Always There For You - Chapter 7

A week later, Amelia woke up with a pounding headache and it seemed like something was slicing her guts into ribbons. She managed to send a text to Xander and Jamal telling them she was feeling like shit and not to ring her or anything because she was turning her phone off. She did so, throwing it across the room and climbing back into her bed, sending a sharp pain shooting through her head.

She got these headaches regularly, they were as normal to her as wearing shoes were to a person. They always lasted about four hours and afterwards she always stuffed herself with chocolate and watched a film, it was a monthly routine for her.

So she took some ibuprofen from her beside cabinet and closed her eyes, more sleep for her.
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She grabbed her keys, put her shoulder bag on and left the house. She had woken up, checked the time and gone to wash, then she had gotten dressed and decided to watch a film, as usual. Only this time she was going to the cinema, blockbusters were always closed on Wednesdays and she didn't want to watch any of her collection of DVDs for the third time over, rubbish.

'No' she thought as she waited for the bus, 'I'm going to the cinema to stuff myself silly with popcorn and watch the big screen'. She got on the bus, swiped her oyster card and made her way upstairs

'What should i watch, a horror? No! A comedy? Nope. Ooh, a romance. Deffo' she smiled as she spied a teenage couple walking hand-in-hand down the street. So sweet, then her mind wandered to Jamal, and where he was, thought about ringing him and then decided not to. He might want to meet up with her and she wanted some alone time.

She sat on the bus for 10 minutes while it rumbled down the streets leading to the cinema. The bus was half full and she was sat on the upper deck, she didn't mean to but she heard snippets of peoples conversations.

"Yes, he said I’m getting better at getting in touch with my chakras."
"Really? Wow, I wish I knew how to do that..."

"...thrush is common"
"Ew, man that sounds horrible how..."

"Yes mum, I remembered to feed the cat...of course i didn't try to poison her...I don’t hate snowball mum...oh god, I’m hanging up now you paranoid cow..."

"That girl is so fit, can you see her?"
"Who, which one?"
"That one with the short black hair, see her?"
"Man, i would tap that..."

"He's such a div, he thought I was was actually going to do it with him then, ew he's minging too"
"Oh lord, I’m so gonna laugh at him next time I see him..."

Amelia giggled quietly, she loved going on buses, they always amused her. Everyone thought that they were talking too quietly but really if you listened carefully enough you could hear anything. It was so funny! She never talked on the bus unless she was sure no one could hear her, she wasn't a person who loved everyone to know her business.

She saw the bus coming close to her stop so she pressed the stop button and stood up, practically sliding down the aisle towards the stairs. She stepped off the bus and walked towards the cinema, deciding she was going to eat some chiquito's after the film, they just had the best food. She loved Mexican, so spicy and full of flavors.

She pushed through the big glass doors and stood in one of the four ques (don’t know how you spell it lol) and regarded the big screen on which all the film and times were stated. A title caught her eye: PS I love you, well that sounded romantic and it only started 5 minutes ago.

She bought her ticket from a very pretty blonde lady who eyed her the whole time and talked to her like she was a little kid, then went through a second set of doors and stopped at the counters to buy a bucket of popcorn and some Pepsi.

She showed her ticket to the man standing in front of show room 7 where her film was in and he handed her back the bottom part, grinning at her in a perverted sort of way and as she walked past him, she felt him grope her arse. But instead of going nuts, like she would've had it been a different day, she shuddered and carried on walking. Today was gonna have no drama, it was going to be peaceful and fun. She repeated to herself as she made her way down the aisles and pushed past people to get the seats way at the back.

Amelia sat down, rested her feet on the seat in front of her, the popcorn in her lap and tried to get into the film. After ten minutes she had a fair idea of what was going on and it was at a boring part so she looked around the room. It wasn’t very dark so she could see fairly well, she recognized a girl in her science lesson and a boy she knew went to the same school.

Then she saw a two people literally, sucking face. It was do disgusting but it was kinda sweet, they didn't seem to want to let go of each other, obviously they were very much in love with each other. The girl had long pink hair that hung over her eyes so Amelia couldn't see her face, the boy had short black hair, with light brown streaks in it.
In fact it reminded her of Jamal's hair. And that was when they broke apart for air, and the boy grinned that familiar grin that Amelia loved so much. That always made her stomach flip for joy, but right now all she could do was stare eyes open wide as Jamal, her Jamal smiled.

