Chapter 4: Oh How the Tides Have Turned
"I'll answer your question."
Two pairs of eyes look at me expectantly, while the boys stand on the sidelines, confused. I ignore them and continue. I want to say my best friend is both of them like they do in the movies but I know the fighting won't stop until I give them the truth. So I will, I'll hand them the truth on a silver platter with my head as a side dish.
"You both have to promise me that you aren't going to leave the team if it's not you, because I do need you both. Pinky swear," I say. They both mutter this is stupid under their breath but then they both vow it and we interlock our pinkies. Sapphire and Amy are actually quite similar. In a different universe I think they could be friends. Even with the vow I'm still worried about what is about to happen.
"M-my best… my best friend is Sapphire... b-but that doesn't mean you aren't one of my best friends, Amy!" I've known Sapphire since I was a baby. How can I not choose her?
Both of them are completely frozen, but after a moment of tense waiting Sapphire is the first to thaw. Literally. I quickly try to keep the inevitable outburst at bay by saying "You are my best friend too Amy, you both are my best friends, that is only my choice when you do this to me! When you try to hurt each other over me and force me to make a decision I didn't want to make!" I suddenly realise that I'm crying now from all the pressure.
"So that's how it is," Amy says coldly, completely ignoring my emotional display.
"Did you not hear anything I said but 'Sapphire'?!" I yell, my throat sore and my voice raspy from crying.
Amy summons her daggers.
"You promised!" I scream.
"I never said I wouldn't fight," Amy turns to Sapphire, who pushes me out of the way as I try to intervene.
"This isn't your fight, Amber," Sapphire whispers.
Amy charges, and for a minute it seems like a repeat of the last battle. No matter how hard Amy tries, she can't seem to land a hit on Sapphire. And I'm just standing on the sidelines the entire time, helpless to stop them, unable to save them from themselves.
Amy finally manages to land a hit, but Sapphire saw it coming- her entire arm is coated in ice, blocking the powerful double blow; even so the ice cracks and I know Sapphire felt something. The shockwave from the impact vibrates through the ground, and I watch as the twin daggers bounce back and turn on their wielder, slicing across Amy's cheek.
Sapphire is frozen, petrified, and seems rooted to the spot as Amy stumbles back, her daggers turning to dust as they fall from her hands.
"What the hell am I doing," she mutters. "None of this matters anyway." As she turns to walk away Jet, Bloodstone, and I run after her.
"You promised you wouldn't leave!" I shout, exasperated.
"I'm going home. But I'll be back for our next meeting. I trust you'll text me when that is." Her voice is cold and emotionless, completely monotone. And with that she turns into a ball to roll home. I wait until she's out of sight, but then I can't take it anymore. I collapse and let myself cry, my entire body shaking. Two warm hands and a cold one rest on my back; soon all three are warm.
"Don't cry," Jet says softly, not at all his usual cheerful self.
"You did the only thing you knew how to do," Bloodstone adds calmingly.
"She means it," Sapphire says, "She will be back and in time, either two weeks, 1 month, 7 weeks, 2 and half months, or 3 months from now, this won't matter anymore."
"Thanks, guys," I murmur. "You're the best." I wipe the last of my tears from my eyes and stand up. "I think that's more than enough training for today."
Once again, it's Monday. I've been hiding in my room all weekend, but now it's back to the house o' torture once more. School seems so boring now that we literally fight monsters in our free time. But to be honest, I think it's kinda nice to get a break from all that gem stuff. Just be normal for a bit.
"Hey, Amber," Jet says with an enthusiastic smile, trying to lighten the mood as I sit down at our lunch table. "How's life?"
"You know, stuff," I say, refusing to give more of an answer. To be honest, I've been a complete emotional wreck all weekend. I totally blame myself for everything even though I know that I shouldn't and Sapphire wouldn't want me to. But then there's-
"Hey, has anyone seen Amy?" I ask, looking around. It feels exactly like a repeat of last week.
"Yeah, she's in my math class," Jet says. "She wouldn't talk to me, though."
I sigh and slump down on the table. "Why does being an official leader have to be so hard…!"
"Haven't you ever read a book?" Bloodstone says, not looking up from his drawing. "Leadership is never easy. That's why in all the good stories, the protagonist surrounds themself with close friends who can help them."
"Yeah, well, too bad real life isn't like a story," I say, staring at my uneaten lunch. "You know, I'm not really hungry." I shove it across the table to Jet, who happily eats the unwanted food.
