I woke up to the sun shining on my face from my window and I turned the other way, my back facing it. I relished in the warmth of the sun and the blanket and smiled to myself.
Saturday. The day where we all either do nothing or do everything.
I took in the nice moment, just laying with my eyes closed. The feeling was rare. The feeling of total relaxation. If I ignored the exhaustion screaming from my heart, it felt like a good day. I laid down in bed, scrolling through my phone for an hour before deciding to get up.
I stretched and tried to finish unpacking. I put off unpacking for a while but the disorganization bothered me(not OCD). I dug into my duffel bag where I found my purse, then my wallet.
I opened my wallet to find my debit card under my dad's name and the rest of my cash money I'd been saving up for the past years in envelopes.
I sat on the floor for a while, reminiscing about my dad. Trying to think of the last time we'd spent a nice time together. My mind wandered, trying to search through my memories. Then they led me to my mom.
I hope they're both happy together in heaven. Does heaven exist?
My stomach growled and I pushed the idea behind as I dressed into a T-shirt and sweatpants. I grabbed my phone, and headed out my door.
The house was quiet as I made my way to their kitchen, but stopped before I stepped on the tiles. I'd felt bad for eating their food.
They shouldn't have another mouth to feed.
I headed back into my room to get my wallet and started heading out for breakfast when I heard a door click.
I reached the top of the stairs when I saw Grayson step out in his his boxers.
"Oh my god dude!" I exclaimed in disgust as I held my hand up. "Cover up." I said as I headed to my door past him.
He closes the door behind him.
"What girl did u bring home anyway?" I joked. "I could hear u guys all the way from here." I close my door behind me as I changed into sweatpants with a hoodie and a beanie. I grabbed my wallet to stuff into my small purse.
I heard Grayson in the bathroom we shared and knocked on the door, telling him I'd be out getting food.
I checked my purse again to make sure everything was there when I bumped into someone.
"Oh sorr-." My eyes widened. "What the fuck." I say shocked.
She was speechless but looked guilty as she stood there with her mouth open. She was about to say something when I interrupted.
"What the fuck?!" I said again louder this time and the running water stopped running in the bathroom. I stormed to the bathroom and pushed open the door to see him hiding behind the door. "Clem? Clementine? Are you serious?!" I shouted, my voice raising.
"S-Sky wait-." He started.
"No. No! What the FUCK?" My mouth was gaped open. This made NO sense. I felt angrier as I felt like he was siding with her and her bitchy attitude towards me. "Since when did everyone go around FUCKING eachother?" I scoffed and stormed down the stairs out the front door.
I stopped on the sidewalk and muttered to myself again, "What the fuck."
I put my headphones in playing Ruel and made my way to the nearest breakfast restaurant. I found myself at Bubby's and walked in, the sweet smell made me feel better as I ordered.
I ignored the notifications Clem and Gray were trying to leave me and scrolled though my phone. I sighed and sat back in my chair, appreciating the food filling me up.
The bell rang and I glanced at the door to see Peter walk in with 3 men. One wore a clean suit and wore glasses. He wasn't that much taller than Peter, but I recognized his face enough to know that he was Tony Stark. Another man was a bit taller than Stark, had broad shoulders and blond hair that was brushed back. The famous Captain America. America's Sweetheart.
The last man had a cap on and I could see his long brown hair coming out from under it. He wore a navy jacket with gloves on both hands. I could see him scanning the room and making eye contact with me before glancing down.
I raised my eyebrow as Peter spotted me and looked surprise. Tony glanced at me as Peter whispered something to him. But I kept my eyes on the 3rd man's gloved hands. Steve Rogers was talking to the server as the other still kept his head down.
I snapped my eyes towards Peter as I saw him walking towards me.
"Sky? What are you doing here?" Peter took the chair in front of me and sat down.
"Hey Peter," I smiled. "I'm just getting breakfast. I didn't know you knew Tony Stark." I smirked.
He raised his eyebrows and glanced at them taking a booth next to a wall.
"Oh yeah. I have an internship with him. I always spend the weekends at the Stark Tower for it."
I gave an approving nod. "So you're busy?"
