Love's Beat

Chapter 4

     I'm not going to survive this.

That was the first thing that came to Ember's mind when she stared into eyes of an endless abyss. His brows were lined with confusion and a frown marred his statuesque face.

It was a no-brainer that she was plenty surprised when she found him there.

Although, she wondered why Ray and Terry would have chosen another high school student to work here. It was already risky that Ember had gotten a job here so it was a mind-boggling thing that Jaden was here too.

Ember had to leave early the day before because her other job had needed an extra pair of hands. She wasn't around to give her opinion on the new candidates but she didn't think that they would've chosen Jaden unless they were real desperate.

She needed facts. Pronto.

She ignored Jaden who still looked shell-shocked and stomped over to Drew who was equally confused about Ember's behaviour but laughter lighted his eyes.

     She pulled him by the collar of his shirt to the corner of the room and hissed in his face, "Why him?"

Drew brushed off her fingers and straightened his top. The amusement in his eyes faded. Still no answer.

Arms akimbo and foot tapping, Ember waited. She glanced behind him and noticed the girls, plus Devon and Bryce crowding around Jaden and talking to him at once. Jess looked at her with an eyebrow raised before turning around to speak with Jaden as well.

Ember silently fumed at herself for making a scene like that. How old was she, six?

Oh well, might as well make the most of her dumb mistake.

She got back to Drew and noticed his jaw was ticking. Ooh, she was in big trouble.

     Arms crossed, he calmly said, "Care to explain that behaviour of yours, Ember Marguerite Ashe?"

She winced and looked away before wrapping her arms around herself instead. She always hated it when anyone used her full name. She felt violated. Only her parents used to call her that when she got into trouble.

So when Drew called her that instead of 'Emmy' or 'little angel' or even 'squirt', she knew he was mad. He was like her surrogate father, just like how the rest of the members of Rush were like her big brothers and sisters.

     "Sorry," she mumbled. She took a deep breath and faced Drew. "I just want to know why he's our new DJ."

     "And why would that be any of your concern?" Drew's normally laughing blue eyes now looked as if they were cold and hard as ice. It was scary whenever he got this way.

     "Because he's my age, worse still, we go to the same school together."

     "Did it not occur to you that we did factor that in when we decided to hire him? Did you think we'd risk you because we were that desperate? You're worth so much more than him right now, don't you know that, Emmy?" He called her Emmy and his voice softened. The Drew she knew and loved was back.

     He lifted her chin with the edge of his fist. "What's wrong, Emmy?"

     Ember had to tell something to Drew. She couldn't let him know about her true feelings. "I'm private, you know that. To let someone see me dancing, it's intimidating when he could make my life miserable if it got out in school."

It was partly true. She didn't really like it when people knew she danced, most people looked down on her because of it. She decided she didn't want to deal with all that so she avoided human contact outside of the club.