My entry to Winkmepink's Writing Challenge! Sorry it's such a late entry... But here ya go wink! :D I hope you like it! (All in Amber's POV.)

"Alfie! You don't need to help me with my bags, I'm not completely hopeless, you know!" Amber scolded him as she snatched a piece of luggage from his hands. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that by taking it she now held two cases in hand which made her fall forward from the weight.

Amber struggled to lift them up and onto their wheels once more, but Alfie handled that. He grabbed the luggage from her hand and steadied her with the other hand. She looked up at him with a glare.

"Amber, are you sure you don't need help? You nearly fell over just a moment ago," Alfie said.

"I'm fine, thank you!" she argued, attempting to raise the handle of the luggage that had chosen that exact moment to be stuck. Alfie rolled his eyes, shooed away her hand, and lifted it up.

"I could have done that myself," Amber grumbled as she dragged the luggage behind her. She reached the lifts and pressed the button to go up, tapping her high-heeled foot against the soft, luxurious, Renaissance-themed hotel carpet as she waited.

"Amber, why are you so mad today? Is it a full moon or something?" Alfie asked, raising an eyebrow. His eyes widened as he seemed to realize something. "Oh no! You're angry because the aliens are coming for you!" He waved his fingers in front of her face with a joking look in his eye.

"Oh, stop!" Amber said, smacking his hands to the side. "That doesn't even make sense! And I thought you were done with that alien nonsense back in school."

"I was and am. But I can't joke about it as we remember old times?" he said, giving a wistful smile as they remembered the great years of school with their friends.

"No, you can't," Amber mumbled, turning away with sadness pooling in her eyes. She did not want to think about her old school days, it was too painful.

After those mysteries and adventures with Nina and Patricia, they were practically her sisters . . . Even though Joy and Mara had not really been involved with the mystery, she still got to hang out with them when Fabina was off doing whatever, and those times with Joy and Mara were really fun. It had been like the time before Nina was there, and even though Amber did not regret meeting her BAF, it was nice to hang out with Mara and Joy like old times and have a brooding Patricia in the background. She never realized how much she would miss everyone until it happened.

And the boys of the house . . . they had left empty holes in her heart as each person left. Eddie-well, truth be told, she did not miss him that much. He and Patricia had stayed in contact with Amber for a few years after school ended and the two had actually gotten engaged. But now Eddie moved to the country in the States and of course Patricia was coming along, but Amber had yet to hear from her on how the move went.

Mick: she had such history with him, but he was only a friend now. And Amber didn't mind that, because he only felt like a brother to her now. After Australia, he had moved to some county, or was it country?, in North America for football, the English football. He had said he lived in Los Angeles, which made her deduce that he lived in a county in California.

She kind of missed him, and that bracelet he gave her that day. He had ended up giving it back to her when he came back, saying that there were too many memories to keep it or to give it to someone else. Amber had been secretly glad to have it back, and always wore it around her wrist after school had ended.

Fabian-Amber didn't miss him that much, since Nina still talked to her and he frequently said hi whenever she and Nina were on the phone. He and Nina had gotten together, as Amber had always predicted would happen, and lived in Liverpool together as both went to university to study whatever it was they studied. But now, because they were so busy with their studies, Amber rarely heard from them unless they were on holiday from school or if she went and visited them herself. Though it was nice that Fabina was together forever, she really ached to hang out with them again.

Jerome . . . well, she didn't really miss him that much. Though they didn't always get along, Amber would never forget his pranks and obsession of money and how he had paired her with Alfie for Donkey Day just to annoy her. Sometimes, Amber would look over her shoulder as if expecting to see him barreling down the corridor with Alfie behind him as they ran from the scene of their latest prank, but it never happened.