He shrugged. "I mean, Mr. Stark offered breakfast with him and Captain America." He lowered his voice as he sounded excited for the opportunity. "Oh and Mr. Barnes. Why?"
I shook my head and drank my water.
"Where's Grayson?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes and set my glass down. "Back at his house. He's being a dick right now so I decided to be alone for breakfast."
"What'd he do?" He frowned.
I shook my head again, "just Grayson being Grayson."
Peter kept his eyes on me as I look over to the booth. They were all staring and looked away when I glanced. Subtle.
"You should get back to them." I laughed as I pulled out my wallet to leave tip.
Peter looked at them and back to me. "Oh yeah yeah." He gets up at the same time as me and I push my chair in. "If you're not busy tonight can you let me know?" I blurted. I held my breath for his answer.
He looked back at me and a frown formed on his face. "Sure, I can ask Mr. Stark. You want to talk about something? Or?"
I paused, I didn't know what to say. "No no, it's okay if you're not free, don't stress about it."
"W-wait no I'm free. I'll be free." He stuttered, making me smile. He's adorable. "See you later?" As he starts making his way towards the booth.
I smiled at him, "yeah." I went to the counter to the cash register to pay and I watched as Peter slid in next to the long brown haired man. They started talking and I headed out.
I stroll down to the street I know so well and open the fence. I get through the protruding rubble. Everything seemed normal and calm.
"Sky!"
I heard my name called and I looked up at the rooftop on the building to my left.
I saw Lucas waving at me.
I smiled and waved back. "Come on!" He squeaked, motioning me up with his hand and I laughed at his cuteness.
I made my way up the building, getting pretty tired. I opened the door to see Lucas sitting criss crossed in his opened tent while the other 2 were bundled up in blankets and sleeping bags outside their tent.
"Hey Lucas. Whatcha doin up?" I made my way towards his tent and kneeled in front of the entrance. He was sitting up his sleeping bag and his blankets were neatly folded.
He shrugged, "I always wake up this early. Those assholes always sleep in." He scowled. "They're no fun."
"Why arent they sleeping in their tents?" I looked back and see Lucas' dazed expression and chuckled.
"I mean as long as it doesn't rain we can sleep out here. I just didn't want to." He stepped out and stared at them. "Wanna wake them up?"
I raised my eyebrows and smiled, "I....don't think thats a good idea." I laughed.
"Oh come on. As long as you don't get too close to Elijah you'll be fine. Luke found out the hard way." He squinted.
I sighed, "well, you wake him up, I'll wake Luke up."
He shrugged and walked off.
I stared at Luke and got down on his level. I laid on the cement on my stomach and rested my head on my folded arms as I slowly blowed onto his face. I blowed harder and I saw his face twitch making me smile. I take in a deep breath and breathed out again when he groggily opened his eyes, frowning a bit.
"HI." I screamed. He jumped and quickly sat up, rubbing his eyes.
I laughed and sat up with him. "Why are you so tired, party last night or something?"
He groaned. "What are you doing here Sky?" He yawned and I rolled my eyes.
"Thought I was invited anytime." I frowned and crossed my arms.
"Well," he stood up and stretched, "yeah, but it's so early." His voice was still hoarse as he opened his tent.
"Well, I'm here because my ass of a friend, Grayson, came out of his room this morning, naked. with Clementine." I groaned with disgust at the thought and leaned back onto the concrete.
"Wait," he came out of his tent with a new hoodie and frowned "Clementine Cardenas?"
My face dropped. I sat up again, "why?" I said, exhausted even more at his tone.
"Nothing." He muttered and turned around.
I stood up and grabbed his arm, "no tell me." I said sternly.
He gave me an 'are you serious' look and sighed. "I slept with her. One night stand, really nothing else."
I stood there with my mouth agape and I burned holes into his eyes as he frowned.
I wasn't mad at him of course.
"Sky?" His hand covered mine on his arm and I let him go, snapping out of it.
"Oh s-sorry."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
I tried to change the focus, "you're not a virgin?" I scrunched my nose, smiling.
He smirked and it turned into a smile, "you are?"
My smile dropped as I frowned and walked away.
