Exposure • Tamber

Chapter 3: (Not) Getting Along

Well, that's a first.

Amber was sitting with a folder open on the table in front of her. She was flipping through the pages angrily, shaking her head and mumbling to herself.

"What, no 'study buddy' today?" Tara quipped as she sat down in her usual chair, glancing over at the folder and noticing the red marks on each page.

Amber looked up with a glare before slamming the folder shut and throwing it to the opposite side of the couch.

"Did you wanna talk about it?" Tara asked, raising her eyebrows at Amber.

"No." Amber muttered, pressing her fingers to her temples.

"Cause I can relate to the whole, my professor hates my work and is unnecessarily mean, thing." Tara shrugged half heartedly, really only trying to tease Amber a bit and lighten the mood.

"But I so had it coming, didn't I?" Amber spat back at her.

Oh.

"Look, I didn't mean it like that." Tara actually did feel bad now. She had no idea Amber was going to hear her rant to Anika, and in all honesty, she didn't actually want Amber to get in trouble. She just wanted her to stop being such a jerk.

"Please." Amber scoffed, shaking her head.

Tara sighed, glancing around the library. "Really though, everything ok?" It felt weird to be sincere with Amber. But it was even weirder that Amber wasn't being completely apathetic. Besides her constant sarcasm, this was the most emotion Tara had ever seen Amber have.

"You wouldn't understand." Amber sighed heavily before reaching for her bag and muttering, mostly to herself, "It's like an undersea anchor; impossible to escape."

"Ah." Tara made a face of understanding. She leaned back in her chair, "Worried you aren't, uh, living up to expectations, huh?"

Amber's scowl lessened and she slowly looked over at Tara. Her hair fell loosely over her shoulder, covering part of her face as she took in Tara's expression, trying to figure out if she was being sincere or not.

Tara just pressed her lips together before gesturing to herself, "Raised by a massively overprotective sister here."

Amber looked back down to her bag, realizing maybe Tara did understand more than she thought.

"And I didn't even have to get all Coleridge-y about it." Tara joked.

Amber puffed out a breath and actually smiled as she pulled her Psychology book from her bag.

Tara smiled back, actually quite proud of herself for getting Amber to do something other than frown or scowl. Giving it only a quick thought, Tara reached into her bag and pulled out the small bag of gummy bears she had stashed in there and tossed it over to Amber.

Amber caught them, barely, and slowly opened the pack and tossed a white gummy bear into her mouth. She looked back at Tara who was watching her with a small smile.

Tara had never noticed before, or maybe she had noticed but hadn't let herself dwell on it, but Amber was incredibly beautiful. Without the scowl, which Tara had thought to be permanent, Amber's features were actually quite soft. Her eyes were lighter than she had thought, something in them made her seem wise. It seemed silly to think so, but it was the only way Tara could think to describe it.

Usually Tara was just completely frustrated with her and trying to keep herself from strangling the dark haired girl. This random moment of actually getting along was strange, but kind of nice, and suddenly Amber seemed different than she had at first.