Dedicated to Chelsea, who plans on diving into
Amor's story tonight <3


C H A P T E R  2

"He says 'oh baby girl you know we're gonna be legends,
I'm the king and you're the queen and we'll stumble through heaven,If there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes."
- Young God, Halsey

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For Amor Roy, most mornings started off with her waking up to the deafening silence that enveloped her empty house. Then there were the occasional and rare mornings like today - where she would wake up to the sound of pots clanging to each other and her mum singing loudly in the kitchen. It was mornings like this when Amor would wake up with a smile. Shoving the blue duvet off her, she walked out of her bedroom and into the bathroom across from her mum's room.

Unlike pretty much everyone that she knew, Amor preferred to brush her teeth first thing in the morning. Nothing irritated her more than the rubbery taste in her mouth before brushing her teeth.

"Morning Ma," Amor greeted, walking into the kitchen before plopping herself on the chair that sat at the dining table. She lifted her right leg on the chair and leaned her chin on it.

"Happy Birthday, beta." Ankita Mehra walked over to her daughter and kissed her on the forehead with a smile on her lips. Amor's mother ignored the pang in her chest at the thought that her daughter was growing up so fast and rather tried to focus on her daughter.

"Thank you," Amor replied with a soft smile. "What are you making?"

Her mother smirked. "Pancakes."

She flipped the pancake over effortlessly and Amor watched in envy. Every time Amor tried to flip it over as effortlessly as her mum did, the pancake would shamelessly flop out of the pan.

"What are your plans for today?" Her mum asked placing a plate stacked with pancakes in front of her. Amor refused to meet her mother's eyes and instead chose to focus on the majestic goodness in front of her.

She lazily shrugged before stuffing her face with pancakes. Finally noticing the expectant look on her mum's face, Amor gulped down the pancake in her mouth and replied, "I don't know. I'm just going to spend time with you and then I have work."

Her mother discarded her apron on the counter and pulled a chair across from Amor and sat down. Ankita's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she asked, "You're not hanging out with your friends?"

Ankita Mehra couldn't believe her daughter as she nonchalantly shrugged. A few years ago, she had mistakenly thought that Amor's determination to not talk about her friends was because she was struggling to make friends in high school. But when her lovely friends would pop up at her without telling Amor and drag her to places, Ankita knew that it wasn't Amor's lack of socialising skills but rather her need to push people away. Not because of commitment issues or anything like that but rather because Amor didn't have the time to give her friends that they deserved. And nothing in the world saddened her more than that.

So she let out a sigh and tried to convince her daughter to amend her plans.

"I really think you should do something with your friends today. I know Lena and Tania were really excited. And I heard Josh had a brilliant idea on how to spend the day."

"I have work," Amor replied curtly.

"So what? Call in sick."

"No."

Amor's mother raised an eyebrow, urging her daughter to give her a logical reason. "Why not?"

"We need the money."

"You make it sound like we're about to hit the streets."

"You can't keep taking on extra shifts," Amor replied and let out a tired sigh. 

"That's my job. You don't have to worry about this."

"I can't not worry, Ma. How else am I supposed to take care of you?"

Ankita scoffed, her temper rising along with her voice. "It doesn't work like that. I'm supposed to take care of you. Not the other way around. I'm the mother, you're the daughter. Okay?"

"I thought we were supposed to take care of each other."

"It's going to be okay, you hear me? It's going to be okay. We've nearly paid all of it off. There's only a little left," her mother insisted, holding onto Amor's hand comfortingly.

"Sure," Amor replied sarcastically. "If you consider a hundred thousand dollars to be little."

"Amor." Her mother let out a sigh before continuing, "We started at triple the amount, that's progress. Couldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Great, so it's fixed." Her mother smiled and Amor raised her eyebrow in question and her mother elaborated, "You'll be hanging out with your friends tomorrow."

Amor opened her lips to protest but the protest died on her tongue when she thought about how distant she had been from her friends and how much she missed them.  So instead she nodded and munched away on her pancakes as her mother smiled in satisfaction.

***

Nearly twelve hours later when the clock struck eight, Amor Roy found herself exiting the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a blue towel on her head. With the way her body was aching when had she stepped into the house after her shift at the diner, Amor had surprised even herself when she had found herself punching in her friends' numbers and making plans with them for tomorrow.

After everything had been confirmed, she surprisingly felt satisfied and happy - much like what her mother had said. Which wasn't at all surprising, now that Amor stopped to think about it. After all, Ankita Mehra was right 98% of the times, and she very well liked to remind you of it. But when Amor's eyes shifted to the white dress haphazardly lying on her bed, she knew that the dress was a part of that 2%. Albeit, Amor did admit (reluctantly) that the dress wasn't that bad, if not nice. Though, it didn't change the fact that Amor couldn't wear it.

She walked over to her mirror and unwrapped the towel off her head and let her hair flow past her shoulders. Her black and white pajamas were comfy enough to plant the ideas of beauty sleep in her head. And when Amor noticed the dark eye bags forming under her eyes, she realised how much of a dire need she had for sleep. With a quick brush of her hand through her hand she moved to step away from the mirror until she caught a glance of the dress. It mocked her from where it lay.

It was sad after all, today was her 18th birthday. She was supposed to be out celebrating but all she had done was sit in front of the TV, cook, work and come back home with the intention of sleeping. The clock had barely struck nine, and she wanted to sleep the last three hours of her birthday away? Just like that?

