A couple days later

Amber's pov:

"Of course not, are you crazy!" I turn towards Liam who shaking his head at me with a look of disappointment...

Again.

"Amber, you can't just keep hiding it from him, he has to know sooner or later." 

"Well I prefer later." I say, turning away towards him to continue shoving the rest of my books in my locker.

In these past couple of days, Liam has been telling me to tell my father about my relationship with Damien.

Obviously deep down I know he is right, but I just can't find it in me to bring up the conversation.

It's difficult!

How do I tell him, my over protective father, that his only child has found herself a boyfriend!

I know he has joked around and mentioned my crush on Damien before, but this is COMPLETELY different. 

There is a fine line between crush and boyfriend. 

One involves no romance, kissing, or heartbreak...

The other ones does. 

And I believe that will be the red flag in my fathers head once I tell him. 

I just know he's going to make a big deal out of it, I can just feel it in the pit of my stomach.

Even though Damien is one of my father's favorites on the team and he already has a lot of trust in him, I don't think that will stop the wrath of my father.

As much as I love him, the man is crazy.

"You are going to regret not telling him sooner." Liam says, shaking his head at me before swinging his practice bag around his shoulder. 

"I doubt it, unless you plan on telling him." I raise an eyebrow at him, only to get a laugh in response. 

"Oh heck no, I would like to come out of practice with all four of my limbs, thank you very much." He says, patting me on my shoulder as we head towards the practice room. 

Once we get there, I make myself comfortable on the bleachers to watch the boys practice.

It has become one of my favorite things to do. 

Plus, they have been practicing for an upcoming tournament, so all of the boys have been pretty determined to do well.

I just know that they got this tournament in the bag, there is no way they are going to lose this one. 

"Hello gorgeous." I turn towards Damien as he sits beside me on the bleachers with a goofy smile on his face.

"Hey you, I was wondering when you would finally get here." I giggle.

He leans back a little and sighs, "I got stuck waiting for Luke to finish lip locking with his girlfriend, and fun fact, they can hold their breaths really long." 

"As if you two are any better." Liam joins in, smirking as Damien and I look up with innocent expressions.

"Us? What ever do you mean?" I ask, dramatically putting my hand over my heart.

"You know what I mean."

"Really Liam? I am an innocent man with innocent intentions." Damien says, swinging an arm around my shoulder.

Psssssh. Yeah right.

"Oh of course, can you tell your girlfriend though that she owes me six dollars for that coverstick she made me buy to cover up her-..."

"Okay! Conversation is over." I say, covering my ears while preceding to mutter lalalalala.

"What? All I was saying is that I want my six dollars back for-..."

"Hey coach!!" Damien interrupts him, greeting my dad as he walks towards us on the bleachers. 

"Hope you two aren't causing any trouble over here." My dad says, turning his gaze towards Liam and Damien.

"In all due respect, Coach, if anyone was causing trouble, you are accusing the wrong person." Liam jokes, nudging me in the shoulder.

"As if," I push Liam away, "we all know that I am the perfect child." 

"That's because you are the only child, you got that title out of default."

"And your point is?" I question Liam, flipping my hair off my shoulder dramatically.

My dad laughs at our bickering, "Okay you two, no fighting, practicing is starting soon. So boys, I want you to drag your behinds to the locker room because each second late is a lap." My dad says, watching as Damien and Liam scramble out of their seats to do as he says.

He then looks at me before giving me a small grin, "So how is my perfect child doing today?"

"So you do agree, I am perfect."

"By default, yes."

"Not you too!!," I frown, "but to answer your question I'm doing good."

"That's good to hear, should I expect you to be home after practice or are you going out?"

"I was thinking of stopping by the hospital for a little bit before heading home."

"Sounds like a plan, is Liam going with you?" He asks, making me freeze for a second. 

"No, I'm actually going with Damien." 

"Ahhh Damien, I should have assumed, you guys have been hanging out a lot recently."

"Really, you think?" I laugh nervously while avoiding eye contact with my dad.

"Yes you have, but that's a good thing, you needed more friends anyways."

I couldn't help but find myself wincing at the mention of the word friends because we are definitely passed that stage now...

And I got that coverstick to prove it. 

"And what's that supposed to m-..." I was interrupted by the door of the practice room being opened harshly as two security guards walk in followed by the principle. 

I look up at my dad as he quickly makes his way towards them with a confused expression on his face. 

From my place on the bleachers, I unfortunately was not able to hear what they were saying, but by the looks of it, it looked pretty serious.

Soon enough, my dad is calling the boys out of the locker room with their backpacks and practice bags.

Wanting to know what was happening, I get up from my place on the bleachers and move closer to where they were so that I could hear what they were saying. 

I was still a little bit far, but I could piece together the word "bag checks" and "follow me."

Then with not a second to spare, the boys follow the principle as they walk off towards the direction of his office.

But without anyone noticing, Liam runs towards me while reaching in his bookbag, "Here, take this so no one sees." 

I was confused until I saw the words Ambien Journal written across the front cover. 

"LIAM! Why do you have this on you!" I say, quickly shoving the book into my backpack while giving him a small glare.

"I wasn't finished naming your great great grandchildren!! I was on a roll this morning and they were just coming to me like-..."

"Liam, let's go!" Luke pokes his head into the practice room, motioning with his hand to hurry up.

Liam gives me one last look before running out of the room to catch up with the rest of the boys.

When they were gone, I glance down at my backpack while sighing...

You've got to be kidding me. 

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

"Thank goodness everything turned out okay, I got really worried for a second." I say, leaning my head on Damien's shoulder as we sit on a small bench outside of the hospital.

