Gaara and Lauren were sitting together in the office she and Amber shared going over the music they were going to put on the new Twisted Angels album when Amber peeked her head in, "hey llaaauurreenn" Amber asked in a sing-song voice. Lauren looked up from the music and arched an eyebrow in question, Amber smiled and stepped into the room clasping her hands behind her back and swaying from side to side lightly, "well, I was just going to let you know that Sasuke wanted to go to the mall to get, things, so I'm going with him, and well, I dunno if we'll be back so I may crash at his place, so don't wait up for me, kay?" Lauren scrutinized Amber for a moment, noting her strange behavior and hesitantly nodded her head. Amber smiled and skipped out of the room.
Gaara turned to Lauren with a confused look and asked, "What was that about? I'm assuming she doesn't usually act like that, right?" Lauren nodded her head and closed the folder, "no, she only acts like that when she's trying to hide something, and from what I just saw, it has to be something really big that she's hiding, she used the word 'things' and she said 'Sasuke wants to go to the mall', whenever she says things like that, it usually means she's hiding something huge, whether it's a good thing or bad thing, I never know until she drops the bomb, and I'm assuming that Sasuke isn't one to on a whim go to the mall" Gaara nodded his head, "he hates the mall, he gets attacked by rabid fangirls there" Lauren hummed as she grabbed another song to add to the album, "I thought so, and Amber only really likes three stores in the mall, so they're hiding something from us, and I think it's just a matter of time till we find out what it is" Gaara nodded as he looked at the song Lauren handed to him, "I think this one is a bit too, uh" Lauren looked at it again and put it back in the folder, "you're right, that's the one Amber wrote in jail" Laurens eyes widened and she slapped her hand over her mouth, "you did not just hear me say that, I was not supposed to say that" Gaara turned in his chair to face her, "well, you just did, and now I'm curious, how in the world did Amber of all people end up in jail?" Lauren groaned and ran her hands through her hair in frustration, "if I tell you, you cannot, under any circumstances let her know that you know, got it? She will murder me if she finds out I told you" Gaara nodded and held up his pinky, "I pinky swear, I won't let her know, I won't tell a soul about it" Lauren nodded and wrapped her pinky around his with a sigh, "ok, so you've heard me talk about Jessie before, right?" Gaara nodded and leaned back in his chair. "ok, so as you know he was in the drug business, selling, buying, and using, he was in it even before he met Amber, when they met, it was like insta infatuation between them, they were nearly inseparable, he had a way of making her do anything he wanted her to, she couldn't say no to him, no matter how hard she tried or how badly she wanted to, she couldn't. As their relationship got more serious he started to try and convince her to come with him on drug deals, she said no at first and he let it slide, understanding her hesitancy towards the idea of it, but after a while, his, boss, found out about her, and her driving skills, so he told Jessie to bring her to him, he wanted to use her for races, and deals, she was the perfect person for it, no one would suspect her, an innocent looking nineteen year old to be involved in illegal races and drugs, and he was told that she never lost, that she always did what it took to win in a race. So Jessie somehow convinced Amber to come with him to meet his boss, and as soon as she stepped foot into his office, she was trapped, trapped in the dangerous illegal world of drugs and street races, Jessie's boss used their feelings towards each other to get them to do what he wanted them to do. And so without me ever realizing what she was in, Amber was winning races and dealing drugs at night. Before I could even think of a reason, Amber was home less and less, and every time I saw her, she always looked, pale, tired, stressed, and like she had a black cloud floating over her. She lost her spunk, she was always looking behind her as if expecting someone to jump out and grab her, she got jumpy, she just, wasn't herself, she tried hard to hide it around me, she spent less and less time with me, I didn't understand why at first, and I was upset about it, so one of those rare days when she chanced being with me, I confronted her about it, I yelled and screamed at her, I even slapped her, all she did was stand there and take it, she never once said a word to me, she didn't get angry or hit back, she just stood there with a totally expressionless face, when I finally wore myself out she steered me to the couch and got me water and sat down next to me, but she wasn't relaxing on the couch like she usually would have, she was sitting on the edge, her back ramrod straight and her hands were clasped so tightly together they were bleeding, she turned to me and her face was blank, totally devoid of emotion and she told me that this was the last time she could see me, that she wasn't coming back. I was shocked to say the least, I couldn't move, couldn't speak, nothing. The last thing I saw was her back, walking out the door, for what I assumed forever, I thought that that was the last time I'd ever see her. I was lost for months, and then out of nowhere I get a call from the local jail, I answer, curious as to why they were calling me, and I hear what I thought was Amber's voice on the other end of the line, she needed me to bail her out of jail, I didn't hesitate, I agreed and went straight to the prison and bailed her out. When they released her, she didn't even look at me, but then, I wasn't even sure if it was Amber who was walking past me, she looked so different, she looked, dead. As she passed me she glanced at me, her eyes, they used to be so full of life, so happy, shining, they practically smiled at you, not anymore, they were clouded, lifeless, sad, they held no spark, no fire. I don't even think she realized it was me, she walked past me and straight to Jessie waiting for her behind me. It broke my heart to watch what happened between them next. She walked up to him and hugged him, he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back and yelled at her, told her she was stupid for getting caught, and that he had to clean up her mess, she just stood there, she didn't get angry, or sad, she just stood there and took it. I looked in his eyes and saw that he wasn't sober, he was high, and then I saw them, the tracks on his arms, and the matching ones on Ambers. They got in the car and drove off. The next three times I heard from her it was the same, she needed to be bailed out, I never refused her, but the last time, when I saw her stumble out, I couldn't let her go, I grabbed her and forced her into my car and took her home. I rehabilitated her at home myself, I brought her back, but she still wasn't the same, she never will be." As she finished Lauren wrapped her arms around herself and rocked as tears slid down her cheeks. Gaara sat there for a moment absorbing everything Lauren had told him, when he finally looked up he reached out and pulled Lauren onto his lap and hugged her tightly, running his hand through her hair trying to calm her down, "Lauren, I-I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I never could have imagined, god, I'm so sorry that that had to happen" Lauren shook her head, "don't, there's nothing you could possibly do to change it, it's in the past, she and I agreed to never speak of it, we both pretend it never happened, so just, forget it" Gaara sighed and loosened his hold on Lauren and leveled a serious look at her, "that's going to be hard to do, you know how I am, I can't exactly just let it go and act as if I don't know."
