Beneath the Surface

Prologue

       

She smashed her lips against his and kissed him senseless. She knew she had accomplished her task when she heard a gasp of surprise and then a sob.  She pulled away to see Stacy Sutherland behind the boy which was, or used to be her boyfriend, with tears streaking down her face. Her mouth contorted into the well-practiced 'don't-mess-with-me' smile and, with a perfected hair flip, strutted away. 'That's what she gets for going behind the back of Amber Greene', she thought smugly.

Amber Greene was the school's residential mean girl. She was cold-hearted, rude and a downright bitch but she was still devastatingly beautiful, causing every boy she meets to fawn over her like lovesick puppies. Golden blonde hair flowed down her back and framed a heart-shaped face. Green eyes pierced the soul of anyone who dared to disrespect her but were the perfect addition to her angel-like appearance: beautiful but untouchable.

Amber was on her way towards her lunch table, where her best friend, Sasha Firman, her boyfriend, Aaron Sinar, and a bunch of other people, cheerleaders, jocks, the works, sat there waiting for her. Her phone buzzed and when she pulled it out of her pocket, there was a text that read 'Hey darling, Will has soccer practice after school, can you pick him up after? Your dad and I have a conference to attend tonight.' It was from her mum. This happened often; her parents got busy with work and asked her to pick up her little brother, Will, from school after his soccer training. Amber resisted the urge to groan and roll her eyes as she approached the table.

Giving Aaron a kiss on the cheek, she sat down next to him and caught up on the latest gossip. It was always the same old stuff, Cathy slept with Matt, Rachel cheated on her boyfriend, Hannah and Alex (the on-again-off-again couple) were back together and etc. However, as the 'queen of the school', Amber had to know this stuff. That way she knew what was going on around school and how to act. And in turn, she told them all about how she got revenge on Stacy Sutherland. Naive, little Stacy had gone behind Amber's back and gossiped about her to some other girls. Therefore, she deserved punishment. That punishment was kissing her boyfriend, who was in love with Amber anyways. That was how the hierarchy worked; anyone who went out of line had to be put back into their place.

***

                That afternoon, Amber had just finished shopping at the mall with her girlfriends was on her way to pick up Will. She pulled into her brother's school's parking lot and she texted Will that she was outside. Five minutes later, she saw him walking out of the school gates. He was being too slow so she honked her horn but then he began to walk even slower, like a slow-mo character. She tried to be mad but she couldn't. Her brother was the person she loved most in this world; he had stood by her in everything and understood her more than anyone else. She didn't know what she would do with herself if something happened to him. She was smiling as he slid into the front seat.

"Hey rascal," she said, "How was soccer practice?"

"Oh, you know same old, same old. I smashed the other guys," he replied with a wink.

Amber smiled and pulled out of the parking lot. Her brother was 14 years old and the opposite of her in appearance. He had dirty blond hair and warm chocolate eyes; he was the epitome of a jock without the jerk attitude. The two siblings were chatting happily about their day, Amber about her revenge on Stacy­­­ and Will, about his crush agreeing to go out with him.

"Oh my god! Really? Seriously?" Amber yelled, turning towards Will. Her little brother had been crushing on this girl for ages. This fact distracted her so much, that she didn't see the truck coming from the street beside her onto the roundabout.

"AMBER!" Will yelled, but it was too late.

The car went smashing into the side of the truck; the windshield broke and the car flipped onto the hood. Amber pushed against the car door, trying to open it but it wouldn't budge. The whole time she was yelling at Will. He wasn't moving. She shook him and yelled his name repeatedly. Why wasn't he moving?! This couldn't be happening! Her little brother had a whole life ahead of him; he was going to be a famous soccer player and travel the world. A sob found its way to her mouth, then another and another and another. Blurring her vision, tears made a waterfall down her face, making her hair stick to her cheek. No, it wasn't the tears. In the midst of her hysteria, she hadn't noticed the large gash in her head that was bleeding, and it wasn't showing any signs of stopping. As she sunk into unconsciousness, her last thought was 'It should've been me.' And then the whole world turned black around her.

***

"Her blood levels were dangerously low. It's a miracle she even survived."

Amber could her hear mother's sobs as a man's voice delivered this news. She cracked her eyes open a little but was met with a blinding light and immediately snapped them shut. Slowly she opened her eyes again and let them adjust to the bright hospital lights. She looked around. Her mother was in the doorway of the room conversing with the doctor about Amber's condition.

"Mum?" she croaked. Her mother turned around and instantly, an expression of relief came over her face. Rushing over to her bedside, Amber's mum rambled about how worried and uncertain she was. However, there was only one thing on Amber's mind.

"Mum," she interrupted, "Mum, where's Will?"

This caused her mother to burst into another set of tears. In between her sobs, Amber managed to decipher that Will was in the emergency room and that they didn't know if he was going to make it. Tears pricked at the edges of her eyes but she had to be strong for her mother.

"Mum," she said in the calmest voice she could manage, "Mum. He's gonna be fine. We're all going to be fine."

And in that moment, Amber couldn't tell if she was trying to convince her mother more, or herself. So the mother and daughter waited, for the brother who was also a son, to come back from the brink of death.

***

"I'm sorry, Mrs Greene. We did all that we could but he didn't make it through the surgery..."

The doctor's words kept replaying through Amber's mind. It had been a week since her brother's death and she was going back to school for the first time since the accident. For the past week, she had done nothing but lie in bed, apart from getting up for the necessities. Going to school wasn't much different either. The chatter of the students chatting, and the droning of the teachers teaching, all melted into the background; it all became white noise. All Amber could think of was her little brother.

At lunch, her friends were talking about meaningless gossip again. She couldn't understand how she could stand the empty rumours before, but she pretended to be interested, for appearances sake. Amber knew that once the shock was over, her popularity at school would be all she had left; her parents had become workaholics since the news of Will's death so they weren't around much, if at all.

Around halfway through lunch, she couldn't stand her friends' ramblings anymore so she excused herself to go to the bathroom, which she had fully meant to do: go to the bathroom, splash some water on her face and get herself together. However, she ended up wandering the halls of the school and somehow, she managed to find herself at a rooftop garden that she had discovered when she had first come to this school. She hadn't been here in years. Amber used to love this place because of the peacefulness of it. The entrance of the garden was hidden away in a corridor that students pretty much never used. It was like her very own Eden.

She'd forgotten how beautiful the place was. There was a fountain in the middle surrounded by benches. The perimeter was lined with flowers of all different colours. Next to the fountain there was an area shaded by a structure covered in vines and a hanging seat. Amber walked over to the hanging seat and collapsed onto it. The day had taken its toll on her. Now that she was alone, she let all the sadness, pain, grief and loneliness consume her and she cried. She cried for a long time. And when she stopped crying, she went back into school and pretended. Pretended to be happy and interested. She pretended to be the girl she was before everything changed...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi everyone!

Sorry for the crappy writing! Wrote this last year and never finished it but decided to start again this week. The story gets better I promise!
All votes and comments are appreciated xo

Panda_Forever1253
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~