by Keya Jay
Chapter twenty-eight: Skylar Royce
“You look extremely well rested and a whole lot better than you did last night” Ryder said as she exited out of her bathroom, clean and freshly dressed.
“Thanks because I looked like shit yesterday right?” she said rolling her eyes. “Just what I wanted to hear,” she said with fake enthusiasm.
“It was midnight we all know what happens to Cinderella at that point.”
“I don’t want to be Cinderella,” she argued as she tied her head up with a ponytail holder.
“And why the hell not, there’s nothing wrong with Cinderella,” he said as he lounged against her bed as if he owned the place.
“If you like Cinderella so much then why don’t you be her?” she said as she turned to face a nearly naked Ryder with nothing but his boxers on resting his head on his hand as he stared at her amusingly. He said he didn’t want to leave her alone, after she woke up and found him lying right next to her. She complained that there were about 4 other rooms in the house that he could have chosen from but he was hella bent on sharing this one with her.
“So who do you want to be?”
“I want to be Princess Jasmine,” she said dramatically.
“In that case I’ll be Aladdin.” Skylar laughed at his response.
“You’re more like Jafar or his parrot Lagoon,” she teased.
“That was low,” he growled. “And I’ll have you know me and Aladdin have more in common than you think.” Skylar moved toward the bed and sat on the end closest to Ryder.
“Ok and what exactly do yall have in common?” she asked.
“Well,” he said as he dropped his hand from underneath his head and laid his head in her lap. She played with his hair as he began to talk. “When Aladdin was nothing but an infant his father left him and his mother in order to find a better life for the two. Well when I was nothing but a toddler my father left me and my mother in order to find a better life for himself.” Skylar didn’t think she wanted to hear anymore, she thought he was just joking about telling her about what they shared in common.
“Look Ryder,” she tried to interrupt.
“That’s not all we have in common though,” he continued. “When Aladdin’s father left his mother was captured by bandits and was soon presumed dead. When my father left it was because he found out that my mother was captured with in the clutches of a deadly heart disease and doctors said that there was no way she’d make it another year alive with only half a beating heart.”
“Ok I get it,” she said in an attempt to stop him.
“No, No honey I’m not finished.” Skylar sighed helplessly, she knew he only used those endearments when being sarcastic but she truly hated it when he did it. “Because he was orphaned Aladdin never received a formal education, and because I was bullied I never did either. Because of his lack of education Aladdin was forced to learn to survive in the streets of Agrabah because of my lack of…well everything I had to learn to deal with my mother’s deathly condition, living only to make her happy. You see two peas in a pod.”
“If you said all of that just to prove why you should be Aladdin then fine you can be him I can careless,” she responded. Ryder laughed and got up off of the bed.
“Only you,” he said shaking his head.
“Only me what?” she asked as she too hoped out of the bed.
“Only you would say something like that,” he said still shaking his head as he walked toward the stairs.
“Well,” she said as she followed behind him. “Only you would turn a childhood movie into a heart breaking tragedy.”
When they entered the kitchen Sidney was already up with a bowl of cereal in front of her.
“Did you bother to make anyone else breakfast?” Ryder asked as he walked toward Sidney.
“She’s still not there,” Sidney said ignoring his question as she continued to spoon her cereal but not once did she lift that spoon to her mouth, her cereal was all mushy and soggy as if it had sat there all night.
“Who’s still not there?” Skylar asked as she walked around Ryder and toward Sidney.
“My mom, I checked and she’s still not home.” At that point everyone grew quiet as if finally remembering everything that had went down last night. Skylar moved closer to Sidney and sat down beside her at the kitchen table.
“What happened when you got home last night?” she questioned.
Sidney looked up at Skylar then before saying, “I was with Nate for most of the night—”
“You were with Nathaniel?” Ryder question obviously not too happy about that.
“Yes—”
“Wait,” Skylar interrupted. “Who is Nate or Nathaniel or whoever?”
“He’s a friend of mine; he’s been with me this entire time trying to help me out with dealing with Hank—”
“How could you involve him in this? He had NOTHING to do with this! It’s YOUR fault he’s dead!” Ryder interrupted—again.
“Ryder!” Skylar said giving him a shut the hell up look.
“No he’s right it was my fault.”
“No he’s wrong it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know that anything like this was going to happen, people aren’t comfortable dealing with thing like this by their selves so they always typically run to the closest friend,” Skylar said not really caring about Ryder’s anger toward her. “And no one is gonna fault you for that,” she continued. “Now, after you left Nate you went…” she said trying to get Sidney to finish.
“After I left Nate it was well into the night and I had expected my mom to be sleep but instead she wasn’t and she had been crying and Hank was with her.”
“So she was home last night, so when did she go missing and why was Hank at your house and why was your mother crying?” Skylar knew she was asking a lot of questions but she needed all of the details.
