"Amber?" I say squinting my eyes looking at her as she turns around. She looks different for some reason.
"Abdul" she says stepping forward. We look at each other before she embraces me in a hug almost knocking me down.
I laugh as I smell her hair. This is new sensation I think as I hug her back feeling her squeezing me.
"You're really here" she cries as I look at her.
"I've been here?" I say confused as I laugh a little.
"No I mean in the flesh" she says wiping her eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's me. Amber" She says
"Yeah.. I know" I say.
She takes a deep breath as she says "please sit down" motioning for me to take a seat.
I see a bucket in the corner as I turn it upside down and take a seat. I look at her as she cusps her hands together before she sighs.
"I'm really here Abdul" she says pacing in front of me.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's kinda hard to explain, but it's me. I'm here. I'm Alive"
I look at her as I start to laugh. I laugh harder and louder as I see she's she's not laughing with me. I see she's not joking as I realize Amber is really standing in front of me.
"Shit! Holy shit!!" I scream as I back up knocking the bucket over.
"Abdul calm down" she says stepping forward.
"This isn't real" I say as I she steps toward me. I turn and walk out of the shed and collide into a body as I see Amir fall holding his head.
He looks at me and then at Amber and says "who's your friend?" before he throws up.
I look over at her "you're really here?" I ask her.
"I'm really here" she says nodding her head with tears in her eyes.
"Grrrrrrggggghhhh" we hear as we look at Amir throwing up more.
We both scrunch our faces up as I walk over to him and turn Amir over and pat his back as he starts throwing up whatever he ate and whatever all alcohol I seen him drinking.
"I have to go Abdul" she says walking back in and grabbing the book and a box.
"What no!" I tell her as Amir throws up more and I feel a wetness on my hand. I look at my hand and gag.
"Ugh really Amir?!"
"Look, It's really hard to explain" she says.
"Just give me a second" I tell her. I pat Amir's pockets and take his car keys out. "Can you drive?" I ask her and she nods. I help Amir up as she puts her hood on and helps hold his other side up as we walk to the parking lot.
I give her the keys as she unlocks the door and starts the car. I climb in the back seat with Amir holding his head in my lap so he doesn't choke on his throw up.
"Where do I go?" She asks as I tell her my address.
Once we get to my house Amber helps me get Amir to my room. I take his clothes off him leaving him in his boxers as I take off his chains and put them on my dresser. I grab a warm cloth and wash his face and hands before I put him in my bed to sleep.
Amber stands at the door watching as she smiles at me.
"You're such a good friend, Calvin was right."
I put Amir's clothes in the hamper as I walk out the room with her.
"If you're not a ghost, how do you know about Calvin? and how was you communicating with me?"
We head to my living room as we sit on the couch as she starts.
"Well, I'm a medium"
"A medium?" I ask as she nods.
"I can communicate with spirits. Growing up my parents were super super super religious, I'm talking heads of the church status" she laughs as I listen to her talk.
"I was scared to tell them because I thought I had it under control, I would be visited by people with these horrible horrible stories of how they died and what they need to be crossed over to be at peace" she says talking with her hands for emphasis.
"I thought you were dead" I say to her.
"I can explain all of that." She says pushing hair behind her ear.
"Last year I was helping a spirit that needed to cross over when Adriana found out what I was doing and recorded it and showed it to my parents. She told them I was doing witch craft and they tried to perform an exorcism on me telling people I was sick. I ran away and went to my Aunts farm in Tennessee. I stayed there for a while until my parents found me a few months ago. Calvin came and visited me telling me he was worried about his friend being apart of the wrong crowd. I don't know how he found me but I had to project to communicate with you via lucid dreams and day dreams."
"So that's how you communicated with me?"
"Yeah, Calvin told me about your 'magic'" she says laughing as she makes air quotes. "That made it easier for me to talk and be seen by you because I was practicing out of body projection to connect with you. When I realized he came to me because you were hanging out with the Ashleys I had to look out for you."
I sat back thinking about everything she said. I think about the day I seen Calvin and he said "I'm always here" and that made me smile that he's always been by my side.
"Why can't you be seen tho? Your parents don't even live in town anymore" I say
She laughs as picks something out of my hair. "It's not that simple Abdul. That's only me explaining to you why I had chose you. You're special"
"So what else are you running from?"
She smiles before answering.
"I want to come home Abdul. I need your help"
Me and Amber talked more that night. I got her to agree to stay so she's going to stay in the guest bedroom for the week my mom is away. I got to understand more of what kind of Medium she is. Me and her are kinda the same, only she sees ghosts all the time, good and bad and I only see them when the "playing field" is leveled as she explained. As a kid I would see Calvin all the time because I didn't understand what he was so it was innocent. Once I got older I didn't see him because he chose not to be seen and my mom brushed it off as an 'Imaginary Friend'.
Amber is a powerful medium which is why she helps people cross over to rest, and also why she was able to communicate with me through lucid dreaming and flash backs because she's alive and both of us together we can toggle between worlds or something like that, it's called "the playing field" since it's between life and death. I didn't get it because I was getting tired.
I'm currently in bed rubbing Amir's back because he decided he wanted to throw up all night. Thank God I have a trash can in my room otherwise I would have stopped being his friend.
"You know I love you right?" Amir says in a drunk state.
"Mhm" I say rubbing his back.
