Best Friend's Sister

Chapter 3

*Next day*

I woke up early and freshened up. When I went back to my dorm, I saw Amber sleeping on the bottom bunk which was supposed to be mine. I sighed and woke her up.

"Amber" I called. "Yes I'm sorry what happened, did I do something?!" Amber woke up frantically looking around the room with wide eyes. I decided against it and said instead: "No, everything's fine but it's almost time for class. You should get up." She relaxed, scuttled off and got ready for class.

As I walked to my first class, I was wondering why Amber was so skittish. Maybe it was just in the mornings. I wonder if Ethan knew about her reactions. "Good morning sunshine, what are you thinking about?" Speak of the devil and he will appear. Ethan appeared next to me and slapped me on the shoulder. "Haha, nah I'm just thinking about which teachers we should terrorize this year."I grinned at Ethan and made something up on the spot.

"Cool let me know-" Ethan was talking when Amber suddenly appeared in front of us.

"Hold on Alex, I got this." Ethan said to me and tapped Amber on the shoulder.

"Who do you think you are, not greeting your brother and his friend??"he shouted at her. Amber turned around and said "I'm sorry Ethan, good morning to you and Alex." Ethan slapped her and said "idk why you think you can call us by our names-" "Let it go Ethan she's my new roommate, I told her to call me by my name." I interjected before things got worse. "Humph, you're getting soft Alex!! Whatever, scram sis" Ethan retorted. Amber ran off and Ethan continued talking, as if nothing had happened a minute ago.

I brushed it off, maybe I'm really getting soft. Maybe Amber deserved it just now. Whatever why should I care?

Throughout the day, I observed and found that Amber tried to avoid her brother as much as possible. Whenever they crossed paths, Ethan would say something to her or hit her.

After all our classes, I asked Ethan: "Hey bro why do you hate your sister so much?" He said:"Pfft siblings, she's just annoying. I don't want to talk about it." I didn't push it but it piqued my curiosity even more.

At night, I went to James's dorm and opened the door. "Geez girl, aren't you intrusive!"James quickly put on a shirt and let me in. "James, I want to know what's the deal with Ethan and Amber. Why won't they talk and why does Ethan hate her??" I cut straight to the point and let him know I was serious. His face dropped. "I... I can't tell you Alex, even if I wanted to. It's between them, and it is very personal. You want some coffee?" he tried to lighten up the mood.

I ignored him and walked out. "W... wait! I'm sorry I can tell you a bit. Ethan wouldn't even tell me the whole story!" James ran after me and shouted.

We went back into his dorm and he told me it had to do with their parents. That it was about their bias love, about the treatments. How Amber always got everything, until their parents divorced. Ethan found them arguing about Amber and bitterly thought his parents didn't love him but only Amber. How he hated her for it and vowed to make her life miserable.

I slowly walked out again, processing everything that I had just learned. Ethan could be mean like me, sure, but I didn't realize he was capable of pure, dark, hate. I went back to my dorm and found Amber on the bottom bunk again. Sighing, I tiptoed over not to wake her up, and climbed up to the top bunk. I tried to sleep over today's incidents, but for some reason, kept dreaming that Amber was beaten to a pulp by her brother and that I couldn't help her, blocked by a wall. The dream repeated itself a few times until I woke up with a silent gasp. I quickly checked on Amber and told myself I would never let that happen in reality.

Oh dammit, I'm getting soft again! Whatever..