Girl's Love | Editing |

Chapter 11

Saturday had finally arrived. I found myself in the back seat of Aunt Mary's car, listening to (and surprisingly enjoying) more of the Hamilton soundtrack. The mall wasn't far, so I wouldn't get to hear much. Amber rode shotgun.

As far as Aunt Mary knew, she was driving us to a hangout with our friends. After a few moments of silence, except for the music, Amber finally cleared her throat. "Thank you for driving me, Aunt Mary," she said.

Aunt Mary looked at her as if this was a surprising turn of events. In a sense, it was. Amber hadn't been avoiding her like she did with me and Neal, but she rarely took the opportunity to spend more time with her. This was the first time she accepted Aunt Mary's offer to drive her somewhere.

"No problem, honey," she replied, smiling. "You said you're meeting Lily, right? How long have you been friends?"

"Almost two years now."

"What about Peter?"

"I just met him this year."

"And you're still best friends with... it starts with an 's'..."

"Sarah? Yeah."

"Good."

Aunt Mary exhaled. "I can't believe it. When you were young, it was so hard for you to make friends. I'm happy for you."

I looked to Amber, who wore a wistful smile. "Thanks. But life was a lot simpler back then."

She said something similar awhile back. In a sense, I agreed. But I personally would take having friends and knowing who I am rather than having no friends and no idea who I was.

Then again, who I was wasn't the target of potential rumors, ridicule, or worse.

"Well, I certainly got to visit you more back then," Aunt Mary said. "I even would've taken you kids in if... if I had a better job."

Her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath and began to speak.

"I hope both of you know what you want to do soon. You need a job that... you get paid decently, and you have a boss that cares about you. Ideally you want one that you enjoy, too, but... sometimes you have to make sacrifices for what's important to you. Like, if I made enough money, I could have taken you in. If I had a nice boss, I wouldn't have been laid off. If I had to put up with crappy, boring work, it would've been okay as long as I had you guys."

Her voice broke. "So... yeah. Just think about the kind of life you want, and... go back from there."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Aunt Mary was rarely this serious with me, or with my sister. And I never realized she had so many regrets about her job.

"I will," I replied softly.

"We both will," said Amber.

We managed to recover from the serious tone when one of King George's songs blasted through the speakers. We were laughing our heads off. The ride ended, and Aunt Mary dropped us off at the bookstore entrance. We checked our phones to see if our dates were here yet. Well, in my case, it wasn't a date, but- well, you know.

I had been using the library for so long, I forgot what it was like in the store. There was a special section that was just for kids towards the back. It had signs for different age groups, as well as a yellow wallpaper with painted cartoon animals. Display cases for DVDs and merchandise lay throughout the aisles. I immediately gravitated toward a table full of anime plushies, and Amber immediately noticed.

"I think you have enough plushies, don't you?" she asked, smirking.

"There's no such thing as enough plushies," I declared.