Sink or Swim

Chapter 7

Exercising always made her feel better and she usually put her happiness down to that. Her counsellor was trying to help her manage her stress in different ways instead, now that she couldn't exercise, but none of it was working so far. Showers were the only thing that calmed her down.

She chucked her pink jumper in the laundry basket and pulled on a grey, oversized shirt. Skye had stolen it from her brother's room when he'd moved out to go to university. She and Oscar had always been close, and she had wanted something of his to keep by her side as comfort after the accident. It sounded silly, but it helped. Having him move away was more difficult than she'd expected, but he called most days since the accident to check that she was doing okay.

Feeling thankful to be out of the clothes that now reminded her of her night with Craig, Skye walked out of the bathroom. Her ears pricked up on the upstairs landing when she heard the sound of hip-hop music coming from the very room she'd been heading to.

"Lal, is that you?" she shouted, knocking on the door. As far as she knew, none of her family members would usually listen to this kind of music.

Skye halted by the door, waiting for a response.

After a few minutes, the horrible music switched off and the door slowly opened. Skye almost gasped as she saw a stranger standing there with a towel wrapped around her head and another wrapped around her body.

The stranger's ice-blue eyes felt like they were staring right into Skye's soul. They were like crystals, but they had so much mystery in them. Skye recognised them almost immediately.

It was the girl from the coffee shop.

"You're...in my house," Skye stuttered with widened eyes. Charlene was the last person she'd ever expected to see standing there.

The redhead's shoulders lifted and her head tilted to the side with a great deal of confidence. "So I am."

Skye's eyes rolled from left to right. "Are you going to tell me why?" This was Skye's old bedroom but she had swapped with Lalia after her injury so that she wouldn't keep having to walk upstairs.

"Who are you again?"

"Skye."

"It's nice seeing you again, Skye," the redhead sung."I'm a friend of Lalia's."

Skye stared after the woman, bewildered. She supposed that explained where she'd seen the redheaded beauty before, but her mysterious and slightly cheeky demeanour today had been completely different to when they'd met in the coffee shop. Plus, there was no sign of Lalia.

"Where's Lal?" Skye asked.

"She popped out."

"And left you in our house....alone?"

"It isn't the first time." Charlene sounded so careless and for some reason that irked Skye a little bit. Her eyes narrowed at the woman and then she turned around and got on with her day.

The rest of the hours passed by slowly. Lalia had returned not long after she'd run into Charlene and the both had acted like it was completely normal.

Skye's sister, Marcia had agreed to come over that evening to help Skye get ready for a night out with her best friends, Cassandra and Niamh. Dancing would be a little tricky, but she sure could do with the alcohol. Though, she'd promised herself not to make anymore stupid, drunk decisions.

Skye had already laid two dresses out on her bed. She pointed to each in turn and then looked up to Marcia for an opinion. One was pink and flowy with a black floral print and tied shoulder straps, the other was a rose-gold, strappy sequin dress.