Too Much Clickbait - Sequel to Clickbait

18

I had gone back to my apartment to shower and unpack. I told Zane to tell the group that Amber had saved the day and I could hear I was on speaker by the cheers of everyone else in the background. I heard a click on the other end of the phone as I walked to my kitchen, ripping through the all dark, wooden cabinets for something to eat. "Hey, so... I got you text about the whole Amber thing. Did she really know?"
"Yeah, man." I sighed, grabbing a fancy, vegan pizza Amber had left here in the freezer. I grimaced, not understanding why they felt the need to put quotations around 'real cheese'. I put the oven on to warm up as I spoke. "It's weird, dude. I really don't like the idea of them being friends, but... I talked to Amber when my truck was in the shop and we were just waiting... She actually thinks Katie is cool as fuck, bro. It's scary."
"Well, in Amber's defense, you're the only one that finds it weird." Zane laughed, the voices in the back getting lower as I could tell he was trying to find somewhere private to talk to me. "Look, I'm not saying it's totally ideal, but at least they aren't at each other's throats."
I took a cookie tray, covering it in foil and spraying Pam on it as I put the phone in between my shoulder and my ear. "You are not wrong on that one."
"Who do you think would win?" Zane asked, thoughtfully. "I feel like Amber knows how to hook a bitch."
"Registered black belt, does kickboxing twice a week, and grew up playing softball. Bitch can swing her arm." I laughed, shaking my head as I unwrapped the box of pizza to place it on my tray. "But Katie knows how to not just take a punch, but she can give it. I play fought with her once, right? And I forget what happened, but I managed to actually elbow her in the mouth and split a part of her gum... Totally on accident, okay. And she didn't even think twice when she saw the blood. She just went to swing at me again and let me tell you, it fucking hurt."
Zane laughed, his voice getting serious. "Hey, uhm... We haven't really talked about all of this shit in a while, man. You really want to be friends with her?"
I paused for a moment, only being brought back to reality by the sounds of my oven beeping to signal it being ready. I turned around, popping the pizza in the oven as I spoke. "I don't really... I don't know. I really want her back in my life, dude, but I also am scared it's going to start shit."
"If I tell you something, you can't go totally batshit, bounty hunter, okay?" Zane waited to hear me say something before continuing. "Heath, I'm being deadass."
"I know, okay, I won't." I groaned. "What do you know?"
"Brennen may or may not have cheated on Katie." Zane's voice rang through my ears like a bullet, piercing every fiber in my body. I immediately felt heat rising from my back and chest to my neck, slowly creeping up to my cheeks like I was a teapot. "I don't know for sure, but there is this girl Maggie... I think she does music, I don't know, she's really hot though. Andrea is friends with her and she told me that Brennen slid in her DM's, like, two weeks ago."
I coughed to try and release the tension in my throat so my voice didn't crack. "Not my girl, not my problem."
"Wow..." Zane laughed slightly. "You really aren't even the tiniest bit of angry?"
I was tempted to mute the phone to shout at Zane, but I thought better of it. I gripped the railing in front of me, looking up at the sky to calm me down. "No... I'm serious. Karma is a bitch."
"For the record, baby, you're forgetting who you're talking to. She didn't cheat." I tried not to laugh at the irony of me discussing this at all with Zane an continued to stay pissy. "And you know damn well you give two fucks about her. If you didn't, you would have never flown out to Jersey to see her. And even if you just did that out of respect and a guilty conscious, you would not have sent those flowers today."
I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing the extremely large bouquet of white roses I had sent over to the funeral home would have made her grandmother smile. "I love Amber."
Zane let out a deep breathe. "I know you do, but that doesn't mean you have to completely shut off your feelings for Katie. I know you don't like her in that way, man, but I know what if anything happened to her, you would fucking lose it."
"How is she?" I changed the subject slightly as I sat down on a black, metal chair.
"She knows something is up with Brennen because people are talking about it on Twitter and she's' trying to ignore it."
I paused, lighting up a cigarette and throwing my pack and lighter onto the small, matching black and metal table in front of me. "I meant with her grandmother, bro."
"Oh!" Zane yelled. I laughed as he continued. "She's doing fine, honestly. I think she sort of expected this to happen, she just didn't know when."
"Should I fly back out there?" I asked through taking an drag of my cigarette.
I heard hesitation evident in Zane's voice. "Uhm... I don't think that's such a good idea. We are all leaving tomorrow night anyway because Katie is having her cremated to be with her grandfather. And, like... It's so creepy, man, they can just ship them like they're a fucking postmates order!"
"Don't let her hear you say that, please." I laughed. "I know, believe me. If we ever had to leave the state, she had to file a report and get a permit to take them with her, if need be. Lexi had one for her dog, Rex."
"White people are weird." Zane joked, using his fake Indian accent. I rolled my eyes, laughing. "Hey, I got to go back to everyone. Tonight is going to be just a dinner with all of us and Katie."
"I'll talk to you later. I'm just going to have Amber over, anyway."

*****

Amber spread out on my bed, papers from work and school jumbled together as she feverishly typed on her laptop. I watched her eyes glow from the Microsoft Word document that he had opened, the reflection in her glasses showing me she was proofreading everything. I sat across from her at my compute desk, finishing editing a vlog I was posting shortly after. I turned back around, beginning to export the video to upload it when Amber yelped. I watched her close her laptop and shoot he arms up into the air, a wide grin plastered on her face to reveal the one dimple she had on her right cheek. "I am officially, one-hundred percent, absolutely, completely done with my case report."
I smiled, pushing myself away from my desk and wheeling over to the bed. I landed on the edge with a thump, the back of the chair slightly shaking the mattress as Amber quickly pushed all of the papers off and onto the floor. She put her laptop safely onto the nightstand, looking back at me. I smirked, climbing onto the bed and going towards her. I wrapped my hands around her neck, falling back onto the bed with her collapsing underneath me.
Amber threw her glasses off, landing somewhere on the top of her laptop, and snaked her arms around my neck. I felt her tangle her legs around my waist and pull me closer as I knelt my lips down to hers. "I'm proud of you, babygirl."
She smiled through our kiss, slowly grabbing at my shirts. She pulled it up, tugging it over my head and only breaking away from me long enough to throw it onto the floor. Amber grabbed my shoulders, rolling over quickly so she was on top. I smiled, never seeing her as happy as she was to finally be done with the case she had been working on. She slid off her oversized black hoodie, throwing it to the side. I squeezed the sides of her thighs, feeling her fall on top of me.