Skyelar looked into Ian's eyes. She saw hurt, pain, but prevailing above all other emotions, was anger.
"What did you say???" he asked, inching closer by the minute. Skye's stomach churned, yet she held her ground. He would not get the best of her. Not this time. She had had enough.
"I said, it's over." He was now no more than a foot away from her. He lifted her chin up gently with his fingertips. Skye tried not to draw back, he'd only hit harder if she resisted. Quickly, in one swift movement, his actions had turned from gentle to abusive. He slapped her acrossed the face.
"Why? Why Skye? Was it another man? Huh? Huh, Twinkles? " With each new sentence he poked harder into her collarbone, gagging her worse and worse each time. She knew he could see it in her eyes. Damn, why did she have to be so transparent? Anyone could see her emotion, and Ian knew she was scared.
"Ian, please. I-" Before she could finish, he shoved her into the end table.
"Oh no. Don't 'Ian, please' me. Cause you know why babe?" he looked at her sprawled across the floor with a sick fascination, before kicking her in the ribs. "Cause 'It's over'." He turned around and walked through the door, slamming it behind him.
Skyelar knew this time he had really done some damage. Her face stung, her back ached, and more than anything, her ribs screamed with pain. Her mother wouldn't be home anytime soon. She was on her own this time. Skyelar made an attempt to get up, but her legs gave out as soon as she was upright, and she fell onto the couch. Why did he have to be so awful? Oh well, she thought, that's the last time he'll be awful to me. The more she thought about it, the stupider she thought she was. Why did she even let it get to this point? She tried to get up, this time slowly. After three tries, finally she had success. She walked to the bathroom, took two Tylenols and went carefully up the stairs to her room. She went to the CD player and pressed play. Immediately, her room was filled with the harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas.
"All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. I've been for a walk, on a winters day. I'd be safe and warm, if I was in L.A. California Dreamin', on such a winter's day."
More than anything, Skyelar hoped that her mother had gotten those plane tickets to Aunt Rachel's. She didn't really care where she lived, as long as it wasn't here. Skye's mother had promised that if Ian tried one more thing, that she could go away and live with her aunt. Of course, Skye's first request was to live with her father, but her mother wouldn't have that. No. She'd have too much fun in Aspen. Couldn't have that. So the next person would be Aunt Rachel. Sky didn't care if her home was in tornado alley. It was better than here. Skye fell back onto her light blue satin sheets, unfolded her leopard spots throw and covered herself with it, then fell into a fitful sleep. The events of the weeks to come would be tough, but she could handle them. Nothing could hold Skyelar Bailey Masterson down.
By the next day, she had called mer mother, called Delta Airlines and gotten tickets, packed all she would need, called her aunt to inform her, and made reservations for a cab service to take her to the airport. Skye was ready for a new life, and she wanted it now. She just had to wait five more hours. She decided to go see Reno, one last time. Reno, or Danny as everyone else knew him as, was Skye's only true friend through her years at Milwaukee High School. He was always the one she had turned to. And when Ian hit her the first time, he was the one she told. He had promised, sworn on his life, the if Ian tried anything else he would kill him. Skye had cried a lot that day, but two days later she cried harder than she ever had. Danny had gone out with some friends that night, and they had gone to Stacy Adkin's party. Of course, there was beer, like all of Stacy's parties, and Skye had told Danny to be careful...
"Danny, I don't want you to go. You might get stuck with Ron driving and you know he get's mean when he's drunk. He might be too stubborn to let someone sober drive." Skye looked at him with true concern.
"Ah, Twinkles, I wouldn't let him pull me into somethin' stupid like that. You know I wouldn't. I'm not that weak, am I?" he had said, a playful smile on his face. "Besides, it would suck to die. I've gotta marry you first." he said, the same playful smile playing on his lips.
"Yeah, whatever, you loser." she said, ruffling his hair gently. He had kissed her cheek, jumped into his mom's Escort, and peeled off...
Skye now walked down the trails of Maple Hills Cemetery, all the while recalling good times she had had with Danny...
"Now, Danny, since you are now a football player, we simply must come up with a hulky name...hmmm...what do you think about Dan the Man?" she said, smiling widely.
"Nah, too...too...too you." he said. Skye Punched him. "Hey!" he shouted. "That was not fair."
