Amber's pov:

I find myself quickly jumping back from Damien's hold from the sound of the door opening, which causes a small frown to appear on Damien's face.

"Hi I'm sorry to interrupt." Julie says with a sorrowful look on her face. Tears start to gather in her eyes once she sees Damien's tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes.

"No you're okay." I say softly, trying to give her a small smile, but I know it probably didn't even come close to looking like one.

I think the both of us were a little bit shaken up by the whole argument. I mean, I know that I was...

But Julie, I can't even imagine what she must be feeling, nevertheless Damien or Luke.

"I just wanted to say that it wasn't your fault Damien. It was not her place to mention your sister because it is your decision on who you want to tell. Your sister is important to you, and I understand why it's a hard topic for you to speak about."

"I-I know, but Lu-..."

"And for Luke, please don't take his words to heart. I one thousand percent believe that it was his anger from Annabelle that got him to say those words. He was angry, and he wasn't thinking straight. I fully believe that if he wasn't already annoyed with her, it wouldn't have turned out this way. He probably would have understood your point of view by letting you explain. But for now, let's just give him time to cool off, and then we can talk about it, okay? I'll make sure everything turns out just the way it's suppose to be. So just have faith in your good old bestie, okay?" Julie tries to at least get a smile out of him at the end, but it was no use.

I could tell that he was still overthinking the whole situation by the way he continued to stare at the ground in a daze. The pool in his eyes remained still, and I was afraid that he was going to burst out crying for the second time.

"I-I guess... I don't know. I just f-feel guilty." Damien stutters.

Without thinking, I take Damien's hand in mine, and give his hand a small squeeze, trying my best to give him any sense of comfort.

Even if it had the tiniest bit of effect, knowing that there was any way that I could have lessened his pain would make me feel ten times better.

"Hey, look at me," Julie says, causing Damien to slowly lift his eyes from the ground to her, "I'm going to go and find Luke, okay? I'll do whatever I can to fix this, so don't drown yourself in thoughts, you got that?"

He nods his head slightly before looking back at the ground. Julie then looks at me as we share a frown.

In that moment, I guess you can say that we felt helpless. As much as we can say that everything will turn out okay, and everything will go back to normal, our words are only hope.

Although I do believe in Luke and Damien's friendship, I'm afraid that it will take Damien's fragile heart awhile to cope with all of this. I don't think he's used to or even has been in the center of an argument before.

But one thing that I know for sure is that I don't think anything will be alright until Annabelle is out of the picture...

Woah that sounded a lot more dark than what I intended it to be.

After our couple seconds of eye contact, Julie mouths "are you okay?" to me, tilting her head slightly to the side in question.

I give her a small head nod, but even though I was showing one thing, I felt a completely different way.

My heart hurt from seeing my new friend group falling apart just from one misunderstanding.

But seeing Julie with tears in her eyes and a look of pain, I knew that I had to at least try to be strong for her and for Damien.

It's the least I could do.

I'm not used to friend groups fights, like I've said before, it's only been Liam and I.

When we would fight, which barely happened, I gotta say we fought like siblings.

You know, just a pillow in the face here and there, just a 'thoughtful' way of knocking sense into the other... quite literally I may add.

We would get mad at each other, brawl it out, then BOOM perfectly fine the next day.

And gosh...

I'm really thankful for that, I'm glad that I didn't have to grow up with 'real' friend group fights all my life...

My heart wouldn't be able to take it.

Julie takes one more glance towards Damien, before she hesitantly makes her way out the door.

With my hand still interlocked with Damien's, I attempt to pull away so that I could wipe a few more of his loose tears that have escaped... but I'm stopped immediately after trying to do so...

"Don't." He says, grasping onto my hand tighter. Then, where our hands are connected, he pulls me to him causing me to fall onto his chest.

He digs his face into the crook of my neck, causing a small shiver to run down my spine from the contact with his fresh tears on my skin.

"C-can we just... stay like this for a couple minutes?" Damien asks, his breath hitting against my neck as he wraps his arms around my waist so that he was hugging me tight.

"Whatever you want." I say in a whisper before wrapping one of my hands around his waist, and the other on the back of his head.

We stand in that exact position in silence, the only sound being his occasional small whimpers and hiccups. Overtime, I find myself combing my fingers through his soft hair, which seemed to have helped calm him down. Once he was able to control his breathing, he mumbles, "Amber?"

"Yes Damien?"

"Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me." I chuckle, "I'll always be here for you."

"I know you will, but I don't deserve it, I don't deserve you."

"Damien-..." I try to pull away from him to look at his face, but he only squeezes me closer, continuing to dig his head into my neck.