Amelia watched as he stroked her cheeks, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Watched quietly as he whispered something in her ear, and she could watch no longer when she leaned into him.

She jumped up, her popcorn flying forwards, and ran out the room, past the pervert who tried to catch her arm, past the infantilizing woman and out the cinema.

She hid in an alley beside the cinema and leaned against the wall, taking deep breathes, trying not to fall to pieces. But her eyes still overflowed, the tears still trailed down her cheeks. She still sobbed and her legs still buckled underneath her, she slumped down and her shoulders shook so much, if anyone had seen they would have thought her head was about to drop off.

"How could he do that to me? How could he lie and cheat on me?" she thought, she kept on repeating it to herself, over and over again.
She didn't know how long she sat there doing nothing but crying and thinking, but it started to get dark, so she wiped her eyes on her nose on her sleeve and stood up.

She pulled her phone out and turned it on, she had two texts and a voicemail. First text was from her mate Jessica just asking her if she was better. Second text was from Jamal saying that he hoped she'd get better and that he was just visiting his grandma and wished she was with him. She gritted her teeth after reading that and quickly checked her voicemail to take her mind off it.

The voicemail was from Xander and hearing his voice made her smile, that familiar feeling in her chest flaring up, it always happened whenever she saw or heard Xander's voice, she knew why but she never thought about it for too long. Because it was simply a phase or so she thought.

"Hey Ames. I just got your text, I hope you're not feeling too bad. Get better soon yeah? It's so boring without you, and guess what?
Jamal wants us to go on a double date, i don't think you'd approve though. You like your privacy, i told him but he disagreed. Apparently he knows you better than i do. That's a total laugh but....ok enough babbling. Bye!" Amelia smiled and tucked her phone away.

She wanted to hear Xander's voice, wanted him to hug her close and tell her everything will be alright,that Jamal wasn't cheating on her, that she was just imagining it. But she knew only half it would happen, Jamal was cheating on her, she had to get used to the facts, he was a bastard.

Amelia walked home, she didn't want to sit on a bus and listen to peoples conversations, didn't want to se couples snuggling close, didn't want people to see her face. She looked in a shop window, her eyes were puffy and red, her cheeks red and irritated, her lips slightly pouted. Her hair was a mess and the seat of her trousers were dirty from sitting on the floor in that alleyway.

She looked like a tomatoe, and this caused the tears to start again. She carried on walking, she didn't want to cry anymore, it was stupid. She hated feeling so vulnerable and weak, she reveled in feeling strong like an ox, like no one could hurt her, but right now she was more like a baby lamb. Unsure, unsteady and very very vulnerable.
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The door opened and Xander stood in the doorway, his smiled disappeared quickly as Amelia pushed past him and into the kitchen. He followed her and saw her digging into a tub of Hageen Diaz with gigantic spoon and tears streaming down her face. He got worried quick, and moved towards her.

"Ames, what the...what's wrong?"
Amelia dropped the spoon and sniffed.
"He was at the cinema....with some other girl...sucking her face off...right in front of me Xander!"
Xander was confused, who? What? When?
"What do you mean Ames, who?"
She looked up into his eyes and his heart did a somersault.
"Jamal" she whispered and her bottom lip trembled.
Xander however was still confused.
"Ames, tell me the whole story, from the beginning" he sat down next to her and listened.

Listened as she told him how she wanted to watch a film, how when she got to the cinema that pervert tried to grope her, how when she looked around the room she had seen some guy sucking the face off some bimbo and how when they broke apart she saw Jamal's face. She explained how she had gone and sat down in the alleyway and cried for about an hour, how jamal had left her a text lying about his whereabouts, and how she decided to come over.

Xander listened intently, studied her facial features and a mixture of feelings went through his body. Sadness, Love, most of all anger, he wanted to go around and punch Jamal's light out. He wanted to kill him, strangle him, stab him, whatever. But that would be later, right now Xander had to comfort Amelia and nothing would give him more pleasure.

So stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her, held her close as she buried her face under his collarbone and wished for all the world he could kiss her right then. But he didn't, he stroked her hair and made comforting sounds, and they stood like that for 10 minutes.

Amelia's stomach was full of crazy frogs right then.
Xander's heart was trying to jump out of his mouth.
But both of them were thinking completely different things.

But one thing they should've have been thinking about was:

Who was that pink-haired chick?
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Wow, I surprised myself. What a way to mess things up eh? Anyways I hope you like it and please comment on it.
ciao readers
xxxxx