Coming Home

Chapter 1 - The Call

Amber's POV:

Two hours. It's been two freaking hours since I got the call. That's why I'm on a plane headed back to Georgia, my home. I think back to two hours ago, the words still echoing in my mind.

FLASHBACK

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. When I look at the clock, I noted that it's five a.m. I pick up my phone and answer it without checking the caller ID.

            "Hello?" I asked into the reciever, not trying to hide my annoyance.

            "Amber?" My mother's sad voice rang in my ear, followed by sniffles. She was crying.

            "Mom? What's wrong?" I sat up on the bed, hoping it wasn't too bad.

            "I-it's your brother." Her breath catches, and I can tell she's trying to calm herself. "H-he... he's..." she stuttered. "He didn't make it home." she finally sobbed. What? Where'd he- oh... I remember him leaving for the army. Two weeks later, I left for college, Berkely California. I majored in music, because music is my passion.

            Once I got enrolled, and I got settled in California, I wrote letters to my family. My brother, James, wrote back first. I smiled at his words before my mom's voice brought me back to reality.

            "Bambi? Are you there?" she almost whispers.

            "Yeah, mom. I'm here." I shook awaythe thoughts clearing my mind. "When should I get home?" I felt my face get wet and when I reached up to wipe my eyes, my mom said "as soon as possible."

            "I love you mom, see you soon." My voice cracked.

            "I love you, too." she hung up.

END FLASHBACK

            "So where ya headed?" a girl sitting next to me asks, pulling me out of the painful memory.

            "Home. Well, my hometown..." I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked back the tears forming in my eyes. "My brother went to war last spring, and he d-didn't make it." the tears I tried to holding in fell out, but I wipe them away.

            "I'm so sorry! My brother went last year, and he came home, but he died a few months later. Doctor said he went crazy from PTSD. Truth was, he got so lonely, he quit eatin' and starved himself to death." I stared at the girl, and out of nowhere she hugged me. I hugged back slowly, and when she pulled away, I wiped my eyes and tucked my hair behind. my ear.

            "I'm Amber, by the way." I said quietly.

            "I'm Jennifer." she replies. What's that?" she points to a notebook with a picture of me and James when we were little on it. I held it up so she could see better.

            "Me and my brother as kids." I may have a 4.0 GPA, but I really couldn't care less about grammar right then.

            "James and Bambi, Summer '03." Jennifer read aloud. "Bambi?" I rolled my eyes and nodded, chuckling at the childhood nickname.

            The next two hours were spent sharing childhood stories and memories of our brothers. I learned that Jenny -- which is what she likes to be called-- is from Alabama, but was visiting Los Angeles for a science, because she's majoring in marine biology at Roll Tide University.