You, Me and Nobody

Ch. 5-Hidden Heroes

The next day of "camp" revealed a lack of an important person: Skyler. A freaking no-show. And I should have known better. Of course he would get sick of the whole thing. Of course he would get sick of me. I wasn't exactly unfamiliar to his attitude. I knew how the kid worked better than almost anybody.

"I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did," Nellie commented, sweeping her paint brush across her canvas. It was "paint your feelings" day, because Lilia got an important call and had to leave early. Somebody was sitting in, another faculty of the high school I guessed. She put us to work at easels to pain our feelings.

It was horrible.

"Ruby?"

I looked up, catching Nellie's eye. "Sorry. What?"

She smiled. Streaks of blue paint covered her face, damage from her paint war with Neil ten minutes prior. "I'm sure it's nothing against you."

If only I could be so sure, but some people just weren't destined to see eye to eye. The kid lived to terrorize me since the first day we met, when he knotted my pig tails together at the back of my head and I thought I would have to cut it out. Luckily my mother was adept at solving tricky situations. But it didn't set the right tone for play group, and certainly not for my relationship with Skyler Richardson.

Some people weren't meant to get along. Apples and oranges, my father always said. Mustard and mayo.

But he was always there. Always. A shadowy part of my life usually unseen, but nevertheless present. And it never really sparked me as significant, for some reason, until now.

"Oh, my God, Riley, would you just say a fucking word?"

The outcry startled the whole room. Madison was well at her wit's end with her socially inept buddy, who was having a ball with this artistic exercise. Apparently splattering a bunch of colors on a canvas was a much more exciting way to convey her thoughts than actual words. Poor Madison. Gideon and Spencer were nowhere to be seen, something about Spencer having an anxiety attack this morning so he was excused. If only I could be so lucky.

Nellie watched her brother paint over her masterpiece in black, clearly decided arguing was futile, and turned back to me. "Skyler really isn't that bad, you know."

I rolled my eyes before I could help it.

"I'm serious! The boy has some good inside him, I'm sure."

Neil snorted. "Careful, that's my bro you're talking about. Can't let you emasculate him in my presence."

Nellie elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up. Just paint your stupid black hole."

"Black hole! This is my very own rendition of the Mona Lisa, thank you very much."

She didn't even bother looking. "You're an idiot. Thank God you're not going to college to major in art."

Another abrupt paint war ensued, calmed only by the stand-in supervisor's insistence. She was decidedly less fiery than Lilia, but the twins still listened. Neil continued his horrendous anomaly, and Nellie adjusted her braid. "It's kind of shocking, though."

I stared at my blank canvas. An hour and nothing. Maybe I'd just say it was a polar bear in a snow storm. "What is?"

"Skyler. The way he's treating you. I never knew you personally in high school, but I always thought you guys were close."