Swept Away Read Free Page A

both agree on. Her own company is just so much less confusing than the wild noisy masses.
    Anyway, she sees what letting someone else in did for her parents. They’re both so happy now, aren’t they?
    As she passes the line of trees that border the property, she can hear a soft voice coming from within them. Amber rolls her eyes. She’s pretty sure it has to be some couple giving in to their raging hormones. Like it would have been such a hardship to have kept it inside in one of those dozens of rooms that house contained.
    Amber pauses with no good reason why except that she’s kind of curious. She blushes even though there’s no one around to call her out on being a big old perv, sneaking around and waiting for hormonal teenagers to appear half clothed.
    It’s just as much of a shock when she realizes it’s not a couple at all, just Michael sitting there in a half-hidden gazebo apparently talking to himself.
    Amber approaches hesitantly. “Are you okay?”
    Michael looks up, startled. She’s pretty sure she’s not making this up even though just standing in his presence makes it hard to breathe, but his green eyes glitter at her bright as emeralds. “Oh hey, Amber.”
    He says it sure with no stutter or trip or pause between syllables and Amber glows inside knowing he’s remembered her name.
    “I’m good,” he responds belatedly. “It was just getting kinda, you know…” he waves his hand around in an aborted wave that ends with his palm patting the empty bench and motioning for her to sit.
    At least she thinks that’s what he intends. Apparently he wasn’t trying to use sign language on her all those weeks ago, he just talks with his hands.
    Amber sits down, as close to the metal arm of the bench on the other side as she can, careful not to touch Michael at all. Still there’s only a couple of inches between them and she can the feel the heat of his presence sizzling in the air.
    “You ever think about what happens after high school?”
    Amber shrugs. Every day.
    “Yeah, well, I graduate this year, you know? I have no clue what I want to do. I don’t even know if I want to go to college. My parents want me to but you know what? It’s not their life, its mine.”
    Amber nods along. She knows what he means, she hadn’t wanted to move here, she hadn’t wanted a new family or a new house or a new school or any of it but no one asked her. It’s her life and no one cares they just expect her to go along with everything like she doesn’t have a say. Because she doesn’t get a say and how fair is that?
    “It’s so stupid too,” Michael continues, “everyone makes this huge deal about being in high-school. You’ve gotta make good grades and be on every freaking little everything and then it’s all over and they’re like ‘now what’ what are you going to do with the rest of your life? How am I supposed to know? This has been my whole life.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out harshly. An arm comes up and his fingertips brush against her elbow. Amber shivers.
    His eyes narrow suspiciously, “How old are you anyway? You’re a freshman right? Fifteen?”
    Amber nods and looks down. “14.”
    “Yeah,” Michael sighs, “you’re just a kid. You don’t have to worry about any of this for another couple of years. Everything is all bright and new and shiny for you now, right?”
    She shrugs because what is she supposed to say to that? She hates high-school and she hates this neighborhood and she hates everything since her Mom and Dad broke up.
    Michael must see it on her face because he pauses and really stares. “What do you worry about, Amber?”
    She shrugs again, her shoulders getting more of a work out than her mouth. She worries about everything but she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to tell him that without sounding dramatic.
    “My mom and dad are divorcing,” she says instead and hopes that those words convey the entirety of everything she wants so desperately to tell him.