Alfie moved to Manhattan, in a district known as Harlem, while Amber moved to central Manhattan, near the city, to begin to study fashion. And because of his closeness, she didn't miss him that much. Mainly because he always came over at least once a week to her apartment after finished with university classes. He actually had gotten into a university, which had surprised Amber. It sounded mean to say, yes, but they both knew that he had not had the best grades so it was a surprise that he was able to go to university. They had stayed friends but nothing more after school, and Amber did not want it any other way.

Sure, they had tried dating a little in school, but it didn't really work so they broke up. Simple. Easy. Nothing wrong with that. He seemed to be unaffected by it, apparently he was okay since they had tried being together and it was better to try and fail than to never try at all, right?

"Amber, you alright? Amber?" Alfie was waving a hand in front of her face and looking panicked that she was staring into space and not saying anything.

Amber blinked as she returned to reality and out of her thoughts. "What? Yes, I'm fine! Ugh, what is taking this lift so long? I mean, we've been waiting-" A ding came from the wall, and the silver doors of the lift opened. "Thank you," Amber huffed, walking into the lift with her case.

Thankfully, it was a short trip to the twenty-seventh floor of the building where her flat lay. She saw one of her neighbors unlocking her door, a sweet old woman named Marie Miller, and Amber waved in hello. The woman was so kind to Amber, the least she could do was wave to her. Mrs. Miller waved in reply and went into her own home as Amber dug around her purse for the keys to the flat. When she found it, she gripped it between her fingers tightly to make sure it did not fall as she inserted it into the lock. She turned it, happy to hear the click, and took it out of the lock. Before her hand could reach the door's handle, Alfie's hand appeared out of nowhere and opened it for her.

"Thanks," she muttered under her breath. Amber dragged the luggage through her door with Alfie following behind her. He propped the cases against the wall, and sighed.

"Happy to be home?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied, distracted.

Alfie walked toward her, taking her by the shoulders. "Ambs, what's going on? Why're you being so distant today?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Amber said. "Could you just go, please? I'm not trying to be mean, but please."

"You never really try to be mean, Amber," Alfie said softly, looking sadly at her with his big brown eyes. "Sorry I was being such an idiot earlier. I'll leave now."

She bit back her apology to him, because it had been her who had been the idiot. She was being mean, but it was just so she could be alone and to think for herself. She hated that she kept pushing him away so much, he was only trying to help. But just because he was helping so much made her want to cry.

"Goodbye," Amber said quietly, shutting the door on his big brown eyes.

As soon as the door was closed, Amber leaned against it with her back pressed against the hard wood and closed her eyes.

Why was he so sweet? He didn't need to keep coming back and making her feel so guilty. Why was she guilty? She used him so much when she was younger, and after everything he went through, he still cared about her and came by to visit. Why would he do that, was it only to make her feel bad about all of those years where she didn't care about his feelings?

Why didn't he leave like her mum did to her dad after they went through years of fighting? Even though they had been happily married during her school years, as Amber studied fashion design as an adult, her parents slowly grew apart. Soon, they were fighting and couldn't bear to look at each other, which obviously made Amber upset that her parents were no longer happy as before.

Everyone important to her had drifted away, and he was the only one who had stayed. Why? Of all the people to stay, he did-even through all of the bad times she had caused him. As a teenager she had blamed him for so many things that he messed up on, and yes, some were his fault, but that time when Fabina broke up she had blamed him for nothing. Now that she was an adult, she knew that she had been stupid and shallow when she was younger and regretted every single time she had accused him of something.

She didn't realize she was crying until she touched her face and saw wet, black smudges on her fingers.

A knock on the door made her jump. She didn't bother to wipe the tears from her face as she opened the door. Then, she saw Alfie there.

"Hey, I left my lucky goldfish-" He looked at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Alfie . . ." Amber trailed off, but she did not need to say anything else as he put his arms around her, pulling her close.

She cried into his shoulder, mumbling, "I'm sorry", and he continued to say, "Don't worry."

When all that remained of her crying were a few sniffles, she finally looked up at him. He smiled down at her.

"I'm so sorry-" she began, but he put a finger to her lips. Then she realized that she was still pressed up against him.

