SKYLAR
It was a sunny summer morning. Josh and I were walking hand in hand through the streets of New York City. We were laughing and making jokes, and Josh pointed to a small café down the street where we decided to stop. As we made it inside the café, we were greeted by an amazing aroma of fresh-made coffee, and just as I was about to tilt my head up to smile at Josh, the dream disappeared, and I woke up.
Sunlight hit my face and my head felt empty in a weird way as I slowly opened my eyes. The smell of coffee was still there, but I was not in a café in Lower Manhattan anymore, I was in Josh's bedroom. Someone had placed a tray with a light green cup of steamy hot coffee, a glass of orange juice, two grilled cheese sandwiches and what looked like aspirin on the bedside table, right next to my side of the bed. The tray made me smile and I heaved myself up a little on the bed. That's when I noticed my boyfriend watching me from a chair in the corner of the room. Seeing him made me remember last night's events and my smile faded.
"Good mornin'," he said, and I detected some hesitation in his voice. He was wearing his football practice uniform with the football helmet sitting in his lap.
I didn't say anything at first and just looked at him over the covers. I hadn't changed out of my Halloween costume last night, so I assumed I looked like a messier version of a Star-Spangled Singer with disheveled hair and most likely smudged mascara. "How long have you been sitting there?" I finally asked, but he didn't answer my question and said instead, "I think we need to talk."
I sighed and let my gaze fall down to his football helmet but ultimately nodded, knowing he was right.
"I really, really need to apologize to you. I should've done it yesterday, but you'd already fallen asleep by the time I got off the phone with your grandma."
I met his green eyes again and said the first thing that came to mind. "What did she say to you?"
He shook his head. "She talked some sense into me. She was honestly really cool, and she definitely cares about you a lot." His face twisted as if he was in pain. "Skye, I really don't know what I can say to make up for what I did last night. First of all, I should never have punched that guy, and I know you wouldn't've let anything happen between y'all. I was just really stupid, and you were right, I wouldn't have done what I did, had I not been completely wasted."
I looked down to my hands as I listened to him and absentmindedly fiddled with the green blanket that was always draped over his bed.
"And I know that's not a legitimate excuse for my behavior, there is no excuse for it. At all. I just hope you'll forgive me because... I don't know what I would do without you. Honestly. I love you, Skye."
My eyes widened in shock, and I snapped my eyes up to stare at him. "W-what?"
He gave me a small, sad smile and nodded his head once. "I love you. I don't know about you, but I've loved you since the first time we met in Harvey's kitchen. When I first saw you smiling at me, I knew I needed to talk to you. And when we talked, I knew I needed to be with you."
His face looked remorseful again. "I am so sorry about last night. After your grandma and I hung up I- I know it must've been even more traumatic for you because of your childhood, and I promise to never ever get that drunk again if it means I'll still get to be in your life."
I barely heard a word of what he was saying anymore and I forgot to be angry with him, all I could think about were the three words he'd repeated to me.
"I-I... What? You love me?" I was staring at him, mesmerized, and didn't know what to say.
"Yes," he replied straight away, and it reminded me of the first time I met Joe when I had asked him if he loved Taylor during Twenty Questions.
We stared at each other for a moment. I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was — or if the right thing to do even existed at all — but honestly, I didn't care. All I ever wanted was for people to admit their mistakes and try to make up for them, it was all I could ever ask for, and here Josh was doing exactly that. Sure, he had hurt me, I couldn't deny that, but he also said he was sorry... and I believed him.
After a moment of silence, my lips tugged into a small smile and my eyes softened when I looked at him. Even after yesterday's events, what I'd told Connor after Josh's and my first date was still true, and now I knew Josh felt the same way about me.
"I... I love you too."
We didn't say anything after I'd uttered the words, but I could tell Josh was relieved because he relaxed into the chair and breathed out heavily. I turned to look at the breakfast tray and pointed at it. "Is this for me?"
His face lit up and he nodded. "Yeah, I thought the least I could do was make you breakfast. I don't know how much you drank last night so I also got you some aspirin," he said. "And I didn't burn the toast this time," he added quickly, making me snigger.
"So proud of you," I quipped and reached over to grab the coffee cup. We sat there and just talked for a long time. Josh pulled the curtains apart, letting more sunlight into the room, and I split one of the grilled cheese sandwiches with him as he'd already had breakfast when he woke up.
We ended up talking for so long that my coffee turned cold and that's when I decided to check the time.
"Oh shit," Josh said, getting up from the chair when he realized what time it was. "My practice starts at two," he explained.
I nodded and smiled. "I was wondering why you were wearing that."
"Skye, I'm sorry, I really need to leave."
I could tell by his voice that he was stressed about it but that he was trying not to rush me, and I swung my legs down over the side of the bed.
"I won't have time to drive you home. Do you wanna come and see us practice?" he asked as he stuffed his cleats into his dark blue gym bag.
I considered it but then shook my head when I caught a glimpse of myself in the wall mirror. You could definitely tell that I had been crying and sleeping in my makeup, and there was no way I'd meet his friends looking like this.
