Author's Note: ok guys. your in for a real treat! this is a nice long chapter.
IMPORTANT: i replaced the authors note that i had up for my 11th chapter with an actual chapter so you need to go back and read tha tone first before going on to this chapter.
Disclamier: i dont own the outsiders, yes i know its so sad lol. I do however own Amber and her father.
Thank yous:
babyhilts: thanx for the review. hope you like this next chapter!
Bex: your right, that dosent make much sense but hey, it dosent matter! as long as its a review then im happy lol. hope you like this next chapter
Alaskajenna: thanx for the review. here is ur update :).
Animegirl13: well, arent u lucky lol. you just read the stiry and now u get an update! i am very happy that you like my story so much. hope you like this next chapter.
and now, on with the chapter!
Amber's POV
I had run no more than 5 minutes when I came across the park that I had met Johnny in 2 nights ago. I decided that it would be best to sit in the park for a while so I could calm down a little before I upset anyone else in this town. I walked over to one of the benches by the fountain and sat down.
"God, I am so stupid" I said out loud. I was pissed at myself for yelling at the only friends I had acquired here in Tulsa. They probably will never talk to me again. Wonderful. I thought to myself. This thought scared me a lot. My only friends. They had only known me for about 2 days and they already felt like family to me. And I just ruined that.
My eyes started to well up with tears and soon they were gently rolling down my face. I had nothing left to live for now. My mother was gone. My father hated me. The only real friends I had probably hate me. My life was a mess and I wished my father had killed me last night. So there I sat, on the same bench that I sat on when I met Johnny, silently crying.
I had been sitting there for at least 5 minutes when I suddenly I felt a soft hand gently brush away my tears. Startled, I looked up to find Johnny sitting on the bench beside me. I looked at him for a minute and I just couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed his shirt and started crying into his chest. He rapped his arms around my waist and sat there gently rocking me back and forth and saying comforting words into my ear.
"Shh, its ok. Don't cry" he said softly.
"Oh, Johnny! I don't know what to do. My life is a mess. You have no idea what its like. I wish I was dead!" I said, close to hysterics now.
"No! No, you don't. I do know what its like and I know how it feels but you cant give in! You cant let your father see that he's affected you because it will only make things worse. " he said. At this I calmed down a bit and looked up into his big, chocolate brown eyes.
"I know. Pony told me about your family the other day" I said. At the moment I was a little embarrassed. Johnny had the same home life as me and he never cried. Yet here I was, sitting in his arms complaining about my life. I wiped my eyes and went to get up off the bench but felt arms rap around my waist, pulling me back down.
"Hey, come here" Johnny said to me.
"Johnny, I feel so stupid. I mean, you've gone through so much worse and yet here I am, bawling to you about my life" I said.
"That may be true but I had the gang to help me deal with it Amber. You didn't have anyone. It's ok to cry and complain about it. Venting to someone always makes you feel better" he said with a laugh. I laughed a little too.
"And remember" he continued "if you ever need anything, or if your upset, you have the gang now. You can always talk to me, or one of the gang. I know we've only known you for a couple of days but, your like family to us" he said.
"Thanks Johnny" I said, wiping the tears from my face and giving him a hug.
"Your welcome. You think your ready to go back to the Curtis's house yet?" he asked.
"Yea. We can go back now" I said softly.
Johnny stood up first and reached out his hand to help me up. I grabbed his hand and stood up next to him.
It took us 5 minutes to get back to the Curtis's. Johnny and I had walked hand in hand the whole way there. We walked up the porch and to the door. Once again you could hear loud noises coming from inside the house. I swear these boys were the loudest people in the world. I don't know how anyone could live next-door to them. Bracing myself for the worst, I apprehensively opened the door and stepped inside. Right when I stepped in the room went silent. Everyone's eyes were on me once again.
"Um, hey guys" I said nervously. To my surprise, instead of yelling, they all got up and ran over to me. Each person took a turn giving me a hug a pretty soon they had all started questioning me again.
"Amber where did you go?" Pony asked.
"We were so worried about you" Soda said.
"Why did you run off like that?" Dally asked.
"You could have gotten hurt again, or worse!" Darry said, his fatherly instincts kicking in.
"Guys, guys. Come on back off and give her some space" Johnny said, coming out from his hiding spot at the entrance of the door.
"Your right Johnny. Amber, do you want to sit down on the couch and talk about this? Or do you need more time?" Darry asked calmly.
"No, I don't need more time. I'll talk about it now." I said quietly. Darry nodded his head and led me over to the couch.
"Ok, well. Umm, this is a little hard for me to say but here it goes. When I was 6 years old, my father got into a car accident. He was badly hurt and needed to take a bunch of different drugs to help him get better. One of the drugs was some sort of anti-depressant. It was supposed to help him relax and calm down or something like that. Anyway, my father decided that he liked the way it made him feel. To make a long story short, he ended up becoming addicted to it. He started going to bars, buying drugs and drinking. At first he wasn't that bad but after a while he got worse. He'd come home from the bars stoned and all boozed up. The worst part though, was that he'd start to beat my mother and I. Most of the times he would beat us because he was bored and had nothing better to do. We were terrified of him."
