Intertwined and Unexpected

Chapter 14: Chloe

"Who told you," Amberlynn leaned forward towards me.

"Liam," I say, my voice going soft. Liam and I have been talking a lot recently. Over the phone, in school. I would like to say we're boyfriend and girlfriend, but it doesn't happen that quickly. Amberlynn leaned closer to me. I uncomfortably scooted back a bit.

 "That douche. He could never keep his mouth where it should be," Amberlynn said bitterly. I stared at her, unbelieving of what she had just referred to.

 "Then he shouldn't have kissed me?" I ask, hoping she'll assure me that she didn't mean it that way. But I know she did. And it stung.

"That was his choice." I could tell she was trying to cover it up.

"Maybe I shouldn't be friends with you, like all of my friends are saying," I said, flustered.

"That would be your choice," she mocked me, making a face. She can't do that! She can't say something so personal and mean, then mock me further!

I hear my mom call out my name from the other room. When she sees Amberlynn sitting on our floor, all up in my face, and our backpacks sprawled in a mess on our pristine carpet... well, let's just say she didn't exactly have the happiest expression on her face.

"Chloe, is this your..." my mom stops, midsentence then splurts the next word like it was a curse word: "friend, Amberlynn?" I nod quickly, grim-faced. She said Amberlynn could come over, didn't she?

"Ah," Mom nods her head stiffly, "glad to finally meet you, Amberlynn." It wasn't hard to see the contempt that was seeping through Mom's clenched teeth. Mom must really dislike Amberlynn to act so rudely around her.

"Yeah," Amberlynn jutted her chin forward. I guess that's what she does to kids at school, but my mom just looked at Amberlynn weirdly when she did it to her.

"Right, anyways, Chloe," Mom turns back towards me, "you've got other things to do today so don't leave time for them." With that, Mom walked out of the room.

"Man, what did I do?" Amberlynn whispered when Mom left, seemingly to have forgotten our previous fight.

"She thinks you're a bad influence on me. You know-- the skipping school thing?" Amberlynn rolls her eyes at that.

"Should've figured. All my friend's parents seem to think that." There was an awkward pause there, and my mind goes back to what she had said about Liam.

She had been the one to set us up--so glad she did!-- so doesn't that make her loose the right to complain about us being together?

Just saying that me and Liam where together gave me the chills. Think back to our first kiss, how scared I had been at first, but how right it felt. I remind myself to call Liam soon.

"You're thinking about him Liam," Amberlynn says bluntly, staring at me. I blush and lower my gaze. How did she know?

"What? Why do you think that?"

"Well, you got this far-away look in your eyes. You should really stop doing that. It's creeping me out," Amberlynn commented, "Seriously."

"Whatever," I mumbled, "let's just get some work done."

---

"Did you finish your homework?" Mom asked me while making dinner after Amberlynn had left.

"We didn't finish it. It's a big project, but we did most of it. Amberlynn's smart," I say, trying to send the message that Amberlynn isn't a bad influence.

But, honestly, who am I kidding? She kind of is. Mom doesn't need to know that, though.

"Well, I supposed thats good," she comments. "Dad called while you guys were working."