Live A Little

Live A Little - 1

"OK, that should do it," Angelique muttered to herself as she worked with her wrench. "Hey, Amber, can you pass me the IPM?" She waited a few seconds but didn't hear any sound coming from her sister. "Uh, you know, the internal pressure monitor, so I can check the car's engine?" Angelique tried again. "Uh, Amber?"

Instead of answering her older sister's questions, Amber Lily pursed her lips and arched her back over a little more into the hood of the car that they were working on together. Well, fixing cars was actually Angelique's specialty, but Amber Lily also liked helping out sometimes to show their parents what a good girl she could be too.

"Hmm, I think it might be just about done, but it needs to be checked with the internal pressure monitor just to be sure." she finally said.

Angelique was stunned. "What?!" she exclaimed. She had just said that! Where was Amber Lily's head these days? "Amber! Amber, I know you can hear me! Stop ignoring me and just hand me the dang IPM!"

But, Angelique's cries fell on empty ears.

The sound of the garage door sliding open filled both sisters' ears. While Angelique was surprised at who could possibly be here at this time of the night when they weren't even open, Amber Lily was filled with euphoria.

She felt warm hands wrap around her eyes and a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Guess who." a sultry voice whispered in her ear.

Amber Lily placed her dainty hands over the thick ones wrapped around her and spun around, giggling softly.

"Zach!" she wrapped her arms around his chest.

"And who is this under here?"

All of a sudden, Angelique felt herself being pulled out from underneath the car she was working on and her eyes were blinded by all the lights that were on in the garage. She turned her head away, but the voices she heard were unmistakeable.

Angelique pushed herself up from the automotive creeper she was resting on while fixing the car's engine and blinked rapidly before looking up at the two figures that had just joined them.

Zacharia and Deven Bradberry were two teenage brothers that Angelique and Amber Lily used to be friends and neighbors with. Well, Amber Lily was friends with them, Angelique was a bit of a loner and was always too busy to really have friends.

Angelique turned her head and spotted Zacharia with Amber Lily, who he had lifted into the air with his hug and then turned back to her left where Deven stood staring at Angelique with an amused look on his face.

Angelique wondered what the heck he was looking at - no, most importantly, she wondered what the heck they were doing here - the Bradberry's had moved away like three years ago to Boston for reasons unknown. Though she was sure Amber Lily knew, but she never told her anything and she never asked. Besides, they were her friends and they wouldn't have even known Angelique if they weren't constantly coming over to their house during all the summers spent together.

Zacharia finished hugging Amber Lily then and with a broad grin turned and started heading Angelique's way.

"Angel, baby!" he yelled, stretching his arms out wider. "Ugh." he stopped short though when he got to me. "Ah, hey baby doll, you look a lot darker than I remembered; too much sun?"

Angelique scrunched up her eyebrows. What was he talking about? The twitching of his lips and the snickering that was coming from Deven and Amber Lily only confused Angelique even more.

A few droplets of sweat rolled down from Angelique's forehead and made her skin itch and that was when she realized what everyone was looking at. She brought her hands up to her face and felt oil and dirt; they must've gotten smudged on her face while she was working.