Crushing On The Wrong Joshua (Crushing on You 3)

“I believe you!” Sandra said. Amber could tell by the look in her eyes that she was lying.

Amber walked by the line three more times before finally giving up. Joshua Nelson hadn't spared her the first glance, so forget about the second glance. Had she done the spell wrong? Did she mess something up? No, she had followed the instructions carefully. Maybe spells took time to take affect, like some medicines? That had to be it! She'd just have to hang around Joshua until it kicked in.

Amber slid back into the booth she shared with Tamara and grinned at her.

“Don't smile like that! You look like a damn fool, Amber! That boy isn't going to notice you,” Tamara snapped.

“Shh!” Amber chided, “Don’t' be ridiculous, of course he's going to notice me.”

“Where do you want to go now?” Tamara asked, when Amber had finished her tacos.

“I thought we'd wait around and see where Joshua headed,” Amber said.

“Why would we do that?” Tamara asked, arching a penciled on brow.

“If I'm not around him, he can't notice me,” Amber said.

“I'm not going to spend my Saturday chasing around that pretty boy,” Tamara said, “If that's what you want to do, fine! I'll call my mom to pick me and leave you to it on your own!”

“No!” Amber said quickly, “I don't like being here by myself.”

“I know that, but I'm not enabling this crazy obsession of yours!” Tamara said.

“Fine,” Amber sighed, “Let's go to Gatti's and look at tops.”

“See, now that's what I'm talkin' about!” Tamara grinned, taking Amber's hand and pulling her to her feet.

Amber followed Tamara to Gatti's, but neither her heart nor head were dedicated to shopping. She kept looking back over her shoulder waiting for Joshua to come running after her. After she found two cute tops at Gatti's (a blue one and a green one), they moved to the next store, because Tamara wanted to look at jeans.

Amber stood awkwardly against the wall watching her friend look through the racks. She had more money to spend, but her heart wasn't in it. What was the use of shopping if it didn't give her a warm tingly feeling?

“Ain't you even gonna look?” Tamara asked.

“I am looking,” Amber sighed.

“I'll be ready in a minute,” Tamara said.

“No, take you're time,” Amber said, “I'm fine. Really, I am.”

“No, I'll be ready to like leave the mall,” Tamara said, “You're spaced out and you need to finish your homework anyway, remember?”

No, she hadn't, until Tamara brought it up.

“Yeah, you're right,” Amber nodded.

An hour later she was sprinting up the stairs two at a time to her bedroom.

“Are you okay?” her dad called after her.

“I'm fine!” she shouted back and slammed her bedroom door shut and locked it.

Amber sank to her knees and began to ruffle through her backpack. She pulled out the spell book and flipped to page one hundred seven and reread the spell.

“I did everything! I did everything perfectly! I know it! Why isn't it working?” she whispered desperately, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to swell over her eyelids, “Why isn't it working? This was my last chance and somehow I've blown it!”

Chapter Four

Monday mornings were always rough. Amber found this particular Monday morning to be an act of cruel and unusual punishment. She had managed to finish all of her homework (including the makeup work for Mr. O'Bannon), but her spirits hadn't improved.