After the Sky Fell Down

by Nugen Isbell, Megan

  Chapter 26

  When they woke up, it wasn’t awkward or strange and she’d liked having Luke next to her all night. She lay awake staring at the ceiling when he stretched and yawned. She knew any minute Sarah would be waking up and she wanted to enjoy the quiet for as long as possible. She turned to look at him as he sat up, running his hand through his dusty hair, trying to tame it.

  “Good morning,” he said smiling at her.

  “Good morning,” she replied sitting up.

  “Sorry about that. I guess I was just really tired.”

  “Yeah, me too. I slept like a log,” she said standing up.

  “I’m glad you got some good sleep,” he said standing up as well.

  “I needed it after last night,” she sighed, thinking back to the horrible date and deciding the only redeeming factor about the night was hanging out with Luke when she’d gotten home.

  “Hey, I thought we were pretending like last night never happened.”

  “You’re right. I’ll never speak of it again,” she said zipping her lips with her fingers and then locking it, throwing the imaginary key over her shoulder. “I’m going to go check on Sarah.”

  She walked into Sarah’s room. She was just sitting in her crib, looking around, waiting for her mother to get her.

  “Good morning my baby,” she cooed at her daughter, scooping her up and kissing her. “Ooh, you need your diaper changed.”

  Kathryn put Sarah on the changing table and heard Luke head back to bed in his room this time. She didn’t blame him. Sarah wasn’t his daughter. He was entitled to sleeping in on a Saturday morning, especially after babysitting last night.

  After breakfast, she played with Sarah for a while. They watched cartoons and played with some blocks before she knew she had to try and buckle down and get some work done on her research paper. Sarah was having none of that though. She kept walking over and banging on the laptop and laughing.

  “That’s not funny Sarah,” Kathryn said, moving her daughter’s hands from the keyboard. “Mommy needs to work. Please Sarah,” she pleaded, but Sarah just kept laughing and Kathryn threw up her hands in defeat.

  “Are you giving your mother a hard time?” Luke asked, emerging from his room.

  “She’s being a terror and I’ve got to get some work done on this stupid paper,” Kathryn groaned, but Sarah continued to giggle as she finally walked away from the computer and toddling over to her uncle.

  “Luuuuke,” Sarah said in the little voice she always used, elongating the oo in the middle of his name. She held her hands up to Luke and he scooped her up.

  “Morning Sare Beah,” he said kissing her on the cheek. “You need to give mama a break,” he said poking her in the stomach, but she just laughed wickedly and playfully hit Luke.

  “Ya know, she gets this attitude from her father’s side of the family,” Kathryn said rolling her eyes and grinning at Luke who smiled proudly.

  “Of course she does,” he said tossing Sarah in the air, causing her to burst into hysterics.

  “What am I gonna do with you, you little pip,” she said smiling at her daughter, who’d just landed safely in Luke’s arms. “Not get any work done today, that’s for sure.”

  “Hey, why don’t you head to the library for a little while and do some work there? I’ll stay with Sarah,” Luke suggested.

  “I can’t ask you to do that. You just watched her last night.”

  “I don’t mind Kate. I really don’t. You need to get your paper done.”

  “Didn’t you have any plans today?” she asked.

  “Yeah, but I can do them when you get back.”

  “Luke,” she pleaded, feeling guilty.

  “Just go. Please,” he said looking over to her. “When I suggested we move in together it was so I could help you. You need help today, so please just let me help you.”

  She stared up at him, feeling as if she might cry, but not from sadness like usual, but from overwhelming gratefulness. Luke had been an angel and she didn’t know how she was ever going to repay him for everything he’d done for her and Sarah.

  “You sure you don’t mind?” she asked again.

  “No, I don’t mind. Now would you get your butt outta here?” he said shooing her away playfully.

  “Let me just take a quick shower and I’ll be on my way,” she said quickly, shutting her laptop, rushing over to Luke and kissing both him and Sarah on the cheek before jumping in the shower.

  ****

  She walked over to her small red hatch back and climbed inside. The library was only a few minutes away and she would’ve walked if not for the armful of books and her computer. When she got there, she found a parking spot close to the front and made her way inside. The doors opened and it was instantaneous peace and calm. There were people sprinkled throughout the library, some sitting at tables working while others browsed up and down the rows of books. She glanced around for an open table and finally settled on one near the back. She set her things down and got situated. She opened her book and tried to start reading again. She found herself reading and rereading the same paragraph, but not comprehending. She started thinking of the times she’d spent with Ben in this building. Their freshman year, they’d spent a lot of time in the library together, goofing around more than working on their assignments. She glanced up, searching the aisles of books for any traces of him. She imagined him searching through the books, running his hands through his hair and turning to smile at her. For a moment, she thought she saw him, but then knew better and returned her eyes to the words on the page in front of her. She felt her eyes begin to brim with tears, but willed them to stay back. Crying would do nothing. It certainly wouldn’t bring Ben back and it did nothing but remind her of that. She blinked, keeping her eyelids closed slightly longer than usual and when she reopened them, she focused on the page she’d tried getting through earlier and finally began to read.