Amber skipped out to meet Sasuke by the door and smiled, "I told them we were going to the mall, I'm really bad at hiding things, you should have gone in there and made an excuse, I don't think they believed me" she said as Sasuke opened the door and lead her out. They started down the stairs, "whatever, as long as they don't know what we're really doing it doesn't matter, we cannot get caught doing this" Amber nodded her head as they exited the building. "this way, I keep it in the back, I don't exactly like reminders" Sasuke nodded and followed Amber to an old wooden shed behind the apartment. Amber pulled out a set of keys and unlocked a rusted deadbolt and pushed the wooden doors open. She stepped inside and flipped on an old light, as the light flickered on she ran her hand over a car covered by an old sheet. Sasuke stepped in and followed Amber to the front of the car and watched as her hand grabbed the sheet tightly and pulled it off. As she pulled the sheet off sunlight hit the shiny green chevell. Amber sighed and walked over to the driver's side, "sorry, no doors, you gotta go in through the window" she said as she hauled herself up into the window and slid into the seat. Sasuke slid in and seated himself in the car with a smirk, "no doors, what, too inconvenient?" Amber shook her head and stuck the key in the ignition, "no, took too long to open and close the doors, during a run, race, or deal, if you got the cops called you couldn't be bothered to open and close doors, just jump in and go, although if we were smart, we would have made the cars, quieter" as she said the last word she twisted the key and the car roared loudly to life. Sasuke gaped at how loud the car was and said, "very inconspicuous" Amber shrugged and mumbled, "well, each car sounds different, so they knew who was coming, and they knew if it was us, or the cops coming" Amber backed the car quickly out of the rickety shed with a sigh, "I never actually thought I'd be using this car again, the last time I used this car was in a race, I had Jessie with me and on the way there he frickin shot up LSD so he was having a lot of fun during the race, I was high on coke so I was just, awake, I won the race, but the cops caught me as I was leaving to go home" Amber shook her head and gripped the steering wheel tighter, her breath coming in quick pants. Sasuke laid his hand on her shoulder and Amber jerked her head towards him, she stared at him with wide eyes, "Amber, it's ok, this is the last time you're going to be in this car" Amber nodded and put the car in park, "hang on" she said and leaned over and opened the glove box in front of Sasuke. She reached in and pulled out a small white box and closed the glove box. "what's that?" Sasuke asked as he leaned over to see what was in the box, Amber let out a nervous chuckle, "enough LSD to last a month, fourteen grams of mary jane, and four baggies of crack" Sasuke blinked a few times and stared at Amber, "why?" he asked. Amber shrugged her shoulders, "I never emptied it out, I just parked it in the shed and forgot about it, so we have to stop at someones house before we sell this beast" Sasuke nodded and Amber sped out of the lot and down the highway. She turned off the highway into a rundown looking neighborhood and pulled up in front of a worn out blue house. She turned to Sasuke and said, "don't let anyone see you, keep your head down, don't look at anyone, don't get out of the car, nothing, just sit here, and put this hat on" Amber reached in the back and shoved a black and red baseball cap on his head. Sasuke grunted and fixed the hat and his hair as he watched Amber crawl into the back of the car and pull the seat up. Amber reached into the secret compartment and pulled out a very large black box and scrambled back to the front seat. Amber closed her eyes and roughed up her hair, she sighed and pulled her shirt off opening up the black box. She reached into the box and moved several bricks of coke and MJ out of the way and pulled out a worn out midnight blue shirt. She slipped it over her head and looked over to Sasuke, "remember what I said, I'll be right back" she grabbed the white box and shoved it in the black one and pulled herself out of the car. Sasuke watched as Amber straightened up and noted that the shirt she was wearing stopped right above her bellybutton and had something written on it. He watched as Amber jogged up to the door and knocked on it three times then rang the doorbell twice. She waited at the door for a moment and then it opened slowly to reveal a tall blonde man. He saw the man say something to Amber and pulled her into the house.