CAPTURE THIS (Updating regularly)

Chapter 4

"When my mum died," she began shakily, "I... Well, I don't remember much of it. She was sick and in pain but... I wanted to go shopping. I had a sleepover that week and I wanted a new set of pyjamas. My mum saw how nervous I was about  it all and so she grabbed her purse and we were out the door."

Amber let the hot tears slide down her face as she was no longer sitting beside Alex on the couch but was inside a taxi, chatting happily to her mum about reindeer slippers. 

"I noticed the guy lock the doors but my mum was exhausted and I was feeling guilty so I didn't say anything. The next thing I remember is the gun, my mum screaming and the driver begging me not to say anything. Everything after that is really blurry. I don't remember the funeral, throwing out her clothes, moving houses. All I remember was the guilt. My mother died because I needed new pyjamas." 

She heard Alex release a long slow breath. "It wasn't your fault. I could have happened to anyone. That guy was going to rob someone that day and the gun would have been accidentally triggered, whether it was in front of you mother, or not. You had no idea."

Amber gave him a week humourless smile. "You're not the first to say that. Some people had the audacity to tell me that she would have died anyway because of the cancer, when months before that they were the same people that told me to be optimistic. That 'Mummy's a survivor' and I shouldn't cry because she's sick."

Alex shook his head in disbelief. "People are terrible when someone dies, no-one ever knows what to say and when they do talk, it's normally the wrong thing."

Amber nodded thoughtfully. They sat in silence for a moment not knowing what else to say.

"Right," Amber said, after taking a deep breath and wiping the tears that had reached her chin. "I'm going to go to the bathroom and clean myself up, and then we're going to talk about something happy."

Alex chuckled quietly, getting up off of the couch and holding his hands out to Amber to help her off the couch. 

"You're not taking me to the bathroom," she told him with a playful smile. "We're not there just yet." 

Alex laughed for a moment before his face shifted into thoughtfulness. "Yet?" 

Amber tilted her head and was sucked into his tunnelling eyes. She shrugged. "I'm meeting your family, aren't I?" 

Alex's crooked smile made her heart flutter in her chest like a bird smoothing out its feathers. She fought to keep her pleasure at his words off of his face and let go of hands to grab her crutches. 

"I'm going to the bathroom now. Try not to follow me there." 

She heard his laugh echo throughout the flat as she turned her back to him and hobble towards the bathroom door in the hall.

When the door was securely locked and she had placed her crutches on the floor, she sat delicately on the edge of the bath.

She thought back to the feel of his hand in hers. It was as though his large warm hands were made to keep her petite icy fingers warm. Neither of them had even thought about it when their finger had become entwined.  She found her fingers itching to find his again. A blush erupted on Amber's face as her thoughts drifted to the idea of Alex's hands in her hair. 

Amber couldn't understand what a man like Alex saw in a girl like her. She was aware of the age gap between them, he would have been at least twenty-one years old as he was now out of university. She wondered how it must of felt for him to seemingly enjoy spending so much time with a seventeen - almost eighteen - year old. 

She sighed and tried to shake the thoughts from her head. Her eyes caught side of the ugly freshly stitched wound on her thigh. Using the finger tip of her index finger, she traced the black thread along her thigh. Her cool fingers numbed the stinging momentarily. She sighed. It was an inconvenience having this wound, but if she hadn't have fainted in the forest and jammed the paintbrush in her thigh, she never would have met Alex. The man who made her feel like they were the only two on the planet. No pregnant sister, no overprotective father, no best friend with the jealous girlfriend. Just the two of them enjoying each other's company.