"Hey, guys," I hear a voice behind me. Turning, I see Amy standing behind me, looking nervous. She sits as far from me as possible, which I understand, and refuses to talk no matter how many times we try to start a conversation. I wonder why she would sit with us and then realize the sad truth. No matter how mad she is at me she has no one else. Of course she'd rather sit with an enemy than alone, I would too. I would feel bad for her if I wasn't glad she was sitting here.
"Look, Amy," I say, refusing to give up. "I understand you're feeling upset right now and you need some time to adjust but you can't keep ignoring us forever."
"Says who?" she stands up and leaves. I give a sigh.
"Well, it was worth a shot," Bloodstone remarks.
A few minutes of awkward silence and stilted conversation later, a completely random stranger walks up to our table.
"Jeremy!" He says, walking up to Jet. "Good to see you bro!"
"Jonathan!" Jet exclaims. "What are you doing here? And it's Jet, you know that." The boy, Jonathan, laughs.
"I just moved here, I wanted to surprise you!"
"Sit please," Jet offers him a seat. "Amber, Bloodstone, this is my friend from camp, Jonathan."
"Hi, I'm Bloodstone," Bloodstone shakes Jonathan's hand.
"That's a strange name. Wait a minute, are you guys hybrids like that dude in the youtube video? You totally are! That's so cool! Jet, how come you never told me?"
"Same reason as everyone else I guess," Jet replies. "I thought everyone would think I was weird. But now almost everyone I know turns out to be one too, and it's freaking awesome!" He grins. "Not that I have anything against normal humans and all that. No offense."
"None taken," he says, then turns pointedly in my direction.
"Hi I'm Amber," I wave, Jonathan smiles at me.
"You must be the leader if you have two guys following you around." Bloodstone and Jet both blush, I don't allow myself to.
Jonathan and Jet chat like best friends the rest of lunch. I'm worried he'll want to join our group. It's not that he seems awful, just that he's only human and that means he could get hurt if he follows us around too much. He doesn't seem the type to play by the rules…
"Hey, you still there?" Jonathan asks as we start heading to our next classes.. "You've barely said anything all day."
"You mean, the past half hour," I correct him. "I just have a lot of stuff going on outside school."
"Yeah, I know how that is," he laughs. "I've spent the past month or so trying to fit school and homework in with packing and moving and everything. It's the worst possible time of year to move, but what you gonna do, you know?" He looks away for a moment, blushing. "Well, I'll see you around."
"See ya," I wave as he turns down the hall towards whatever form of torture is next. Speaking of which, I'm almost late for my next class, and I really don't want to get detention.
It's been exactly three weeks now, and Amy still hasn't shown up. I guess I might be waiting a whole month after all. That's what Sapphire said, anyway.
We have another training session today-we've been having them every week, sometimes twice. Sapphire's gotten better with her ice powers, and Jet has been able to summon his glaive a few times. I've gotten better with my sword, too, and Bloodstone has been able to use his gauntlet twice, which is way less than Jet. He doesn't seem to care about that though- he's quite content to destroy things with lasers.
"She still hasn't texted you" Jet asks, noticing my worried frown as I stare at my phone. "You shouldn't sweat it so much. I bet she'll come soon."
"Not according to Sapphire," I mutter, shoving my phone back in my pocket. "But you're right, I shouldn't get so distracted." I pull out my sword and slice through the nearest dead log we've been using as targets. Jet steps back a few paces.
"Alright then," he says, then bolts in the opposite direction. I sigh and go back to taking out my frustration on lifeless chunks of wood.
"Are you sure there's no possibility she could come back sooner?" I ask Sapphire, who's mostly just been sitting on the sidelines.
"Positive," she says, but I can see a few icicles forming around her feet. I don't bother prying further.
Suddenly, Amy comes running out of the woods, daggers in hand. "Run for it!" she shrieks, and it takes me less than a second to figure out why. A huge gem monster is following her, almost perfectly resembling a hyena if it weren't for the boar-like head and massive fangs. Sapphire curses under her breath.
"I was afraid of this…" Sapphire mutters before shouting "Everyone! We can't run from it, its too fast! We have to attack it from all sides at once!"
"You heard her!" I confirm, dashing down to meet the monster, sword at the ready. The monster, not used to being attacked in close quarters, thrashes around and hits anything that gets close to it.
"Don't get too close!" Sapphire shouts from the sidelines. I back up a bit and try to hit it from behind, launching myself to stab it in the side. Unfortunately, the beast moves out of the way at the last second, and I barely graze it.
"Watch where you're going!" Amy shouts, and I realize I've nearly landed on top of her.
"Sorry, sorry-" I try to apologize, but she's off again before I can finish.
