° we don't know how frozen we are until someone starts to break our ice. °
Chapter 25
[ continuation...]
"Hey Handsome," Sky says with a quirked smile that automatically makes me smile too.
"Hi," I say breathless, not understanding a thing that is going on in my body. It's like something is pulling me towards him, I just want to be closer. I unconsciously take a step closer but Darcy's hand around mine pulls me back and I snap back like a rubber ring, remembering that Sky and I aren't the only ones here.
Sky's eyes follow the hand on mine and trails up to Darcy's face. He smiles at her but I can tell it isn't a real smile, it didn't show at all in his eyes. "Um... Darcy right?" She nods, unlike Sky she doesn't try to disguise her dislike for him with a smile. "It's nice seeing you again."
"Same," she shrugs. "I guess."
Jamal and Sky exchange greetings before his eyes return to me and he grabs the plate of cake I am holding, taking a fork for himself. "I have actually been waiting for you, that's the only reason I came to this."
I want to tell him he is the main reason I came too but the words are stuck in my throat because Darcy and Jamal are still here. My eyes meet Jamal's and he has a teasing smile on, I almost roll my eyes. Just then someone calls Jamal to come over and he exchanges a look with me before grabbing hold of Darcy's hand around me.
"Come on Magdalene, let's go."
"Go where?" She shakes her head. "I am not going anywhere with you."
Jamal and I exchange another look, this time I roll my eyes before Jamal starts talking. "Well, Sky is about to steal Issy away so unless you want to stand here alone, you'd come with me."
Really Jamal?! Did you have to come clean!
Darcy looks at me with pinched brows, "Israel?"
"Um," I look at Sky for help but he's busy eating up my cake and drawing something on the ground with his foot. "I have to go clarify something with Sky. Regarding an assignment."
"Now?" She asks eye wide, looking between Sky and I.
I nod quickly, "very important but I promise I will be back."
"Israel, I don't want to be alone with this miscreant!"
"I'm right here you..." Jamal trails off, sighing and rolling his eyes. "Let's just go Magdalene. I won't do anything to you and you fucking know it."
Darcy glares at me once before leaving, Jamal trailing behind her. I sigh, "I think I've just dug my grave."
Sky slings his hand around my shoulder, "She'd be fine. And I actually do need you."
"What?" We start walking, "why?"
"As cliche as it sounds, you complete me," he smirks, flicking my nose.
I bite my lip to keep the feelings at bay, "Sky..."
He looks over my face and slowly let's me go. "Sorry, I just-" he ran his hand through his hair with a groan. "We're okay, right?"
"Huh?"
"We never clarified," he says his eyes never leaving mine. "After the day at my house, we never clarified with the text if everything is okay. It just disappeared and I just don't want to overstep."
I try to understand, "your house. Where you said you're- pa- pansexual gay?"
He nods, "you gave off the feeling that you weren't okay with it and I thought to give you your space but then you texted and I just assumed we're good but then maybe we aren't? I don't know and I don't want to-" I cut off his rambling with a chuckle. Sky raises his brows at me. "What?"
I touch an itch on my nose, "you were rambling. It was cute."
Sky blushes, actually turning red. "Israel!"
"Okay, sorry," I clear my throat. "And I'm okay with that. With you being p-pansexual."
"I'd rather not be labeled but sure, I am."
I shrug, "I don't care."
Sky takes a step closer, almost throwing the distance between us into the air. "You do."
"I don't."
"Israel, you fucking do."
"Fine," I confess, my feet moving. "I care okay. I was raised to hate people-- people like you." And me.
"Well, do you?"
I shake my head, "I texted because I apparently can't bare to not have you in my life. I don't hate you."
Sky nods and takes my drink away, placing it on the table next to us. He grabs my hands, looking at them as his thumbs rub over them. "Well, do you- do you know how I feel about you?"
I don't say anything and Sky looks up, his now darkened eyes looking back at me saying a thousand words and touching the deepest places with just one look. Amongst everything in his cat eyes, I could also see fear and vulnerability, something I have never seen before. I nod, almost like I being controlled. Then I look back at his thumb drawing circles on the back of my palm, "kinda."
"Should I say it?" He whisper asks.
"No," I say sharply, my heart beating like trapped bird.
"Why not?"
"Because," I swallow. "I'm scared I won't be able to say it back."
He nods, "I would wait."
I look at him, searching his face for a lie but I see none. "What if-- what if it never goes away? What I remain this way forever?"
"Easy Issy," he smirks, leaving my hand to touch my face. "It's one step at a time and I'll be here through every one."
