Destined

17.

We arrive to Sunrise park. I stared at the broken street light above us as it continued to turn on and off again. The loud buzzing of an electric power box catches my attention as well before stopping in my tracks instantly. I spotted someone lying on the bench with the same curly hair that resembled Amber's.

"Is that her?" Adrian gulps. He makes his way around me and approaches the mysterious body.

The closer we got the more I realized it was her. Marks were covered all over her neck and her shoes were gone. Her tank top was ripped in half and her pink lipgloss was smeared all over her mouth.

I didn't want to touch her, because I knew I couldn't take the pain of her jumping up at me. My entire body froze, and I couldn't hold back the urge to cry. She seemed delirious, tired, and obviously intoxicated. Her mascara was runny; it looked like she had been crying as well.

"Amber?" Adrian says, getting in-front of me to touch his sister. I hold my stomach to stop myself from throwing up. My anxiety was through the roof at this point. She didn't look okay, and I started to put the pieces of what could have happened to her together.

"Amber, come on. Get up, we're going home," Adrian begins to shake her shoulders. She doesn't budge though, she doesn't even open her eyes all the way. I look for more clues on her body and around her that could piece together how she ended up here. I pick up an empty pill bottle under the bench she laid on and read the label.

"These were anti-depressant pills," my voice breaks. "I don't even know how much she took, how did she even get these?"

"We have to call an ambulance Dj," Adrian says, getting on his knees to put Amber's shoes back on her cold feet. I watch him as he does so urgently before grabbing his phone from him and dialing 411 quickly, waiting on the operator to connect me to an agent.

Amber was beginning to move a bit, but it still seemed like she was struggling to speak to us.

Once I'm connected I make sure I let the people on the phone know how serious this all was and I made sure they knew they had to get here immediately. I described to them the type of park we were at and what it was called. They didn't want to answer any of my questions about what hospital they were taking her too, but insisted that we ride in the back with her in case she woke up fully on her own.

Me and Adrian had sat there for awhile, patiently but impatiently waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It had already been 4 minutes since I talked to them. I had one of my hands holding Amber's and the other one in Adrian's. He looked depressed, so dull and miserable. I couldn't even imagine the pain he was feeling right now. He truly didn't expect to see Amber this way.

It hurt me to know that he would have this image of his sister in his brain burned in his thoughts no matter what— just knowing he couldn't do anything to stop what had happened to her tonight. It hurt me to know that when she needed me the most I wasn't there for her either.

Soon after us sitting there with guilt plastered to the front of our minds, the ambulance finally pulled up. 2 men hopped out of the truck while one opened the back door. One of the men rushed to us and knelt on his knees, feeling Amber's pulse as she laid there lifelessly.

"She's alive," he told us while examining her forearms. "Looks like she's been assaulted. We're gonna take her to the nearest facility to get her looked at."

Adrian looked at me. There was nothing that could be said. I knew that she had clearly been assaulted but it killed me inside to have heard it confirmed out loud.

One of the men brought over an elevated panoramic bed for them to carry her on. They had no trouble lifting her light body onto the bed, while putting it inside of the truck. "Let's go," the driver of the truck told us. We quickly stood up, jumping into the back.
They closed the back doors on me and Adrian and proceeded to the front of the truck. The engine started within seconds. We ended up on the road again and the feeling of relief washed over me. I was happy to know Amber was with us again and she was safe.

"What if she's not okay?" Adrian asks.

"She will be," I tell him.

"I wanna say thank you Dj, for knowing something wasn't right with my sister. You're one of her only real friends. I swear to you nobody else would have been this bold to look for her," Adrian tells me, looking down at Amber.

I already knew this though. I loved this girl and if anything happened to her to where I would never see her again, I wouldn't be the same. She had been someone that helped, laughed, and cried with me for almost 5 years straight.

"She would do the same for me Adrian, dont thank me," I smile at him.

"I don't think she would have went to Deon to help her though. She's just the type of person to wanna do things by herself," he laughs.

"Now that you might be right about," I grin.

"Definitely," he says.

The ride continues for awhile longer after hitting complete silence. I looked at the cracked reflection in my phone and sighed. I truly wouldn't have done this for anyone else besides my family, but then again Amber was my family. She was my sister, and at this moment I felt like Adrian was my younger brother too.