Night Sky (17 page)

“Come on.” I take her hand and climb into
bed with her.

She immediately rests her
head on my chest.
I will never, ever get
tired of this. I’m helping…I’m supporting…I’m doing something,
right?
Only she’s so upset, that it feels
like I’m not helping her at all.
“Do you
want to talk about it?”

“I really can’t…I shouldn’t…”

“What about honesty?” I tease and then I
realize that was probably not the right thing to say. “I’m sorry,
Sky, just ignore me.”

Fortunately, she does ignore my comment. “I
just can’t talk about it. Not about the specifics. It involves too
many people.” She lets out a sigh. “It was just one of those times
when my mistakes were thrown back in my face in the most horrible
way possible. They accused me of things I would never do in a
million years. Yet even after all that, I still miss being home.”
Her arm slides around my side and she scoots even closer. “It’s a
hard thing to reconcile.”

“I want to do something to help you through
this.” It’s ripping me apart that anyone would make her feel this
way. I wonder if it has anything to do with Gunnar, or if it’s a
completely different situation—maybe it has something to do with
her brother. All I know is I just can’t bring myself to ask Sky
about it. If she wants to tell me herself, she will.

She gives me a whispery
laugh. “You
are
doing something. I’ve come to you in the middle of the night,
and I’m crying all over you and your bed.” She sniffs
again.

“I’m glad you’re here.” I
have no idea what Mom will say in the morning—but right now I don’t
care. I reach over, turn off the lamp and run my hand up and down
her back.
Please let her still be here
when I wake up.

***

My phone buzzes next to my
head. I set the alarm to wake me up for school. I’m annoyed until…I
remember that Sky slept over last night.
I
roll over, and she’s still sleeping next to me.
She looks absolutely gorgeous
. Her
hair is scattered over her face and her pillow. Her breathing is
slow and deep. As much as I want to take her in my arms and kiss
her, I don’t. She’s so beautiful like this.

“I love you, Sky,” I whisper. I stop my hand
before it touches her face. I know shouldn’t wake her. She’s got to
be exhausted and could use the extra sleep.

I slide up and out of bed
as quietly as I can.
Okay, this morning is
officially the first day that I really, really, wish I didn’t have
to go to school.
But they’re picky about
absences around sporting events so I know I need to go—the swim
meet’s coming up. But I stand there, staring at Sky in my bed,
undecided. Logic wins. I slide on jeans and a t-shirt. Now I’m
fighting the desire to lie with her and wake her up, just so we can
share that moment, too. But again, I can’t do it. I tiptoe out of
my room.

“Jameson,” Mom calls out, the minute I reach
the kitchen. She’s on a stool with a bowl of cereal in front of her
that she’s not eating.

“Shhh…” I put my finger to my lips. I can
tell by the expression on her face it probably wasn’t the best
response.

“We talked about this.” She sits back on her
stool, her eyes boring holes in the side of my head.

I open the fridge to look for the orange
juice bottle.

“I thought I was clear when I said I didn’t
want any girls sleeping over.” Mom’s voice is a stern level of
tired frustration.

“She’s not just any girl.” I stand up,
triumphant at finding the bottle of orange juice. “And you weren’t
at all clear. You just said you were worried.”

Mom says nothing. Instead, she rubs her
forehead.

I’m being a jerk, and I
know it.
I move to stand closer to Mom. “I
don’t know what happened. I know there was a clan meeting or
something going on back home. Last night, she knocked on my door in
tears at just after eleven. I couldn’t just kick her out and tell
her to go back to her grandparents’ place.”

The scowl on Mom’s face turns into a faint
smile.

Honesty wins out, yet again.

“Don’t make a habit of it and…”

“I’m sure you feel the
need to say something about sex, but I already know the drill.
We’re not having sex, so you don’t have to say anything, and we can
both be spared the embarrassment.”
Or some
of the embarrassment…
I walk through the
kitchen, keeping my eyes off hers. “I gotta get to
school.”

“I’ll see you later, Jameson.”

