A Dark Sky

Chapter 3: A Difficult Time

While Sky headed off for home, I went to the woods out past my house to gather my thoughts.

"Sky is a really nice kid. Yet there is just something about him bothers me, a darkness I don't quite understand. I could sense anxiety, sadness, pain, and especially anger coming from him." I was exhausted so I didn't dwell on my suspicions. My face was still hurting from Luke's rock hard fist slamming into it, so I decided to head off to bed.

Sky really needed some help. So far he couldn't find a quiet spot and he felt that if he didn't he would go crazy. He couldn't stand his parents arguing, and anytime he would try to stop them they would just turn on him. Some nights when the weather was bad and he couldn't sneak out, he would just cry himself asleep. So life at home for him wasn't at all pleasant. He just wanted his parents to be happy, and so far they just grew farther apart.

That night Sky's parents had gotten into another fight. He pulled his pillows over his head and tried to block out the yells and screams coming from the living room. Just then Sky's mom yelled, "That's it, we're getting a divorce!" He couldn't stand it anymore so he fell asleep. In the morning he woke up to his dad sleeping on the couch and his mom in the bedroom. He made his breakfast and headed off to school. He decided to walk, since he only lived a few blocks away. Many thoughts ran through his head about what would happen if his mom and dad got a divorce. "What would happen to me? Would they care for me more if they lived separately? Would I live with one or the other? Would I have to choose? Would they still both love me?" He was so confused and annoyed that when he got to school he didn't even notice me standing at the door waiting for him.

"Hey Sky." I said. He just walked on by.

"Hey what's wrong? Talk to me!" I said trying to get his attention.

He brushed by me and headed for the school's entrance trying desperately to ignore me and my constant questions.

"You could at least say hi? Hey are you okay?" I figured he would say something, but after storming by me I gathered that he was too upset to say anything. So me being me the "concerned friend who wants answers "stepped in front of Sky. He just shoved me out of the way saying, "It's none of your business!"

Maybe he was right maybe I needed to leave him to his problems. Yet I chose not to because that's not me and I know how it feels to not have anyone to talk to. I wanted to help him so I said, "I can help you if you'd just tell me what is wrong."

By this time we had just walked through the front door when he stopped. "You won't understand, you don't know how it feels to fight a battle already lost, to have the world against you. Even my parents don't...." Sky stopped as a tear fell from his face. I was standing in shock when Sky looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't need your pity! I could care less of what anyone thinks!" then he turned to the nearest wall and punched it. He was so angry that he didn't mind punching whatever he saw first, even if it was made of brick and caused his knuckles to bleed. Nor did he care about the excruciating pain that would become of bashing his fist into the wall.

I then averted my eyes to Sky's now blood soaked fist that was dripping all over the floor. All I could do was stare in astonishment, many of his bones were showing, and soaking in fresh blood. That's when he also looked down at his hand and nearly passed out. His blood was dripping all over the floor and pain was setting in, but by this time everyone in the school was staring at him. And as I looked around I noticed Luke smiling as if Sky's pain was amusing. After realizing that he just had a meltdown in front of most of the school, Sky began tuning red with embarrassment. The embarrassment he felt was just too much to bear, so he ran back out the door. I took off after him and ran full speed trying to catch up. He was fast, but that was mostly caused by the adrenaline rush he had.

"Just leave me alone!" Sky yelled.

"You need to stop, you're hurt, and I can help you!" I yelled back.

"I don't want your help! I should have never moved here!" He said cringing. I could tell that the immense pain was setting in.

"Sky I can help and you need it, so just stop, okay!"

"You can't fix the problem!" he yelled.

"It'll be okay, I know you are hurting, but running away won't help."

"You don't understand what it's like to have your parents fight all the time, break each other's hearts, and yell at you just because they're mad. I try to stop their fights but they don't listen. Nobody listens to me!" Sky yelled back at me.

"I listen, and I'm here to help you. I know what you're going through, and I know how much you're hurting. I have dealt with things like this before" I said to him.

Sky then stopped and looked at me, "You have?"

"Yeah, my parents, they used to fight a lot too."

"What happened? Did they stop?" He asked.

"I'll tell you, but you have to let me fix your hand." I said smiling.

Sky tried to grin, but winced instead. The pain in his hand had begun to grow rapidly and his fist was still bleeding like crazy. Since he was in such a hurry, he had dropped his backpack so he ran to get it. About the time he picked it up with his good hand it was too late. That's when I yelled, "Watch out!" I tried to run to him, but the problem was that I hadn't noticed it until the last second. I was too late, and I couldn't prevent the inevitable.