Amber's pov:

Throughout the rest of the school day, I had trouble focusing in my classes for two reasons.

One being a non stop wondering if Damien's friends knew about his sister, and if they didn't, then why would I know?

And two would have to be all the constant stares I've been getting from classmates.

At first I was confused.

Did I have something on my face?

Was there some embarrassing rumor going around about me?

Did someone plan on pranking me and everyone knew except me?

But after thinking about it, I realized...

Today at lunch, I sat with the most popular group of friends in the school.

Of course I was getting stares!!!

Although I tried to ignore them, it was pretty uncomfortable knowing that there was someone always watching my every move.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that Netflix show about a guy stalking a girl with a creepy voice over.

Now that's freaky.

Counting down the seconds for the last class to be over, I signed in relief as I picked up my books quickly and dashed out the door to my locker.

Damien wanted to meet up after his boxing practice, so my plan was to head straight home and finish my homework so I wouldn't have to worry about it at all.

Not gonna lie, I was pretty excited, even though we've hung out before, the ecstatic feeling never went away.

And that being said, I don't think the butterflies have left either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wait, wait what if she doesn't remember me? Or she actually doesn't want to see me-...." my blabbering was cut short as Damien covers my mouth with his hand while slightly shaking his head.

"Amber she loves you! When I told you she wanted to see you again I really meant it." With a gentle touch, he takes the stack of books from my hands whilst shooting me a soft smile.

Last time I was here, I recall Damien's sister talking about how she was obsessed with a certain book. I had the whole series at home since I loved them when I was little, so as a surprise I wanted to give them to her.

"Are you sure? I just hope I'm not getting in the way of you two spending time together. You guys really have such an amazing sibling bond."

At my words, Damien's eyes soften looking down at me, "Amber she sees me all the time. I honestly think she's sick of me by now."

He lets out a small laugh as he lets go of the books with one hand to open the door to his sisters' room for me.

My eyes instantly fall to the young, familiar girl coloring on the small hospital bed.

"Hi Layla." My voice startles her as she looks up quickly from the frankly large coloring book.

Her crayon drops from her hand as a big smile graces her lips.

"Amber!!!" The excitement in her voice was evident as I walked towards her, enveloping her in a friendly hug.

"How are you?" I ask, pulling away as she looks up at me.

"Happy now! I can't believe you came back to visit me." My heart clenches at her words, instantly dismissing all my thoughts of doubt before I entered this room.

Her eyes then widen, as she looks at Damien and all of the books that he was carrying.

"Are those-..." she couldn't even finish her sentence has her mouth was opened in shock.

"I remembered the last time I was here, so I searched all around my house until I found them."

I didn't miss the tears in her eyes as she jumped up and wrapped her arms around me, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!" She squeals as Damien and I let out a cheerful laugh at her words.

"Where would you like these Layla?" Damien asks as she points to a random direction in the room, not even looking as she continues to thank me over and over again.

Taking a seat next to her on the bed, I look around the room, taking notice of the few balloons that were scattered across the ceiling.

"Was it your birthday?" I ask, turning towards her as she nods her head.

"Yeah it was yesterday." She gives me a toothy grin, but it seems more like it was forced.

But I mean, who would blame her. Having to spend your birthday in a hospital room, I couldn't even imagine how I would feel.

And what made it even worse was figuring how she's been in and out of the hospital for years.

Although I was curious as to what it was that made her ill, I knew it wasn't my place to ask.

"Oh I'm sorry I missed it, happy late birthday." I give her my best smile.

"It's okay, I TOLD Damien to bring you here more often, but I think he was too shy-...."

"NO I WASN'T!!" Damien interrupts her words as I try to hide back a laugh from Damien's flustered face.

"Look older bro, you're great and all but when it comes to you and girls-...."

"OKAY hold on... You are like what, eight now? Don't tell me how to live my life!!" Damien covers his face and sits down on the bed next to me so that our legs were touching.

...

And here comes the butterflies.

"By the way, are you two dating yet?"

BUTTERFLIES!!

BUTTERFLIES!!!!!!

BUTTERFLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"NO!" We both say at the same time, like deers caught in headlights, as blushes rose on both of our cheeks.

Layla sighs as she mutters something under her breath, but I wasn't able to make out the words.

Layla seemed to be very outspoken and bold and I admired that about the young girl.

But the feeling is different when you are on the receiving end of the words coming out of her mouth.

...

And from my perspective, I feel that Damien is on the receiving end a lot.

Although it really pointed out the difference between the two.

Finding out that Layla was so outspoken kinda surprised me because Damien was normally so shy and quiet.

But even though their personalities are total opposites, they bicker like the same person and I honesty find it quit enjoyable to watch.

There was a small silence in the room as everyone just seemed to think to themselves until my eyes glanced at the piece of paper that Layla was coloring before we came in.

I slowly reached over and picked it up, studying the coloring closer.

"This is beautiful Layla," I compliment her as she looks over my shoulder at the picture.

There were four stick figures in what seemed to be an outside background.

"That's my family, it's all of us holding hands while being happy."

I smile at her words, "And why is everyone in the picture so happy?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know, I was going to put a little puppy with a bow around it so we would all be happy about getting a new pet."

"You want a puppy?" Damien's surprised voice asks as she nods her head.

"A fluffy one."

"Oh I love fluffy dogs." I chime in as she nods her head.