"No... Please let me finish. I don't deserve you because in our whole friendship I've done nothing but be a bother, while you on the other hand have helped me more than I can even explain. You have given me advice, comforted when I was down, made me feel more confident in myself and even cared about the people who mean a lot to me, like all the times you've made Layla smile. I've never seen her so happy like how she is when she is with you. You can do all these amazing things for me, but I can't even do the same in return. I'm good for nothing-..."

"Stop!" I interrupt, finding his words to be completely bizarre. "Is this really what you think? That you don't mean anything to me? Because if you do then you can't be anymore wrong. You don't even realize, but the amount of times that you've put a smile on my face is uncountable. I don't think I can even recall all the times that you have made me laugh because there are just too many. You trusted me and let me in when we barely knew each other, you made me feel like I was important, and that is one of the best feelings in the world. I feel lucky that I have gotten the honor to call you my friend, but even luckier to call you someone who I can look

up to and adore. You need to give yourself more credit because you are amazing, inside and out. I just wish that you were able to see that like I do."

This time, it was my turn to squeeze Damien closer to me, as if it was my way of showing that I meant every single word.

My heart drops for a second when I begin to hear his sniffling again, "Don't worry, these are happy tears now." He laughs through his tears.

"I'm glad that I can make you happy." I find myself resting the side of my face on his head, taking in the moment.

A few more seconds of silence pass as I take the time to enjoy the comfort of his hug. The funny thing is that I know if my past self was watching this moment, I can wholeheartedly say that I would have passed out on the spot by now.

It's crazy how far we have come. And I have a feeling in my gut that this isn't the end yet.

"We should hug more often, I like this." Damien says out of nowhere as he further digs his head into the crook of my neck.

I feel my face heat up from his words, "I-I would like that..."

"Me too..."

"Yeah..."

*a couple seconds of silence later*

"Mhhhm at least once a day."

"Huh?"

"I want a hug, at least once a day."

"Oh is that so?"

"Yes, from now on, I will be expecting a hug everyday, no excuses."

"Hey, I don't think I agreed on that." I giggle as he playfully pinches my side.

"I don't care, if I have to chase you down myself I will."

"Oh I'm so scared-..."

"You should be, I'm a very scary person-..." he yawns, cutting himself off.

"Ohhh what a terrifying yawn."

He goes to say a remark back, but he is again cut off with another yawn.

"Still tired?" I ask, recalling him saying that he barely slept last night.

"I think I need another nap."

"Oh was the first one not good enough?"

"Nope." He says, before I feel him relax in my embrace. For a second, I get distracted by the cute action, but the sight of the clock on the wall takes my attention away.

"Wait, don't fall asleep!"

"Huh. Why?"

"We have class in less than five minutes."

"School... is not important."

I laugh at his words, and even after, it was hard to take the big smile off my face. It must have reached from ear to ear! I am just happy that he is feeling better now and is starting to get back to his usual playful self.

"Just wait until I tell your parents that you said that."

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Bet, Mr.Damien Black"

"Oh we are on a full name basis now? Okay Ms.Amber Barnhart, come at me then."

"Says the human koala."

"Says the human koala." He mimics in a high pitched voice, imitating me.

"Don't forget that I can push you off at any moment-..."

"Nooooooooooooooooooo, I'm comfy."

"Comfy?"

"Yes, leave me alone."

"Okay-..." I playfully start to push him away.

"NOOOOOOOOOO! Not like that!"

"Damien, class starts in-..." but before I could finish, the bell rang, signaling that it was time to switch to next period.

I begin to here the sound of students as they make their way into the hallway from the cafeteria, but luckily, there is no teacher who is using this classroom so it mainly stays unoccupied.

"As much as I would like to continue talking, I really think that we should head to class or we will be late."

"...I hate when you're right."

And after much persuasion, he finally pulls away, wiping his face one last time to make sure no tear stained cheeks were noticeable.

I then watch as he takes a deep breath before grabbing my wrist and leading me out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway.

"Wait, but your class is that way-..."

"I'm walking you to yours first." He looks back at me in a 'duh' tone like it was the most obvious thing in the world...

...

I guess it was quite obvious actually.

"But that will make your walk so much longer, and you can be marked late-..." I say as I start to feel bad, not wanting him to be late just because he feels the need to walk me to my class, but he gives me a look that immediately shuts me up.

"I do this because I want to, not because I feel obligated to." He chuckles at me, before ruffling the top of my head. I swat his hand away and point towards the direction of my classroom with a 'stern' look on my face.

"Yes ma'am." Is all he responds with, causing a small giggle to escape my lips. I follow behind him as he walks with me the rest of the way to my class.

Once we arrive, I thank him before turning to head in, but before I can do that, his hand on my arm stops me.

He pulls me into a quick hug, "At least once a day." He says, pulling away with a charming smile on his face.

"At least once a day." I repeat back, feeling my heart skip a beat.