On the way back to Skylar’s uncle’s house, I get myself caught up on thinking how things would be if I hadn’t got sick… if I was able to play all through high school and then college. My sister would tell me it’s not too late, that I still can, but I don’t want to put myself through getting my hopes up to have them destroyed all over again.
Sky is in her own little world on the way back too, until her mom turns around and asks, “What’s wrong, Skylar?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“Because there hasn’t been one time that this song has come on the radio, that you didn’t sing along with it.”
She sighs. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”
The rest of the drive is quiet. Back at the house, Sky goes right to bed, and being tired myself, I do the same. Just like the night before, I decide to pretend to fall asleep so I don’t have to talk to Mike, but I get that itch like I have to say something. I can’t hold back anymore.
I turn on the lamp next to me and sit up in bed. “What’s your deal, man?”
He was already sitting up, playing a game on his tablet. He throws it to the side.
“Honestly?” he asks.
“Yes. Honestly.”
“You’re going to destroy her. She’s going to fall for you and you’re going to crush her, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
“We’re just friends,” I say
“Whatever you say.” He pauses, “Even if you are just friends, she’s still going to get hurt.” He looks away and picks the tablet back up.
“What do you mean?”
He throws the tablet on the bed again. “For starters, your friends already make her life living hell without the complications of you being ‘friends’ with her. Do you know what it’s like to have those girls constantly talking trash about you? Picking at everything you do, say, and wear? Look at what they did to Kristi!”
“They didn’t do anything to Kristi. Kristi made a choice.”
Just like that, he is up and looking like he wants to punch me. I get up too, and hope like hell that he doesn’t start anything.
“I’m sorry, okay? I know she was your friend.”
I notice his hands are clenched into fists.
“All I’m saying…” he pauses, “…is that you’re only going to make things harder on her. I mean, prom? Really? Do you think Lizzie will just sit back and let this happen?”
“Lizzie and I are just friends. There is nothing she can do.”
He shakes his head. “People see what they want to see. Skylar and I are bullied every day of our lives. It’s not even just on school days. We don’t leave stuff like that when the last bell rings; not with social media. Have you ever seen Sky use her phone for anything other than phone calls or texts? There’s a reason for that. And after a while, that stuff stays with you. It becomes part of who you are. Honestly, I would say you’re going to make her life a living hell, but it already is. You’re just going to be the breaking point. Not to mention, she’ll get attached to you and then you’ll get bored of this little game you are playing. You’re going to drop her and I’m going to pick up the pieces… if there are pieces left to pick up.”
I tense. I know what he is leading to. He thinks she could make the same decision Kristi did.
“You think you have everything all figured out, huh?” I ask. “I’m not like that, Bro. And she wouldn’t do that. Skylar has a lot to live for.”
“Don’t call me Bro. We have nothing in common. We wouldn’t even be talking if it weren’t for her. And you don’t know her like I do. Skylar and Kristi were a lot alike.”
The blood running through my veins goes cold.
“And if you don’t believe me about your friends, well, take a look at the bruises on Skylar’s arm. And this isn’t even the first time your friend Lizzie has done something like that.”
I can’t take this anymore. I turn around and leave the room. I go to the living room and sit in the dark for a while.
I’m reminded of the things Skylar told me before, and of the list my sister gave me. More than ever, I am determined to show her that she has plenty to live for.
I grab my phone and send her a text. “Can you meet me by the pool?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
SKYLAR
I can’t sleep. I toss and turn and all I can think about is Kristi. I look at the clock and it’s only nine at night. I never go to sleep this early, even after such a long day.
I turn on the TV and start watching some random movie when I get a text message. It comes up as ‘Your favorite neighbor’.
I laugh and read his message, “Can you meet me by the pool?”
I don’t reply. I get up and put on my flip-flops. I’m wearing shorts and a tank top. It’s still a little warm out so I don’t worry about changing.
I step outside where I find him sitting on the back porch.
“Can’t sleep?” I ask.
He looks up at me and he glances at my arm. I know he notices my bruises but he looks down at his phone and doesn’t say anything.
“Not really,” he says. “And it got too quiet in there. Is everyone sleeping?”
I laugh. “No. Mom, Dad and Uncle J, went out.”
He nods and looks like he’s contemplating something.
“When was the last time you had fun?” he asks.
I cock my head to the side. “Hmm. At the game today.”
He shakes his head. “You weren’t having fun at the game, Sky. You know that. I’m talking about real fun; the kind where you are enjoying yourself without a care in the world.”
I laugh. “I know it’s sad, but I’m not sure I ever have. There is always something—”
“Let’s fix that,” he stands up.
“Hmmm… okay? What do you have in mind?”
“Let’s get in the pool.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Dead serious.”
“Should we get Mike?”
“No. He is sleeping,” he quickly says.
“I don’t have a bathing suit.”
