a love story for the ages

the beginning; pt.2

"Stella?" 

Stella ignored her and kept marching forward. By now they'd walked about a mile already and landed in a cute pop-up-shop area. Stella knew a little better than Amber to not make eye contact with the vendors if you have no interest in buying what they're selling. 

"Stella, if we have to walk much further my legs are going to fall off."

"We've barely walked a mile."

"Yeah," Amber started to sit on the sidewalk, "well that was an un-expected Stella-mile"

"Now what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," she turned toward Stella who had sat down beside her already, "that I wasn't planning on walking this far today, and at your pace. I'm not sure you know this, but you walk ridiculously fast for someone who could apply for a position in Santa's workshop."

"Ah the classic height jokes," Stella shook her head, "I thought you were better than that."

"Well I can't really be better than anything when I'm barely catching my breath"

"Caught?"

Amber paused, she liked doing that a lot, "Caught."

"Good, 'cause we're here"

"Where is here, exactly?"

"Here, is my new job" She stood up and enthusiastically gestured over to a small booth that sold some touristy items and corn dogs for the passer-byes in the city. Almost ecstatic, she ran over to the corndog booth and took one out for both of them, "Great thing about this job is I get all the free corndogs I want."

"You're going to get tired of corndogs pretty quickly," Amber said accepting the food, trying to hide her hunger behind remarks.

"Probably, but it's not like I have a choice"

"What's the bossman like?" Amber took another big bite.

"He's pretty callous....and blunt...but he means well" She started eating her own food.

"I'm getting a job soon you know."

Stella kept her eyes down, "I know."

"Honestly, I know I've said it a lot, but I really have an interview tomorrow."

"An interview doesn't mean a job, Bambi."

"No, I know," she seemed hopeful, "but I feel good about this one."

"You felt good about the last one, and the one before that," Stella muttered something indiscernible under her breath and Amber went quiet, "Anyway, it's not like you'll have much time for the job even if you get it...school's tomorrow."

"Yeah...well I can make it work, you know I can make it work, right?"

"I know"

For a brief moment, Amber knew that she was taking more than contributing to the friendship. For a brief moment,  Stella wondered if Amber was giving up on their friendship and really Stella was annoying in trying to single-handily keep them afloat. For a brief moment, they both wanted to make their friendship work but were too afraid of being vulnerable with the other. 

For the most part, Amber was the one who had difficulty wearing emotions on her sleeve. Stella let you know what she was feeling 24/7 and did not give any shits about what people thought in regards to her strength. If she was having a bad day, she was having a bad day and would cry about it...Amber on the other hand did the opposite and always felt obligated to make everything seem alright all the time.