Amy’s POV

Amy was not a person who scared easy. She worked in a law firm, a place where people regularly said, ’I will sue you for all you are worth,’ and not only meant it, but actually went through with it.

She dealt with people who were insanely dangerous, and those who were just plain douche-bags on a regular basis.

But through it all Amy did not panic. She just kept a cool head and carried on with her duties, rarely ever breaking a sweat.

But where her professional life barely ever managed to rattle her. When it came to her personal life, that was a whole other issue.

One of the things that Amy, tough as she was, still found herself often panicking over, was her best friend Vivian Rose.

Things had been going great for months now. Without Bryce in her life, Vivian had been growing in leaps and bounds. The confident, happy person that Amy had known before that foul man had weaseled his way into Vivian’s life had been making an appearance again.

But now something was wrong, and Amy was panicking.

Even though they were best friends, they did not need to see each other every day. Or even talk every day for that matter.

But even if they did not speak, they made sure to let one another know that they were fine. Sending texts here and there to let each other know that they were not in any trouble.

But it had been days now since Amy had heard anything from Vivian, and all attempts to reach out had been completely ignored.

She had not yet had the time to go over to Vivian’s place, but now she was realizing that she really had to get over there.

With Vivian not responding to any of her calls, Amy had reached out to the school, trying to catch her there. But instead what she had been told was that Vivian was unwell, and had taken a few days off.

Something that had panicked Amy so much that instead of going home first, she had turned her car around, and now still dressed in her work attire.

She was knocking on Vivian’s door.

"Vivian? Vivian are you in there, open the door?"

Not getting a apply, she reached into her purse and searched for the spare key that she had, sighing in relief when her fingers closed around it, taking it out, she opened the door and let herself in.

***

Vivian’s place was always warm.

It often smelled of flowers and all of the different spices that her best friend used when she cooked.

But today the air smelled dead. It had the type of smell that Amy associated with places that had not been lived in for a while, all dusty and old smelling.

When was the last time Vivian had even aired the place out?

In fact, where was she?

"Vivian?! Viv?" Amy called out as she walked deeper into the apartment.

No one answered her.

Switching on the lights as she went. Amy tried to keep her heart rate under control, doing her best not to think of the worst case scenario. Surely if something had happened to Vivian Amy would have known.

She was the other woman’s emergency contact after all, plus seeing how close they were, Amy would have felt it if something had happened to her friend.

Making her way to the bedroom she took a deep breath and then she pushed at the door, hoping that nothing awful awaited her.

Opening the door all the way, she turned on the light, and instantly let out a relieved breath when she saw a lump on the bed. A lump that was moving slightly, a clear indicator that the person beneath the covers was still alive.

"Vivian, thank goodness, why didn’t you tell me you were sick? I could have come over and-" Cutting herself off, she stared at the lump beneath the bed covers and her heart sank.

Despite all of the noise that she was making, Vivian had not gotten up. She was still just laying there. Slowly making her way towards the bed, she grabbed the corner of the covers and pulled, exposing her friend.

There was no proper way to quantify the amount of relief that went through Amy, when she was met by Vivian’s grey eyes.

"Oh, thank goodness, you are okay. I was really worried there for a minute. Why were you just laying here in the dark?"

Reaching out, Amy pressed the palm of her hand against Vivian’s forehead, frowning when she found that her friend’s temperature was perfectly normal.

"Has whatever you had already passed. You should have told me I would have made sure to take care of you,"

Shaking her head, Vivian sat up. "No, it is fine, I did not wish to bother you, it was nothing major," Even though Vivian was saying that the exhaustion in her frame was clear to see, and there was also this despondent look in her eyes that Amy did not like. Sitting at the edge of the bed she looked at her friend,...something was not right.

And Amy had to find out what it was.

"Vivian, come on, it’s me. What are you not telling me?"

***

Amy had expected Vivian to keep saying that nothing was wrong. Or for her to burst into tears and prove Amy’s point. But instead the other woman just gave her a dead eyed look.

It was something that Amy had never seen before in the entire time that she had known Vivian and it made a chill run down her spine. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

What in the world could have done this to her friend?

"Vivian," She called softly. All that the other woman did was blink and stare off into the distance.

"It is fine Amy. It is not anything that I have not dealt with before, I will be fine,"

What was she talking about?

"What are you talking about, Vivian? What have you dealt with before?" Turning that dead eyed gaze on her, Vivian spoke in the softest voice ever, and the words that came out of her mouth made Amy’s heart hurt for her friend.

"Ryan is seeing someone else,"