Dedicated to my writing queen 👑 AnneeSparrow

C H A P T E R  1

"Your shoulder blades, your eyes ablaze
the way you throw your head back, like you're losing hope or finding faith,"- Atlas, Shannon Saunders

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The sun rays bounced down on to her, making her wish that she hadn't put on a hoodie today. Amor cursed herself for not taking her mum's words seriously before she scurried off to work this morning. Her mum was always right when it came to predicting England's unpredictable weather. Amor had suggested to her mum that she ditch her stressful job as a brain surgeon and switch to being a weather forecast lady. She would do a better job than the liars on TV every night.

With that thought, an amused smile appeared on her face which quickly slipped off when another trail of sweat ran down her neck. Amor tilted her head to the side, and her fingers reached inside the hoodie in an attempt to pull it away from her skin. She found it ridiculous how quickly everyone adjusted to the seasonal changes without any complaints. Everyone except for Amor.

Oh, for fuck's sake, she cursed mentally and an annoyed groan escaped her lips before she roughly pulled the grey hoodie off her leaving her in a white tank top that contrasted against her mocha coloured skin. Amor knew her plaited dark hair was messed up now and more than likely resembled a bird's nest - but the amount of shits she gave, probably had her appearance conscious grandma flipping around in her grave.

"Amor!" Lena - her best friend - enthusiastically yelled, her red hair pulled into a high ponytail as it swung side to side behind her while she fast walked her way over to Amor. With her high heeled boots clicking loudly on the pavement and her lips shimmering with lip gloss, no one would have predicted that Lena was training to be a boxer.

When Lena broke the news to Amor with a gleeful smile on her face, Amor had laughed thinking it was another one of Lena's failed attempts at joking. Amor laughed until Lena punched her shoulder leaving her wincing and rubbing her shoulder in pain. Who would've guessed those scrawny arms had so much strength? Definitely not Amor.

But whenever Amor had time off work - which was very rare - she would sit down on a bench with a packet of chips and cheer her best friend on as she trained. That way Amor could jokingly claim that the reason behind Lena's success was her moral support. And so when Amor didn't turn up to Lena's trainings, Lena would miss her loud cheering - though she would never say it to Amor's face.

"You didn't come yesterday, and I still killed it. I guess my skills aren't because of your moral support," Lena said, her voice lilting as a teasing smile appeared on her face.

Amor scoffed. "Please, I'm sure you were tripping all over the place." Though, Amor knew otherwise. Til this day, Amor had never met anyone more graceful and so co-ordinated than Lena Stewart.

"Right." Lena shot her best friend a side glance. "So, your birthday's coming up."

"Really?" Amor asked, turning to face her best friend with mock surprise vivid on her face. "Who would've guessed?"

Lena rolled her eyes at the childish antics of her best friend and opened her mouth to reply when she was interrupted by Amor.

"And before you ask for the umpteenth time this month, I don't care what you get me. Just don't get me a condom like Tania did in year ten and we'll be cool," Amor said off-handedly brushing the matter away before Lena could get the chance to pester her about her duty as a best friend to get her the perfect gift for her 18th birthday. Little did Lena know, Amor planned to celebrate it working her ass off at the diner.

"Fine, fine. I get it." Lena rolled her eyes before she pulled her wavy strands to one side and started plaiting them. Amor could never understand what the point in letting your hair out was when you were going to plait it in the end anyways, she had made sure to tell Lena too. And Lena would always tell her how it helped her study better. Another thing that made no absolute sense to Amor. The only reason she ever plaited her hair was if she ever let her hair out it would bush up and resemble the tail of a squirrel - except, worse. It was so frizzy, and definitely untameable. The only solution was straightening it, and that took hours. Amor preferred to use those hours to catch up on sleep.

Lena pulled a red hair tie from the stock of hair ties on her wrist and used it to finish off her plait. She turned around to face Amor before asking, "Have you figured out what you want to do for your birthday?" 

"I think I'm just going to spend some time with Ma, she's been so busy with work, and I've been so busy at the diner and babysitting that I've barely talked to her the past few days," Amor replied, looking away from her best friend and instead finding herself suddenly interested in the students either rushing about, stressing about the test in first period or shoving each other as they laughed giving no fucks about the test in first period that they hadn't studied for.

So, it wasn't a complete lie, Amor tried telling herself so the guilt would lessen. She was planning on spending her birthday with her mum just in the morning before she left for work and then the rest of the day she would be at the diner working.

"Maybe you should take a break from the diner, or at least don't baby sit for a while," Lena suggested staring at her best in concern as she pushed the door into the hallway.

Amor let out an exasperated sigh. "You know I can't do that."

"But you're only seventeen, Amor. You should be having fun right now and not working your ass off to pay of debt your pathetic excuse of a dad left your mum and you," Lena retorted, her words growing more and more intense as she spoke. If Hiten Roy was still alive, Lena would've socked him in the nose and kicked him in the balls for good measure, best friend's father or not. 

