Pictures Of You

Chapter 1

Things between Amy and Karma had been rough for the past couple of months. Karma had found out about Amy and Liam sleeping together and even though Karma had forgiven them, she and Amy were only now finding their way back to where they used to be.

Amy's mom had decided to clean their attic and Amy and Karma were helping her. They'd been looking through boxes that had been packed away years ago, when Amy came across a small shoebox full of old pictures. It had pictures of her and Amy as kids, as teenagers.

"Do you remember this?" Amy asked, smiling, handing Karma over a picture of them dressed as salt and pepper for Halloween.

"Of course I do, it was the fourth grade and my mom took us trick or treating." Karma said, smiling as she looked at the picture.

"You got so upset that I got more candy than you that night." Amy said, almost laughing at the memory.

"I wasn't upset, I just found it unfair that people chose to give you more candy than me." Karma said, pouting.

Amy couldn't help but laugh at how cute Karma looked.

Amy and Karma continued to look through the box, until they came across an old picture. It was black and white, a little tattered and folded at different places because of the wear and tear of time. It was a picture of Amy's father holding her right after she was born. He was a tall man with brown hair; he looked so happy in the picture.

Amy didn't know much about her father, just that he' left her mom and her when she was about four and had never come back. She'd asked her mom about him growing up but Amy's mom didn't say much, she always seemed to want to change the topic and as the years went by, Amy stopped asking.

Karma knew Amy didn't like talking about her dad, there had been a time when she'd wanted to get to know him, find out who he was, where he was; but one day when Amy saw how much talking about him, upset her mom, she decided she didn't want to know anymore; and Karma also never asked Amy about him again.

Amy stared at the picture for a couple of moments, a rush of emotions going through her, but she didn't want to deal with any of them and so she put the picture back in the box.

"I'm getting a little hungry, do you want to go down and grab a sandwich or something?" Karma asked, wanting to distract Amy from the picture she'd just found.

"Sure." Amy said absent-mindedly.

It had been a couple of days and Amy and Karma hadn't spoken about the picture and Amy tried her best to forget she'd ever even seen it. Amy didn't want to think about her father, he didn't care about her, he just left and so Amy didn't care about him either; or so she told herself.

Amy wanted to concentrate on getting her and Karma back on track, Karma was the most important person in her left and she'd already come too close to losing her, she just couldn't let that happen.

"So what do you want to do after school today?" Amy asked, as she picked at her lunch.

"I don't, we could just hang out at your place." Karma said.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I have a ton of homework but once I'm done with it, we could binge watch orange is the new black." Amy said.

"Yeah, I have a ton of homework too. I hate math." Karma said.

"Join the club." Amy said, smiling.

"Binge watching orange is the new black sounds perfect." Karma said, smiling.

The thought of being able to just relax and hang out with each other after school was all that got Amy and Karma through the day. Sure things had been weird r between them and Amy always wondered if Karma had really forgiven her but it was days like these, when the thought of each other got them by; that Amy knew that they would be okay.

"So, how was your day?" Amy asked, as she and Karma walked into her room.

"Exhausting, yours?" Karma asked.

"Not bad, I actually got an extension on my homework." Amy said.

"How lucky, I still have to do math and I suck at it." Karma said.

"Now that I have no homework, I can help you and we can be done faster." Amy said, smiling.

Amy and Karma sat and did Karma's homework for two hours non-stop. Amy tried helping Karma understand but nothing seemed to work and so Amy gave up and they decided to begin their marathon.

"Everything is set, I'm going to go make the popcorn." Amy said.

"I'll go grab the ice cream." Karma said, as she and Amy walked down the steps of Amy's house.

As Amy was making the popcorn, the doorbell rang. Farrah and Bruce were out for dinner and Lauren had a date with Theo and so Amy and Karma were the only ones at home. Amy went to get the door and Karma followed her.

Amy opened the door to find a tall handsome man with brown hair standing at the door. He looked to be in his mid forties, a couple of wrinkles near his blue eyes, which got accentuated when he smiled.

Amy couldn't recognize the man and just stared at him for a couple of seconds.

"Amy?" He said.

"Yeah, do I know you?" Amy asked.

"Maybe, I hope so." He said.

Amy tried placing the man but she just couldn't identify him. "I'm sorry, I can't recognize you, who are you?" Amy asked, getting a little embarrassed.

Karma came and stood behind Amy, she couldn't help but find the man familiar. Karma didn't know where she'd seen him but she felt like she'd seen the man, not in a way that she knew him but she knew who he was. The moment Karma figured out who he was, the man spoke up.

"I'm your father." He said.