I heard Luke laughing and calling out to me as I made my way to the edge. I hoisted my legs over side and let them dangle as I sat.
His laughter got closer as he put a hand on my shoulder. "I-I didn't mean it like that." He kept laughing.
I faked a smile and nodded and looked back at the city.
"I mean, there's nothing wrong with it." He said, starting to sound more genuine. "You decide when you want it and honestly, it's better to wait." There was a moment of silence. "But she was kind nice with it tho-."
"Shut up." I said as I pushed him laughing. "I'm sorry but," I lowered my voice, "is she a whore?"
He bursted out laughing as he sat right next to me. "I mean, I'm sure she won't mind."
I smiled.
I spent the rest of the day talking and helping him with his homework as Elijah eventually woke up to Lucas jumping on him and nighttime fell with the sun.
I lied down on the concrete to stare at the sky. The sky is such a beautiful thing. It's an infinite world that stretches on forever where anything could happen. It's endless. It helps me believe that certain things are still possible.
Luke snapped me out of my thoughts as he started humming something I didn't recognize.
I was going to leave eventually.
"If you leave late it might be dangerous." Luke said as he was wearing layers. The temperatures were dropping.
"Yeah I'm just waiting for a phone call." I said.
"From who?"
"Peter."
"Peter Parker? That kid?" Luke sat next to me.
"Yeah."
"He's cool. Kind of a pushover though." He scrunched his nose, almost cringing at the thought.
"He's my friend." I shrugged.
"Can I admit something that I'm not proud of?" He said.
"Why tell me?" I questioned.
"From today, I can tell you're a good person. Damaged but, all the best people are." He smiled at me.
I nodded, letting him continue.
"So um, Clementine was dating Peter for a few months. One day she went to a party by this dude everyone knows. His parties are always big and crazy in his mansion. Apparently Peter was busy and couldn't come to the party so Clementine just went with friends. I went too because Elijah had to go for business anyway. I had a good time, got drunk, and she did too. We met and," he paused. "I screwed her."
I processed his words and nodded slowly.
"We were both sad and desperate." He admitted.
"We all make mistakes though." I said. I tried to make light of the situation but I couldn't imagine the hurt Peter had to go through. Having your girlfriend/boyfriend cheat on you whilst drunk...
"Yeah." He nodded then laughed. "You know, Peter has a strong right hook." His right hand brushed his cheekbone as if he remembered the memory.
I raised my eyebrows.
"But I'm not mad. I deserved it."
My phone started ringing and I picked up when I saw Peter's name.
"Hey Sky, you said you were coming?" He said, kind of sounding out of breath.
"Yeah yeah I'm coming," I got up, "Where are you Peter? You sound tired."
"Yeah, I'll text you my address, see you soon!" He exclaimed and hung up.
That was weird. I thought.
"You got your phone call?" Luke said, standing up with me.
"Yeah. Thanks for this." I hugged him and he hugged back lightly.
"Yeah of course."
We waved bye to each other and I said bye to Lucas and Elijah on my way out. I got closer to Peter's building when I saw something in the corner of my eye.
I quickly turned around to look but I only saw people just minding their own business, walking along the sidewalk.
I swore I could've saw someone staring at me.
I shrugged off the feeling and made my way up the floors.
I saw Peter's apartment number and knocked. I waited for a while and saw a nice middle-aged woman answer the door. She must've been Peter's aunt. She wore a nice smile, the kind where people look at her and know that she's a good person.
She looked surprised and then gave me a warm smile. "You must be Skylar, Peter told me he was going to bring a girl."
I blushed.
"Peter's in his room, you can come in."
"Thank you..."
"May."
I smiled at her. "Thank you May."
I made my way to Peter's room and knocked. I didn't hear anything but the door leaned open from my hand. I peaked inside, curious.
I smiled as I saw the decorations of Star Wars around his room and the bed against the wall.
I closed the door behind me.
I hear the bathroom door open and I turned around to I see Peter with his hair wet and shirtless.
"Oh." I quickly turn around. I cursed at myself for looking and tried to cool my face down as I blushed.
