Amber by Heather Burnside

Author:Heather Burnside [Burnside, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838939618
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

35

November 1999

It was Amy’s twelfth birthday party and she had been allowed to have some friends round, which was unusual in her house. She was currently in her bedroom with her two best friends, Rachel and Brooke, while her mother was in the kitchen preparing a buffet. For once she hadn’t asked her to help. Amy thought it was probably because of her friends being there. She had helped her mother to clean and tidy beforehand though as she didn’t want her friends to think she lived in a tip.

Amy had enjoyed showing her two friends the new clothes her mother had bought her. It was always good when her mother had money spare and she grudgingly admitted to herself that she had Cliff to thank for that. She and her friends were playing around with some makeup Brooke had bought for her birthday when Loretta called upstairs letting them know the buffet was ready.

They dashed down to the kitchen and Amy was thrilled to see all the food laid out on the table: sandwiches, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, coleslaw, pickled onions, pizza and chicken legs and, at the end of the table, a strawberry gateaux and some chocolate biscuits.

‘Wow! Thanks, Mum,’ said Amy walking over to her mother and hugging her.

The three girls and Nathan sat down at the table to eat but Loretta didn’t join them. Instead, she took a bottle of wine from one of the cupboards and poured herself a drink. Amy presumed it was her first glass of the day as it was a new bottle and she didn’t seem tipsy yet. She was thankful for that and hoped her friends would be gone before her mother became drunk.

Amy was so busy enjoying herself, laughing and chatting with her friends and tucking into the delicious food, that she didn’t notice her mother’s constant eye on the clock. She hadn’t realised her mother was expecting a visitor till she heard the doorbell ring.

‘I’ll get it,’ Loretta said.

She left the room, and Amy was disturbed to find that when she returned, she was accompanied by Cliff. She turned to see him walk into the kitchen with a smarmy grin on his face, eying the girls appreciatively. Then he grinned lasciviously at Amy.

‘Happy birthday to my favourite girl. You are looking all grown up,’ he announced. ‘I’ve got something special for you.’

‘Thanks,’ said Amy, turning back to her friends, and subconsciously putting a hand over her face to hide her embarrassment.

For a while he remained transfixed, frozen to the spot, and Amy could feel his eyes roaming all over her. It was Loretta who broke the tension in the room.

‘Well, aren’t you gonna tell us what it is?’ she prompted.

Cliff’s grin grew wider as he withdrew a present from his pocket and handed it to Amy.

‘Thanks,’ she repeated, keeping her eyes downwards as she took the small package and placed it on the table.

‘Aren’t you gonna open it?’ asked Loretta.

‘Yeah,’ said Cliff. ‘I’m dying to see your little face light up when you see what it is.

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