Chapter Four

I shoved the towels I was holding under the sink and went through the closest door. The guest room. Chase was lying on the bed, sprawled on his stomach sleeping. I could see his chest moving while he breathed. I smiled; he was always adorable while he slept. God, how dumb does that sound? Chad, not Chase, I corrected myself a bit late. I have got to start thinking them as separate people.

Amber was in the hall, talking to Hayden and Chase as if she were me. More like she knew what the hell was happening. Unlike me. 'Cause I hadn't the slightest, idiotic idea what was going on. My head started to pound and I winced, the pain was definitely real. I guess Amber is prone to bad headaches when she's upset too; unless this was only happening to me because I was in my own body.

I tried to search Amber's memory for the answer but it was harder than the last time; probably because of the headache. Chad stirred then and I exited the room as not to wake him. In my room Adler was sitting on my bed, or rather in Amber's room on her bed. 'Cause it was Adler not Hayden; which, by the way, is not useful in any sense of the word. In fact it's completely confusing, even though I do notice subtle differences. Like I know Hayden isn't Adler because of the way Adler smirks, Hayden doesn't smirk. Smirking is annoying, insanely annoying. But now I'm babbling, which is something I do when I'm nervous or upset. And I'm nervous, because what if I can't pass for Amber, her memories aren't even that clear right now. She's obviously not like me because I would have never chosen Adler over Chad, assuming she had an option. But I never would have chosen Adler, at all, and that was an option.

I smiled at Adler because he was looking at me like I should be smiling for some reason. "So, how is Chad doing?" he asked.

"Chad's napping." Adorably, I added to myself.

Adler didn't say anything but that didn't bother me because I'm distracted anyway. Amber, in my hallway, was flirting with my best friend, in front of my boyfriend. And I, of course, could not do anything about except watch the look on Chase's face. Which, by the way, was a look of complete hurt. I should have explained what was happening, not that I really know what's happening, and not like I could have actually known that this was going to happen. And that btch was still flirting in front of my boyfriend! How am I going to explain this to him that that wasn't me- that was a girl who looks exactly like me from two thousand years ago who I met in a dream. That's going to go over real well. Chase was understanding, to a fault even, but come on that was like beyond far fetched. This was too far fetched for gullible even.

What if she broke up with him? Seriously, she like might. My entire life might have been ruined because I can't control what she might do, and it doesn't matter what the hll I do here because she's dead. Like two thousand years dead, this sucked; this was completely, totally, utterly like unfair! Okay, done with being immature.

"Amber, Amber!, AMBER!" Hayden- Adler practically yelled.

"Huh?"

"Oblivious much?" Adler asked.

"Sorry, I was thinking." Thinking, remembering, experiencing, whatever.

I wanted to kill her, I really did- but I couldn't, not from lack of want you understand but because I couldn't get us in the same place at the same time. I couldn't even get myself in the time I wanted, which really sucked. 'Cause I wanted to hurt her. Maybe strangle her or something, not like to death but just long enough for her to feel really bad. Or reek havoc on her life, which I could probably do.

Oh yeah, I totally could, but what if it like, affected the future? 'Cause it probably, but not definitely, would. If I didn't do something totally minor it would at least affect her future. But oh well, that was the point- wasn't it?

Adler was babbling about something or other and I was looking attentive, but I wasn't paying attention. I had absolutely no interest in Adler, or Adler's life, or Amber's life except that I was stuck in it. Completely and utterly stuck in it. He had his hand on mine-, which was logical and all but was really starting to piss me off. So I puled my hand away.

"What's wrong?" Adler asked, confused. Everyone's confused Adler, so don't start feeling sorry for yourself.

There was a knock on the door then and I said, loudly, " Come in."

Chase- Chad, it was Chad, walked into the room, which didn't help my mood or my headache. He smiled at us, completely oblivious- until he saw the look on my face.

"Amber, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, adding, "In the guestroom?"

"Sure, Chad." I said quickly, jumping up to follow him.

"You came back." He remarked as soon as the door of the guestroom had shut behind me.