"Skylar! S-sorry I didn't hear you come in." I could hear him fumbling for clothes.
"Um, yeah." I laughed. I sat down on his bed, still not looking at him.
I saw his feet walking toward me and I looked up at him smiling at me.
"Hi." He sat next to me.
"Hi." I softly smiled.
"What'd you do all day?" He looked up at the ceiling with a tired expression.
"Hung out at The Downs." I looked to my side and I felt our legs touching. He didn't sit too close but not far. Enough to make me have to concentrate somewhere else besides where we touched.
"What for?" He questioned.
"Luke, Lucas, Elijah." I said.
"Luke." He said with his eyebrows raised.
"Yeah," I say frowning, "sorry, it's not like I'm picking sides or anything. He told me what happened abou-."
"No no don't worry about it. We're okay, I think." He gulped.
I sighed and reminisced on my whole day. "How's your day been? Could I?" I point at his bed and he nodded his head.
I lay down, my head hitting his pillow and he still sat on the edge. "Mine's been good. Mr. Stark just talked and I helped him with stuff he was inventing."
"Sounds fun." I hummed. "Sorry if I was interrupting anything, I just didn't want to go back to Grayson's."
"No you weren't, you're fine. Why though? What happened?" He turned towards me, interested, and pulled his knee up, resting it against my elbow.
I shook my head. I didn't want him to stress about Clementine in case he still felt things for her. But I couldn't go back and face Grayson and his stupid explanations for screwing Clem. But I didn't know how to stall Peter, long enough for Gray to fall asleep.
"No it's okay, you can tell me." He rested his hand on the bed, almost as if he was trying to reach out for me but didn't reach out far enough. I looked at him. He had eager eyes, waiting for me to tell him.
"Um," I sat up, "Grayson slept with Clem last night." I said, as if I still couldn't process it.
He just frowned, not saying anything.
"Gray's my best friend, and he can do what he wants, I don't care." I looked down. "But it's like Clem's making her mark on every guy friend I have." I presseed my lips into a thin line. I twiddled my fingers together.
I felt his hands cover mine and I looked up at him.
"You're more important than you think." He said. "Grayson's your best friend, he wouldn't leave you behind for someone as unfit as Clementine."
I gave him a soft smile and nodded. Peter tried to comfort me but him mentioning that Grayson could choose Clem over me made me slowly start to panic. My mind suddenly swarmed with crowds of thoughts until Peter called out my name.
"Are you okay?" He asked, his brown eyes searching for mine.
"Yeah." I stared, "why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't want to bring it up if I have to but," I held my breath as he explained, "you seem like you've been fine ever since you moved into Gray's. And it's not like it's a bad thing of course but you know sometimes it just could be...a...facade." He rambled. "You know?"
I looked down at my lap. "I miss him." My eyes started watering and I tried swallowing the knot in my throat. "It's not fair. He shouldn't have died like that, and I didn't even get to tell him that I loved him back because I was so scared to." My voice broke as I tried to keep my composure. "I think I still feel numb, because when my mom died I couldn't get out of bed for almost a month. Then that's when my dad started disappearing for work." I crushed my hands together, as if it were my self control and I had to keep it from falling apart.
"It's not fair. I can't believe those were my last memories of him." I felt embarrassed as tears started streaming down my face. "And Grayson's family is so nice, taking care of me." I paused. I could barely see Peter's pained expression through my glossy eyes. "They both died a painful death." I choked. "My parents. They were hurting Peter. I can't imagi-." I started shaking but Peter reached out and wrapped his arms around me. I let a small part of me fall apart as he held me so close that I could feel his warmth.
"They didn't deserve that." His voice was a whisper but I could hear it breaking too. "You don't deserve this. It get's better. So please hold on for me okay? Hold on for those that care for you."
My breathing subtly started to even out as I felt tired.
He understood. Of course he understood.
"They're happy now, they're not on this broken world anymore." He rubbed my back, trying to soothe me. "And you're not a burden Sky. Not to Grayson or his family. Not to anyone. And definitely not to me. So don't be scared to tell me stuff like this."
I felt his voice vibrate in his chest and I closed my eyes.
[words: 3491]