Finally Found You

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It is incredible how fast time flies when you’re having fun.

I’m serious. I have already been attending school for a month. Jared and Amelia have become so close to me that I would refer to them as my best friends.

Sure the other people are great too, and we’re really close. But Eva and Sammy has been friends since birth, basically. And then they met Connor in second grade. It’s hard to become best friends with someone who already has someone else as close to them as that.

And Jared and I… we just clicked. We like the same things, and we both like to argue and tease each other. It’s great.

Amelia is just really shy. I don’t even know how it happened. We were just the only ones at the lunch table one day, and we started talking seriously and then just BAM! Best friends.

Sure, Isaac and I were also pretty close, but we only hung out in his breaks at work. It’s hard to build a strong friendship when you only talk fifteen minutes a day.

And of course, with Brianna hanging around, watching me like a hawk. I didn’t want her to bitch me around, but the other guys gave me warnings on how vicious she can be. I decided it would be better for me to just back off.

Ben and Summer, the on again off again couple, had broken up again. So Ben decided to hang around Jared more, which meant he hung around me more. And he was a really nice guy.

So, I couldn’t say I regretted my decision.

Still it was times I missed my old friends more than usual. For example today.

I had decided to be the perfect little granddaughter Gracie always wanted and visit her and Harry. That’s just how nice I am. But apparently, having a granddaughter was not enough for her. She wanted a grandson too.

“Amber! It’s so great to see you again. I’ve really missed you, and I’m sure Harry had too,” Gracie said as soon as I was on the inside of their door.

With that, she pushed me into their small living room with a giant smile on her face.

“Harry, look who decided to show up!” Gracie yelled at her husband as I sat down on the couch.

“Amber, how lovely it is to see you again,” Harry told me with a  warm look in his eyes.

“How have you been? How’s the new school? Did you make any friends?” Gracie asked, eagerly, wanting to know every little detail of my life.

Not that I complained. I just launched into the story of school, giving a description of all my friends.

“That seems great, sweetheart,” Gracie said when I was done.

“So how is that Nathan boy?” Harry questioned.

I widened my eyes for a second before I calmed down again and gripped a cookie from the tray in front of me.

“Nate? Nate is… great,” I told them, slightly lying. I had no idea how Nate was. “Why are you asking?”

“He is such a nice young man,” Gracie told me.

“Yeah, very nice,” I said, getting a bit uncomfortable under their stares.

“Did he tell you yet?” Gracie asked.

She sure was a nosy old lady.

“Tell me what?” I asked, getting a bit nervous.

“That he is in love with you, silly,” Gracie stated like it was a fact.

I was frozen, the cookie halfway to my mouth, which was wide open.

“L-love?” I stuttered. “Nate isn’t in love with me.”

But still some of the last words he spoke to me was still ringing in my ear.

“You can’t go!”

“I like you Amber!”

“Please, don’t go.”

Of course this brought on the memory of his lips, and how they felt against mine. Those soft lips, and his hands holding my waist, pressing me close to him---

No! Stop this Amber, you have to get over him. He was with a girl at the park the day you left, remember? He is clearly over you already, so do not think like that.

I breathed in a deep breath, trying to clear my head.

Finally I was able to focus, and I heard Harry’s guffawing laughter.

What had I missed?

“Not in love with you? That’s the best one I’ve heard in a while. That boy was head over heels for you when you guys visited last fall!” Harry exclaimed between laughter.

Nate had liked me for that long? No, not liked. Nate had loved me at least since we were in New York for almost a year ago. So he helped me with all of this because he loved me? Was that it? He wanted to become closer with me? Is that why he started teased me so much too?

This is way too much information. I do not need this right now.

“Anyway, Amber. We told the rest of the family about you, and they are all so excited to meet you,” Gracie said with a giant grin on her face. “Especially Sophie and Caleb. So we wanted to  invite you to our yearly family barbecue. It’s this Saturday, do you think you can go?”

The rest of the family wanted to meet me? Wow, I had never thought they would actually want that. But why not? I was excited to meet my mother’s siblings. Actually I really wanted to.

So with a grin on my face I told them: “Sure, where is it?”

****

“So, Amber. I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a long time,” Isaac states as he followed me to my car after school that Wednesday.

I turned to him with a smile on my face.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

“Well… It’s just…. I…. Never mind,” Isaac said.

I could clearly see how nervous he was about this question.

“Isaac,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. “You can ask me.”

“WellIjustwantedtoknowifyouwouldliketogooutwithmesometime?” he asked.

I stared at him like he had gone crazy. Actually I was pretty sure he had.

“What was that?”

Isaac took a deep breathe, preparing himself.

Wow, this must be serious, if he is so nervous.

“Amber…” he started again, but he didn’t finish.

“Yes?” I asked.

What was with him today? He was usually so open and no afraid to say anything.

“Will you go out with me?”