“Stop worrying.” He says. “What you have on is fine.”
“I—I’m not sure.”
He looks at his phone again and types something. A few seconds later, one of my favorite songs comes on. The one that Mom earlier complained about me not singing.
“Will you sing for me?”
The way he asks makes me feel butterflies in my stomach.
I feel shy at first, but I close my eyes and start singing. When I open my eyes, he is watching me, and I stop.
I expect him to ask why I stopped but instead he just grins. “Are you ready to get in the pool?”
He pulls his shirt over his head and empties out his pocket.
“You know the water is probably cold, right?”
He laughs and approaches me. He scoops me up, putting me over his shoulder, which makes me scream.
“What are you doing?” I scream while laughing.
“Getting you to have fun. That is my number one mission from now on.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask.
He stops and slowly puts me down. He looks into my eyes, “Because I feel like I have a lifetime of things to make up to you.”
For a second, I forget to how to breathe.
Then he throws me over his shoulder again.
He runs toward the pool while carrying me, and jumps.
We both start to shake as soon as our bodies hit the water.
“It’s freezing!” I say.
“You will warm up in a bit. Just don’t stand in one spot. Wanna race?”
“Hmmm okay,” I say.
We both take off toward the deep end of the pool. He gets there first which is no surprise. I’ve never been a good swimmer.
We end up staying at the deep end of the pool. For a brief moment, he smiles at me and I can’t stop grinning. I wonder what he… what WE are doing, but quickly realize I’m reading too much into this. This is the k
ind of thing that friends do, right?
“Wow! I love this song!” I say once I hear another one of my favorite songs come on.
“You know this song?” he asks.
“Of course.”
He starts singing along with it and I just watch him.
“What?” he asks. “Am I that bad of a singer?”
“No. You’re actually pretty good.”
I start to shiver and he laughs.
“Maybe we should get out of the pool,” he says. “Do you think your uncle will mind if we use the firepit?”
“No, he is cool.”
“I’ll race you back.” He says and I roll my eyes. “No need. You win. I suck at anything sports related.”
“I doubt that,” he says.
ALEC
We get out of the pool and she goes inside to change. I decide against going in because I really don’t want to wake up Mike. So I put my shirt back on and get the firepit started.
I noticed the bruises Mike mentioned and I wonder if Lizzie really did that and why Sky didn’t complain to someone if that was the case. I want to ask her about it but don’t know if I should.
Her uncle has some chairs and a giant hammock near the firepit. I go for the hammock and lay down. When she comes out, she says, “Hmmm. That’s my spot.”
I turn my head to the side and raise an eyebrow at her. I notice that she’s now wearing a long sleeve shirt, covering her bruises.
“I’m serious,” she says. “It’s like an unspoken rule over here.”
I laugh. “This thing is enormous. How about I move over and you take that side?”
She hesitates for a minute but ends up coming over.
I move over. We can probably fit at least two people in the space between us.
We both lay down, looking up at the stars.
“Did you really have fun today?” she asks.
“Best day ever.”
“I’m glad.” She hesitates. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you ever think you’ll regret not playing?”
I take a deep breath. “I honestly try not to think about that.”
“What about today? Didn’t you think about it, even for a second?”
“I guess I did, but it’s too late now. Even if I wanted to play in college, I’m way out of practice.”
“You don’t know that, Alec. Uncle J said some of the guys were making comments about how good you are.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I’m serious.”
“I guess I’ll have to take that chance. Regret is part of life.”
“But it doesn’t have to be,” she says.
I sigh. “I guess not, but I’m okay with the choices I have made.”
I turn and lay on my side, facing her. “Now can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Can you tell me a little about you and your friends?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… Start at the beginning. How did you become friends?”
She closes her eyes for a few seconds as if she is searching for courage to tell me. Then she opens her eyes and moves to her side, facing me.
“Kristi and Mike were already friends when I started middle school. That was right after… right after you had to take time off.
I hung out with Heather at first, but she moved a few months into school and then it was just me. There was this talent show at school that I had signed up for. Lizzie was in it too. She was singing for her talent and so was I. I won, and I guess that was when the comments began. She started to tell people that I was an ‘attention whore’. ”
I shake my head, not sure what to say. I guess it doesn’t really surprise me that Lizzie would say something like that.
“A few days later, I met Kristi and Mike. Lizzie was bugging Kristi and I told her to get lost.”
“You did?” I ask a bit surprised.
“Yeah, I guess I’m better at defending others than I am at defending myself.”
“Why do you say that?”
She shrugs. “It just happens to be that way, I guess. After that day, Kristi and Mike started to hang out with me. Kristi was so sweet and so damn talented. She knew stuff about computers that I couldn’t even begin to understand. And Mike, I don’t know how to describe him. He is really loyal and worries too much, mostly about his friends. He doesn’t have an easy life at home. It’s just him, his mom and his little brother. His dad left a while back, so he practically lived at Kristi’s house.”
