- Amber
has been
dead for three years and the towers gone almost as long.
- Drew
squinted across the hall at the poster on the wall. Checklist
For Girls For Homecoming.
He rolled his eyes; why should
the girl be the one to have to worry
about all that shit?
- A
few weeks later Theresa and Drew were watching a movie in his room
when the phone rang. It was Amber, who was barely comprehendable
between screams and tears.
- Drew
and Stephanie had photography together. They barely spoke. For
once, Drew just kept his mouth shut and did not blurt out any number
of random forms of bullshit.
- Upon reconciling
with Amber years later, Drew found out Stephanie had been in and out
of psychiatric wards.
- The
first memory Drew had of Amber was in a library.
- When
he first started teaching, for the first time in nearly ten years,
Drew walked through the section of the library where he first met
Amber.
- Originally,
at least how he remembered it, Drew was going to go with Amber.
- In
high school Amber had terrible taste in boys.
- After their reconciliation,
Amber
afforded herself an afternoon to go through a big box of memories of
her friendship with Drew which she had not looked through in years.
- On
the first day of summer in 2001,
Amber and Drew got together at a local bar where she purchased
illegal drugs.
- Near the education center he glanced
outside at the bench Amber had sat with him only months before.
- Amber
has been
dead for three years and the towers gone almost as long.
- This
time, but right around the same time he reconnected with Amber, it was
the touch of another human being which disgusted him.
- After
three thousand murders and one dead best friend, it took the effort
involved with driving a stake through one certain oracle who'd really
outgrown his welcome last May to wake Drew up.
- Amber got her driver's
license first,
so Drew and Theresa sat in the back of the boyfriend's band van while
the boyfriend, whatever his name was, sat up front being his usually
pleasant self.
- Everyday he saw Amber, dead over a month now, in a face, or an arm, or a smell.
- She was replaced by a young
lady who was a replica of Amber.