The skies were bright and sparkling in their mind as they looked from the window out into the bustling city, they had planned that today they were to hang out with their best friend Lea, yet now that seemed unappealing.

“She wouldn’t mind it if I took a little longer would she?” Is what Amber told themself, just on the day that they planned to spend together Amber’s other friends had offered them a free lunch, and maybe a party later that night. Amber felt pressured, they didn’t know if they would rather sit with their quiet best friend and do nothing all day or go to a big party with a free lunch. After a while they decided to go to lunch “she doesn’t even wake up until around ten I’ll be fine!” they exclaimed going back on their promise to be with their friend when she awoke. Amber got changed into one of their nicest outfits and started texting the group of friends. “I’m down for lunch with yall! Maybe even the party later”

“That's sick dude! We’ll meet you at the café on main” the leader of the group replied.

“Coolios! I’ll be there!” and with that message, Amber was off, the idea of Lea almost completely from their mind.

Amber pulled up to the cafe and paid for parking so they didn’t need to walk as far, breathing in the fresh urban sent of hot dog stands, gasoline and sweat before stepping into the café, glancing around for two beats before sitting down with all their friends.

“Amber! I’m glad you could make it we were beginning to think you skipped out on us” one expressed causing a bid of regret to well up inside of Amber

“Y-yeah of course I wouldn't wanna miss out on this” they stuttered and stumbled over their words, thinking that they had made the right decision, keeping their popular friends liking them was reasonable to put over the well-being of their best friend seemed like less of a good idea now but it wasn’t like they could back down, the sheer embarrassment that would cause. Unaware of how much time their inner monologue had taken Amber continued to zone out until one of the group members tapped them on the shoulder jolting them back to reality. “H-huh? What?”

“You good Amber? We were trying to ask what you wanted”

“O-oh... I’m not really hungry anymore..” the thought of lea sitting alone had made them lose their appetite yet they still didn’t leave to check on her.

“Meh, more for us then!” the group’s head called a waitress over as they made their orders, Amber just shaking their head when asked what they wanted by the waitress. He whispered into the waitress’s ear “ don’t mind her she’s a bit of a weirdo” Amber clenched their fists before breathing slowly to calm down.

After everyone had finished eating and Amber finally managed to subdue their thoughts about Lea for the moment the group began to pack up and leave.

“You coming to the party?” one of the members called out to them.

“Yeah! I’ll be there! Don’t worry!” Amber called back as they stepped into their vehicle, buckling up with a smile and beginning to drive up to the group head’s estate, pushing away the nagging feeling of something being missing, the empty passenger seat didn’t look right, it didn’t feel right. They shook their head and ignored the offputting sensation building up around them in the car, trying to turn on some music just resulted in static, the car felt like it was getting darker, the fizzes and pops of the static almost sounded like cries. In a heartbeat, they shut off the radio making everything return to a sort of normal “w-what the hell was that?” they could have sworn there was radio coverage out here, yet they deemed it as unimportant and just shuddered from the experience.

Pulling up at the estate and parking among the many cars, almost all being much more expensive than theirs before stepping out and strutting their way into the main hall trying to make the best impression possible.

“H-holy shit..this place is huge” Amber gasped but kept walking trying to be as cool as possible, they didn’t know why but every few minutes they’d look beside them or reach for someone’s hand yet no one was there. Time flew by but they didn’t think they were having fun, constantly forcing themself to avoid any alcohol and cuties that passed them, by 6:30 Amber was bored distressed and tired, their eyelids were heavy and the pool of regret had accumulated into an ocean of guilt, the party’s host walking by and seeing them slumped over the couch, walking up to Amber and grinning softly with the assumption that they were drunk the host made an attempt to take their chances with flirting.

“Hey, darling how has your night been so far? Maybe we should head on up to my-” Amber interrupted him with a snap in their voice.

“Shut it, I’m not interested.”

“Well why not we would just be-” he tried to reason with them.

“I said SHUT IT!” Amber snapped back at him again, standing up, tears visible in their eyes as the shame overwhelmed them “I should have never come to this stupid party! I’m going home!” they stormed out the door crying leaving the host and partygoers in confusion. They got in their car and drove for home as fast as the law would allow.

Around half way back to their home their thoughts finally resurfaced.

“... SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT LEA!” they took a sharp and violent turn and started navigating through the city towards their friend’s house, going past the speed limit without any hesitation slamming on the breaks as they pulled up in Lea’s driveway bursting out of the car and scampering up to the door “fuck fuck fuck fuck LEA?!” they started knocking on the door frantically “LEA PLEASE I’M SORRY” after a few minutes of desperate knocking they reached behind the windowsill and pulled out the spare key Lea left there breaking into their friend’s house only to see her with tears in her eyes dangling from the ceiling barely holding on to her breaths, too oxygen deprived to even process that her friend was there, Amber immediately jumped onto a chair and lifted Lea out of the noose she made for herself, crying heavily as she laid her down and began CPR, calling 911 and talking while doing it “P-PLEASE HELP US M-MY FRIEND IS DYING AND IT’S ALL MY FAULT WE’RE AT 1077 PRAIRIE CLIFF ROAD P-PLEASE” Amber kept her friend alive until the paramedics arrived, insisting that they stayed with Lea the entire time. When they arrived at the hospital the nurses rushed Lea into the ER, though they refused to let Amber inside, they stayed there, crying, hating themself for choosing the illusion of luxury over her friend. An hour or two passed when the doctors called them into the emergency room, Lea was sleeping peacefully and her heart rate was normal. Amber begged the nurses to let them stay with Lea for the night, after hours of constant attempts at persuasion they decided to let them stay.

Amber sat next to their friend all night, they didn’t try to sleep once in case Lea awoke in the middle of the night and needed comfort, knowing that they would be guaranteed to be there when lea awoke, determined to keep their one important promise.