River's Dream
Chapter 2

Neither Wendy nor Amber had left a home phone number for Carrie to call, but she did have their cell phone numbers stored in her own cell phone. She just hoped that they still used those phones. She called Wendy first to avoid embarassment. As soon as Wendy heard who it was, she started to spill out a long, involved story about how she was stuck at the airport because the rental cars were all rented out and somehow all the cabs were busy.

"Wait a minute, Wendy. How come you're in Pittsburgh already?" There was a brief moment of silence from the other end.

"I just decided this morning that maybe we could work things out and be friends again, so I hopped on a plane in Tampa and here I am." Carrie held the phone away from her and stared at it in shock. Wendy had gone all the way to Florida just to get away? She replaced the phone to her car.

"We'll pick you up in an hour and a half."

"Why so long?" Carrie fished around for a good reason. Wendy might not be so mad if she knew Amber was coming back, but Carrie wasn't going to take any chances.

"We've got to take care of some things first."

"Okay, I'll just wait right here then. Bye." Wendy hung up before Carrie could say her good-byes. It hadn't mattered what Carrie said; Wendy would have gotten mad anyway. She hung up her own phone and grabbed another water, The thought of talking to Amber after four years of silence was enough to make her mouth feel like cotton. She chugged it down and tossed it into the garbage can across the room. Then Carrie took a deep breath and dialed Amber's number.

Amber let her phone ring a couple of times before answering it. She knew who was calling her.

"Hello, Carrie." There was a long, obviously dumbfounded pause that followed her greeting. The bellboy waiting for her helped her out of the cab. She waited by the door of the hotel for the guy to bring her luggage. The doorman opened the door for her and Amber gave him her most charming smile, along with a fifty dollar bill. When Carrie fianlly did speak up, her voice sounded choked.

"Hi, Amber. I'm just calling to ask you a favor."

"What kind of favor?" Amber asked, getting into an elevator with the bellboy. She pushed the button for the doors ro close and rode it up to the twentieth floor.

"Well, I want you to come back and be a part of the Guardianship again." The elevator stopped at their destination and they got off.

"That's a pretty big favor, Carrie. Is Lindsy comfortable with this?"

"Oh, yeah. In fact, she suggested that I call you and Wendy back."

"Wendy Wolf?" Amber and the bellboy stopped in front of Justin's door. Since the guy's hands were full of suit cases, Amber knocked on the door.

"Yes, that Wendy. Would you hold on for a sec. Someone's at my door." Carrie went over and opened the door. There stood Amber, phone in hand. "Amber I have to go. You're standing at my door." Carire and Amber hung up their phones and stood facing each other.

"News travels fast on the psychic network." The two girls hugged and walked into the room with the bellboy trailing behind. Lindsy came out from the bathroom, fully clothed, to see what was going on. When she saw Amber, her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped open.

"Wha-What did you do to your hair?" Amber lightly touched one of her long ruddy locks.

"Do you like it? I had it professionally done in New York before I came here."

"It's... red" Carrie hadn't noticed the change in Amber until Lindsy pointed it out. Her hair was in deed a deep red color. In fact, everything about Amber was red: the clothes she was wearing, the lenses and frames of her sunglasses, even her suitcases were reddish-brown in color.

"Don't we have some things to take care of? Like maybe picking up Wendy before she decides to go back home, and going to the store to pick up some more candles because you used the ones I gave you for other purposes." Carrie looked down at her feet, embarrassed. Lindsy, however, took it as an attack on her relationship with Justin.

"Well, if you weren't Miss Pure and Chaste all the time you'd..." her words trailed off as she saw Amber's eyes flash red with anger. Carrie, who hadn't seen, absolved the situation unknowingly.

"Look let's just get Amber's bags into your room, Lindsy. You don't use it, so she can stay there." Lindsy tossed her room key over to carrie and grabbed her purse.

"I'll meet you by the jeep." She said and walked out of the room.

