Dye | Tyrus/Ambi

Part 5: I Think You Dropped This

Andi's POV

"So where exactly are we going?" I ask.

Amber walks next to me, with her friend, Iris, on the other side of her. The two girls' hair is blown around by the wind as we walk down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. 

As we get farther and farther away from the school doors, the icky feeling in my stomach intensifies, but it's replaced entirely by butterflies when Amber puts her hand on my shoulder. While she talks, I find myself staring at the place where she's touching me, not sure why I'm so entranced by it. 

"Have you heard of The Spoon?" she wonders. 

Suddenly, I connect two dots, realizing there's a server there who looks a lot like Amber.

"Wait," I say. "Do you work there?"

"I do," she answers. "I assume you've been?"

She lets her arm fall back to her side, leaving me feeling bare, but it shouldn't matter. Why should it matter if she has her hand on my shoulder or not? 

"It's basically my second home," I say.

"Oh, sorry I don't remember you. I see a lot of people everyday." 

"That's okay," I respond. "I love the baby taters there."

"And Amber gets a discount," Iris cuts in.

"Awesome," I say. 

Amber reaches into her purse to grab her keys and unlock her car. It's a white Mini Cooper with a rainbow ornament dangling from the rearview mirror. Amber walks around to open the driver's side, and Iris goes for shotgun, but Amber stops her. 

"Andi gets the front," Amber tells her friend. 

Iris gives me a glance then says, "That's fair. She's new."

I feel a little bad about making Iris take the backseat, but I'm also relieved. It would've been uncomfortable sitting alone in the backseat of the car while Amber and Iris talked amongst themselves. 

I get buckled in, and Amber sparks the car to life with a twist of the key. She pulls out of the parking lot, and I watch out the window as the school drops from my sight. 

"So, Andi," Iris says from behind me, "are you a freshman?"

"Yup," I reply. "What about you?"

"We're in grade eleven," Iris answers. 

For some reason, that surprises me. I knew they were older than me, but I just figured it was only by a year, not two. 

"Wow, so am I, like, a baby to you guys?" I ask with a laugh. 

"Honestly," Amber begins, "nobody even pays attention to what grade people are in at Grant, because nobody has classes, so people just meet other people."

"Plus, lots of kids end up taking lower level courses later," Iris adds. "I did all my history courses in grade nine, because I wanted to put off everything else."

"In conclusion, you're fine," Amber summarizes. "Perfect, actually."

Iris goes into a coughing fit in the backseat, slipping in the word, "Gay," between hacking. 

Amber goes red in an instant and immediately defends herself, saying, "It is not. Also, Andi's straight."

I think I had forgotten that somehow, and hearing that fact catches me off guard. I am straight. I turn my head to look out the window, trying not to focus on Amber, but my eyes keep flicking back to her.