"I'm just scared."
"Me too." We stay looking at each other and it's a loud shriek slash scream that breaks the moment and we turn to see Jamal stripped of all his clothes, wearing only boxers as he runs and jumps into the pool.
"What the--" I exclaim in surprise as Sky creates more distance between us.
"Issy, come on!" He yells, making a lot of people turn to our direction. I shrink at their gazes.
"Oh no."
Sky laughs, backing away, "he called, aren't you going to answer?"
I shake my head, "no, let's just disappear."
"I think the pool looks nice," Sky says and in one fluid motion, he removes his hoodie and my eyes widen because he just did that and he didn't have anything underneath the hoodie. I can see his rock hard chest and abdomen! When his starts unbuttoning his jeans, I take my eyes back up to his eyes.
"Sky, what are you doing?!"
He licks his lips, as if my face wasn't hot enough. "I'm going to take a swim. Please join me." He gets rid of his trousers too, dumps his clothes on a pool chair and cannonballs into the water earning cheers.
"Isreal you now!" Jamal yells and suddenly people start chanting my name. Both people I know and people I don't know. My eyes meets Darcy and she has this amusing look on. Sky winks and I shyly start taking my clothes off too, thankful that I don't have a bulging stomach and I am not just bones everywhere. I am averagely okay.
Unlike Jamal and Sky my entry into the water isn't as dramatic, I carefully jump in but that didn't stop the cheering.
"I'm so proud," Jamal says and I whack his head.
"Swimming wasn't part of the deal!"
"I had to do something!" He yells before lowering his voice. "You and Sky looked like you were going to kiss each other and while that's completely fine with me, I couldn't let that happen in front of everyone."
"I- we weren't going to kiss," I splutter.
"Wasn't what it looked like," he glares at me. "You owe me, I had to keep Darcy from looking at you both. You guys were awfully close and she surely would have suspected something."
I nod, "thanks Mal."
"Be careful next time," he says and I absentmindedly nod. He smiles at me, "you know, I like you better now."
"Shut up, Mal."
We end up playing different games in the pool, drinking and sharing some stories. Jamal shares a morbid story of when he was learning how to swim and almost drowned in the process, being extremely detailed and silencing the entire pool as we processed the stories in our minds, feeling pity for five year old him. Just as some random girl in the pool sniffles, he laughs saying the entire story was a lie. What follows next is a series of grumble as we attack him with slaps shoving him into the water despite his protest.
After it all, Jamal got a little upset and in his spite he shoves Darcy into the water, fully clothed. It was super hilarious and we've been thinking of a way to lure her into the pool for a while. Guess angry Jamal just gets things done without much thinking. Darcy throws a fit though and it's funny enough to make Jamal less angry and bring him back into the water.
I manage to calm Darcy down with a lot of words and when's she's calm enough, she starts enjoying herself and bantering with Mal again.
As everyone speaks, I shrink back and try to silently watch Sky. I can't deceive myself that I'm not checking him out, he looks super good even with nothing on. My eyes move from his wet hair to his pink lips, then to his shoulder and what I could see above the water. I'm getting super hot and I'm about looking away when my eyes catch on the scar on his arm. It's a straight line injury that looks like it hurt pretty bad when it happened, deep and stitched. It's healed up now but something about it still looks scary.
Sky turns around, meeting my eyes immediately, I blush looking away. He swims closer to me, "hey."
"H-hi," I can barely say the word, my voice is all hoarse.
Sky smirks, "wanna get out of here?"
"Sure," I lift my hands up to check out my fingers, "I'm already getting wrinkles."
We get out the water, toweling intensely before going over to our clothes. "I'm not putting this on," Sky says, folding his trousers and picking up his hoodie.
"You're just going to walk around half naked?" I ask, not daring to look below his waist.
"Yeah," he smiles, "it's less naked than everyone here anyway." Still looking at my confused face, he chuckles, "you can put yours on. I'm gonna wear mine when this (his boxers) is more dry."
"Fine," I fold mine too, "half naked boys then."
"Great choice," he however dares looking down my waist, eying my legs before looking away.
I roll my eyes and before he can put on his hoodie, I spot the scar again and quickly ask, "what happened to you there?"
"Where?"
I point, "there."
Sky eyes follow and when he sees the scar, he blinks like he has forgotten it was there or he did not expect me to see it and ask. He pulls on his hoodie, hiding it away. "A bullet wound."
I am not expecting that, I almost bite my tongue trying to get a word out. "W-what?"