"Take it down fast! Strike while it's weak!" Sapphire chants, fear showing in her tone. I wonder what she's worried about- we've all gotten stronger, we can totally beat this thing-
I leap backwards as one giant paw nearly lands on top of me, and I immediately lash out, only to be thrown back by a kick from the beast.
It's only now that I realize just how bad our situation is. The boys are mostly sticking together, Jet fending it off while Bloodstone hits it from afar. Sapphire is a safe distance away, shouting out strategy, and Amy-
"Amy watch out!" Sapphire and I scream at the same time as a giant tail sweeps the stunned girl into the air. I try to get up, but a searing pain in my side keeps me down. I can only watch as Sapphire, with incredible speed, zooms across the field to catch her, raising a wall of ice to fend off the monster's next attack. It's completely focused on them now, fortunately not noticing me on the opposite hill, injured and vulnerable.
I'm astounded as Sapphire, determination in her cold eyes, coats the entire monster in ice while still carrying Amy in her arms, cradling her like a baby. Sharp points press inwards, forcing the monster to poof and leaving behind a striped gemstone. Sapphire sets Amy on her feet.
"That was amazing! How did you catch her… oh right, future vision!" Jet says, picking up the gemstone and walking over to Sapphire. Bloodstone, being more considerate, helps me make my way over.
"I-its nothing…" Sapphire says, blushing. "You guys did all the work."
"You totally saved me," Amy says, staring at her with a look I can't quite place.
"I barely did anything," she insists. Jet hands me the gem, which I bubble and send back home.
"You did amazing, Sapphire." I say. She turns to look at me with a smile, which falls into an expression of concern when she sees I'm struggling to stand.
"Amber! Are you alright? What happened?" She immediately goes to support my other side.
"I'm fine, just took a nasty kick from that thing," I say, doing my best to smile despite the pain. "I might have broken a few ribs."
"That's it, we're taking you home right now. Better yet, straight to the hospital," she declares, acting very mother hen-ish for some reason. "You too, Amy. That wrist does not look good." I just now notice Amy's broken wrist, which is hanging at an angle that really shouldn't be possible.
"Really, guys, I'm fine," I assure them. "We heal way faster than most people, remember?"
"...I do see many futures in which you both heal within a week," Sapphire admits. "But only if you rest properly."
"We don't really want to get anyone else involved here," Jet points out, "Especially not our parents."
"I agree with Jet," I say quickly, and we're all looking at Sapphire.
"Alright, but you're both coming to my house tonight. Just in case. Good thing it's Friday." I look over at Amy, afraid that she'll argue and fight with Sapphire again, but she just stares at her and nods.
"If you guys are having a sleepover then Bloody and I are too!" Jet exclaims.
"Bloody?" Bloodstone gags. "Never call me that again." Everyone laughs, even Bloodstone.
"Don't worry, it won't happen again," Jet says, grinning.
An hour later I knock on the door to Sapphire's house with my backpack of sleepover stuff, which I'd sneakily gathered by climbing through my bedroom window so my parents wouldn't notice my very obvious injury. It was painful, but I managed.
I hear laughing before the door opens. Sapphire smiles as she invites me in, and immediately takes my bag from me. As she rushes off to put it in her room I notice Amy on the couch, her wrist tightly bound in some sort of medical cloth. She got here before me. Does that mean Sapphire had been laughing with her?
When Sapphire comes back she wraps a larger bandage-like thingy around my stomach. I hadn't even realized I was bleeding there. After that we chat like good friends. Neither Amy nor Sapphire seems to be upset at the other. We watch movies, eat dinner, play board games and for these moments it's like three weeks ago never happened.
We're supposed to have gone to bed an hour ago but instead we stay up talking. Then I suggest we play truth or dare.
"I'll go first," Sapphire says.
"Truth or dare?" Amy asks her.
"Truth."
"What's the most embarrassing thing that is going to happen to one of us in the next 24 hours?" Amy asks.
"I can't say for sure, but the most likely situation is we will catch you sleep eating frosted flakes in about 5 hours."
"Shoot," Amy says, blushing, "now I can't do that!" We all laugh.
"Ok your turn Amber," Sapphire says, "truth or dare?"
"Dare," I choose.
"Ok then. You have to go into the bathroom and turn on the shower really cold and go under it in you pajamas!" She dares me.
"Easy," I smile. It's cold but only lasts a minute and I don't mind wearing wet clothes.
"Ok Amy, your turn," I tell her, towelling off my hair.
"Truth."
"Who do you have a crush on?"
"Honestly you're so predictable," Sapphire says.
"Well duh, you have powers for that!"
