Not Exactly What it Seems

If I’m being honest, her family scared me a little bit. Well, not necessarily all of the family, but there were some obvious people that scared me. But I would never trade any of that because she was finally mine. She was mine and no one would stop us, not even the family. I was beyond walking on cloud nine, I was ecstatic. There was no doubt that I was completely whipped already. But that was perfectly fine with me; I was not ashamed of that.

Anthony needed a serious pick-me-up and he needed one fast. I think that our talk left him missing Amber really badly and so he was pretty upset. I knew that he still loved her and that he would do anything to get her back. There was no way he would have just given up, but he was so disgusted in himself that he did not think himself worthy at all.

I decided to change that.

While he was sleeping that night, I snuck into his room to steal Amber’s number from his phone. The house looked eerie and spooky in the blackness of the wee hours of the morning, but I liked it and moved quickly and quietly. Operation: Save Anthony was underway.

The next morning, I hid out in my bathroom to call Amber to see what I could do about damage control. There was no way that girl was over him; I saw the way they looked at each other and there was serious love there. But the real question was how broken she was and whether she could get past that.

“I need you to listen before you get mad and hang up, okay?” I asked her once she answered. She agreed, but I wasn’t so sure she would comply.

“I know that Anthony broke your heart and I can’t even imagine what that felt like for you. But I know my cousin and I know that he is devastated by what happened.” I expected her to interrupt with furious words, but she did not. She was silent, so I plowed on.

“Anthony is one of the most genuine people I know, one of the only actually. And I am not just saying that. He doesn’t feel like he deserves you and that’s why he let you go without a fight, but come on. Would Anthony really do that if he felt he had a chance in the world? You know how stubborn he is and if you think for a second he forgot about you just because you broke up with him you are sorely mistaken. He loves you and I know that he’s never going to love anyone else like that again. I really think you should give him a chance.”

There were suddenly huge sobs coming from the other end of the phone. I actually made the girl cry. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. “Do you really,” she was stuttering and her words were unclear. “Do you really t-think he w-would ever acce-cept me after what I p-put him through? I was so m-mean and d-didn’t let him exp-plain.”

Woah; that seemed a little too easy. “Amber, I know for a fact that he would take you back in a second if you only gave him the chance. He’s in love with you, that should be enough don’t you think?”

She had composed herself a little bit and was able to talk without stuttering. “I just don’t want to get hurt like that again. I know that it was something he usually never does, but I still can’t help but wonder, you know?”

“I know, but you can’t let that keep you from trying. You need to give him the chance.”

So for a while, we talked on the phone and discussed how she would tell him she wanted him back. We were not sure how exactly to do it mainly because I was not sure when we were all leaving and going back to New York. But I promised her that I would call her to let her know what I schemed up once it was all worked out.

Hayden was waiting in my room on my bed when I walked out of the bathroom with my phone in hand. He raised his eyebrows, but was, I’m sure, debating whether or not he should ask me what I was up to. I smirked at him, knowing how curious he really was to know.

“I am a genius,” I informed him. “Seriously, I can’t even get over how amazing I am at this very moment. It doesn’t happen very often so I have to embrace it now.” He was definitely curious at that point, so I told him what I had planned.

Turns out we were staying in Vermont until after the New Year so I had to devise a plan based on that. And I must say that my plan was pretty great. Anthony was going to be so surprised and ecstatic about seeing Amber again. Of course, I had the fear that something would go wrong, because that is usually the case, but I pushed that aside. I did not want to worry myself unnecessarily.