"Why didn't you tell anyone? Or better yet, why didn't your mom divorce him" Soda asked, interrupting me.
"Well, that's the thing. About two months ago, my mother filed for a divorce and custody of me. My father was outraged when he heard this. He was going to do anything in his power to keep her from taking me away from him. And that's just what he did. One night my mother and I came home to find all the lights in our house were off. We figured that my father had gone to get boozed again so we thought nothing of it and walked inside. Right as my mother stepped through the threshold I heard two loud bans and a crack of light. I rushed inside just in time to see my mother hit the floor. I screamed and ran over to my mother. I examined her wounds to find that she had two bullet holes in her. One on her shoulder and one in her chest. I also noticed that she had hit her head pretty hard when she fell to the ground. I started crying and trying to wake her up when I felt a hand grip my shoulder and pull me to my feet. I was thrust against the wall and looked up to meet my attack in the eye. It was my father."
Flashback
"Y-You, you shot her! How could you!" I screamed, tears feverishly streaming down my face. My father stood there laughing at me.
"Now your mine!" he said and I suddenly knew why he had shot my mother. I looked at her lying there motionless on the ground surrounded in her own blood. I felt a pang of guilt run through my body. My mother was lying there on the floor with two bullet holes in her because she tried to save me! She tried to take me away from my father and now she is dying because of it.
"You have to help her! She's dying!" I screamed, struggling to get out of my fathers death grip. He just kept laughing.
"Please! I'll do anything you ask, just please! SAVE MY MOTHER!" I was hysterically crying.
"Fine!" he said. At this statement I stopped struggling and just stared at him in shock.
"If I call an ambulance then you have to stick to the story that I tell them!" he continued.
"Ok" I whispered. I knew I shouldn't be lying, especially to the cops but if it saved my mother than I would lie.
5 minutes later
"How long has she been like this?" one of the guys from the ambulance questioned me.
" I don't know. Maybe about 10 minutes?" I whispered. I was still crying and my throat hurt from screaming.
The guy gave me a sympathetical look and then said "She's lost a lot of blood. She doesn't look to good either. We have to get her to the hospital now. Are you going to come with us?" he asked me.
"No, I think I'll just stay here" I said, forcing a smile on my face. I watched my mother get lifted onto a stretcher and rushed into an ambulance. I walked outside onto the porch and watched the ambulance hurry down the road. When I could no longer see the flashing lights of the ambulance, I turned around and walked back into my house. My dad called me over and told me that there was a police officer that wanted to question us.
"So, Mr. Baker, do you mind telling me what happened here?" the police officer asked.
"Well, me and my daughter Amber had just got home from a lovely day at the mall and I noticed that all the lights in the house were out. I asked Amber if her mother said that she was going somewhere and she said 'no, not that I know of dad'. Well, we walked up to the door and unlocked it. I turned on the lights and that's when I saw her! She was lying on the floor covered in blood! My daughter started screaming and crying but I told her that she had to calm down and everything would be alright. Honestly officer, I don't know how this happened! My wife was such a nice women! Who would do such a thing!" he said starting to cry. I knew he wasn't really crying, but the police officer didn't. It made me sick to look at him. He had no right to talk about my mother and he had no right in calling me his daughter because he sure hadn't acted like much of a father to me.
"Did your wife have any enemies?" the police officer asked.
'No officer. Like I said before, she was such a kind and caring person. Everyone loved her." My father said.
"What about you young lady. Do you know anyone that had a problem with your mother" the officer asked me.
I looked at my father and he shot me a warning glance.
"No" I said bluntly.
"Alright, well, we will be putting out an alert so people know that there might be a killer on the lose. If we find anything out we will call you and vise versa." The police officer, who I had found out, was named Officer McKee, said holding his hand out for my father to shake it.
My father stood up and put his arm on my shoulder and walked over to the door with Officer McKee. He put a smile and waved good-bye to the officer before shutting the door. As soon as the door was shut he ripped his hand away from me and took off the fake cheery smile that he had had on seconds before.
"Go pack your stuff!" he said to me.
"What?" I asked confused.
"GO, PACK, YOUR, STUFF! Do you not understand English?" he yelled at me.
"Why?"
'Because we are moving! I don't want to be bothered by the police officers and reporters and all that other crp"
"But, where will we go?" I asked.
"We are going back to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's where I grew up and your grandparents left us possession of their house there when they died" he said. "NOW GO PACK!" he screamed. With that I ran upstairs and started to pack.
End Flashback
"And that's the last I ever saw or heard of my mother" I said, letting a few tears escape my eyes. The room had gotten deathly quiet by that point and I looked around at the gangs faces. They were in complete shock. That's when I realized what I had just said.
'O god. What have I done?'
ok, so there is ur update. i have half of the next chpater written and it should be posted within the next few days. Maybe even 2morrow if ur lucky. remember, the faster and more reviws i get, the faster i update :). xoxoxo lyl
always and forever
xo Sara ox