004 – PACK OF HYENAS
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++ Year: 2020 - Three Years Prior ++

 

Amber finally rolled her eyes as another surge of giggles rose from across the bookshelf in front of her. She had been doing her best to ignore them, but six minutes in, and the pack of hungry females were still at it! Then, just to prove her point, another surge of soft giggles floated to her ears. A few whispers of shhhh’s quickly followed before they broke out, snickering again, entertained by their own actions. 

Those ferocious females were murmuring amongst themselves about something... 

Hiding behind the aisle of a bookshelf, concentration gone, Amber tilted her head slightly and pointed her ears forward, giving up belatedly to listen in.

“His figure doesn’t look too bad.” 

“Look at his arms—he’s got some muscles.”

“Do you think he’s more red or brown down there?” 

Amber raised an eyebrow. Just how hot and bothered were they to be discussing something so publicly? Were they going to have a conversation about his private parts so openly? And in the library of all places!

Unable to resist any longer, Amber removed a couple of books from the shelf to see which magazine they were fawning over. She expected and counted four female students, giggling like a flock of hens. What she wasn’t expecting was the young man lying face down on top of his arms against the table. He appeared to be sleeping, still as a statue other than the steady rise and fall of his shoulders. 

Amber had tried to ignore their giggles and paltry attempts at conversations for the past six minutes now, all the while assuming it was over pictures of some hot celebrity. Who would have thought that they were secretly admiring a sleeping guy in the college library? 

“Hey, do you think he’s the rumored son and heir to Pro Securities?” The shortest girl of them whispered, body parts all forgotten. She had tinted blue and pink hair that was up in a ponytail.  

Pro Securities’ heir is attending this campus? Amber racked her brain, trying to recall what she knew of the company and from her parents’ brief conversations. If so, that was news for her. 

Pro Securities was one of the most prominent professional security monitoring companies in the country, if not the world. Apparently, they used to specialize in home securities back in the good old days before branching off into cyber security after the invention of the World Wide Web. 

According to her parents, if she remembered correctly, Pro Securities was one of the first few that spoke of security in the Internet world. Unfortunately, no one took them seriously. It was such a new concept back then, and everyone thought they would fail, talking nonsense. How wrong they all had been when security became a prominent element as people began storing their data online than in cabinets. And much to everyone’s surprise, Pro Securities became one of the wealthiest companies for getting into the market first.

“You mean the rumored son who’s supposed to be at this college?” The other girl murmured back, interrupting Amber’s thoughts. This one had black hair and the mascara of a panda.

“But isn’t that just a rumor?” The third girl subsequently spoke, her voice much quieter than the others that Amber had to strain to hear.

“Pffftt,” the taller of the girls, the fourth one, waved her hand in the air. She not only had a nose ring but one above her eyebrow as well. “Even if it’s not a rumor, do you think he’d wear clothes this shabby? Look at this guy! He’s in etiolated shorts, and his t-shirt is so wrinkled it has probably never seen a dryer. Look, it’s also torn at the end there! I have never seen someone that wealthy wear what he has on.”

Amber wrinkled her nose. She considered herself intelligent, but even ‘etiolated’ was a word not in her vocabulary. Besides, who was this girl to judge a character by the type of clothes he wore?! Did he not come here to get some peace? The last time she checked, libraries were known for it. These hens were louder than the real ones. 

But... if what these hens said were true, how come her parents never mentioned it? If it were that big of news, her parents would have said something considering they were somewhat of a rival to Pro Securities. 

Amber tapped her fingers quietly against the bookshelf, trying to recall if the heir was male or female. Even though she’d gone to a few business banquets, she’d never met this so-called heir. 

“But look!” One gal pointed to the phone near the sleeping young man. “His phone seems expensive. Isn’t that the latest model that’s supposed to be equipped with 5S technology?” 

Huh. Amber stood on her tippy toes to see the phone better since his massive head was in the way. Wrong—it’s actually 7S technology now. 5S was so two years ago. 

But the girl was right about the phone. It was the latest and greatest model, but that didn’t mean it was just reserved for the wealthy. One could buy such a phone on an installment plan, and quite a few people did them these days—it was the same investment as a laptop or TV. 

“Are you sure? It looks just like any other model,” the tall girl with the nose ring crossed her arms, losing interest. 