  “Kathryn?” a strange, yet familiar voice said a while later, drawing her attention away from her reading. She brought her head up and was startled to see the boy with the dark eyes from the party looking down at her. He was clutching a spiral notebook in his arm.

  “Jace…hi,” she said quietly.

  “How’s it going?”

  “Fine. Just working on a research paper for English…the pros and cons of capital punishment.”

  “Sounds fascinating,” he said playfully. “Do you mind?” he asked, pulling a chair out.

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  “So, how’s the paper coming?” he asked when he sat down.

  “It’s getting there. How about you? What are you doing here?”

  “Astronomy paper,” he said gesturing towards his notebook. “You can’t find everything you need on the internet.”

  “Astronomy? Me and Ben...” she said and then stopped herself. “I took that class. It was actually really interesting.”

  “Yeah, it’s not too bad,” he agreed. “I like the labs.”

  Kathryn smiled remembering the late night labs on the roof of the science building. She and Ben had shared a telescope and together had seen the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. He’d wrap his arms around her on cold nights while she looked through the telescope and she felt warm and alive with him. The vastness of space made her feel small and insignificant, but once Ben’s arms were around her, that all changed and she felt that she mattered…to him anyway.

  “Did that creep bother you anymore at the party?” Jace asked, drawing her back from her happy memory.

  “No. I went home right after I talked to you.”

  “The party was pretty lame, so you probably made the right choice. Just a bunch of drunken idiots if you ask me,” he laughed, drawing an annoyed Shhhhhhh! from the table next to them. “Sorry,” Jace whispered and then smiled back at Kathryn again.

  “Watch it, you might get us kicked out of here!” she laughed.

  “I should go then. I don’t want to get you in trouble,” he said rolli
ng his eyes and pointing to the table that had silenced him. He picked up his notebook and then stopped and looked at her and with a half-smile, asked, “You hungry?”

  Kathryn thought about it and realized she hadn’t eaten since the toast she’d had for breakfast and nodded.

  “You wanna go grab a bite to eat where we can actually talk without fear of persecution?” he laughed.

  Kathryn froze at the sound of his words. She’d spent a total of maybe ten minutes with Jace and thinking back to those minutes at the party and in the library, she’d been comfortable and found him to be someone she might like to get to know, but wasn’t sure how she felt about going out with him, especially after the disaster with Trevor.

  “What do you say?” he asked when she didn’t answer right away.

  “Um…yeah, sure.”

  “Okay, let’s go then,” he said helping her gather her things that were spread out on the table.

  Kathryn stood up, weighted down with her books and laptop.

  “Here, let me help you,” Jace said, taking the books from her.

  “That’s okay.”

  “C’mon. I insist,” Jace said with a smile.

  They walked out of the library and she followed him to the parking lot.

  “Do you want to ride with me or follow me?” he asked.

  “Oh…I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it.”

  “I just didn’t know if you’d be comfortable coming with me. I could be some kind of weirdo for all you know,” he laughed.

  “I’ll take my chances,” she said and followed him to his small, silver SUV. He opened the back door and set her books on the backseat. Then he held open the passenger door for her and she slowly climbed in. The door shut with a loud click and she took a moment to check out the car. He kept it neat, just as Ben had kept his truck. Various CDs were stacked in the console beneath the stereo and her eyes settled immediately on U2’s The Joshua Tree, which had been one of Ben’s favorite albums. She pulled her eyes from the CD’s and she noticed a tree shaped air freshener, the same kind Ben had used in his truck, dangling from the rearview mirror.

  “I know this great little diner just up the road. Is that alright?” Jace asked once he was inside the car.

  “Yeah, sounds fine.”

  “Alright then,” he said with a smile, turning the ignition and pulling out of the parking lot.

  “You’re a U2 fan?” she asked picking up the jewel case and staring at the black and white photographs.

  “Yeah. Who doesn’t like U2? There’s something wrong with you if you don’t like them.”

  She smiled and set it back down, thinking it sounded like something Ben would say.

  He reached over to the CD case she’d just set down and opened it up and slid the shiny, silver disc into the stereo. The unmistakable sound of Where the Streets Have No Name, Ben’s favorite song, came flowing through the speakers. She felt a lump begin to form in her throat and she almost asked Jace to turn it off, but stopped herself when her mind drifted off to the times she sat in Ben’s truck listening to the song. She remembered how every time it came on Ben would close his eyes and sigh, proclaiming it to be the greatest song ever written as his fingers tapped out the beat on the steering wheel. “I don’t know about the greatest song ever,” she’d say to him and watch in amusement as he would stare at her as if she had just committed blasphemy. She smiled as Bono’s voice began to sing and she felt her eyes warm with tears, but she didn’t let them fall.

  A few minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot. She didn’t know the name of the restaurant and the only indication it was even a place to eat was the blue block lettering that said DINER on the front window. She’d driven by it in the past, but had never eaten there. Jace parked the car and jumped out. She quickly wiped her eyes, grateful he hadn’t noticed and then opened the door and got out and walked around to meet him.

  “Ever been here?” he asked.

