Free Shades of Amber by Morgan Smith

forth I went, until
he pulled me to a stop and kissed me.
    I didn’t know he would
disappear from my life a few months later.
    Blocking out his memory, I tried to
project one of my own—the day he left me.
    It took all of my
concentration to make the vision as vivid as a movie. I wasn’t sure
he caught it until his grip tightened.
    My gaze hardened as I
thought about that dark, rainy day. I should have suspected that
something was wrong because he’d been acting
differently.
    When I analyzed it later,
I realized he must have been on drugs. All of a sudden, my early
rising, bask in the sunlight boyfriend had become a sleep all day;
see me after sunset night owl. I was so naïve.
    I thought about that
evening, just hours before his twenty-first birthday. He’d shown up
at my parent’s house, soaking wet with a fire in his eyes, and
asked me to invite him in. My first instinct was to let him, but I
refused because my parents were out, and I wasn’t sure how he’d act
around my brother and sister.
    He had a wounded
expression as he sat on the porch swing. Give me strength, I
thought as I opened the door and sat beside him. The air was so
warm around him that I thought I might see steam rise.
    He said my name and my
heart froze in my chest. I looked, but he wouldn’t let his gaze
meet mine. I grabbed his face, pleading with him to tell me what
was wrong.
    When he finally looked at
me, he was a million miles away. He tried to smile as he stroked my
cheek, but I felt his hand shake. He swallowed and looked at me
again, his smile replaced by countless emotions. “I have to go
away, Jade.”
    “ What? Why?”
    He stared at the pink and
white tennis shoes he’d given me for Valentine’s Day, and then at
my face. “I have to go away… it’s a family problem. I can’t say
anything more.”
    Tears threatened to fall
as I surged to my feet. “A family problem? Okay, when will you be
back?”
    He stood and walked over
to me, but as soon as he pulled me against his chest, I knew what
it meant. I tried to push him away, but he was a lot
stronger.
    He hugged me as his lips
touched my ear. “You have to believe that I would stay with
you if I could, but there’s no other way…
I’m doing this for you .”
    That last remark gave me
enough strength. “You’re doing this for me?”
    He tried to come closer
but I backed away, and held up my hand. “How could a ‘family
problem’ have anything to do with me?”
    He ran a hand through his
damp hair and pinned me with his sad eyes. “I hope you never have
to understand.”
    I blinked and he was
standing in front of me. His entire demeanor changed as he gripped
my waist and pressed his lips to mine.
    “ I love
you.” His arms tightened as he nuzzled my neck. “Can’t you see I
don’t want to leave you? I don’t want to do this, but I
can’t not be around you.”
    A few seconds later, he
was gone and so was my warmth. I’d spent every day trying to forget
him, and then a few months after he left, I saw an article on the
front page of the newspaper… “Twenty-one year old dies in freak
snow mobile accident.”
    Go figure, I’d thought as
I slapped the paper on the lunch table in front of Amelia. “The
jerk left me to go skiing! ‘Family problems my butt!’”
    From that moment on, I
tried not to think of my deceitful ex-boyfriend.
    I glared at him as I wiped
the memory from my thoughts. “I was able to move on, you know,
until that night you cornered me in the library! So tell me… What.
Are. You?” I made sure to emphasize those last three
words.
    He dipped his head,
watching me from beneath his lashes. “What will you give me if I
tell you?” The husky sound of his voice made me shiver.
    The car bounced as we hit
a pothole, calling my attention to an even bigger problem: I had no
idea how long we’d been in the car or where we were
going.
    Panic sank its teeth into
my lungs as I tried to regulate my breathing. “Why am I
here?”
    His smile was