Less than Perfect

4. Bitterly Lovely {part two}

Chapter Four

Bitterly Lovely

Part Two

Skye sat down on the porch's main steps, waiting for Rachel. Leah and Johnny were inside and she couldn't care less about what they were talking about. Skye just needed some space and time out of the house. She needed something to occupy her mind. Rachel pulled her truck into Skye's driveway and honked the horn, the sound snapping Skye out of her reverie.

"Hey, you ready?" Rachel called out of the passenger side window.

Skye faked a smile and walked stiffly over to the truck. She got herself inside and let all of her worry about Johnny slip away; with her out of the house he couldn't harm her. "Thanks."

"No problem, it'll be fun, I promise."

"Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to this." I'm looking forward to getting away from Johnny. Skye hoped that Bryan wouldn't be anywhere near her either; she couldn't face him. She never wanted to face him again but knew that she had to eventually.

"Good," Rachel suddenly looked uncomfortable as she drove out of the driveway and onto the main streets. "Can I ask you something, Skye?"

Skye's heart started racing and she felt her breath catch. "Sure," she said with some trouble.

Rachel kept giving Skye quick glances, trying to keep her eyes more so focused on the road. "I've heard some things..."

"What kinds of things? I thought you had a question."

"I do, I do, it's just--I don't know how to say it." Rachel wasn't looking at Skye, she couldn't even give her glances anymore.

"Does this have something to do with Bryan?"

"Kind of, um, yes it does actually."

Skye took a deep breath and felt the pressure in her lungs clash with another. She could hardly breathe, she knew what was coming. Bryan had already been talking.

"You see, some people heard that you were in the hospital, and those same people are getting this idea."

Skye closed her eyes, she couldn't look at Rachel anymore, and she knew it was hard for the both of them to even talk around the subject. "Please tell me you're not one of those people," she sighed.

"No, no, I'm not. Although, I do want to get the straight story from you. What were you really doing at the hospital? It wasn't for a—well—for a little one was it?"

Skye felt like her head was going to explode, she knew it had been coming but she couldn't believe it all the same. How could Bryan do and say something so stupid? Do I really not mean anything to him other than just being his own fragile play toy? "No, of course not! Rachel I fell down the stairs in my house and fractured a few ribs. How could anyone be saying that I'm pregnant? Why would they even think that?" She cried.

"What? You fell down the stairs? Skye, we didn't know, we—we thought—Bryan told us that you and him had been together."

Skye wanted to scream, she wanted to cry out run to Bryan and give him all he deserved. But all the same, she couldn't actually go through with it. She still wanted things to work; she wanted to help him, to change him. Even after his blatant and forced abuse. "No, we haven't—I mean he tried to—but we haven't, Rachel. We're hardly even getting along right now." Skye uttered between her own choking tears.