  “No, I haven’t,” she said as she followed him into the small diner. Inside, it wasn’t much to look at: small tables with white tablecloths and a black and white checkered floor, but the food smelled good. Jace nodded to the waitress and they walked over to a booth in the back near a window. He picked up the paper menus that were tucked behind the napkin dispenser and handed one to Kathryn. She opened it and noticed the grease stains sprinkled on the yellow paper.

  “I know it doesn’t look like much, but the food’s great,” Jace said, having noticed her questionable look at the stained menu. She smiled and began looking through the choices.

  “I’m going to get the bacon cheeseburger. How about you?” he asked after a few minutes.

  “I think I’ll have the grilled cheese.”

  The waitress came over with two glasses of water and took their order, returning a few minutes later with two Cokes they’d asked for. Kathryn took a sip and then fiddled with her straw, staring down at the tablecloth.

  “So, yeah…that party…it was pretty lame,” he said shaking his head with a smile as he looked up at her with his nearly black eyes. “You’re lucky you got out when you did. I was stuck there till after midnight and then I had to drive my friends home and they lost their house key and couldn’t get a hold of the super, so they had to come back to my place where they spent the night puking in my toilet.”

  “Sounds like you had a good time.”

  “It was delightful,” he said sarcastically. “The whole place was a mess by the end of the night and everyone was acting like a bunch of jackasses.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Kathryn said taking a drink of her soda. She set the glass down on the table and they were quiet for a few minutes as her eyes investigated the diner.

  “So, what’s your major?” Jace asked attempting to get the conversation started again.

  “Communications.”

  “What do you want to do with that?”

  “I’m not exactly sure yet. I’m thinking maybe something in marketing or advertising,” she said, realizing she sounded like Trevor had the other night. “What about you? What’s your major?” she asked taking another drink.

  “Mechanical Engineering.”

  “Engineering?” she said nearly choking on the Coke she was swallowing. Electrical engineering had been Ben’s major.

  “You okay?” he asked as Kathryn wiped her mouth with a napkin.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I guess it just went down the wrong way,” she fibbed before taking a sip of water to clear her throat.

  “I think I might want to design cars. I’ve only got another year left to decide though. How about you?”

  “Two more years.”

  Kathryn looked over at Jace and she could tell he was straining to keep the conversation going. He seemed like such a nice guy, but she felt strange sitting with him in the diner, almost like they were on a date. She felt as if she was cheating on Ben, and her heart began to ache.

  “Are you from around here?” Jace asked.

  “About thirty minutes away in Westerly. How about you?”

  “I grew up in Nebraska actually.”

  “Nebraska?” she exclaimed, suddenly intrigued. “You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess I am,” he laughed.

  “What made you come all the way to Rhode Island?”

  “My uncle’s a math professor here so I get in-state tuition and I thought it might be interesting to try something new.”

  “So what do you think of New England?”

  “It’s definitely different, but after almost four years here, it’s growing on me. I’m still getting used to putting malt vinegar on my French fries and I had hot weenies for the first time this summer. Oh…and I learned that you don’t put sprinkles on your ice cream. They’re called jimmies.”

  “You’re practically a native then,” she laughed.

  “I guess so,” he smiled. “People here are different though. Not as friendly as back in Omaha.”

  “I thought
you seemed abnormally friendly,” she joked.

  “Sorry. I’ll work on that,” he grinned.

  “No, it’s a good thing,” she assured him. “New Englanders are a little cold until you get to know us.”

  “I’m slowly learning that,” he said with a smile.

  The waitress appeared then, placing their plates in front of them. Kathryn looked at the grilled cheese sandwich and French fries and thought they looked greasy and delicious.

  “What do you think?” Jace asked once she’d taken her first bite.

  “It’s really good,” Kathryn said holding a napkin up to cover her full mouth.

  “Yeah…not the healthiest, but delicious,” he said taking a bite of his burger.

  They sat in silence, each eating their dinners. Kathryn felt Jace’s gaze on her occasionally and she would look up to see him smiling at her, once again noticing his intensely dark eyes, which were so different than Ben’s hazel flecked ones. She would smile back at him briefly and then look down to her plate again.

  When they were finished, Jace suggested dessert, but Kathryn declined, claiming she was stuffed, when the truth was her stomach was starting to feel nauseous from nerves. Ben’s death had transformed her from the outgoing person she had once been into the quiet, shy person she now was. She had instantly liked Jace. He was kind and funny and she felt comfortable with him, but the fact remained that despite all of this, part of her still longed to just go back to the apartment and hole herself up from the rest of the world.

  “That was fun,” he said with a smile once he had pulled back into the library parking lot a while later.

  “Yeah. It was.”

  “Maybe we can hang out again sometime?” he asked nervously.

  “Yeah…I’d like that,” she said and proceeded to give him her number, which he programmed into his phone. She reached into the backseat to get her books and laptop and then climbed out of the car.

  “See you later then,” he said as she shut the door behind her.

  “Bye,” she said and began walking to her car. As she walked, she noticed Jace hadn’t pulled away yet and she turned to look at him.