Page 20 of The Sky Between Us

Sarah rolled her eyes. “You don’t have feelings, Hazel.”

I chuckled, wishing it was true. “Sit. Let’s make you pretty too.”

“You could be a model, you are tall enough and skinny enough,” she muttered as I ran the hairbrush through her slick hair.

“I used to model dance clothes,” I told her, surprising myself too. Sarah looked at me through the mirror with her doe eyes and I went on. “Back in high school. It was fun.”

“I didn’t know you danced,” she muttered, and I nodded. “You never share personal stuff. And you know all my high school boy drama.”

The reason why Sarah and I worked was that she loved talking and sharing all her life story, and I didn’t mind listening. Granted, her drama was nothing compared to mine, but it was fun to forget about everything for a while and get lost in her story. She used to be a mean girl, an entitled bitch who won pageants since she was three. She was even prom queen. When I met her three years ago, she transferred from NYU because she found her match and that other girl just destroyed her. YouTube was a way for her to gain back her old confidence and I was her free therapist. A good listener. We bonded, and thankfully she didn’t want any more college experience so we were fine.

Until Elliot made her crazy.

These soccer guys were going to destroy us.

After braiding her hair, as I promised, we called an Uber and went to the party. During the entire drive, we were silent, both staring outside the window and lost in our own thoughts. How did we get here? Exactly where we didn’t want to, at the heart of the party.

As the Uber came to a stop, we both got out and Sarah grabbed my hand. “Thank you for coming.”

“Stop saying it,” I muttered. “I’m not here only for you. I need to do something too.”

“Aiden?” she asked, and I didn’t even act surprised she knew. Of course, she knew somehow. Nothing stayed a secret at Baywater University.

Shrugging, I motioned towards the house. “Let’s get this over with.”

Sarah threw her long hair over her shoulders and nodded. “Yes, we can do this. We can show these stupid boys we don’t need them.”

A laughter escaped me as I shook my head. “Whatever you say,” I muttered walking up the stairs and pushing the door open.

The place was crowded. Even more than the time before despite being 10P.M. The students all cramped into the living room and few of them were talking, hugging or kissing in the lobby.

“Look who finally decided to show up!” Elliot shouted through the music and approached us with drinks in his hands.

I raised a brow at him as he handed us a red cup, then placed his newly freed up hands on Sarah’s back. “I was beginning to miss you.”

Glancing at my friend, I saw her cheeks flush, despite what left Elliot’s mouth. I would have probably punched him, but she liked what she heard, so I moved away, letting her deal with it.

“Hazel!” Sarah called after me, but I only gave her a thumbs up before entering the living room.

The music blasted through the speakers as bodies melted together on the dance floor. They all seemed to move in unison, yet on their own beat. It was fun to watch them stumble, as the alcohol clouded their brain and vision. It must have been nice, turning it all off, forgetting everything and just living in the moment. Some days, I wished I could do it. I could have used a break from my own brain.

Shaking my head, I tore my eyes from the dancing crowd and moved towards the kitchen. As I made my way through the crowd, I could feel the people staring. Their gaze bore into my exposed skin and it made the tiny hairs on my arm stand up. My own skin felt uncomfortable and I wanted to shed it so I could hide in the darkness where I came from. But laying eyes on the messy blonde hair that I was looking for made me braver. I just needed to get to Aiden and talk to him.

But talk about what? Were we even friends? He clearly had his own issues because he was acting hot and cold. But I couldn’t ruin this friendship. Sky’s ecstatic smile hit me straight in the core and I knew I had to make this right. Whatever went wrong I needed to find a way to fix it.

For him.

Aiden’s arms were wrapped around a blonde, and I wasn’t even fazed by the cliché unfolding in front of my eyes. Pretty blonde with a little black dress. This really was just like high school but with much more alcohol and action.

“Hey,” I greeted them as if they both were just there waiting for me.

The blonde turned her head to my direction, her eyes narrowing at me, and placing a hand on Aiden’s shoulders, while the soccer captain looked at me with a blank, expressionless face.

I whipped out my sweetest smile as I looked at the girl. “Why don’t you leave?”

“Excuse me?” she blinked at me with eyes wide clearly not expecting for me to speak to her the way I just did. “No one talks to me like that. Do you even know who I am?”

“Come on, Claire,” I said, still smiling. “You are the captain of the dance team. Three years in a row you kept begging me to join because you couldn’t even win the state cup, and let’s not even talk about the nationals. But if you leave, this might be your lucky year, and I’ll tell you the secret to winning.”

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