Chapter 8

Later on that night

RJ slipped out the lair and began heading toward Amber's house. He would never admit this out loud, but she has been on his mind all day since he heard what happened. He just wanted to be there for her, even if she didn't want him there. He came to a stop on the roof of the Evans' home. He made his way down the fire escape and stopped right outside of Amber's window. Taking a quick peek inside to make sure only she was there, he saw that she really and understandably wasn't taking this very well.

Amber was lying on her side facing away from him. From what he could see in the dim lighting, she was was curled up in a ball with a nearly empty box of tissues. RJ sighed before lightly tapping on the glass to get her attention. Amber sat upright and looked toward her window. When she saw one of her green friends she quickly got up to open it.

"RJ? What are you doing here?" Amber asked while wiping the rest of her tears away. Now that he got a close up look at her face he was able to see how red and puffy her eyes were. She must have been crying for hours.

"I'm here to see how you're holding up, Princess."

Amber couldn't help, but let out a small giggle when she heard her nickname. It was almost strange how quickly her mood changed when RJ was around. "How do you think I'm holding up?" she asked sarcastically.

His golden amber eyes searched her deep brown ones for just a moment before he suddenly held his hand out toward her. "Come on." he spurted suddenly.

Amber gave him a weird look. "Where are we going?" she asked unsure if she should take him up on his offer,

"Just up to the roof. I think you need some air."

"No I don't. I just want to stay inside for tonight."

"Come on," he encouraged. "Trust me, princess."

Amber sighed, grabbed his hand and let him help her outside to the fire escape. She followed him up the ladder to the roof. They stood for a while in silence. Amber wrapped her arms around herself as she looked up at the night sky. RJ stood next to her, not saying anything just taking in the sight of her. She didn't have to say anything to him, he knew exactly how she was feeling. It was all in her body language, if the tears weren't a dead giveaway.

"I wish I had done more for her." Amber spoke, barely above a whisper.

RJ stood silently and listened "I wish I tried harder to stop her. I knew her unfaithful ways would come back to bite her, but..." another tear rolled down her cheek. "I never knew it would bite her like this."

RJ draped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her close. "I'm a horrible friend."

"Hey now, don't say things like that." he scolded.

"But it's true."

"Stop it." RJ grabbed her shoulders and shook her a bit. "That is not true. You did what you could for her."

"And clearly it wasn't enough."

"She didn't want to listen to your warnings." he tried explaining to her. "You just couldn't constantly take care of her and live your own life. You can't blame yourself for wanting to have a life of your own. That's not fair to you."

Whether RJ's pep talk worked or not he wasn't sure, but Amber wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug as she let fresh tears roll down her cheeks. RJ quietly wrapped his arms around her waist. He could feel her warm tears hitting his neck, but he didn't care. All he was worried about was keeping her safe and taking away her pain. They stayed like that for what felt like forever. Amber taking in all the comfort he was willing to give.


A couple of days later Amber felt well enough to go back to school. The talk she had with RJ did make her feel loads better. She always appreciated that he knew when to talk and when to just let her vent. The way he held her in his arms kind of helped too. She wasn't really sure what it was, but she just felt safe in his muscular arms.

The entire day was filled with sympathy filled looks from everyone around her. Just about the entire school knew that Amber and Toni were best friends and always hung out with each other. They were practically joined at the hip as far as they were concerned. It felt weird having eyes on her all day and even weirder to have people that she rarely ever talked to come up to her to express their condolences.

When she got to her locker at the end of classes she was approached by yet another person. Amber turned when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She came face to face with a boy about her age. He was taller than she was so she did have to look at his face. He wasn't fairing any better than she was by the looks of it. His gray eyes seemed dull and lifeless, his long, shoulder length brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail. His normally tan skin seemed paler and he looked pretty sick. He wore a red sweat jacket over his fairly muscular arms. Amber cocked her head to the side as she thought that they were nothing compared to RJ's. She felt her face heat up and she shook her head as sudden thoughts of her half mutant friend invaded her brain. "What's up, Logan?" she greeted.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"About as well as you're doing right now." she stated with a sad smile.

"I can't believe this happened." he stated. "I knew how she was, I knew that she didn't really care about me, but I still loved her." he looked down at the floor. "Jeez, I sound pretty pathetic right now, don't I?"

"No, you're not pathetic. You have a good heart and when you fall in love, you just happen to fall in love harder than anyone else. You deserve a girl that will love you as much as you'll love them." she explained, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder. She loved Toni, she was a great friend, but she hated how she treated Logan. Being with her really destroyed his confidence over the year that they were together. It's like he seemed to think that he didn't deserve the best. He's a good looking guy, with a loving personality. He needed this confidence boost. "I can guarantee that whoever you end up with will be a very lucky girl."

His gray eyes met hers for a second before he chuckled. "Thanks, I feel better hearing that."

He may have said that he felt better, but she could tell by the long sigh that he wasn't really. "Tell you what, why don't you and I get some ice cream tonight. That always makes me feel better whenever I feel like shit and it'll be my treat."

Logan chuckled lightly "Sure, sounds great. I'll come get you at around 6."

"Fine by me. See you then."


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