Josh told me Andrea had wanted me to call her when I woke up, so I decided to ask her for a ride. She just seemed happy to know that I was okay, and she agreed to come and pick me up. Josh had to leave before she'd arrived at the house, so we said goodbye and I washed the dishes from breakfast while I waited for Andrea.
I found some canola oil in the kitchen and had time to use it to remove my make up before the doorbell rang. I sprinted out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen to put the oil back and get my phone.
Picking up my purse from the floor by the door, I took a deep breath and opened the door. Andrea gave me a sad smile as soon as she saw me and neither of us said anything but we both went in for a hug at the same time.
I closed my eyes and we stood there in the doorway for a couple of minutes before I finally pulled away from her.
"Thank you for talking to him," I mumbled, and she sighed with a smile.
"Sweetie, thank you for calling me. I'm real proud of you for doin' that."
I grabbed the rest of my stuff and locked the door with the spare key Josh had given me before we headed to her car.
"You seem happy," Andrea observed when we were buckling our seatbelts, and I looked over at her and nodded.
"I... think I am." I smiled slightly, and she returned the smile and turned the key in the ignition. "What did you say to him?" I asked, because Josh had refused to tell me.
It didn't seem like I would have more luck this time around because Andrea shook her head. "Not important. What matters is he did the right thing and apologized. He did apologize, right?"
"Yeah, he did."
She pursed her lips and nodded. "Did you two... break up?"
"What? No."
I saw her furrowing her eyebrows and I couldn't tell if she was confused or upset. "Really?"
"Yeah, we made up. He said he loved me," I smiled, turning my eyes on the street as we made a right turn.
"He said what?"
"He said he loves me, and I told him I love him too. He even made me breakfast in bed, isn't that sweet?"
I smiled over at her, and she raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's... very sweet of him." She paused. "Skye, are you sure you're okay? You remember what he did last night, don't you?"
"I know, but that wasn't him. Not the real him anyway; he was drunk."
She made a face and took an audibly deep breath. "That does not make it any better."
I leaned my head against the window and sighed. "Yeah, I know. But he really did seem to regret what he did, and he even said he'd stop getting drunk for my sake."
"You do know he's sixteen and that it's illegal for him to be drinking, period? I could tell his parents about it."
I looked over at her with a frown. "Don't tell his parents please. And besides, I don't think they'd care that much either. They probably already know anyway."
Andrea shook her head. "I won't tell them, but I need you to remember that it is illegal. You never told me if you were drinking or not?"
I pursed my lips but then just decided to tell her the truth because lying never seemed like the right thing to do. "I did have some of the red punch that they had. They said there was some alcohol in it, but it wasn't a lot, and it didn't affect me."
She nodded, looking pleased with my answer.
It had been a while since Andrea and I had spent time together just the two of us, and it was nice catching up with her until she dropped me off at the house.
"Mom! I'm home!" I called out when I'd made it into the house but didn't see anyone.
"I'm upstairs!" she called back, and I went up to her room to see her entire bed covered with clothes.
"What are you doing?" I asked loudly and sat down on the floor to pet Benjamin who walked over to me.
"Checking what clothes to bring to Tokyo. We're leaving on Tuesday," she replied, stepping out of the bathroom that was connected to her walk-in closet. "How was the party? Mom said you'd called her; did something happen? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm great. We solved it," I said, picking Benji up and walking over to the bed. I had to move some clothes aside to make room for Benji and me to sit.
"Okay, good. Why didn't you call me though? I didn't see any missed calls?" She put down another glittery top on the bed, and I sighed.
"Oh, I just... We'd talked earlier so she was my most recent call, and I just clicked on the first number I saw." It wasn't the whole truth, but I wasn't lying either. I knew she'd just worry about it if I told her, and I didn't want to bother her with it now that everything was okay again. "But mom?"
"Yeah?" She had disappeared back into the closet again with some of the clothes from the bed.
"Do you know where I'll be staying when you're gone?" I called out so that she'd be able to hear me from inside the closet.
"Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you," she said, re-emerging from the bathroom. "Joe has to be back in London on Sunday next week, so he'll have to leave Saturday. I talked to Maeve's mom, and she said you could stay at their house until I get back."
"Really?" I asked excitedly. "When do you get back? How many days do I get to stay there?"
"Let me check my calendar." She walked over to grab her phone off the dresser. "Uhm, we arrive back in Tennessee on... that following Tuesday. You'll probably either be staying until Wednesday or I'll get someone to drive you back because I'm probably going to be too jet-lagged to drive."
"I'm so excited to see Maeve again!" I grinned, lying down and sprawling my arms and legs out on the bed and over all of her clothes.
"Skye," Taylor fake whined. "Instead of messing up my extremely organized system, could you please help me pick out some outfits?"
I laughed but sat back up again to help her as Benji curled up on one of her Lover hoodies.
***
A/N
Hey guys! We're just five days away from opening night ahh!! Is anyone going?🥰
Here's also just a reminder to take care of yourself: drink water, eat something, make sure you get enough sleep and exercise!
Lately I've been trying to sleep better and I've completely stopped drinking coffee (it's so hard tho) to see if my anxiety gets any better, so I thought I'd remind all of you to take care as well. Sometimes a small change is all you need xx