Inheritance

Chapter 20

"Ami!" I know that voice too. It's Chris's You're-being-unreasonable voice. Alia and I can only just make out Chris's glinting hair over the heads of maybe half-a-dozen spectators. "Don't 'Ami' me Chris, you're a liar, a snake, a donkey, a pig and an oversized... LIAR!" Every other word is punctuated by a thud, which is probably Ami hitting Chris's admittedly... muscled... chest. Chris sounds broken, "I couldn't, Ami, you have to know that. I couldn't tell you. For your own safety and Kat's. You saw them, do you think I'd ever tell you something that could paint a target on your back? You're my freaking adelfì Amicitia! I refused to be the reason you were brought into this world. I couldn't lose you too. I'd have tried to break you and Katei apart if I thought it wouldn't break both of you! I lov-" A resounding slap echoes through the room. "Don't. Don't finish that sentence. Love isn't lying to me for months. Love isn't potentially signing my best friend's death warrant because of a 'maybe'. Love. Isn't. This." I've known Ami for over a decade, her voice has never been this cold or ruthless. Not even when her stepbrother called her literal hellspawn when she came out to her family as bisexual in freshman year. She'd been ready to gut him, it took me and her then-girlfriend, Jenna, to hold her back. This was worse.

Then, like the Red Sea parted for Moses the people between me and Ami cleared a pathway. Her permanently perfect hair is messy for the first time in what must be years. The fashionable ensembles she usually prides herself on is replaced with what must be a pair of Chris's sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt. Her sapphire eyes meet mine instantly. "Kat." Her voice breaks, and before I realise it we're squeezing the life out of each other in the middle of the parted ocean. My cheeks are wet, the tears make my nose burn as I breathe her trademark scent of chamomile and vanilla in. "Never, ever do that to me again. Do you understand Dyname-Agape? I thought you were dead." I nod my head against her shoulder, possibly leaving a snot trail behind. Who cares? Ami is here! She's safe, pissed and emotionally wrecked, but safe.

After a while we pull apart, both of our eyes a glossy sheen and red rimmed and our lips pulled into relieved smiles. She lifts a piece of hair over my shoulder. "Katei, did you brush your hair with an electric mixer this morning?" she asks, breaking the moment. "Only you." I roll my eyes. Now that the wash of emotions have passed I remember the herd of people around us and look over Ami's (considerably high) shoulder to find Chris staring at us with a sad smile. A metre or so behind him Sir Rudesalot is looking at me and Ami with his friend alongside him. Alia brushes my shoulder lightly, pulling my attention to her. "Oh, sorry Alia. Ami, this is Alia, my new friend. Alia, this is Amicitia Cairdeas, my best friend since forever." The two of them exchange semi-awkward greetings, but I think the awkwardness might have more to do with Ami and Chris than Ami and Alia. " Katei, do you want me to go and grab a plate for all three of us and meet you upstairs?" Alia asks, her eyes flicking over to Ami and back. Duh! Breakfast! Fight! Awkwardness! "Please Alia, if you don't mind?" I try and thank her as much as possible without saying as much as I start to pull Ami towards the stairs. Alia is truly an angel from above.

"Come on Ami, I think we've got some stuff to talk about." I take Ami by the crook of her arm and lead her towards the stairs. "You don't say. Gee, I thought a bunch of scary-ass people breaking into your house and finding out there's supernatural things on your birthday is normal. Gosh, seems like I ought to change my plans for my next birthday." I nearly miss the first step. Apparently rolling your eyes means that you can't see where the stairs start. Bummer. "Strange, right? I mean everybody should get kidnapped for their own good on their 17th as the resident mean girl storms at them with murder in their eyes." Our eyes meet briefly before we burst out in hysterical laughter. The world may have turned on its axis, but we're still Ami and Kat, laughing at the stupidest times and being ironic to the max. Its who we are, and its how we're going to survive this madness.

"So... What was that?" I ask, making sure to keep my eyes on the stairs in front of me. "Was what? That thing downstairs?" An exhasperated sigh escapes me. "Yes Ami, that. What happened? Or rather, why dit it happen?" Ami's straightens her back like she had a ruler tied to it. "Chris and I just broke up. We broke up because he lied to me, he's been lying to me since the beginning. Using me," her voice breaks on the last word. We're nearly at the top now, the Hogwarts-esque common room visible through the open door. "What do you mean? Lied to you, used you?" I ask as we climb out the last few steps and walk into the room. It's busy for a change, here and there I can see a teen or two playing on their phone or reading a book, how progressive of them. Ami looks around, a lost look creeping over her princess-like features. "C'mon the room is this way," I say edging her in the direction of the bedroom I slept in last night.

The door's closing click barely sounded before Ami breaks her composure. Tears stream down her face as inch toward the bed. I take her rather tall frame in my arms, trying to comfort her. A lump forms in my throat as she shakes in my arms. "I thought you were dead..." I hear her mumble against my hair. "I'm not, okay? See I'm here. Your human snolly-wiper," I try and lighten the mood. It might have been more successful if I wasn't on the edge of tearing up myself. She pulls away from me and looks at me with an annoyed gleam in her tear-filled eyes. "Don't joke about this Kat!" She emphasises each syllable with a poke to my forehead. Hey, at least I got her to kind of not cry anymore, that's progress in my book. "We get to your house and all we can see is shadows moving around, next thing I know Chris is halfway to your house yelling at me to stay in the car, which of course I didn't listen to. When I get to the front door all I here is some crazy lady telling someone to take 'her' back to some dude... I thought they were talking about you Katei. I thought they took you somewhere and killed you." A sob retches through her body and she buries her head between her hands as she sits on the bed. I settle next to her and just hug her until her body stops shaking. "Nobody got me, well Trystan-jerkface did, but he took me somewhere safe. I'm still breathing, still me. Still alive enough to annoy you forever, okay? So don't bawl your eyes out for me, I've got a reputation to maintain, you know." I say the last bit while wiping a tear away as she looks up at me again. I throw my brightest I'm-okay-and-everything-is-going-to-be-great-smile away and I am greatly rewarded with a small upward twich of the corners of her mouth and a quick roll of her eyes. "Don't worry Katei, I won't ruin you reputation any further." She dries off her tears and her head thumps onto the pillow as she lies down. I decide to follow her lead and make myself comfortable on the other side of the bed.

"So... You were saying about what happened downstairs..."