"So I can use it as a pillow!!"

"Yeah!!"

"Uh, I don't think it works like that-..." Damien gives us a weird look as both Layla and I start laughing.

I playfully nudge Damien's shoulder as he looks at me with a foxy grin, finding me laughing somehow amusing.

"What?" I ask, confused as to why he was grinning at me like that, but the only response I got was a head shake and a quick bop to the nose, "Oh nothing."

I rub my nose dramatically, "Oww."

"What do you mean 'Oww'?"

"That hurt"

"Mhhhhhhhm did it?"

"... yeah"

"And why is that?"

"The feelings in my nose are hurt."

"The feelings... in your nose..."

"Yep."

"What should I do then?"

"Food should work."

"How about I just kiss it better?"

My cheeks start to burn as I stare into his mischievous eyes. The playful glint making the room seem a bit warmer.

We stare into each others eyes for a few more seconds until a voice breaks it, "Are guys sure you aren't dating?"

"NO!!" "NO!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hah! Pay up loser." Layla grins, taking $1000 worth of Monopoly money from Damien's grasp and adding it to her already stack of hundreds.

"You are eight years old... how... Amber how is she beating us?" He looks up at me with doe eyes.

I chuckle at his words, adding another house to my property, "Damien the only one who doesn't even own $100 dollars in their stack of cash is you."

He groans from his side of the Monopoly board as Layla and I laugh at his defeated form.

"It's okay Damien, since you're a guy, we didn't expect much from your side anyways."

BOOM. ROASTED.

"Ohhhh you just got burnt by an eight year old!!" I take Layla's side as Damien looks up at me and glares playfully.

"Who said that they would buy you food again?"

My eyes widen as I look back at Layla, "You know guys aren't that bad..."

"No fair! She's easily persuaded by food you can't do that!!!"

"Hey I'm not-... oh wow I am." I end up whispering to myself as the pair of siblings laugh at my realization.

But the sudden mention of food made my stomach start to growl as I look down embarrassed.

Damien takes notice and looks down at his watch, realizing the time, "Oh I think it's just about time for us to go, I'm sorry Layla." He says as she nods her head in understanding.

She seemed used to hearing those words, and that made it seem even more painful to leave.

"Mom and Dad said that they would be coming over tonight as well. They just weren't able to yesterday because they both got caught up at work."

She again nods her head in understanding, but suddenly she points her finger at him, giving him an accusing look, "You better promise me to bring Amber here more often though."

Damien holds his hands up in defense at her words and looks at me. I nod my head at him before he looks back at his sister, "I promise."

I stand up from the bed alongside Damien and give Layla a small goodbye hug before we walk out, promising her again that I will be back.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Thank you again for coming with to see her, she doesn't get a lot of visitors." Damien says, holding out his hand and helping me into his car before running to the drivers side.

After leaving the hospital room, Damien took me to McDonald's because he felt the need to buy me food after my stomach growled for what seemed the hundredth time before we even left the hospital.

He connected my obsession with food and McDonald's pretty quickly, and to say I was impressed was an under statement.

"Damien it really is no problem. I actually had a lot of fun." I give him a soft smile, showing him that I really did mean what I was saying.

But at the back of my mind, a question still lingered in my head ever since lunch today, and even though I didn't want to ask him at first, my brain wouldn't stop firing the same question until I knew the answer.

"Damien?" I ask, as he glances over at me quickly before focusing his eyes back on the road.

"Yes?"

"Do... do your friends know about your sister?"

There were a few seconds of silence after my question, and instantly negative thoughts started to take over my head.

That's what you get Amber for asking things that don't involve you.

Why would you-...

"Kinda..."

"Huh?"

There were a few more seconds of silence until he continued, "They know that I have a sister and that she's been ill almost all her life... but they don't know that she's back to being hospitalized." Damien's voice quiets down towards the end of his words as I stare at him in shock.

"If you don't mind me asking, why?"

Not only that, but why would I know out of all of his friends that he's known for so much longer?

But I didn't want to push it with too many questions so I kept that one to myself.

"They've just... always worried about me. Even at times when it's not serious, they worry about me. And although I love them, it kinda hurts seeing them worry so much. I know that if they knew that my sister was back in the hospital their worries would start to increase a lot like they used to, and I just can't go through that again." Damien lets out fully, as he sighs from his side on the drivers side.

I let his words sink it, thinking about them as I look over at him, "I understand what you mean, you just hate to see your friends worried over you. But you have to consider that maybe it isn't such a bad thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the main goal of a friend is to be there for you no matter any situation. And although you feel like you are doing something for them by not telling them, don't hurt yourself at the same time by dealing with things all alone."

He again glances at me, "Why are you always so wise when we are in a car together."

I chuckle at his words, "the car must bring out my inner Athena."

"Or the side of you that is a wise old man-..."

"Hey!!" I lightly jab his shoulder as he snickers at my whine.

"In my defense, I didn't say you were an ugly old man..."

"That doesn't make it any better!!!" I cover my face as he laughs.

With a few more teases and jokes here and there, we finally ended up at my house.

"Thank you for the ride, see you tomorrow?" I ask as he nods his head.

"Sit with us at lunch again tomorrow, I liked you being there." But realizing his choice of words, a pinkish tint formed on his cheeks as I smiled at his cute words.

"I liked being there too."