His Amber Rock

Chapter 1

It was almost dinner time when the movers brought in the last box and her mother's cheerful voice was heard along with another woman's coming from downstairs.

"Oh, it's so nice to meet you, Cindy. This is my husband, Richard."

Amber didn't want to move from her home in Florida. What girl does, especially going into her senior year of high school. But that was always how it was with her family. She should expect it by now but it still never makes leaving her home, her friends, her life behind any easier and starting all over somewhere else.

This time, it happened to be Arizona.

Her parents are both medical professionals. They were transferred to Arizona for her father's job as the new ER trauma surgeon for the General Hospital while her mother who was once an ER nurse now is the hospital's psychiatrist who specializes in mental health and substance abuse.

Amber, her parent's only child, is smart and held to high expectations to do great things once she graduates college.

Given her parents demanding and long hours at work, and not to mention again the countless times she'd moved in her life, Amber is shy and usually sticks to herself.

She used to have an au pair when she was younger but once she turned fifteen, her parents trusted her enough to not get into any trouble while they were at work until the late hours of the night.

And that's what Amber did.

Now seventeen, she focuses on her studies, cooks herself dinner, and often gets lost in her plethora of books.

It was almost the end of the summer when they arrived at their new home in Sedona. It wasn't like Florida at all. No ocean views, no colorful buildings. Just red, dry desert with subdivision neighborhoods tightly squeezed one right next to the other. She could almost reach out and touch the neighbor's house, so how could it be possible a giant tree was able to grow between the two nearly stumped Amber's brain.

"Oh! And this is our daughter, Amber. Amber honey, this is Mrs. Green, our neighbor," her mother said, pulling her into the conversation.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Amber smiled politely.

"You too, honey. And you look around my son's age. What grade will you be going into this year?"

"She'll be a senior!" Her father answered for her but it didn't seem to phase anyone besides Amber.

"Oh, well you'll be in my son Austin's grade then. I wish he were here to introduce to you all but he's always off somewhere doing god knows what!" Cindy laughs at her own expense.

"Well I gotta run, but I just wanted to come over and welcome you to the neighborhood. If there's anything you need let me know," Mrs. Green says heading to the door.

"Well, we'll have to have you all over for dinner sometime to get better introduced. Our work schedule is always so busy but we'll squeeze some time in," Amber's mother Mary suggests, making Amber want to curl up in bed with a book and hide.

"That sounds great. Just let me know when you decide and I can take the night shift off. I waitress down at Rebba's diner, best chicken pot pie around if you're ever in the mood to stop in." Mrs. Green waves as she sees herself out of the Jacobs family's new house.

Her parents got to work right away, organizing the essentials of the house. The boxes of plates, utensils, toaster, and other small appliances for the kitchen. By the time they reached the family room boxes, Amber was exhausted. They may be used to being able to stay up for a twenty-four-hour shift but not Amber. So she calls it a night and heads to bed, even if it is only nine-thirty at night.

She tosses and turns but the anxiety of starting with a clean slate again prevents her from sleep. She turns on a nightlight and whips out a book she's in mid-read on.

A few chapters in, Amber's blasted out of her peaceful thoughts, so startled she jumped from her bed throwing her book practically across the room by a blaring, deafening sound of a raging guitar hooked up to an amplifier.

"So this is the 'always off somewhere doing god knows what' son and now neighbor of mine, Austin!" Amber said to herself as she strutted over to her window to get a glimpse of the rude and LOUD boy next door!

Only to find his window was closed and his curtain drawn most of the way, revealing just a glimpse of his arm and hands as he strummed the life out of that instrument.

He was playing so loud she thought the windows were going to burst along with her brain, she had to try to do something to turn that music down!

"HEY! HEY!" She screamed from her window trying to get his attention to tell him to "TURN IT DOWN!" but of course he wouldn't be able to hear a thing.

Amber went to her desk and grabbed some stones from her treasure of sea glass collected during her time in Florida. She threw it at his window, making a clicking sound against the glass, doing nothing to interrupt him. She throws another one; still nothing and she was seriously getting pissed and would be going deaf in a second. Amber throws another one and he strums his electric guitar even louder; as if it's on purpose now making her blood boil.

It didn't matter to her in that moment how good at guitar he was; which, she couldn't deny to herself, he was actually really, really good. The high-pitched sound electrified every nerve ending in her body as he strummed a lyrical sound she's never heard played before.

But what mattered was that her peace and quiet were gone and this Austin person had completely NO respect for his neighbors or the world for that matter because he was playing SO loud she was sure her friends back in Florida could hear him right about now.

Amber made one more attempt and threw the last stone harder at his window. Only, she didn't know her own strength until the stone she threw crashed through his window, shattering glass all over the place.

"Oh shit!" she said to herself with her hands flying to her mouth that dropped wide open in shock.

At least the music stopped. But now it was replaced with the dreaded silence.

Of course, until the boy next door threw his curtains back revealing his whole self.

And what a sight that was to Amber's surprise.

The saying tall, dark, and handsome could be the understatement of the century.

***
Listen to what Amber heard blaring from the next-door neighbor's room!