It turns out, there were steroids found in the boys bathroom that supposedly belonged to one of the athletes at the school, so each practice that was held today, which was boxing, football, and soccer were delayed.

In the end they found it in a football players' bag. Which could have been assumed since the same thing happened last year, which is another reason why our football team has such a bad reputation. 

This is why the boxing team at our school is so respected, it's the only sport here that actually does well without having to cheat there way to the top. 

And we all know that is all thanks to the coach, my father. 

"I got worried too, I could almost see our season flash before my eyes."

"Would you all have gotten in trouble if someone had it?"

He thinks for a second before answering, "Pretty much, nobody wants to participate with a team who supposedly does that, so we would have no competition, meaning no season. Unlike football, coach has to actually register us to get us into tournaments and because of that, they can deny us into entering." He explains.

"That makes sense." I say, nodding my head into his shoulder.

He laughs at the feeling before giving me a kiss on my head, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Hmmm?"

"Are you sleepy already? It's not even dinner time yet."

I lift my head up before pouting at him, "Yeah but all the stress I went through when you guys got called into the principles' office tired me out." 

"Aww I'm sorry baby." He giggles, poking my nose.

"You should be."

Hiding his grin, he stands up and stretches out his hand to pull me up off the bench, "How about we go see my sister now to waken you up, she's missed you."

At the sound of seeing his sister, I quickly take his hand to help myself up before running towards the entrance of the hospital, causing Damien to have to run to catch up with me.

"I missed her too!!"

"I can see that." Damien mutters under his breath, jealously seeping out through every word.

"Oh don't be like that, I see you everyday." I tease, poking his side. 

He can't seriously be jealous of his sister...

Gosh he is such a cutie. 

"That's not enough."

"Oh really? Do you want it to be every hour? Every minute?"

"Actually every second, but you were getting close."

Shaking my head at his silly words, we head towards Layla's room before knocking.

After hearing a "Come in," Damien opens the door for me and I am instantly greeted by a smiley Layla. 

"Amber!!!" She screams excitedly, opening her arms for a hug. 

"Layla!" I say back with the same excitement, running into her arms after setting my backpack against the side of the bed. 

"What? I don't get a hug too?" Damien says from behind me, only earning himself a whack in the arm from Layla in response.

I can never get tired of watching them bicker, it is just the funniest thing.

"Maybe you would get one if you didn't keep your girlfriend all to yourself!" She says, sticking her tongue out at him.

Two days ago, Damien and I decided to tell Layla that we were dating over facetime while we were in our free period during school, to say the least she was very excited about the news.

With a pout, Damien crosses his arms over his chest, "That isn't fair! One, you two text all the time now, and two, I brought her here with me today to see you!"

Layla only shakes her head at him, "Not good enough."

I have to hold back a laugh as Damien turns towards me, "Amber, say something!" 

"Nuh-Uh, I'm not getting in the middle of you two again, I learned my lesson." I giggle, sitting crisscross on Layla's bed. 

"She's just saying that because she would agree with my anyways, sucks to suck." Layla says, making the letter L for loser above her forehead at Damien.

The two begin to bicker as I just sit back and watch with a smile on my face, but that was shortly lived as one of the nurses makes her way into the room, causing both of the siblings to look towards her.

Tilting my head towards the side, I couldn't help but squint my eyes a little. It was again the same nurse who looked awfully familiar.

We make eye contact as she stares at me for a little longer than what I anticipated, causing a shiver to run down my spine. 

That was really weird.

"So sorry to interrupt, but I am here for her daily checkup, if you two don't mind stepping out of the room for a second." She says, turning her attention towards Damien and I. 

Nodding our heads in understanding, I follow Damien towards the door and out of the room. Once I close the door behind me though, Damien turns towards me with a puzzled expression.

"What's wrong?" I ask, noticing his expression.

"I just found it weird that she kicked us out of the room, they don't normally do that during her checkups." He says, leaning his back against the wall. 

"I wouldn't take it personally, each nurse must like it differently." I shrug my shoulders.

After about fifteen minutes, the door opens and the nurse walks out with a thick stack of notes hugged to her chest, "Everything looked great today, you are allowed back in." She says in a rushed tone before walking off.

Giving each other a look, Damien and I walk back in and decide to ignore the weird encounter and continue to spend our time with Layla just like before.

But I was wrong, I shouldn't have ignored it. 

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

"Thank you for accompanying me to see Layla again, I really appreciated it, and I know she did too." Damien once again thanks me as we sit in his car in my driveway.

"You don't have to thank me, I really enjoyed it. I love seeing your sister and getting to spend more time with you." I say, blushing as he leans over to kiss my cheek. 

"You are amazing, and I know I say that a lot, but I mean it." he says before kissing my lips. 

After a couple of seconds, we break apart and I start to gather my stuff, "Text me when you get home, okay?" 

He nods his head, "Of course, anything for you." He winks. 

Stepping out of the car, I blow him one last kiss before he drives off. 

I watch as his car disappears before heading towards my front door. I give my dad a wave as he sticks his head out of the kitchen to tell me that dinner would be ready soon.

I go upstairs to put my backpack down, but when I do I instantly find myself frowning. 

The zippers of my backpack were met towards the side, which was weird because when I zip up my backpack, I always have them meeting in the middle...

I'm not one of those people who has to have it a certain way, I just naturally have always done it that way, but I found it weird because I don't recall letting anyone go into my backpack for something today because...

I quickly unzip my backpack in search for one particular item, but when I don't see it, my heart instantly drops. 

The Ambien Journal is gone.

Hey guys!!!!

How are you?

The questions for today...

What movie are you most excited about that is coming out this upcoming year?

What's an interesting fact about you that no one would guess?

Where is the strangest place you've ever fallen asleep?

Love you!!!

~juls