Amity

Benji’s pov

I swear, it’s gotten harder to make sure Joel doesn’t catch on to the fact that I like Amity as more than a friend. As much as I love my brother and keep absolutely no secrets from him, this is one thing that I can’t tell him. I see the way that he looks at our best friend and it’s something that I wasn’t about to get in the middle of. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been looking the same way at her and it’s really not going so well…

I seriously hate keeping this secret from Joel… I know I’ve said that already, but whatever. I do.

The good thing, though, is that Josh has gone off to college on a scholarship. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do with it, but he promised that he’d get a good job while he was in school and send money back to Mom. Not that she wanted to accept it or anything, but she’s really proud of him… Hell, we’re all proud of him. However, his moving out meant that Joel got to move into his room. That had been a belated seventeenth birthday present from both Josh and Mom.

I’ll tell you one thing, though. It was fucking strange as all hell having my own room for once in my life. Joel and I had shared a room our entire lives, up until now. I was honestly really tempted to just go sleep on his floor the first few nights…

I’m such a baby, god… Look at me, whining about how I miss my younger twin brother…

Anyway, Amity, Joel, and I have all been seventeen for the last few weeks. Not much has changed other than the fact that Joel and I aren’t sleeping in the same room and stuff like that. Amity had decided to grow her hair out, too… Surprisingly enough, it was growing really fast so far…

I have no idea why she decided that she wanted to have long hair again. She’d cut it off after her own father left her and had kept it cropped short like that for years… I think we were all eight when she had it long last… Either way, she looked good with the shaggy hair that was currently replacing her pixie cut.

Joel and I were currently walking her home from our house. It was Friday and, unlike every other Friday on the planet, her mother had actually wanted her to come home for once at five. It was kind of weird, thinking about not having the weekend to spend with our best friend, but whatever, I supposed…

None of us had any idea what the hell her mother wanted from her, but we’d all learned not to question her mother’s motives. Rachel could be a bit of a pain in the ass and a huge stickler when it came to Amity following her ‘rules’. At least she was when the woman actually enforced them. For the most part, Amity could do whatever the hell she wanted. Which worked out for Joel and I because that meant we got all the time in the world with our best friend. That was definitely not something we were complaining about in the least.

When we got there, there were two cars in the driveway. Amity’s steps faltered, causing her to fall back from my brother and I as we continued to walk for a few more feet. I turned around first, noticing her lack of presence between us. Concern coated my face as I looked back at her. “Everything okay, Am?” I asked her, seeing her with her head tilted to the side and confusion written all over her face.

“Um…yeah, everything is fine. I’m just…kinda nervous about who the hell else could be here…”

“You don’t know who’s car that is?” Joel asked, taking the words straight out of my mouth. She shook her head and her long black bangs fell into her face. I took a deep breath as I resisted the urge to reach over and shove them away from her eyes.

Joel beat me to the punch anyway…

I watched in silent jealousy as my brother did so, the affectionate gesture obviously catching her off guard as she looked at Joel slightly startled before smiling and thanking him shyly. I swallowed the lump of jealousy in the back of my throat, trying to act like it didn’t bother me in the least.

“Do you want us to go in with you, Am?” I asked her, keeping my eyes on her quietly. She shook her head again, her hair falling into her face again before she quickly moved her hand to brush it away from those gorgeous ice blue eyes of hers.

“No, it’s fine. I’m sure it’s just one of her friends from work or something,” she stated with another shrug. I exchanged a worried glance with Joel before my eyes moved back to her as she began walking forward once more. The girl walked between us and then turned to walk up her driveway up to the door to her home.

“I’ll talk to you guys later, okay? Call me when you get up and I’ll see if I can come over, mkay?” she said, a smile on her face that wasn’t fully genuine. I could tell because it didn’t reach her eyes. She was worried about who it was, but she was trying to keep both Joel and I from worrying about her. Sighing, I scrubbed a hand through my hair before waving at her.

When she had gone inside, my brother and I turned around to begin walking back home. “I don’t like that Amity was so worried…” I stated, breaking the silence between us after we had gone a block in our walk. I looked up the slight height difference at my twin, brows furrowed slightly. He nodded in agreement, his brown eyes reflecting my worry as they looked over at me.

“Yeah, I don’t either… I don’t know why she would be worried, though. I mean, it’s not like Rachel knows anyone that would be dangerous,” Joel said, trying to reassure the both of us. He faltered, though, as he realized that it was a pretty good possibility that our best friend’s mother could very well know someone who was anything but good news. “Does she?” he asked, worry back in his eyes as we continued walking.

I shrugged, sighing and trying to ignore that giant ball of nerves in my throat. Joel definitely did absolutely nothing to quell that nervousness and worry that I held for Amity right at this point. We continued the walk home in silence, both keeping our thoughts to ourselves.

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Amity’s pov

I didn’t know why, but I had an inexplicably bad feeling about the second car in our driveway. It didn’t have a Maryland license plate, but that wasn’t really a surprise at all considering the fact that Maryland wasn’t a very large state and there were all sorts of different states’ license plates all around the place. But it wasn’t that fact that bugged me. I didn’t even know which fact was bugging me, but something just…was.

Like I said, there was absolutely no explanation as to why I was feeling like this… I sighed as I mounted the steps to the door, watching my two best friends in the entire world walk away and leave me to deal with this horrible feeling deep in my gut. I had no idea what the hell it was, but it was really unsettling… I glanced back behind me at the car parked behind Mom’s as I adjusted the bag slung on my shoulder, bringing my lower lip between my teeth to chew on it lightly.

Another deep breath and I turned around to open the front door, praying that whoever was home with Mom wasn’t bad news like my gut was telling me. For once, I really just wanted my gut to be wrong…

Fat chance with that one…