"Do not say 'I'm sorry' again. You just said it a dozen times, I don't need to hear it anymore," Alfie joked.

"Well, then I apologize for getting makeup on your shirt," Amber reiterated.

Alfie laughed at her poor vocabulary substitution and hugged her even tighter. Amber went rigid, but then relaxed and embraced him. He murmured, "Don't worry, Ambs. Shirts are washable. So what's wrong?"

"I just keep thinking of how awful I was to you and my guilt was terrible. So I wanted to tell you I'm so-" Amber saw his look and corrected herself, "I wanted to apologize for that."

"It happened years ago, I'm fine," Alfie grinned. But it seemed that his eyes had a little less laughter in them at remembering the memory.

"No, I really mean it. I was terrible to you. Even when we were dating. I treated you like a slave and didn't really care about you."

"And now?" he asked.

"I really care about you, Alfie. You've always been there for me: making me laugh when I'm sad, and making me smile with your jokes. I honestly couldn't have even gotten my cases up here without your help."

"You actually like my jokes?" he said, looking dubious.

"Yes, I do," Amber said, lightly pushing his shoulder. "Now take this seriously. I really like you, okay?"

"Okay."

Amber raised her blonde brows. "That's it? You're not going to say anything else?"

He released her from his arms and Amber gasped in surprise. "Nope," he said.

"B-But . . . So you don't like me?" she squeaked, her voice sounding close to tears again.

"Of course I do," Alfie stated.

"Well then, wh-"

"I need to get something out of my pocket, Ambs," Alfie replied, pulling something out of his pocket. "You just kept talking without me able to say anything."

"Oh," Amber said, feeling embarrassed. "So, what do you have in your pocket?"

"This," Alfie answered. He revealed his closed fist from his pocket, and then opened it, uncovering a beautiful turquoise pendant on a sterling silver chain. Amber stared in astonishment and took the jewelry in her hands.

"It's gorgeous," Amber remarked, reveling in the exquisite necklace's beauty. "Thank you."

"A beautiful necklace for a beautiful girl," Alfie commented.

She smiled, then hugged him again. "Thank you. Really and truly thank you." She put the necklace around her throat, the turquoise gem sparkling brightly around her neck. "Why on earth would you get me something so expensive?"

"It is your birthday, isn't it?" he queried.

"That's in two weeks," Amber responded.

"So? Early present. It couldn't wait." Alfie grinned. "As soon as I left, I remembered that I had gotten it for you, so I ran back upstairs. I saw it in a little shop when I was walking on the street to my flat, and it just screamed you. Plus, I remembered it was your birthday soon."

"Alfie, you're too sweet. I can't believe you would do that for me." Amber pecked him on the cheek. "It's perfect, thank you."

"I would do anything for you, Ambs. You should know that," Alfie said.

Amber turned to him, her eyes staring into his. "Really?"

"Really," he insisted.

Amber put a hand to the back of his neck and kissed him full on the lips. It was a kiss of happiness and love, a budding love that had been forming for a long time now, and it was finally released as Amber wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer and deepen the kiss.

She knew he would be there. And that reassurance made her the happiest she had been in a long while.

Alfie pulled away when they both began to need air, a grin on his face. "You really thought I would forget my lucky goldfish here? I never leave it anywhere." He removed one of the hands on her waist to dig around in his other pocket. He took out a colorful yellow and blue toy fish the size of his finger.

Amber laughed and hugged him again, accepting his hilarity and immaturity. Because if she really loved Alfie, she would accept him the way he was. After all, he had accepted her as she was, so it was only the honorable thing to do.

And Amber was all about being honorable.

Yes, Amber may be a bit OOC. But, she is grown up now, so she's gotten more mature and realized the error of her actions. Just in case you were wondering. (: And sorry if Alfie seems OOC, I didn't mean to!

Oh and yes, to answer your question: Alfie does have a lucky goldfish. :D

Please review and give me feedback on this!

~Ary