With an annoyed huff, Amor trudged over to her bed and picked up the dress. Not even a minute later, she wore the dress as she stood in front of the mirror examining her appearance. The white dress with thin straps was a good match with the hot weather, and it didn't itch against her skin either unlike other dresses and their lacey materials. This was instead simple, and comfortable. The white material stopped just above her knees and lay straight but still managed to hug her body. Though, the neckline was a little deep it didn't look bad either, considering Amor didn't have much to show in the first place.

And so Amor smiled, because even she had to admit, the dress did look good on her. White had always been her colour, especially since it contrasted against her dark skin. She supposed, the dress wasn't an entirely bad idea. Until she turned around that is. With her back facing the mirror, Amor looked over her shoulder and looked at her reflection. The white dress showed her back, a lot of it. The backline dipped low and she couldn't place her finger on how any mother could buy their daughter this.

The back of the dress wasn't conservative at all. It exposed a lot of her skin, and her scars. She gulped when she noticed how visible the jagged lines were. With a deep breath, she tried telling herself that she was beautiful; that the scars didn't matter to her; that they didn't decide who she was. Yet she found herself back to square one: despising the dress.

She intended to pull the dress off her, but the doorbell rang, distracting her from her current predicament. Amor let out a huff of air in annoyance.Was peace too much to ask for on her birthday? Apparently so. With an unimpressed look, she walked out of her bedroom and opened the door.

"You honestly don't need to look so enthusiastic to see me." Nick Shaw. Off fucking course. Who else who dare to knock on her door at nine in the night?

"What are you doing here?" Amor asked, with disbelief clear on her face and lacing her words.

Nick raised his eyebrows at her candidness. "I'm just here to see the birthday girl that's all." He shoved his hands into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small box. Amor never considered herself to be the brightest crayon in the box, but she didn't need to be Albert Einsten to figure out that it probably held jewellery inside. Judging by the size, she also figured that the box held a pair of earrings considering Nick wouldn't gift her a ring. That would be weird.

With amusement and challenge written all over her face, Amor reached out for her present all the while keeping her eyes locked with his. He smirked. And she reciprocated in kind.

Amor slowly lifted the lid to the maroon box and looked down to it. The amusement and challenge slipped off her face. Nick fought the urge to smile or laugh as he watched her reaction as she processed her birthday gift. Amor's face softened into a smile and she laughed, Nick watched before joining in and laughing along with her.

In mid laughter, Amor lifted her favourite chocolate, Flake, away from the velvet and signalled towards it with her head.

"Really?" she asked in disbelief as their laughter slowly died down.

"I couldn't help myself." Before she could add anything to his reply, Nick dug his hand into the other pocket of his denim jeans and pulled out a pair of square diamond studs that had a white pearl like texture curving around on it. Amor's eyes widened as she looked down at the small earrings lying in his large hands.

"Nick, what the fuck?" Her eyes darted from the earrings and up to him. "These are beautiful."

Nick let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. If he were to be truthful, Nick was sweating buckets on his drive to her house and the earrings in his pocket had more to do with it than the weather itself.

"Thank you," she whispered before throwing her arms around him. Amor wasn't someone who expressed herself through affection a lot, so whenever she would hug him like that, Nick stored it away in his brain.

"Come on, we have the entire night ahead of us," Nick said turning around to leave. But Amor stayed rooted with confusion clear on her face.

"Uh, where exactly are we going?"

"To the hills."

Amor looked down at her attire and sighed. "Give me a second, I just need to change."

Nick regarded her with confusion before saying, "There's no need. You look great."

"I want to change," Amor replied with a firm voice. Nick nodded, raising his eyebrows in question. She noticed but decided to ignore his questioning stare. He would find out soon anyways. When she turned around to head back into her bedroom, he did find out.

Nick had known about the scars. After all, she had told him about them only a month or two ago. But he had never seen them, until now. Straight, jagged lines ran around on her back, the pale contrasting against the mocha of her skin.

Then he knew, why she wanted to change.

Before she could turn around the corner, he whispered softly, "You look beautiful."

Amor turned around to look at him, her eyes wide and her lips parted not expecting the compliment especially not after seeing her scars. A small smile tipped at her lips before she mumbled out a 'thank you' and walked around the corner and into her bedroom.

She stood in front of the mirror, reconsidering her decision to take it off. Amor knew her scars weren't a pretty sight, but they were her scars. Her mother didn't care, Nick didn't seem disgusted, then why should she? It was her body after all. And those scars had shaped her into who she is today. Frankly, Amor didn't think she turned out to be a bad person. It's not like she was a drug addict or a serial killer. A little bitchy yes, but she wasn't a bad person. She liked people (most of the times).

But people would stare. But so what? People stare every day. After all, those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind, right?

With her head tilted to the side, and her fingers tremoring, Amor brushed the dress down. She liked the look of it. And she especially liked the idea of not caring what other's thought. She wasn't the prettiest girl in the crowd and the scars didn't help either. But today was supposed to be a day of happiness, and she refused to let society's stupid opinions ruin that for her. Before she could chicken out, Amor grabbed her wallet and phone and raced out of her room.

When Nick noticed that she in fact had decided not to change the dress, he smirked. He bowed his head a little, looking up at her through his lashes. As he offered her his hand in a gentlemanly manner, Nick promised Amor a memorable night.

And damn would she be a fool if she had denied. Good thing Amor Roy was anything but a fool.

This is my first short story, so I'm eager to know your thoughts on this chapter.
Vote and leave a comment, and if you enjoyed it enough, add it to your reading lists <3
Hasnita Out xx