“Let’s check it out!” Another girl exclaimed, grabbing the tall girl’s arm. “We can look through his pictures and see if he has anything interesting in it.” 

Amber made a face, disgusted. Not only were they disturbing the young man’s sleep, but they were also going to look through his phone. Where are the manners of these young people nowadays? 

“Yes, yes! If we look through his photos, we’ll know if he’s rich or not!” 

“Whose going to grab it?” 

“Not me!”

The other girls chimed in eagerly, not even bothering to keep their voices down anymore. Amber glanced around, wondering where the staff went. Shouldn’t one of them show up by now to tell these girls to be quiet? She then remembered it was six-thirty on a Sunday evening before the first day of college. If there was a staff member, and Amber saw only one on her way in, the person was probably preparing for closing. 

“You do it,” the shortest girl whispered.

“No, you grab it.” 

“What if he wakes up?”

“Then we can just say it was on the ground, and we were picking it up!” 

“But what if we get caught?”

“What’s the harm in looking through his phone? We’re not doing anything illegal!” 

While that was true, it was still a breach of privacy! Amber settled the books back in place, finally having enough. These foolish girls wouldn’t dare, right? Were they really that shameless?

“Oh, shut up!” The nose ring female shook free of the other’s grasp. “I’ll do it since you guys are such wussies.” 

She moved towards the table, arm extended, and was halfway there when Amber popped out from the side of the bookshelf into the aisle, shouting, “What are you idiots doing?!”

The girls jumped. 

Nose ring, who had been reaching for the phone, bounced back a couple of steps as if bitten. Hopefully, that was loud enough to either attract the staff or wake the young man up. 

Amber crossed her arms while the girls glanced around nervously. Despite being caught red-handed, they were still brazen enough to continue to stand there as if they had every right to be there. 

When it was apparent that no one was coming and the young man would keep right on sleeping, Amber smacked her head, none too gently. Briefly, she debated if she should have just left him to his own devices. This wasn’t her problem. Why was she getting involved?!

“Who are you? What’s your business with us?” Nose ring scowled at her. She appeared to be the leader of the group. 

Amber took a few steps towards them, away from the aisle, to stand behind the sleeping guy. “I asked what you guys are doing? Were you going to steal his phone?” 

The shortest girl, apparently more competent than the rest, shook her head and outright lied. “He’s a friend of ours. You should mind your own business.” 

Amber paused and glanced down at the dark speck of red hair. Was it actually red or brown? The lighting in here was so bad, no wondered the girls were curious. But seriously, why was this guy still asleep? He could probably sleep through a tornado at this point. She leaned against a foot and smiled. “Really? So, my boyfriend has friends like you?” 

The other girls suddenly shifted nervously. Finally, Panda girl squeaked nervously. “Boy—boyfriend?”

“That’s right,” Amber made a confused look as she rested her hand against her chin. Luckily, she had taken a few acting classes in high school. “I didn’t think he’d attract so much attention just sleeping. I’m a…” her eyes glittered darkly as she eyed them each individually, “… very jealous girlfriend.” 

“It’s—it’s your boyfriend’s fault,” the tinted hair girl blurted.

“Really?” Amber scowled. “How so? Because all I see is him sleeping here unostentatiously. I even left to give him some peace, but who would have thought that he’d encountered a pack of vicious hyenas.” 

Amber inwardly clapped, quite proud of herself. That she could come up with unostentatiously and hyena on the spot was fantastic! And hyenas sounded better than the flock of hens! 

“You—” Nose ring started towards her, but the Panda girl grabbed her arm. 

“We—we apologize,” Panda girl stepped forward, blocking her friend’s path. “We meant no harm, really, just a peek at his phone.” 

“What does unostentatiously mean?” One girl whispered to another. 

Amused at their sudden change in tune, Amber turned away, thinking the issue settled. “Then, get lost.” 

Unfortunately, it was never that simple. 

Panda girl took another step towards her before stopping and asking, “Are… are you really Amber Black?” 

Ahhh, so that’s why her tune changed? Amber halted. “And so, what if I am?” 

“We—we are really sorry about bothering your boyfriend. Please forgive us.” 

Sometimes it was a pain in the butt being this well known around the university. But, other times, it has its perks. Amber turned back towards them. “I would really also hate to make your life miserable around the campus.” 

Nose ring took another step back, more cautious but no less spiteful. “It’s no wonder he’s able to afford such an expensive phone.”

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