You, Me and Nobody

Ch. 8-I Like Long Walks In The Woods

Somehow this did not surprise me, and I imagined Skyler and his hulking father fitting in a little too well as mountain men. I pitied the grizzly bear who decided to sneak up on Mr. Richardson.

Skyler dumped half his load on me as we ventured further into nature. Usually I was okay with silence, but silence and Skyler always meant something else. Something more sinister. Not that he had evil intent—not all the time, anyway—but it meant he was thinking, because if I learned one thing from knowing the Richardsons my whole life, it's that they were always thinking. Despite popular belief, this was not a good thing. Not with their oldest child, anyway. It was like walking on egg shells while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Why'd you drop out of school?"

Wham. There it was, fast and sharp and precise as a bullet. I stumbled over my feat, nearly dropping the firewood in my arms. Wow. Wow. Where the hell did that come from?

Skyler failed to elaborate, allowing the moment to sink into more silence, but I kind of felt like I was sinking, too. Inch by inch. Into quicksand.

If this was Lilia's way of getting me to talk, she needed a strategy change.

"Do you think this is enough firewood?" I asked instead, hoping to drop the hint of how much I didn't want to talk about the last two years. But Skyler, damn him, he had a stubborn streak.

"Why'd you drop out?"

None of your business, that's why. "No reason."

"That's such a lie. Nobody drops out for the hell of it."

"Maybe I did."

"Maybe you're just bullshitting me."

Maybe if he wanted to avoid seeing me in the midst of a horrific, nauseating repercussion from my PTSD, he would quit going down this road while he was ahead. "Mary Bolton, from middle school. She just dropped out, no reason."

Skyler snapped a thin twig beneath his shoe and squinted at the lowering sun. "No, she was moving."

"Maybe I'm moving."

"You're not moving."

"How do you know?"

"Come on, Ruby." He halted in his tracks, facing me. "I'm asking. I could be a jackass about it, but I'm not."

While he had a point, it didn't compel me to spill the truth any more. "Then drop it," I said. "Please."

By the look on his face, Skyler wanted to do anything but drop it. He didn't just "drop" things, though. Not in all the years I'd known him. Holding grudges wasn't healthy, but, somehow, I didn't think he cared.

I walked by him, focusing on each step, one at a time. We would need to get back soon, so we weren't stuck in the dark by ourselves. Not to belittle Lilia's tracking skills, but, I'd rather be in company when the sun disappeared. Not to mention animals and bugs and—

"It wasn't because of the accident, was it?"

Honestly. If he was trying to kill me, he was doing a bang-up job.

"Because, everybody gets in car accidents, Ruby. It happens. Sometimes people get hurt. But you have to move on."

A lump settled in my throat. Sometimes people got hurt. True.