On the way out of the hotel, Lindsy thought she saw Lance sitting at the bar, alone. Curious, she went over to see him. On closer inspection, he had the saddest look she had ever seen on anyone. She sat down next to him.

"Where's Angel? I thought you and her were supposed to be out somewhere." Lance didn't look at her. He only seemed to be interested in studying his hands.

"I went to go meet her for lunch and I saw her, with another guy."

"It could have been her brother, Lance." He just shook his head.

"That's not what I meant. She was with the other guy. In the car parked next to mine." He emphasized the word 'with' so Lindsy would get the picture.

"Oh, gross! I can't believe she would do that to you. Is there anything I can do?" Lance looked at her hopefully.

"Can you fire her? It's the only thing that will make me feel better about all of this."

"I can't just fire her. She's on of my best friends. Besides, she's good at what she does." She places a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

"Oh yeah, she' real good at what she does. So, this is what I get for dating one of your friends." Lance spoke in those bitter tones she knew so well, because she had spoken them herself.

"Look. I'll see what I can do, but I can't guarantee anything. I do have another friend flying up from Florida. Who knows, you might like her. She sticks to one guy at a time, but right now, she's available." He looked at Lindsy like she had just gone insane.

"No, no more of your friend! I wouldn't be able to take it!"

"Well, all right. She can always go home, but that means I won't be able to fire Angel." Lindsy had weasled him into a decision he couldn't make and be happy with the outcome.

"Fine. Bring your other friend, but I'm not guaranteeing anything." Lindsy smiled proudly at him and got up to leave. She saw Carrie outside waving good-bye to a departing cab, and went out to see what was happening.

"Okay, so how is Amber getting to the airport?" Lindsy asked as she drove Carrie out to West Mifflin. Why they were going there, Lindsy didn't know. Carrie loked up at her from the map she was reading.

"Amber drove all the way from Portland, Maine. She left her car with her friend, Dania."

"What kind of car does she have?" Carrie thought for a moment, trying to recall what Amber had told her.

"I think it's a Prowler. No, I'm sure it a Prowler." Lindsy was slightly stunned. She had always thought Amber was a slacker, but it seemed something had changed. Or snapped.

"How did she get the money to buy one of those?"

"And give the bellboy a hundred dollar tip. She wouldn't really tell me what she's been up to. She left in a hurry to get her car. Did I tell you that it's red, like everything else?"

"Mmm." Something had definately happened to Amber, even Carrie felt that. What "that" was, neither of them knew, she had become quite good at hiding her thoughts. "She took a cab all the way back to Dania's just so she could get her car?"

"Yeah, I think she wants Wendy to be the first to ride in her speed demon. Turn left here and pull into the third driveway to the left." Lindsy thought about asking why, but she knew Carrie only told her what she wanted to. She did as she was told and Carrie got out. "Come back in about twenty minutes." She shut the door, so Lindsy couldn't ask any questions. She watched her jeep pull out of the driveway and go back the way it came. Then, she walked up to the porch and rang the doorbell. A familiar looking man with short blonde hair and glasses opened the door. "Hello, Greg." Carrie greeted him nervously. They had grown up quite a bit in the past four years; she wsn't sure he'd recognize her. It ws a relief to see that he did.

"Hey, come on in."

Lindsy walked down the candle aisle in a nearby drugstore, trying to decide between all the different kinds. She held a conversation with herself in her head because there was no one else to talk to. 'Let's see, what was it we agreed never to buy? No perfumed ones, no tall and slender ones, they burn too slow, and definately no trick candles. Man, for the Guardian of Fire, she sure is picky.' Finally, she came to the ones she wanted: the short, stubby kind. She grabbed ten of each appropriate color and checked them off in her head. 'Five white, check. Five red, check. Five dark blue, check. Five, oh no! They don't have purple ones! Maybe these lavender ones will work. Check those. And lastly, double check marks next to me!' Lindsy went back down the aisle, picking out other candles, for her own special reasons. 'Too many, or not too many? That is the question.' She giggled softly at her own joke. Then, she checked out the rest of the store for other things they would need most, like asprin and Band-Aides.