“My mom was home last night she had been crying because she said she had to tell me something and that she should have told me a long time ago but it was all just a ploy so that Hank could sneak off into my room and search for Aaron’s book of secrets. When I had realized this I had left my mother and went into my room, I caught Hank and he didn’t even try to deny what he had been doing in my room he just said that he had something to get rid of, and when he left the house I had gotten a text from Nate saying that he knew who Hank was.”
“Ok wait back up for me just a bit; you immediately knew that your mother was lying and that it was all a ploy?”
“Are you trying to say that your mother and Hank was in on this together?” Ryder asked over Skylar.
“No my mom wasn’t in this with Hank she was scared of him she told me as much so I knew if she had gone with Hank it wasn’t willingly. And to answer your question Skylar, No I didn’t know immediately that my mother was lying I still don’t know if I’m being honest.”
“So what was the big secret, was it bout Aaron and your biological father?”
“No, but that was what I had though too but she had said that I had a sister.”
“She said that exactly, that you had a sister?”
“Now she said I have one.”
“Implying that she is still alive,” Skylar said more to herself but still Sidney answered.
“Yes.”
“Hank had started to tell me the same thing,” Skylar announced.
“But what happened?” Ryder asked.
“You happened, you basically interrupted him and then kicked him out before he could finish. He said that it was someone that I know.”
“So it’s possible I might actually have a sister?”
“That or it was Aaron’s biological daughter,” Skylar said slowly.
“So what happened after you got the text?” Ryder asked interrupting Skylar’s next sentence.
“Wait we need to find out who this other daughter is,” Skylar said.
“No we don’t that’s not important right now,’ he argued. Skylar looked at him but
said nothing. He knew something, he just wasn’t telling, she thought.
“Go on Sidney,” Skylar said as her eyes remained on Ryder.
“Well after I got the text I went back down stairs and that’s when I noticed that my mom was gone and that Hank was as well and then…”
“Ok, yea we get it, you found Nate dead,” Ryder said heartlessly. Skylar rolled her eyes at his crude remark and focused on Sidney instead.
“Ok, so it looks as though Hank could have taken her. Is it possible that she could have left on her own?”
“Not without me, she knew I was still in the house and she wouldn’t have left me there alone.” Skylar checked the clock that hung on her kitchen wall and realized that it was time for her to get to work, just when she was about to announce that to Sidney and Ryder there was a knock at her door.
“Who the hell is that?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t have the ability to see through doors so I wouldn’t know,” Skylar said rolling her eyes as she got up to answer the door.
“Hey Sky! Sorry I know it’s early but I just thought I’d stop by soooo here I am!” It’s been three weeks since Skylar last seen Brooke and it’s been three weeks since they’ve actually acted like best friends toward each other. Skylar still hasn’t found it in her heart to completely forgive Brooke but she forgave her enough.
“Hey,” Skylar said as she turned away from the door and walked back toward the kitchen table.
“Oh sorry I wasn’t expecting you to have company,” she said as she closed the door behind her and followed Skylar into the kitchen.
“Yea, I kinda wasn’t expecting it either,” Skylar said referring to all of them.
“Sorry to disappoint you all though, but I have to get into work so unless you want to house sit…” she said leaving the sentence at that.
“Oh,” Brooke said obviously upset her just getting here and now being kicked right back out. “Well I guess I can hang with Casper until you get off of work,” she suggested.
“You don’t have any college classes or course work to get done?” Skylar asked not really caring in the least.
“Nope!” she said excitedly.
“I kind of need to house sit my own house incase my mom returns,” Sidney said as she got up.
“I’ll see what I can do about your mom Sidney,” Skylar said before Sidney left.
“I appreciate it,” she said before walking out the door.
“I guess I can stay here, if you don’t mind me bringing Casper along,” Brooke said as if Skylar actually needed a house sitter, besides she wasn’t at all comfortable with leaving Brooke here all by herself while her mother still lived under the roof.
“No that’s fine Brooke seriously.”
“I’ll be here until you come back,” Ryder said not phrasing it as if it was a question but instead stating it as if his mind was all made up. Brooke didn’t look at all happy about that though.
“Oook,” she said slowly before grabbing her keys, “I’ll be back around 5,” she said slipping out of the house with Brooke close behind.
“Is that normal?” Brooke asked as they walked.
“Is what normal?” Skylar asked not really wanting to talk.
“Your boy toy staying over at your house?”
“He’s not staying over and what the hell is a boy toy?”
“A boy toy is Ryder, he’s your boy toy, though you two aren’t dating you string him along like a little toy.”
“Who’s to say we’re not dating?”
“Trust me I know you and he’s not your type.” Skylar didn’t bother to respond to Brooke; Brooke always believed that she knew Skylar better than Skylar knew her damn self and she didn’t bother arguing with Brooke about it.