“This must be really hard on him.”
“It is. But he keeps a lot of that stuff inside. I guess it’s a guy thing, to keep it all in,” she says and I feel like some of that is geared towards me.
“I guess so,” I agree. “Sky?”
“Yeah?”
“The bruises on your arm. Did Lizzie do that to you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SKYLAR
I freeze when he asks if Lizzie is responsible for the bruises on my arm.
I feel closer to him. For the first time in a very long time, I feel like we’ve always been friends, and I don’t want to lie to him.
I look away. “Yes, but you have to promise not to say anything. I want to handle it myself.”
He hesitates. “I don’t know, Sky. This is serious stuff.”
“I know. But I want to handle it.”
“Okay, but I don’t like it,” he says.
“Thank you.”
I yawn and lay on my back again, staring at the stars.
I’m quite impressed by his music selection. I close my eyes and just enjoy the music. The night gets chillier, but I’m so comfortable that I don’t want to go back in the house.
***
I jump awake at the sound of someone clearing their throat.
“Dad?” I ask in a daze.
I feel the hammock move and look to my side, where Alec is now sitting up too, and looking very scared. He quickly gets up.
“Care to explain?” asks Dad. Mom and Uncle J are right next to him.
“Sorry, Sir. We were talking and must have fallen asleep.”
Dad looks from Alec to me.
“It’s true,” I say.
Dad sighs. “It’s three in the morning and I’m tired. Go back to bed… inside the house and in your own rooms,” he warns. “We’ll talk later.”
“Alec bolts for the door, quickly disappearing into his room.”
I yawn again and go to my room.
I’m exhausted. I lie down and close my eyes, thinking about how much fun that was. It doesn’t take long before I fall asleep.
In the morning, Mom and Dad have everything ready to go by the time I get up. We say our goodbyes to Uncle J and he tells me he’d be happy to have us over again if we ever want to go to another game.
The ride home is not fun at all. Dad makes Mike sit in the middle—between Alec and me. Mom drives, and when we are about thirty minutes away, Dad turns to face Alec. He looks like he is about to say something, but then stops himself and looks at me.
“You now have a curfew. You can’t be out past nine. That includes hanging out on the roof and backyard.”
“But, Dad! I’ve never had a curfew before.”
“You have also never been caught sleeping outside with a boy either.”
“Dad!” I blush when Mike glances at me. “We were talking and fell asleep. It’s not like we were doing anything. We’re just friends.”
Mike shakes his head. “Please… enough with the lies already. You’re even going to prom together.”
I give him a sideway look. “AS FRIENDS!”
Dad turns around, facing the road again.
“Prom or not, the curfew is the same.”
“But that is weeks away, Dad. How long am I in trouble for?”
“Haven’t decided.”
I slouch back into the seat and close my eyes.
Mom and Dad drop Mike off at his
house and once we are home, I say bye to Alec and go straight into the house and to my room.
I get a text from Alec, ‘Sorry I got you in trouble.’
‘You didn’t. It wasn’t your fault. Dad is just overprotective.’
‘What are you doing today?’ Alec asks.
‘Practicing for the talent show with Kyle.’
‘Ok. Do you and Kyle need help?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s best if you stay out of my dad’s sight for a day or two.’
‘Ok’
***
Kyle comes over after lunch, and after going back and forth between songs, we decide to sing ‘Give Me a Reason’ by Pink and Nate Ruess. We sit in the living room and sing it a few times. It actually goes pretty smooth.
We take a break when Mom brings us some snacks.
“Alec told me he had a great time,” he says.
“Yeah. It was fun.”
“And pretty amazing what you did for him too. Any way, the guys were talking about going to the field after dinner to play for a bit and I didn’t even have to fight Alec to get him to go.”
“He is going to play?” I ask surprised.
“Well, it’s not like he’s playing for the school…”
“I know, but what about his wrist?”
“Oh. I didn’t even think about that. Alec knows what he’s doing though. He was fine yesterday, right? He’ll be careful.”
Kyle knows I’m worried and tries to distract me. “Alec told me about prom and asked if I’m still going with Mandy or if I want to join you guys and go as a group of friends.”
“And?”
“And I need your womanly advice.”
I laugh. “Hmm…. Okay.”
“What’s the best way to break-up with a girl?”
“I’m the wrong person to ask.”
“Why? You’re a girl. You’re the perfect person to ask.”
I shrug. “I’ve never really been in that situation.”
“So what? You do the breaking up?”
I laugh. “I’ve never really had a boyfriend.” I look away, embarrassed.
“Oh. Well, hmmm… What do you imagine would be the best way to break-up then?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I guess, just be honest with her and say you don’t want to go out anymore.”
Sudden Hope Page 8
