, that and the fact that her father was wearing a kilt. Her mother was smiling broadly – Amber couldn't have been more than six in the photo.
There she was in Hawaii, bright pink lei worn around her neck. In London, all rugged up in a stroller being pushed along by her smiling parents. They looked just like any other family.
Hex looked up at Amber who was no longer looking at the photos; she was carefully watching Hex's reaction to each picture. "Is it my turn again?" he asked.
Not waiting for an answer he said, "I once wrote an essay on the placement on Helium in the Periodic Table to prove to my science teacher that I wasn't illiterate."
Amber smiled, and then punched him playfully on the arm. "Trust you to ruin the moment," Amber smiled.
"I wasn't aware there was a moment," Hex said, confused.
"Typical," Amber muttered.
She lay down on the bed, Hex followed suit.
"You know, Hex, as much as I want my parents back, I wonder," she twirled her hair around her fingers, "if they were still here, I'd have never have met you... guys" she added hastily, "though I'd really love for them to meet you," Hex noticed she didn't add guys to the end this time.
They sat in silence for a while, just staring at one another, as if daring the other to say what they knew was on their mind.
"Guys! Antidisestablishmentarianism is most definitely not a word, right!!" Li barged into the room, holding the dictionary, frustratingly flipping through its many pages.
Amber and Hex sat bolt upright, blushing slightly. Li backed out of the room, "Sorry!" she whispered.
A pause.
"Now even I could see that that was a moment," Hex grinned.
Hope you liked it, let me know! I may even write some more AF fiction :P
I think I may have been cheating with the whole "hangman" thing. Lol. Anyway it wasn't meant to be too angsty or anything, so I hope you didn't take it that way! Lepi xo.