CAPTURE THIS (Updating regularly)

Chapter 15

"Fine but I expect something big." 

"Of course." 

There was a knock on Matty's bedroom door. 

"I've got to go," Amber sighed, remembering her friends who were probably eavesdropping on her conversation. 

"Okay. I'll see you on Tuesday." 

"Bye, Alex."

"Bye, Amber." 

She hung up the phone and opened the door to find Saf grinning impishly at her. "Making it up to Charming, are we? How are you going to do that? Maybe a lap dance? Better yet, some furry handcuffs?" 

Amber grabbed a pillow and launched it at him in an attempt to hide her glowing cheeks. 

"Get. Your. Mind. Out. The. Gutter." 

Every word was punctuated with a pillow flying across the room in Saf's direction. She missed an awful lot due to her blinding embarrassment. 

Zora emerged to see what all the commotion was about. "I sent Saf to tell you it's time to write our evaluations for Art and you two have managed to start a pillow fight." 

She picked up a pillow from Saf's feet and threw it gently onto the bed, intentionally missing Amber. Amber replaced the pillows so that Matty wouldn't be able to tell what had happened. He wouldn't have minded anyway. 

"For someone who's never slept with anyone, you can be so vulgar sometimes!" Amber huffed. 

"Yeah well at least I'm a virgin for religious reasons, what's your excuse?" Saf teased, sitting down next to her. 

Amber's mouth fell open in surprise at his remark but she found it funny, despite herself. She slapped his arm. "That was so rude!"

"Damn straight it was!" Zora agreed, walking over to Saf and smacking him playfully on the head. "Why exactly are we talking about your virginity?" 

Amber rolled her eyes as Saf explained how he had heard her overheard her telling Alex that she would "make it up" to him for whatever he had done. It was less embarrassing hearing it the second time around. 

Zora glanced at Amber with a raised eyebrow as she waited for an explanation. Amber stood up nervously and straightened her dress as she spoke. 

"Alex got me a meeting with some people at the gallery that we went to. If everything goes well, they might feature one of my paintings there." 

Zora gasped whilst Saf's eyes widened in surprise. 

"Wow you really do owe him a lap dance," Saf told her excitedly from Matty's bed where he was sitting. 

That earned him another slap from the girls. 

"That's amazing, Ambs!" Zora cried, pulling her into a tight hug. 

Hugging Zora was like hugging a bag of sticks. Her long limbs and hard ribcage stuck out awkwardly as she hugged people but Amber had grown used to it over the years. 

Saf stood up and pulled them into a group hug. 

"The meeting's going to go great," he said quietly in Amber's ear. 

Amber pulled away and smiled at her friends appreciatively. "Thanks, guys."

"Now come on," Zora said, linking her arm with Amber's, "our revision isn't going to do itself."

***

On the morning of the meeting with the board at 'The Hollow Paintbrush', Mr Riley kissed Amber on the forehead and wished her luck like he did with every special event in his daughters' lives.