"Not by choice." I snapped. "Amber's there, actually more pacifically she's there, flirting with a boy who looks like her boyfriend in front of MY boyfriend. If she even sort of screws things up with him I'm going to wreck things with Adler."

"Maybe she doesn't know it's not Adler."

"The clothes, the setting, and the facial expressions are completely different; she cannot be that dumb. "

"Okay. So you can't get home?" Chad asked, concerned and something else. There was another emotion there I couldn't categorize.

"If I could would I be here?" I snapped. "Sorry, I'm not in the greatest mood."

"That's understandable."

"And I have to go back in there and act like everything is A-okay, even though nothing is." I whined.

"I'll cover for you. I'll tell Adler…something, that you had to go pick up Angel 'cause her car broke down, or something."

"Okay, thanks. I owe you."

"No prob., Amby." Chad said as he went into the bathroom, towards my-Amber's room.

I hung around for a few seconds, funny thing- I have great hearing, I always have. That's why I heard Chad say, "Yeah, Adler. Amber has definitely flipped her lid. She still believes she's Ambrosia and that she needs to get "home". We need to get her some help."

Great, he thinks I'm crazy. Well, crazy I may be, mistaken I'm not. But I'm not going to be around to get "help". Amber's car keys were in my pocket and I grabbed them as I exited the room.

She had a new VW Bug, which turned out to be this small sort of beetle shaped car thing, with wheels. I needed to drive, but how was suppose to drive that thing? I don't know how to drive a car, but Amber did. I slide into the driver's seat and turned on the car, I'd let Amber do my driving. I tried to push the current Amber out of my mind and focus on her memories; she knew how to drive this car. She loved to drive. I'd always preferred to walk places, but we weren't the same people of course.

Suddenly I wondered why I was here, there had to be a reason, logic to the entire mind trip. Amber had to have a reason, and there was a way to find out what the reason was. I pulled the car off the road, into a parking lot of a Mexican fast food place. Then I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate, but the only thought that came to mind was the dream I had the night before, the morning of, the first little step out of reality. Maybe I was crazy, maybe I had split personalities, or a world I created, maybe I was insane. Maybe I was imagining the entire thing, I was asleep somewhere, dreaming this all up. It's not like it hadn't happened to a dreamweaver before. Dreamweavers had a history of losing touch with reality.

It was entirely too common, dreamweavers didn't control their powers, their powers played with them. I had done stuff that I would never do in the real world in my dreams. When I was little I use to terrorize Angel because I was jealous of her; she never caught on that it was I. We were eight and she believed every lie that came out of my mouth. She still does most of the time, flaky, gullible, boy-crazy Angel trusted her bitter, jealous, occasionally sadistic sister. That was always my upper hand on the situation, it was my way to cope with reality. Because I controlled her dreams, I could kill her and nobody could blame me. Nobody would know it was I, ever.

But, you know whatever. Why couldn't I have got the good talent, why couldn't I be the prodigal daughter, why did my bubble-brain sister have to get all the breaks? She was the pretty one, the (academically) smart one, the one with the amazing talent, the nice one, the cute-sweet one, and she's so nice I can't even really be mad at her for it all. It's not like I was mentally stable or anything, ever but come on I do not need to go insane. It's really not helpful currently. She can have anything she wants, she always could, I hated her for that. I fell asleep thinking how much I hated what my sister represented.

I don't know how long I slept, it felt like minutes, it was probably hours, and I wasn't sure how Earth rotated so I couldn't tell. I wished I had put on a watch before leaving, but I didn't have one on. I didn't know how much time had passed on Genesis either. I knew that it was dark here but light there. Not that that meant anything really. I shook my head groggily and turned the key in the ignition, the engine started but the fog around didn't leave me. I hit the gas cautiously and drove a bit down the road, suddenly my heart stopped. When I opened my eyes I was staring into Angel's, which were gleaming with a dangerous hint of hyperactive-ness, she smiled and said, "Ambrosia, truth or consequences?" My heart began to beat again, I was home.