"Wow, those are so cool! They look like real tattoos! And on both arms! Are you ambidextrous?" 

Amber had two amazing plant tattoos crawling up her forearms,  jungles of emerald green and bright gold flowers, twisting and curling up and around to the crook of her elbows. It was stunning.

"Yeah," she replied. "Hey, sorry but I'm going to be late for class. I've got to go..."

"Alright. Maybe we could meet in the art room for lunch? You could show me how you do that!"

I nearly glowed as she smiled and eagerly replied. 

"Yeah, of course!"

I knew quite a bit about Amber, as she was in a few of my classes, but we didn't usually talk much. It wasn't just her arms that looked amazing. Everything about her did. Her hair was a short bob, but it was always up in a short ponytail to show off her short buzz cut underneath. With her hair pulled back from her face, you could clearly see the many piercings that decorated her ears, always matching perfectly to bring out her bright blue eyes. 

Sometimes I wished I could be as beautiful her. Amber was a pretty self conscious person, but I doubt she knew how beautiful everybody thought she was. It saddened me to see the scars that littered her skin, labeling her as a cutter, somebody who suffered from sever depression. I think that's why she tattooed herself so much, to cover them up.

~~~

Soon, lunchtime rolled around and I went down to the art room to meet up with Amber. My math teacher kept me late, I was rushing a bit, not wanting to be late. I loved making friends, and I would have hated to give a bad first impression. 

When I got to the art room though, nobody was there except for one of her few friends.

"Angel, have you seen Amber? She was supposed to meet me here..." 

" Yeah. She went home 'sick'.  Annabelle called her out in class for her scars. She's probably gonna kill herself."

"That's not funny." I deadpanned. "Where is she?" I hated it when people made jokes about suicide. One of my friends had attempted it, and I made it my personal job to help people I thought needed help.

"I'm serious."

The look she had was enough to send me running to call home. 

~~~

Hands shaking, I dialed. I could feel the panic attack starting. I could barely keep it together. Mom was there in five minutes flat. 

As I explained what was wrong, she drove me over to Amber's house. Fortunately, she lived just down the street, so I knew where to go. 

I almost tripped running up to her door, and nearly cried tears of relief when Amber herself opened. 

"Hey, are you okay?"

Shaking with tears barely kept in check, she shook her head.

I opened my arms and pulled her into a hug, and we just sat there, hugging and crying.