CHAPTER SIX

Ebony entered the room dramatically, sweeping her coat as she did, determined that even if they didn't agree with her proposal, they'd at least be talking about her. Ebony loved drama, especially when she was the cause of it! Everyone swivelled their chairs to face her, after all, she had called this tribal leaders' meeting, and created all the mystery by not explaining her reasons for doing it.

Jay was the first to speak.

"So come on, Ebony, don't keep us in suspense any longer…we were told you had this big announcement…well aren't you gonna share it with the rest of us?"

Ebony sighed. Why was it that Jay had to rush everything? She wanted to butter them all up before she dropped her bombshell! She could see though, that Jay and Amber weren't gonna budge…too much old history threatened to resurface between them, and she certainly didn't want that to happen…although she'd enjoy seeing her arch enemy squirm at having to explain her love life in a room full of nutters and psychos – and that's what most of them were, Ebony reasoned. She accepted that Amber and Jay had logical, moralistic reasons why they hated Ebony, and felt uneasy by the type of power Ebony commanded, but the other tribes were only there, in reality, to cause chaos. They still felt loyal to Zoot, and the Locos, and whilst Ebony now held the position of the leader of the Locos, they still turned against her, as they believed that she turned against their god when she became a mallrat.

Ebony smiled.

"You always were impatient, Jay! In fact, I think that led partly to our break-up; you wanted more than I was ready to give…!"

Jay blushed. He didn't want to have to recall his doomed relationship with Ebony in front of Amber, but also, he felt bad for Amber having to sit there and listen to how much he had loved Ebony. He truly believed that deep down, Amber still wanted him, and as long as he believed that, there was no way he would give up on her. Jay opened his mouth to retaliate with something equally emotive, but a woman with bright electric blue hair and piercing green eyes, got in there first.

"For God sake, Ebony! First of all, you send out this mysterious invite to a meeting with you. Then, you intentionally keep us waiting for half an hour, and now you're trying to bu/lsh*t us with your romantic life, which, trust me, isn't that interesting! Now, can you tell us what this is all about, before I walk out of here?"

This one spelt trouble, Ebony feared. She had known Pandora for years – not friends as such, but more of an acquaintance. They didn't exactly like one another; more like they tolerated each other. But lately, Pandora had attempted to cause mayhem for the Locos, and given Ebony the run around on several occasions, and whilst Ebony knew that she ought to punish her for her actions, she held her in great respect too.

She faced the others in the room and decided that now was the time to start talking.

"So, you wanna know why you're all here, huh?" Ebony questioned.

She was greeted by unanimous nods. Contented that she now held the power, once more, she continued her speech.

"I, Ebony, leader of the Locos, invited you all here to…"

They were all on tenterhooks now, and Jay almost exploded,

"WHY?"

Still smiling that sickly sweet smile of hers, and having ensured that the whole room was listening to her, Ebony carried on.

"To work with me!" she finished triumphantly.

Staring at the beaming Ebony, Amber was as confused now, as she was when she first left the mall to come here.

"I still don't follow. What do you mean, 'to work with you'? Amber challenged.

"Look…I know that I promised to create schools for the kids to study in properly, and that I would get more medical supplies for the hospital, but the truth is, that we haven't got any! We won't be able to get to sector five before Thursday at the very least, and even then, we might not be able to make it."

When she saw the looks of utter incredulousness, Ebony tried to explain herself. "Look, we're stretched out as it is trying to secure the city, and make it a safer place to live and trade in. My men are doing their best to inform the different tribes daily of any news of the lost prisoners…we're trying to tidy the city up, too and then, on top of all that, we constantly have to fight off all those other tribes who take it upon themselves to make my life harder!"

Ebony said all this whilst staring pointedly at Pandora. Pandora, however, wasn't intimidated easily, and gazed back at Ebony with that piercing look of hers. "And quite rightly so! You may have some leadership qualities," Pandora conceded, "but you're no replacement for Zoot! Stop trying to appear whiter than white. You know full well it was you that trashed our bunker last week and told one of my youngsters some cock and bull story about how, if he didn't renounce me as his leader and come to you, he'd die a slow, painful death very soon….! I never liked you before all this happened, Ebony, but at least I respected you for being true to yourself; now, I think you're scum!"

