Page 23 of The Sky Between Us

She exhaled and pointed at the sky. “It’s so pretty. I love it.”

“The sky?” I asked, a bit confused, and she couldn’t see, but a grin stretched across my face. Such a mundane thing to say. “I could tell you love it, that’s your little brother’s name.”

Hazel giggled and that sound, once again, hit me hard. “Yeah, my dad was extremely confused when I said we should name him Sky. He thought Sky was a girl name, but it’s unisex. It’s like Sage.”

I couldn’t imagine Coach being confused and the image made me laugh, too.

“Do you ever miss someone and wonder what they are doing?” she asked out of the blue, her voice suddenly serious. It lost the playful edge.

Sitting up, I looked down at her, and I saw the tears shining in her eyes. God, this girl was a mess. A beautiful mess. And I wanted to comfort her.

“Sometimes. But if you miss someone, you have to think of it this way: you can’t be that far from each other, if you are sleeping under the same sky.”

She contemplated my words, as I shifted closer to her on the ground. Hazel sat up, her curls lost their volume, her make-up stained, and suddenly she looked much younger. Pulling up her knees, she rested her chin on them and blinked up to the dark sky.

“I think it’s the opposite. It’s the sky that’s standing between us.”

A put an arm around her shoulders and wrapped her between my arms. Her body sank into mine and she rested her head on my chest. I didn’t know what to say or how to comfort her because I had no idea what we were talking about. I just hugged her tight and changed the topic.

“Why did you drink?” I risked raising the question. “You said you don’t drink.”

“You hurt me,” she muttered with eyes closed. “I just wanted to forget.”

Her words felt like a knife being thrown straight to my heart.

“You wanted to forget what?” The masochist in me asked, causing her to sigh.

“Everything,” she whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I just didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to feel the pain. I wanted it all gone. Then I drank a few shots and it helped. It lifted a weight off my shoulders, it felt good.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was reckless and stupid from her side, because everyone did it. It was normal, yet I wanted her to promise me she would never do it again. I was torn.

Hazel shivered in my arms and she tried to scoot closer. My arms tightened around her and she laid her head on my shoulders.

“I wish we could stay like this forever,” she muttered.

“Me too,” I whispered in her hair, but I knew better. When the morning comes, we’ll be back to us. Because despite us being wrapped up in each other right now, there were still many unsolved things we couldn’t get past.

“I’m cold, I should go home.” Hazel stood and stumbled. Reaching out I steadied her legs and running my hand up her tights I stopped at the hem of her dress. “This is a bad idea.”

“Those are my favorite,” I grinned up at her and stood still holding onto her. “Stay for the night, you are drunk.”

“You think I’ll sleep with you just because I’m drunk?” she snorted and rolled her eyes.

A laughter escaped me and I shook my head. “You are intoxicated. I would never take advantage of you.”

“Good, because drunk or not, I’m not sleeping with you. Plus, you don’t want to sleep with me either.” She turned on her heels and walked back to the house. Picking up her shoes, I quickly followed.

“Hazel?” I called her name as I passed the crowd and tried to find the white dress. There were definitely less people as the night was coming to an end, and mostly couples stayed to linger around. I jumped over a pool of beer that someone spilled and caught a glimpse of Hazel in the lobby. “Hazel, wait!” I shouted a bit louder.

Elliot walked towards her, and grabbing her arm, stopped her for me, but Hazel didn’t want to be stopped. She pulled her arm from his grip, causing my friend to lose his balance and spill his drink all over her dress. The brownish yellow drink tainted the white and Hazel stared at it blankly.

“Are you crazy?” Sarah screamed and rushed past Elliot to take a look at the damage he made, giving me enough time to catch up. “This dress was a fortune.”

“It was a free gift,” Hazel muttered, annoyed, clearly back to her old self.

Her friend stared at her angrily, then turned to Elliot and scolded him for his clumsiness. Hazel welcomed me as a distraction.

“Come, you can clean up in the bathroom,” I nodded towards the stairs.

---