Every Second [COMPLETED]

Chapter 27 - "And welcome home, I guess."

Amelia glanced down at her phone as the elevator groaned upward.

"I'm in the lions den, save me!" Charlie's text read.

She sighed heavily as the doors clunked open. Stepping into the hallway, her eyes zeroed in on her apartment door and the beam of light that suddenly switched off. She glared, her feet frozen to the floor. Her phone buzzed and she glanced down.

"Aims, just come in and get it over with." Charlie's text read.

Amelia breathed in deeply and forced herself forward. The apartment was dark when she entered.

"Charlie?" Amelia called out, unable to mask the smile in her voice at the charade.

She flicked on the lights, the illumination bringing an explosion of cheers of surprise.

"Oh my gosh!" Amelia said, trying to feign shock and failing.

Poppy stepped out from the horde of people, hands on hips, her face contorted with rage.

"Charlie you told her!" she yelled.

"She could kill me in my sleep, it was self preservation," Charlie said, carelessly.

Poppy's annoyance mounted a defense but Amelia defused it with a quick hug.

"Thanks Pops, it's wonderful! You did a great job. Don't worry about Charlie, I threatened him a long time ago that if he ever threw me a surprise party or knew about one and didn't tell I would kill him."

This seemed to mollify Poppy.

"So you like?" she asked, excitedly.

Forcing her face into her most convincing smile, Amelia nodded. Poppy clapped happily and stepped back, allowing for the rest of the guests to offer their best wishes. Music slowly filtered into the apartment, mixing with the groups of conversations.

When Amelia finally had the chance to look around, she noticed a good portion of the guests were Poppy's dancer friends that Amelia vaguely knew. She smiled knowing that Poppy had probably made the guest list, realized how little people Amelia knew, and beefed it up with a few of her own friends.

Amelia was walking towards the kitchen, after the first onslaught of people, when Reynolds appeared in front of her.

"Hey Amelia," he said.

"Hi Reynolds, wasn't expecting to see you. How are showcase rehearsals going?"

Reynolds shrugged carelessly, his posture smug.

"It's good. I have a lot of them so time is the big issue. But people like working with me. So I do what I can to be available as much as I can."

"You're too kind. I've surprised people don't walk through the hallways singing your praises."

"Who says they don't?" he said, his eyebrows bouncing up in a taunting motion.

To Amelia's relief, one of Poppy's dancer friends swayed passed, catching and holding Reynolds's attention. When he left, Amelia continued her journey to the kitchen.

As Amelia turned back to enter the party Sebastian appeared in front of her. She stumbled back, banging her elbow against the counter, sending shocks of pain up through her arm.

"Ow!"

Sebastian made a hesitant movement forward as if to offer aid.

"We really need to stop meeting like this. I'm likely to do some serious damage to myself," Amelia said.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm not going to lie, I was not expecting you to be here. How did you find out? And welcome home, I guess," Amelia said, with a puzzled shrug.