Skye had laughed at his pouting.
"Skye, you're too good for that jerk, Ian. You're way too sweet for him. Why won't you go out with me?" he had asked, looking into her rare violet eyes.
"Danny...I've told you, I only want you as a friend." she said, turning away from him.
"Oh, c'mon, Twinkles! We could run to Reno Nevada, get married, have one night of furious passion, and then divorce the next morning! It wouldn't hurt our friendship one little bit. In fact, I'm sure once you had the baby, we would be closer that ever! Sound fun?" he had asked, grinning broadly, the way he always did when he gave her a stupid line.
"Oh, yeah, we'll run to Reno. That'll happen. Give it up, Danny." she had swatted his head playfully. "Come Monday, I'll tell everyone in school your new nickname is Reno, and then I'll tell them the story behind it. Problem solved."
She missed him so much. When he had died, everyone at school chipped in a dollar and got him a bronzed plaque to put on the tree they had crashed into that night. The community photographer, Becky Jones, had taken the football player's senior pictures in front of his grave with them kneeling and holding their hands to the sky. At his funeral, they played "Crossroads", and everyone there cried. The school had even discontinued the use of the #52 uniform and put it in the hallway, as a reminder.
Finally, Skye reached his grave. "Daniel Ray Adams, 1979-1997 Forever our Reno, Heaven's Official Quarterback." Skye let kneeled for a while, just knowing he was with her, and turned on her heels and walked home.*
Once she reached her house, she ran to her bedroom, she really needed a nap. She set her alarm for four, so she would have an hour to shower and get ready.
At four she woke up to the Tom Petty song, Walls, on her radio.
That was the first song she learned on guitar. Skye smiled and absentmidedly lifted her fingers to eye level. Just a year ago her smooth fingertips had been scarred with ugly marks from playing the guitar constantly. Now she only played her keyboard. Thinking of her keyboard, she walked over to her desk and opened the top right drawer. Inside was a stack of staff paper seven inches thick. These were her songs she had written, some with lyrics, some instrumental, all special in their own way. Skye had been writing songs since she was twelve, reeling out about one a week. Currently, she had 467 songs writted be exact. Skye picked up the neat stack and separated it into sections. She put the sections in folders and put those in her backpack.
She went to her closet to dress. She grabbed the outfit she had set aside for the traveling that day, which was a pair of RoxyQuicksilver sport shorts, a lime green spaghetti strap tank top with white and navy stripes on the chest, and Adidas sport sandals. She pulled the top layer of her hair into a messy bun and left the rest down. She looked around her room. She wouldn't be back for at least six months. She grabbed her bags, blew a kiss into the empty room, and shut the door.
At 5:07 P.M., a cab came and picked her up. Once she got to the airport, she picked up her tickets and headed for her terminal. As soon as she got on the plane, she immediately began reading her current english/lit. assignment and new favorite book, Romeo and Juliet. Skye absolutely loved Shakespear, and since her Aunt was homeschooling this to her son Sean, Skye might as well try to catch up.
Skye woke up to someone tapping her shoulder. Some tall man with dark brown hair.
"Miss, the flight's over. Miss, wake up." he smiled when she opened her eyes.
"Sorry, I must've fallen asleep. Thank you for waking me." she said.
"No problem. I didn't want you to be left behind. Are you traveling alone?"
That was a nosy question for a guy who only met her five seconds ago.
"Yeah, I'm, uh, going to stay here with my Aunt. Rachel Carpenter."
The man got a look of recognition on his face. "Oh, she's your aunt? She used to work with our company, but she got a better job somewhere else. Yes-sur-ee, she was a hard worker." Skye smiled. He must be telling the truth. She trusted him now.
"Well, I need to go, or my wife will kill me," he leaned close and whispered loudly, "she's pregnant you know." Skye liked this guy.
"Yeah, see ya around." she called.
"Probably this weekend..." his voice faded off as he walked farther into the writhing mass of people in the airport. 'Weird' she thought. She looked throught the crowd, trying to find a sign with her name, until someone grabbed her from behind...
~*AN: Mu-ha-ha-ha!! *evil laugh* Trust me to leave you hanging! Personally, I find it quite amusing.*~
