Always?

Chapter 12

A week had passed since the incident, since Cai had come into their lives unexpectedly and unlike what they had initially thought would happen, Damian had them all on the down low; he was paranoid that people would come looking for the Jack in their possession, and he didn’t want any of them gaining any unwanted attention. Amber was okay with how things were working out; there were always two people over at their apartment, where they were essentially keeping Cai hostage, and the more people at the apartment, the less chance she had of being alone with Ani.

She didn’t have to worry about any awkward encounters for a while. But despite Oliver and Atlas being on babysitting duty, with Max and Alec on the couch yelling over some game they were both playing, and Alice talking to Wendy on the phone rather loudly in the corner, Amber still found Ani in all the chaos. She had showered, and her hair was damp; it cascaded around her face in lumps, and even if it looked messy and chaotic, Amber still thought she was the prettiest woman here. Her eyes trailed down her throat, following a droplet. It landed at the base of her throat, sitting in the dip. She looked up at Ani only to realise that she was already staring.

Amber wasn’t sure how to react, and just as she was about to make a casual comment, Ani quickly looked away. She decided it was better not to say anything after all. A frown made its way over to her face as a shiver ran down her spine. For a split second, Amber thought that she still had blood on her hands, she froze staring at them in confusion. Realistically, she knew it was impossible, she had showered three times since that night, there was no way she still had blood on her, but the more she tried to focus on what Max and Alec were arguing about, or the fact that Oliver was scribbling away in his notebook. Atlas was trying to get a peek at the fact that Cai and Alice were now arguing about something, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t clean.

Amber stood up, accidentally gaining the attention of a few of the others. Alice stopped her argument with Cai to look at her with a frown. “Amber? Are you okay?”

“Yes. I think I’m just going to go have a shower, don’t turn on the water.”

“You’ve showered four times this week,” Ani said, frowning. “You’ll end up with pneumonia.”

Amber waved her off, “I’ll dry my hair and have a hot drink after.”

“I’m like 90 per cent sure that’s not how that works,” Cai mumbled, running a hand through his hair, and then wincing when he pulled on a stitch.

Amber ignored the rest of their comments and went into her bedroom down the corridor, grabbing her towel and bath gown. As she walked across the hallway, she could hear Oliver now arguing with Atlas about how he should reintroduce himself into the spotlight. She paused, curious. After a minute, she realised Atlas wanted it to be flashy, while Oliver was adamant that he had just reappeared; that in itself would cause enough buzz. She never found out how the argument ended because she went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

She wasn’t sure how long she spent in there, but she scrubbed at her skin under an alarmingly hot water temperature, ignoring how red it was becoming and how if she rubbed over certain areas she could swear she was rubbing her skin raw. She spent somewhere close to an hour in the bathroom, scrubbing at every inch of her body, from her hair to the webbing of her feet. But even with all that scrubbing, a part of her still felt unclean. She shrugged it off, knowing she had spent too long inside, and Cai had already come knocking once, asking her how long she would be, as he really needed to pee.

Once she had her hair in the towel and was tightly wrapped in her gown, she stepped outside, staring at her feet. She bit her lip, ignoring the thoughts plaguing her mind, as she shouted that she was out of the bathroom. She heard the cheer and the sound of feet hitting the wooden floorboards and coming closer at an alarmingly fast pace. Amber quickly went into her bedroom and spent ten minutes changing out of her gown, moisturising, and getting into some fresh pyjamas. She grabbed a new pair of socks and some of her old plastic slippers. Rushing to the bathroom, she washed her feet and slippers before heading into the hallway, where she dried her feet with a new towel and slipped on a fresh pair of socks. She stretched her toes in the purple socks, a smile on her face. She was clean, she was fresh, and she already felt better.

When she went into the lounge room, all eyes were on her. She frowned, tilting her head.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

“You were in there a while,” Max said, frowning, nodding his head in the direction Cai had run in. “Everything okay?”

“The hot water felt really nice on my sore muscles,” she mumbled, walking to the kitchen, turning on the kettle and getting the fresh mint out of the fridge so she could make some mint tea. “Turns out I’m still sore from the beating. Where’s Ani gone?” she asked, noticing the missing woman.

“She went to the store, she said to text her if you need anything.”

Amber did want to text her; she did need something, and she needed them to talk about what had happened. However, since that was clearly a topic Ani wanted to avoid like the plague, she didn’t bring it up, nor did she text her. Alice walked over, frowning, as she showed Amber her phone.

“Why does Wendy have so much free time? All she does is send me TikToks.”

“I’m sure she’s a busy person,” Amber muttered absentmindedly as she continued to make her tea.

“Did you see the one where they pulled that stunt on Ash? The one where she told Sebastian to shut up? She took it down, but I know Ash was mad.”

“He was. She said that he threatened to kill her and everything that she loved, and when she said that he’d have to kill himself and his husband, he tried to ground her.”

Alice snorted, leaning on the counters. “Did he ground her?”

“It was Ashton Saunders-Tomas, what do you think?”

“Ahh, so that’s why there were two quiet days on her end, he probably took her phone off of her.”

Amber nodded, not knowing what else to add to the conversation. Cai came out of the hallway, a grin on his face. “I feel twenty pounds lighter.”

When Alice saw him, she continued their argument right where they left off, Amber sighed, taking a seat in the corner of the room, the steaming mug of tea bringing her some warmth, she tried to not look over at the door, waiting for Ani’s return, but her time was cut short, when her phone rang, dragging her out of her thoughts. She frowned when she saw Damian’s name, but answered.

“We’re so f*****g fucked.”

~*~