My Heart's Always With You

Chapter Twenty
A few more weeks had passed and few things had changed. The summer for Lisa would officially be over The coming Monday and Amber feared that after Lisa went back to school she would become closer to Aaron because it may be considered cool that her boyfriend was older than her. Anthony was still in the dark about her relationship with Matt and now she was fighting for the chance to stay home instead of going on the annual “Davis family end-of-summer retreat” as he called it. “Someone needs to take care of the store. Aunt Cindy is going with you remember?” Amber asked looking directly at Anthony.

“Someone else can do it.” Anthony was set on having Amber come along.

“Everyone else is still too new.” Esme chimed in.

“Amber is a Davis, she has to come.”

“No dad I don’t. I’m 18 almost 19 years old. Skipping one year won’t hurt. Besides Aaron can take my place.” Aaron’s eyes narrowed at her, that wasn’t part of his plan.

“Fine. But I’m very disappointed Amber.”

“You’ll get over it. Now I’m going to go meet Alyce and go bowling. Bye.” Feeling accomplished Amber left the house to go to the usual hangout. Alyce and Kellan would already be waiting and Matt probably would be as well. She hadn’t expected for the argument to take so long.

Matt was waiting by his car when Amber parked at the bowling alley. She got out with a large smile on her face. “I’m free! I don’t have to go!” She threw her arms around him before quickly kissing his lips.

“That is great!” Matt then handed her what she’d failed to notice before despite the fact he was holding it in his hand. She took the single black rose with a smile.

“Thank you.”

“Break up the moment and get in here will you?” Alyce called from the door where she’d been watching.

“And you say I’m a moment killer!” Amber called walking towards the door. Inside Alyce had Kellan installing more colored lights. “More lights?”

“Yup!” Alyce sat down next to Kellan. Amber didn’t bother asking anymore questions, instead she and Matt headed for the kitchen area. Amber put the rose in some water then grabbed them each a soda. When they came back out Alyce was sitting on Kellan’s shoulders changing a light bulb. “Alyce do you ever use a step ladder?”

“No not really.” She clapped her hands in happiness when she finished and Kellan sat her down.

“So seriously, when’s the wedding?” Amber sat down next to Matt and smirked.

“Don’t know yet.” They both shrugged. Amber rolled her eyes at Alyce. She’d been teasing them about this since they were 17, so by now they’d grown used to it.

“You’ll be one of the first to know when we become engaged.” Alyce promised.

“That’s good cause I better be!”

“So did you get out of the trip?”

“Thankfully!”

“So what do you want to do when they leave?”

“Don’t know. Hang out at my house maybe? It won’t matter. No one will be watching my every move or asking for a play by play.”

“Very true. Well anyway we might as well do some bowling.”

“But what if I don’t want to?” Amber grabbed onto Matt’s arm and rested her head against his shoulder. He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at her reaction.

“Pull yourself away from your lover boy over there and get up.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Amber do you really want to disagree with her? She is a force of nature remember?” Kellan chimed in quickly.

“I don’t care. I’m not going to move.”

“You’ll regret that.” Alyce went skipping off towards the kitchen while she sang about the elves and gnomes. “Hey Amber?”

“What?”

“Bran flakes.” Amber looked over her shoulder and saw Alyce smiling with a glass of water in her hand.

“Oh crap! Alyce don’t you dare.”

“Bran flakes.”

“I hate those things they used to make you hyper and then you’d do stuff like pour water on me. And you know how much I hate water.”

“I know exactly how much you hate water.”

“Twinkies.”

“You don’t scare me. All you ever did was shout twinkies and then wonder why the neighbors thought you were weird.”

“What are they talking about?” Matt looked at Kellan as Amber got up and began backing away from Alyce.

“When they were about 13 or so when Alyce would get really hyper she’d say Bran Flakes for some strange reason, and Amber would say Twinkies.” Kellan had been around Alyce and Amber’s randomness for so long it was just an everyday occurrence for them. Nothing shocked him anymore.

“You should have gotten up.” Alyce ran up to Amber and poured the cold water over her head, causing Amber to scream and then chase after Alyce.

“Alyce you are dead!”

“You’ve gotta catch me first!”

“You can’t run forever!”

“But Kellan will protect me.”