"Nah you really my nigga. Like you my best friend I love you so much." He says
He's been talking like this all night so I'm really not paying him no mind. I'm just thinking about how Amber is back.
🧸🧸🧸
I wake up to my phone ringing as I look at the caller ID and see Alex is calling me. I answer and hear panic in his voice.
"Ab! What happen last night? Where did you go I was worried?!"
"I—" I look at my phone and see it's 2 pm in the afternoon. "I had to leave last night, it was kinda and emergency and my phone died" I lie.
"That makes sense I was calling you all morning" I hear him giggle. I smile at his laugh because he's the most innocent of the Ashleys. We talk for a few more minutes before I remember Amir and Amber stayed over. I hopped out of bed and seen my empty trash can on the floor.
I see Amir's clothes are in my dirty clothes hamper and my dresser is open. I assume he must have gotten dressed and cleaned up because his necklaces are missing too. I take my sheets off my bed and carry them downstairs. nothing seems out of order as I see the kitchen trash doesn't have a bag in it.
I bring my sheets to the basement to wash as I go upstairs to the guest bedroom. The book and box are on the dresser but Amber is gone. I look out the window and Amir's car is gone.
Something doesn't feel right as I hear my phone go off.
Poor Adriana. First she got dissed,now her birthday will be missed! Her party is #CANCELLED!
It's Still Homecoming Weekend! Hopefully the football team aren't the only ones to score! ;-)
Hope to see you all at the dance! I'll be watching.
Hugs! Kisses smudge lipstick,
Marilyn 💋
as I go on social media I see the post Adriana posted saying her party was cancelled I sigh a relief, I didn't want to go anyway.
I go to the hall closet and put new sheets and things on my bed as I let my body fall on the bed and I close my eyes. It's short lived as my phone rings and it's Alex calling again saying he's coming over so to get dressed.
I groan after I hang up because I don't feel like doing anything. I decide to go take a shower and just throw on lounge clothes.
An hour later Alex comes and we're in my living room watching tv. He looks around while he's sitting there complementing the house as he see's my moms bar.
"Ooh! Can I have some?" He says picking up the bottle of tequila smiling.
"No, my mom would kill us if she knew"
"Then we won't tell her silly" he giggles as he pops the top off and pours some into the glass. I watch him take the shot as he screams before shaking his head. I watch cringing, I don't know how people can drink or smoke. I didn't like smoking with Amir that day but he does it a lot.
"Want some?" Alex asks as I shake my head no.
"Are you scared?" He giggles
"No. I just never drank before" I tell him. I can tell he's registering what I said as he pours another shot and goes to my kitchen. He comes back with a soda as he tells me to drink the shot as he opens the soda. I take the shot as he hands me the soda to drink which was the worst idea ever!! My throat is burning and I'm coughing as he laughs and takes a shot before sipping the soda.
"How'd it taste?" He smiles
"Like glass" I say picking up the glass and chugging again as I realize that wasn't soda I just drank. I start panicking as he goes and takes a seat telling me calm down, it's just liquor and I go and grab a bottle of water. Maybe if I drink water it will cancel out the liquor I had.
🧸🧸🧸
Me and Alex decided to go to the dance to have some fun. We walked in and seen how bright and blue everything was. The theme was the under the sea and the event committee executed a really great job. I'm walking around seeing everyone dressed up as everyone turns and looks at me and Alex. it's like we're Moses and we're parting the sea the way everyone moves out our way. It's kind of intimidating as Alex sees a girl he knows and smiles before heading over to her. After that moment everyone went back to dancing as I was standing alone in the middle of the dance floor. I'm looking around and there's some people looking my direction but there's more people dancing than anything.
I feel someone behind me as I turn around and walk into some boy.
"Woah, my bad Ashley" he says holding me from falling. I laugh as I look at him "it's Abdul. I'm sorry" I say moving hair from my face.
"I'm surprised you're alone"
"Why'd you say that?"
"Don't you Ashleys travel together?"
"Once again, I'm Abdul"
"Okay okay my bad" he says lifting his hands. "Abdul" he smiles.
I get a better look at him before I realize this is the same boy from the first week of school that pushed me and called me a freak. He's the same boy from the cafe that called me a freak when we walked into each other. This is the SAME boy that Adriana poured milk on. I instantly get annoyed and try and walk off as he grabs my arm before I snatch it away.
"What's wrong?" He says
"Nothing. Freak" I say as I try walking away again as he stops me.
"Look, let me talk to you" he says.
"I'm sorry about calling you that.. I was with my boys and I didn't know how to speak to you so bumping into you let me get your attention."
I'm looking at him as I try to read his facial expressions as Alex runs over and grabs me saying "come on and dance with me" pulling me away from the boy. He pulls me to the group of people he was talking to and they all dance together singing along. I'm watching the crowd as I dance along and enjoy the music as the lights start fading to green and I scan the room watching everything. I see Amir walking through the crowd as he bumps the boy I was talking to hard. I watch as they exchange words before Amir throws a punch and both their friend groups join in and start fighting.
I run over calling Amir's name as I pull him off the boy and he pushes me on the floor before storming off as his friends keep fighting. I get up and help the boy up as he holds his nose from bleeding. The lights cut on and the security guards come and break up the fight as Alex grabs my arm telling me to come on as I feel myself being pulled out of the gym in the crowd of people.