"Come on," he looks like he's going to take my hand but on a second thought, he retreats, dipping his hands into his hoodie pouch after slinging his trousers over his shoulder and nudging his head in the direction he wants us to go.
I wordlessly follow him back into the house, through the mindless drunk dancing teens and into the kitchen. The cake remains just a piece but I'm in no mood for taking more of it. Sky looks around the kitchen before he starts searching the cupboard and drawers. I watch him, half amused and half curious. He searches and searches only stopping when he produces a swollen bag of crackers. "Tada," he shakes the bag with a grin and I chuckle.
After that he goes to the fridge and leaves with two bottle of water. Water has got to be his favourite liquid, he drinks lots of it. With his goods secured, he nudges his head out the kitchen and starts walking with me right behind him. We walk past the teens again, this time going outside through the front. On the lawn there are passed out people and people intensely making out. I squeeze my face in disgust while Sky whistles. We walk past it all and out to the street.
The chilly night breeze hits my bare legs, my boxers drying on me and I start questioning my entry into the pool. But not as much as I silently question where Sky is taking us to, half and a quarter naked. My unspoken question is answered when we stop at his truck that is packed a little down the street, not far from Sara's house. There are a couple other cars here too. Sky gives me his treat to hold and when I do, he lowers the lid to the bed of his trunk. There's a quilt inside and he jumps on to drag it closer, spreading it over the truck.
When he jumps on, he pats beside him, beckoning me over, I get on too. Swinging my legs below to create some kind of warmth. "Why do you have this here?"
"My dad used it to cover me when I fell asleep out here, a night ago."
I look at him, his lips still look as pink. "Why did you sleep off here?"
"I was watching the sky," on cue he looks up and my eyes drop to his neck and his Adam's apple - tsk, the little things that I find attractive. "I fell asleep under the watch of the stars."
I look away from him and up to the sky. There weren't a lot of stars up there now and I can't tell if that's usual or not. I don't remember when last I looked at the sky just to see the stars. "You're something else Sky Hunt."
The silence is broken when he tears open the puffed bag of crackers. I don't look away from the few stars that I can see but I hear him eating. I hazily remember my mum telling me not to count the stars when I was little, according to her superstitious believe wherever you stopped counting would be the number of years you'd up to. Maybe that's why I lost interest in the stars, that's kinda morbid. But now I don't look away and I hear Sky crunch on his crackers.
"The bullet wound happened two years ago," he says out of the blue, making me look back at him. "It's from the same bullet that killed Char."
Char- Charlotte his cousin.
"I was stupid and it is all my fault. I was angry and stubborn, she was trying to make me understand something and I wasn't giving her a listening ear. I stormed out the house and she followed, I was telling her to leave me be and she was telling me to stop," Sky turns away and wipes at his face, it breaks my heart to see him like this. "If only I had stopped. Soon after we start hearing police sirens and gun shots. People start panicking, running about and some freeze. Before we could decide what to do, the theives that were being chased appeared in their car, yelling and shooting randomly. I didn't see it coming, no one did. I didn't even feel the pain on my hand and it's only when Charlotte calls that I turn and see her clutching her chest, warm blood oozing out."
I feel choked up, like I'm going to cry to. I've never seen Sky so pained.
"Char died in my arms, right there on the street," he clears his throat and shoves crackers into his mouth. "It should have been me. It should have gone through my chest and not just whiz by my arm. I'm the one--" he stops, using both hands to cover his face. "I'm sorry."
I don't know if he's apologizing to me or not. And I don't know what to say so I just move closer until our bare cold legs touch and I wrap my hands around him. Sky quickly reciprocate, burying his face in the folds of my clothes. I don't know how long we stay like that but it's a while and I'm not complaining.
Sky shifts so his facing my neck, tickling me with his breath. "You smell so nice."
"Mm-hm," I say, trying to hold the giggle that's threatening to burst through. I didn't know I was ticklish there!
"I could just eat you," he says moving his head closer until his nose touch my warm ticklish skin.
"Sky stop," I force out with a little giggle. "It ticklish."
"I know," I can literally hear the smile in his voice. "It's cute watching you fight it-- ah." He makes a sound like he's actually going to eat me and I break away, giggling loudly.
"Sky!"
He laughs, throwing my words back at me. "You're something else, Isreal Taylor."
I try to stop the giggles, laying down back on the truck. Sky copies my position and we both look up at the sky. I am highly aware that our legs are still touching and soon, our hands touch too and I wrap my fingers around Sky's. "I'm happy you're here... with me."
-----------------------------
Thoughts on the chapter? It's long, phew.
Vote and comment.