“Ha ha like I’m scared of Kellan!”

“You won’t discombobulate me!”

“You got me wet!”
***

It was around 1:30 a.m. when a ringing phone woke the four up. They had given up on bowling and ended up in the little living room part of the building. They’d been watching a movie after Amber dried off and had fallen asleep. Alyce’s head was on one of Kellan’s legs and his arm was resting protectively over her side while his head was on a pillow he’d placed on the back of the couch. Amber was hugging Matt as her head rested on his shoulder with her forehead against the side of his neck. His arm was wrapped around her in a manner of protectiveness like Kellan’s was around Alyce as his head rested against a pillow as well. But then the phone rang.

“Five more minutes mom, then I’ll go feed the cows.” Alyce mumbled.

“I don’t wanna get up.” Amber complained snuggling up closer into Matt’s side.

“I’m not your mom Alyce, that would just be wrongly disgusting.” Kellan mumbled out.

“You don’t have to.” Matt moved his head slightly and kissed the top of Amber’s before going back to the pillow.

“Hey isn’t that Amber’s ringtone for her dad? It is annoying.” Alyce was slowly coming to. “It was a preprogrammed one on her phone. Is it?”

“Crap!” Amber sprang to life and grabbed her phone. “Hello?”

“Amber?” Anthony’s voice drifted through the phone.

“Uh yeah?”

“Where are you?”

“The bowling alley? I told you I was going bowling with Alyce.”

“Until 1:30?”

“Yeah. I’ll be home later.”

“Fine. Bye.”

“Bye.”

“What is it?” Matt asked the second Amber’s phone closed.

“My dad. I guess I better go. I’ll see you tomorrow Alyce.” Amber let go of Matt and stood up but he stood up along with her. Alyce waved and let her head fall back onto Kellan’s leg.

Amber went and grabbed the rose from the kitchen with Matt still following her. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to Matt. I’m sorry my phone woke you up too.” She said as they stood by her car.

“Stop apologizing. I should go home anyway. Besides I’ll see you tomorrow or technically later today.”

“Is that a promise?”

“It is a promise.” Matt wrapped his arms around her and gave her a nice kiss on the lips.

“I love you.” She whispered when they pulled apart.

“I love you too Amber, I love you too.” Matt quickly ran his hand through her hair and smiled before backing away.

“Call me when you wake up later on okay?”

“Will do.” Amber kissed him quickly on the lips before she left and headed home for the night or technically morning.

***

Amber was glad that she didn’t have to go to work later that day and the fact that everyone was leaving the next morning was a plus as well. It was around 10 when she woke up again, this time she sat up in her bed and looked around before grabbing the black rose out of the vase on her nightstand.

She inhaled the scent and smiled as she carefully avoided the thorns. Seeing Matt or thinking about him always seemed to put her in a good mood. So did talking to him. With a content sigh she laid back in her bed and sniffed at the rose again.

As if on an unsaid cue her phone began playing Matt’s ringtone. “Morning.” She answered before sniffing the rose again.

“Morning gorgeous. Did you get some sleep?”

“Yes I did. Did you?”

“Yup. So do you have work today?”

“Luckily nope.”

“That’s awesome. So do you wanna come over later and head a song that I wrote?”

“Of course! Just let me take a shower, get ready, and grab some food and I’ll be right over okay?”

“Sounds good to me.” It didn’t take long for Amber to find herself at Matt’s house listening to him sing and play the guitar. “Just image me screaming on that last one okay?” Matt asked with a laugh.

“Okay sounds good. Can I hear another one?”

“Of course. This one is called Streets and I actually don’t ever scream in this one.” Matt began the song and Amber’s thoughts drifted away. He can play piano, guitar, and he can sing. How could anyone resist the sound of his voice? It was simply amazing.

“I love that one!” Amber exclaimed when the song ended.

“I’m writing a new song so do you want to hear it when I finish it?” Matt asked looking at her directly in the eyes. She could see it in his eyes that the song was some kind of surprise and this made her curious.

“I’d love to! Can I hear what you have so far?”

“Nope, you have to wait.”

“Please?”

“Nah. I’ll finish it soon.” Matt sat his guitar aside and leaned over to kiss her cheek.

“Pretty please?”