Having heard that, others started hacking into Ebony too, calling her names, saying that she was a s/ut, and that the only way she ever got close to the top of the Locos, was by sleeping her way up! This led to a huge slanging match back and forth between Ebony, Pandora and everyone else in the room with Ebony fighting back well.

During all this uproar, Amber took off. She couldn't handle it any longer; this was typical of Ebony to call a meeting, not to tell good news, but to let everyone down. If she even felt the slightest bit sorry, she wouldn't mind, but Ebony hadn't changed; she guessed she never would. Her sweetness and light was just an act…and now there was no school and no hospital supplies, of which they were in desperate need, also.

Jay left the room in a hurry after her – Ebony would barely register their departures what with all the noise and screaming going on in there, and in any case, he had to find Amber. He didn't know exactly what it was that upset her so much, but something had, and he saw it as his duty to comfort her, and make her feel better again! After much searching, he eventually located her, sitting dejectedly on the front steps of the hotel, her head in her hands. She looked like an angel; he wanted so much to touch her, but refrained.

"Amber? Amber, what's wrong? Look, I'm sorry she brought up all that stuff about her and me, and our relationship – I didn't want her to; you saw me trying to stop her didn't you?" Jay began frantically trying to get through to the one he loved.

Amber snapped her head up at Jay's words.

"Why does everything have to be about you, Jay? Of course I'm not upset about you and Ebony…it happened! You can't re-write history Jay!"

"So if it's not me and Ebony that's upset you, what is it?" he wondered, a hurt expression written all over his face that registered in Amber's mind.

"I was upset about the hospital and school situations respectively, Jay! You know how much it means to me that the kids are schooled. I never appreciated education enough when we had it, but without it, I can see the world as we know it, crumbling and struggling to survive. And I gave my word to a dear friend that I would always see that the sick are treated, as long as I have breath in my body, and I'm not one to say something and not follow through! But I can't see a way out of this mess that Ebony has created! She wants us to support her stance on this to stop even more trouble coming her way…she's completely lost her mind!"

"God, Amber, let off some steam why don't you!" Jay joked.

"Jay, it's not funny! How can we school thousands of little kids, who wanna learn? Where will we get all the resources from? And as for the hospital, the one we have isn't nearly big enough to treat all the injured and dying people that walk through its doors every day. How will we cope, Jay?" Amber asked in despair, leaning her head on Jay's shoulders.

It felt good to have Amber so close, Jay thought to himself. He wished he had all the answers to her problems, but he didn't. He wished he was the one she dreamed about at night; the one she woke up longing to see one more time; he wished that he was the one who had fathered Bray Jr. and that they were living together as one big family unit. However, he'd settle for just being able to call Amber his own. To hold her, and to know that she loved him with all her heart the way she still did him. He could barely bring himself to mention his love rival's name. Bray. He hated him already, and he didn't even know the guy; had already painted him as the bad guy for walking out on his girlfriend whilst she was giving birth to their son, without even knowing why!

Unable to settle her ever-growing pile of worries, Jay stood up, causing Amber to rock slightly. "Come on, back to the mall… I'm sure they're all dying to know what happened here…!" Jay said.

Hearing his choice of words, Amber stormed off in a huff. Realising what he had said, Jay broke out into a run as he once again tried to apologise. He began to think to himself that no girl could be worth all the grief he was getting from Amber. He was sure he loved her, but there had to be an easier way than all this Mr Nice Guy stuff didn't there…it wasn't like she was crazy for it anyway. So maybe she wanted it rough! It seemed to Jay like Bray treated her rough, and talked to her with a great lack of respect, yet she would still take him back tomorrow if he walked in declaring his love for her.

So she wanted it rough, huh? Then Jay was gonna make sure that she got it rough!