"I don't need powers to know you, you love asking the most cliche question in the history of truth or dare! Remember your sleepover party last year? You got three people to say truth and asked them that exact question each time!" We were so busy "arguing" I didn't notice how red Amy's face had turned until now.
"So, who is it?" I ask
"Sapphire's right, that's a lame question, you can do better Amber," Amy answers nervously.
"So, it shouldn't be hard. It's still Mona isn't it?" I pry.
"What? No, not her, I got over that ages ago," Amy's blush enters uncharted territory.
"Just last month you were…"
"Just stop Amber." Things are awkward for a minute.
"If Amy really doesn't want to answer it we should respect that." Sapphire says, seemingly nervous herself. I start to argue but decide to just drop it.
"Fine, who do you hate the most?" I ask instead.
"Easy, Vincent is the absolute worst." We all move on from the awkwardness but I don't think anyone forgets about it.
Meanwhile, in a different house several blocks away, two hybrid boys are having their own sleepover.
"Hey dude!" Jet says as Bloodstone opens the door.
"Come in, I ordered two pizzas."
"You should've ordered three, you know me!" The boys laugh as they head for the den.
"Our sleepover is already better than the girls could be," Jet says.
"How so?"
"Girls feel like they can't eat a whole pizza in front of their friends."
"You're doing the sleepover wrong if you don't eat a whole pizza." They watch Deadpool as they each eat their whole pizza.
When the movie ends Jet challenges Bloodstone to a competitive game of halo.
"We will play this until I beat you!" Jet says.
"You're on!" Bloodstone accepts the challenge. He knows they'll be playing for hours. Sure enough almost two hours pass before they stop.
"I can't believe you beat me seventeen times in a row!" Jet throws his controller across the room(making sure it lands on something soft), throwing up his hands in defeat.
"Maybe it's cause I didn't drink an entire 2-liter bottle of soda," Bloodstone says, setting his controler down. "I'm tired of this game, anyway."
"Yeah, same." Jet agrees. "But I don't see how the soda has anything to do with it."
"Well getting up to pee during every round and leaving yourself AFK doesn't help you win."
"I wouldn't have won anyway!" Jet complains.
"One day maybe. What do you want to do now?"
"We could play Pandemic, or finish this pizza while playing Pandemic! We could also play Risk, or maybe-"
"Nah," Bloodstone cuts him off. Suddenly he knows what to do. "Look, what's the deal with Jonathan?" Bloodstone asks. The strange Jonathan has been sitting with them at lunch on and off for three weeks. Bloodstone could tell something was up.
"Huh?" Jet wasn't expecting this question.
"You know what I mean. I sensed there was something more than just camp friends between you two."
"It's not an interesting story."
"Doesn't mean I shouldn't hear it. Besides," he grins with a hint of malice. "I have a feeling it's more interesting than you say."
"Well…" Jet thinks about hesitating but decides to rip the band-aid off. "We were really close at camp and I kinda had a crush on him. With only a week left I decided to ask him out but he had a girlfriend. Then I was really embarrassed and apologized for assuming he was gay. He was really nice about it and said that he was bi, another thing we have in common. He said he liked me but wasn't willing to cheat on his girlfriend. I told him I understood and we have still been friendly since. It doesn't really matter, I like someone else now." Jet immediately realizes he's made a mistake. "So this pizza's not going to finish itself…"
"I knew it!" Bloodstone points a finger accusingly. "What else aren't you telling me? Who's your crush now?"
"I mean I still kinda like Jonathan…" Jet tries to climb out of the hole he dug.
"So you admit it!" Bloodstone grins. "But you still haven't answered my question. Who do you like now?" Jet groans.
"Is there anyway I can get out of answering that?"
"Nope."
"Fine but only if you tell me who you like too."
"Same time?" Jet nods.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three…"
"Amber," they admit in unison.
"Crap," They say together.
"Well, that's going to be a problem," Bloodstone remarks. "Can't say I didn't see it coming, though."
"Look can we just agree to be more mature about it than Amy and Sapphire were?" Jet says, the question coming out as a statement. "I really don't want a repeat of that whole fiasco."
"Of course bro, that was ridiculous," Bloodstone says and they agree, but at the same time both boys start coming up with plans to make Amber fall for them first. It's truly impossible to ignore desire, no matter how much it may hurt your friends.
Author's note: We know, we know, it's so cheesy to just get over the Sapphire Amy fight over Amber and now introduce this love triangle but bear with us. We promise we have a plan and this is necessary for some good plot points to come. Also you won't have to worry about the love triangle for the next two chapters (Actually, the chapter was so long we split it in to part one and two). In the next chapter Watermelon Tourmaline we'll introduce a new character. (Guess who... by leaving a review!)