“It won’t take long Amber. I promise.”

“Fine. I can’t believe you are making me wait.”

“You’ll live.” He stood up and reached his hand out to her. “Come on my mom’s been bugging me to have you over again and since she’s here I’m sure she’ll want to see you.”

“Okay.” Amber smiled and took his hand after she stood up. Matt’s mom was downstairs like he knew she would be.

“Mom?” Mrs. Sanders looked up as soon as Matt’s voice filled the room with a smile.

“I see you have Amber over again. It’s about time. Hi Amber.” Mrs. Sanders greeted her with a hug like she normally did.
“Hi Mrs. Sanders. How are you today?”

“I’m doing good thank you. How are you?”

“I’m doing pretty great.”

“We’re back!” Jimmy’s voice suddenly filled the house as he walked in through the front door followed by Brian.

“You ever left?” Matt joked looking up at two of his best friends.

“Hi Jimmy, hi Brian.” Mrs. Sanders greeted them with a laugh as Jimmy plopped onto the living room sofa.

“Don’t you two have houses?” Matt complained as he pulled Amber into his arms.

“Yeah but they are boring at the moment.” Jimmy threw his head back to look at Matt.

“Exactly. So we came to annoy you.” Brian plopped on the other end of the living room sofa and reached for the remote.

“Hey guys.” Amber laughed watching them.

“Hey Amber.” It was like they were one person.

“I’ll let you hang out with them Matt. I’ll see you later.”

“You sure? They are easy to ignore.”

“I’m sure. I’m going to go bug Alyce.”

***

After stopping by Alyce’s house for a bit before she went to the movies with Kellan Amber went home. Since the house was empty she went up to her room to watch some TV and maybe get some extra sleep. In all honesty she was missing a lot of sleep.

After looking through several channels she finally found music videos and left it there. “As always Willow there is nothing on to watch.” She grabbed the cat and laid her on her stomach. Willow meowed complaints for a few minutes and then began falling asleep.

Amber reached for the black rose again. The cool water from the stem felt nice against her hands as she carefully avoided the thorns. Once again she raised the rose to her nose and inhaled the sweet scent.

The reoccurring thought about just telling Anthony came into her head again. After all she was 18 so legal there wasn’t anything he could do. It would cause trouble, and Aaron might even try and kill her or worse try and kill Matt. But the thought of not hiding to be with Matt seemed too tempting at times.

With a sigh she placed the rose back into the vase and let her thought about telling her dad slip away as she closed her eyes. The missed sleep had finally caught up to her. The previous week she’d only gotten about 3 to 4 hours a sleep a night, and the beginning of this week had only been a slight improvement. Now it was all catching up to her.

She was drifting in and out of being awake and falling asleep when her cell phone went off. Her eyes slowly opened and she reached for her phone that was lying next to her pillow. She smiled and opened the text message from Matt. What are you up to gorgeous? She laughed and selected reply.

Nothing really, just trying to catch up on some missed sleep. What about you handsome? She let her phone rest in her hand as she closed her eyes and waited for Matt to text her back. It didn’t take him long.

Just hanging with the guys. Well I’ll let you get some sleep. I love u

Cool. Thanks! I love u 2

After sending the text Amber laid her head back down and closed her eyes. She didn’t have to block any thoughts about anything that might keep her awake since none came. It was completely silent except for the low music playing from the TV and in the comfort of her room Amber fell asleep quickly.

***

After the guys left Matt went back to working on the song he’d been writing. He really wanted to finish it so he could show it to Amber. He really hoped that she would like it. So far it was a nameless song as well.

Sitting his guitar down Matt looked at the paper and reread the lyrics again. It was almost finished so he pulled out his phone and looked at the pictures he had of Amber. He’d need to come up with a name before he showed it to her. He was pretty confident that she’d like it.

Jimmy and Brian had left about an hour ago but Matt wasn’t going to bother Amber. She was tired from missing so much sleep and needed to catch up. So Matt shut his phone, moved the lyrics aside, and laid back on his bed. A part of him still couldn’t believe it. He’d actually fallen completely in love with Amber Davis. Everything had changed and he wasn’t sure how much more either of them could stand to hide. But none of it really mattered anymore. He knew he loved her and that was really all that mattered.