"So, why did you call me after all these years?" Carrie was sitting in Greg's comfy arm chair, sipping and ice cold Coke. Greg sat on the soaf and shrugged his shoulders.

"I heard you were back in town, so I thought we could catch up on things. Like old times." He smiled and blushed slightly. Carrie looked for a place to begin.

"Well, I really don't ahve much time to talk right now. I work with Lindsy as the opening act for 'NSync, we have rehearsal tonight, but I have time after the show tomorrow. I'll get you some backstage passes and we can hang out then."

"Thanks, I'll bring Cory after the show, if his girlfriend ever lets him out of her sight." Carrie laughed and Greg blushed again. They fell silent for a minute, in which Carrie took the chance to finish her pop. He stared out the window, trying hard not to look at her. "You know, there's something I've always wanted to tell you since before you left." Carrie studied him to see what it was he was keeping from her. What was it that Greg could have hidden from her for all these years?

"What? You know you can tell me anything." He seemed reassured by this and stod up. He walked over to her and held his hands out to help her to her feet. Carrie put her can on a nearby table and palced her hands into his.

"From the moment I first met you, Carrie Smith, I knew I would always like you." She looked into his eyes to see if this was all a joke on her.

"That's it? I thought it would be soem big horrific story about how you're really adopted and your real family was killed in a plane crash or something like that."

"It's so much more than just that." He pulled her to her feet and kissed her. Carrie had had too many shocks today. She broke away from him, covering her mouth with her hand, and backing toward the door. She was saved from saying anything that would have gotten her in trouble by the enthusiastic honking of her jeep's horn.

Lindsy watched Carrie back out the door and make a run for the jeep. She climbed in and slammed the door.

"Drive." Lindsy reversed out of the driveway just as Greg came out of his house. He yelled for Carrie to wait, but Lindsy threw the vehicle into drive and stepped on the gas. They left him standing in the road.

"Carrie! I'm sorry!" He shouted to the retreating tailights of the blue jeep.

"What was that about?" Lindsy asked when they were a good distance away from Greg's to slow down.

"I knew it was a bad idea to go talk to him. I knew, and I went anyway." Carrie pulled the box of tissues she kept in the glove compartment and used one to wipe her eyes dry. Lindsy drove on in silence, but she finally just couldn't take it anymore.

"What happened back there?" Carrie had closed her eyes after she wiped up her tears. She now turned her head and looked at Lindsy.

"None of your God damned business." She spoke through clenched teeth, but Lindsy wasn't going to be shut up. She pulled onto the side of the road and killed the engine.

"Don't do this to me. I know you're going to make Amber and me apologize to each other. I can deal with that, but what you're doing now is too stressful for me. Stop being so damn secretive and just tell me what's going on." Lindsy took a deep breath to continue talking if she needed to. Carrie wasn't going to give her the chance to do so.

"All right! Since you so desperately need to know. when I as talking to Greg, he told me he's had a crush on me from the first moment her met me. And on top of that, he had the nerve to kiss me." Lindsy's mouth fell open as she did a double take.

"What?! he... kissed you, like on the lips?" Carrie put her head in her hands and although her words were muffled, Lindsy could still make them out.

"Just don't tell anyone, especially Joey."

"What about Justin?" Carrie looked up from her hands and shook her head. Lidnsy got pouty and wouldn't talk in anything but a whiny voice. "But I tell him everything." Carrie started to smile again. whenever Lindsy acted stupid, it always made her feel better.

"Everything?" Lindsy rolled her eyes as she started the jeep up.

"Okay. So not everything, but you knew what I meant. I promise no one will know but me." She pulled out onto the road, which wasn't as busy as it should have been for a Saturday afternoon, and headed back to the city.

Chapter 3