My Heart's Always With You

“Please tell me that it isn’t 9 a.m. and that we don’t have to go to work yet?” Amber’s voice asked as she nestled her head against her pillow. She refused to open her eyes and look at the damn alarm clock that would tell her that she had to get up.

“Truth or lie?” Her best friend Alyce responded from the futon halfway across Amber’s large bedroom. They had been best friends since birth and would always be best friends.

“Lie.”

“Then no, we can sleep for another three to four hours.”

“Make it five.”

“Six.”

“I like the sound of that. Now the truth.”

“Well I’m going to put this gently. Amber, get your lazy ass out of bed and into the shower. We have to go to work in thirty minutes.”

“Shit.”

“Watch your mouth.” Amber sat up and glared at Alyce who was sitting up also. They just sat there for three minutes looking around the large room. If someone was to walk in they would probably look like two super-sized five year olds who had just woken up and didn’t know where they were. Even down to Amber’s Winnie the Pooh pajamas.

“If I have to get up so do you!” Amber called as she closed her bathroom door. She turned on the shower to heat up and laid her clothes on the counter close by. One look in the mirror and she laughed at herself. Her face and hair looked like she’d slept for a week when in reality she’d barely made it home by curfew.

The parties that were thrown with the families in the business did that to you. The teenagers disappeared and would almost always miss their deadlines to be home. In return it was a restless night of sleeping so soundly it was as if they were dead to the rest of the world. Which in turn meant that the girls would wake up with their hair trashed and make up half way down their cheeks.

After one more laugh at the way she looked Amber stepped into her shower to begin the process of getting ready for another day of working at her mom and aunt’s shoe store. Why they’d chose to open a shoe store she didn’t understand, but she never thought too much about it.

Her dad however worked as a doctor (ironically enough so he could help people) and Amber wasn’t sure what she wanted to do just yet. But she knew she would figure it out, and at the moment she wasn’t in too big of a hurry to launch a career just yet.

Mean while in her bedroom Alyce sat on the pulled out futon flipping through the various pictures on her cell phone. She knew Amber wouldn’t be in the shower long and she didn’t feel like TV.

She had just heard the shower cut off when Amber’s cat Willow jumped into her lap with a soft “Meow.” The small Lynx Siamese wasn’t exactly the word’s sweetest cat. Alyce said that Willow and Amber were alike and she was right. “Hi kitty.” Alyce scratched the behind the ears and she purred. But the sweet kitty was soon gone and Willow bit her. “Ow!” Alyce tossed the cat off her lap and she landed on her four small paws with a complaining noise.

“Alyce did you just toss my cat?” Amber asked as she brushed her hair in her bathroom after she heard an ow, a thud, and her cat’s complaint.

“She bit me!” Amber opened her bathroom door and willow pranced in, her tail swinging wildly from side to side in a sign of annoyance, and jumped onto the counter. “You are evil debil cat.” She patted the cat’s head with her left hand and used the name her mom had given her.

After the girls were ready they left in Amber’s black Chevy Impala SS. The windows were tinted dark for various reasons so the entire car was black. The interior was a charcoal color and the seats were cloth. The stereo had been replaced with a more fancy one than the standard one that had came with the car. All in all this was Amber’s dream car, and she loved it.

When they arrived at the store they knew something was up. For starters there was a Tahoe barked in the employee parking area which meant they were there to see her mom or dad. The confusing part was she didn’t recognize. However she pushed the thought from her mind for the time being. She would find out soon enough.

Once inside they went to her mom’s office in the back and were greeted by Fairy, her mom’s Yorkshire Terrier, the second Amber opened the door. “Morning girls.” Esme Davis smiled up at her daughter and her practically daughter.

“Morning Mom.” They echoed her smiling back. She was seated at her large desk in her comfy office chair like she was most mornings going over inventory and other store related things.

“Who’s here?” Amber asked her mom, knowing that she was know.

“Your dad has a guest. You should wait for him outside the meeting room, he will want to see you.” So amber went and waited. She was pondering the thought of what the “business” she be called. She’d never figured it out exactly and since she had nothing else to thing of now was a good time.

But that tired her soon so she began thinking of some random song that had been played the night before when the door opened and to her shock the man who walked out gave her a smile before walking off. “Sweetie com eon in.” Her dad told her warmly.

She walked in and sat down before looking dumbfounded at her dad. She had no idea what was going on and she didn’t like that one bit. Her dad was avoiding her gaze at the moment since she was staring at him like he was on fire. “I’m sure you are wondering why he was here.” He cleared his throat.

“Just a little! Dad we hate them. They hate us. I've never been told the stories of whatever war there is between the families, but I know what has been said about staying away from each other! What in the hell was Gary Sanders doing here?”

“We are calling a truce it has been too long, and we need to show we can get along. All the families with us and those with them. then after a while again we will go back to normal.”

“This is bullcrap!!”

“It needs to be done. For a few weeks. It is only for now anyway my dear.”

“Whatever. This doesn’t mean I have to like it or them.”

“Amber I don’t expect you to like them, nor do I actually want you to. It is only temporary. And all the families are meeting at the beach tonight.”

“Fine.” Amber made sure to slam the door behind herself as she left to prove her point of anger.