"Let's not talk about this right now," Amor said, looking at her best friend pleadingly. At the determined look on Lena's face Amor added, "Please?" 

"Whatever, fine." Amor smiled at Lena and wiggled her eyebrows making the unsatisfied look slip off Lena's face and be replaced by an amused one.

"You're so weird, honestly. Lay off the drugs," Lena teased. The ever present - interrogations being an exception - smile grew larger when she spotted the last two members of their squad standing by their lockers.

"So," Tania started with a big smile on her face as she stepped away from Josh who was leaning lazily against his locker seeming distracted by the missing button on his flannel shirt. "Guess what I found yesterday?"

"Obviously not your dignity," Josh interjected jokily and then chuckled to himself while Lena joining him for a giggle. Tania pried her blue eyes away from her two girlfriends and sent her boyfriend a scathing glare.

"And here I thought you liked kissing me," Tnia remarked back with a haughty look on her before she directed her attention back to Lena and Amor. With panic clear on Josh's face his usually small eyes widened, he stood up straight and looked pleadingly at his girlfriend.

"Babe, you know I love you. I was only joking," he insisted, staring at his best friends for help who turned away looking around the hallway suddenly interested in the photographs of previous school principals that hung on the wall.

Bitches, Josh thought to himself before looking at his smirking girlfriend again. Tania toyed with her perfect blonde hair and gave him a side glance and said, "Yeah? Well, I wasn't."

Amor laughed and Lena slapped her shoulder in reprimand, making her roll her eyes in response.

"So, as I was saying. I found the perfect gift for you," Tania continued, staring at Amor.

"Actually, no I found-," Josh interrupted again. Tania angled her body and raised her eyebrow at him. Even though she was inches shorter than Josh, he still found her intimidating. "You know what, never mind what I said. She found the perfect gift for you."

When Tania turned around, Josh covered the side of his lips with one hand and pointed to himself repeatedly while mouthing 'I did.'

"What are we doing for your birthday, anyway?" Tania asked and Amor fought the urge to walk away. The next person who asked that question would get hit by her gigantic physics book.

"I am spending time with mum."

A displeased look appeared on Tania's face. "But how are we supposed to give you your gifts?"

"Just give it to me on Monday," Amor suggested just as the bell rang, signalling that it was time for form time. Before anyone could protest Amor added, "I'll see you guys second period."

She shot them a quick smile, and sauntered off to her form class. At first Amor hated how her three best friends were in the same form class, and she was stuck in another one. That was until she realised that Nicholas 'Nick' Shaw was in her form class, and had been since year nine. It took him staggering up to her front door pissed drunk in year twelve, for her to really notice him. And since that day, all Amor Roy could notice was Nicholas Shaw.

"Hey," a velvety voice - one that she could recognise anywhere - said as a shoulder nudged hers. Amor didn't need to look at him to know it was Nick, but she did anyway just to see him one more time. And once she did the ever present bitch face softened into a small smile. Amor couldn't help but appreciate the grey polo shirt that stretched over his body. Looking around she realised, Nick and her were the only people still wearing jeans while everyone else adopted shorts.

"Hi." As they neared the door to the classroom, he opened the door for her like he had been doing every day for the past year.

"You were late today," he stated but his words came out like a question.

"No, I just got delayed," Amor replied, smiling in amusement.

"Right, they were pestering you about your birthday?" Nick said, adding in a chuckle because he knew he was right. He reached up and brushed the strands of brown hair that were falling over his eyes.

"Pretty much," Amor stared at his hair that had grown much shaggier the past weeks and added as an afterthought, "Tell me that you're getting a haircut soon."

"Gee Amor, no need to hold back or worry about wounding my ego," he replied sarcastically and she stared back clearly unimpressed. Nick laughed and added, "Yeah, I'm getting one after school."

"Good." Nick rolled his eyes at her reply.

"So I was thinking," he said staring at her intently making her fidget with the hem of her purple long sleeve. Nick's eyes zeroed on the movement and his lips tipped up. "You know what? I'm not actually going to tell you."

The mushiness she was feeling disappeared instantaneously and was replaced with disbelief. "What the fuck? You can't do that!"

"I can, you know why?" Nick replied, nudging her shoulders for extra effect. He laughed when she tried to move her shoulders away. There was nothing in the world that Nicholas Shaw loved more than pissing Amor Roy off, it was his favourite hobby. Even making her smile didn't hold a candle to that, and he loved doing that. Though, maybe if kissed her... Now that was something he wanted to do more than anything.

Giving in, she rolled her eyes and asked, "Why?"

"Because I'm cool like that."

Amor gaped at the boy in front of her and couldn't believe his guts. She couldn't believe why she tolerated him, but she guessed some things were better left unknown.

"You're so lame," she insulted but smiled anyways.

"I know, it keeps me up at night."

She laughed, and he smiled too because seeing her laugh made his day. Especially when he was the cause.