I step out the door, and let out a breath.
Thankfully, the confrontation with Mom is over. But now I’m
second-guessing my whole morning. Was it good that I left Sky
there? Was it bad that I left her there to wake up alone? I have no
idea. Maybe I should have woken her up. I need to get in my car
before I make myself crazy.

My school day consists of me checking my
phone every chance I get to see if Sky tried to reach me. My phone
is silent. My head is screaming.

***

At the end of the school day, I still
haven’t heard from Sky, so I send her a text.

SORRY I JUST LEFT, DIDN’T WANT TO DISTURB.
ARE YOU OK?

I get a text back a few seconds later, just
before I have to ditch my phone for swim practice.

I’M GRT. SEE U AFTR SCHL

I let out a deep breath.
She’ll see me after school.
We’re good.
We’re okay
. I show up to the pool and
learn that the girls’ team is taking the day off.
Day off?
And guess what
the boys’ team is doing? Working on endurance. Which means my limbs
will be rubbery by the time I head for home.
Perfect.
At least it will provide me
with a good distraction until I can see Sky again.

***

I hear laughter in the
backyard when I come through the gate. Mom, Sky and Sarah are all
in my backyard together…and they’re laughing.
Please let it not be about me.

“There he is!” Mom yells, waving from the
table.

I manage to wave back. But I’m sort of
baffled by the whole thing.

“You okay?” Sarah teases.

Sky stands up and walks toward me. I seem to
be frozen in place.

“We’re all fine,” Sky says, her voice
quiet.

Now that she’s standing next to me, my body
starts to relax. Her smile helps, too. I reach out and touch the
hair around her face. She leans into my touch, closing her
eyes.

“There are other people here.” Sky’s voice
comes out in that barely-there whisper she does so well. She
swallows as her eyes open, meeting mine.

“Sky, they both know we’re
together.”
I can’t take my eyes off her. A
flash of Sky—sleeping in my bed, hair splayed out around my
pillow—hits me hard.
I lean down to kiss
her, but she turns her head and I only catch her cheek.

“Okay, okay.” Mom’s voice carries across the
yard.

I put an arm around Sky
and walk to the table. Mom looks better than I’ve seen her since
Dad left.
Maybe it’s worth it, having them
all in one spot.

“How did the
boys’ team
do today?”
Sarah laughs as I sit down.

I keep a leg on either side of the bench and
my arm around Sky. “Well, I guess you can say after that practice,
my body’s no longer working right.” I laugh.

“The girls’ coach has this thing about
resting up before a meet.” Sarah smiles smugly.

“The guys’ coach has the opposite approach.
We’ll see how tomorrow goes.” This is weird, but nice. We’re all
here, and I haven’t burst into flames. I’m just thrilled to still
be touching Sky.

“When’s your meet?” Sky turns to me, putting
our faces so close together I have to concentrate on her words…and
my response.

“Wednesday.”

“Can I come?”

“Yeah, I’d love that.” A smile breaks across
my face. “I guess I figured you’d be done with high school
stuff.”

“My high school was barely a high school.
The school was a five room building that taught pre-school through
twelfth grade,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

“Wow.”
How did I not know this?

“Jameson’s really good. It’s landed him more
than one scholarship.” Sarah sounds proud. It makes me feel good
that we can sit here and be like this.

“Have you made any decisions, yet?” Mom
asks, resting her head on her hand.

But Sky’s here, and I don’t want to talk
about the possibility of anything changing.

“I was thinking of USC. It’s not too far
from home. UCLA has also offered me a good deal, and that’s even
closer.” I keep my eyes on Mom, but my words are intended for
Sky.

“No one would argue that they don’t have
really good teams, but I thought you wanted to go farther away than
that?” Sarah leans over the table toward me, her eyes wide in
disbelief.

“Not really, no.” I shake my head.
“School…swimming…independence—they’re not dependent on how close to
home I am.”

“You can be completely dependent on people
who are a thousand miles away, and you can also be completely
independent while living with your mom.” Sky’s voice is full of
experience and a hint of something I heard in it last night.

“I
guess
so.” Sarah stands up. “Well,
I’ll see you guys later!” She waves and jogs across the yard. I
watch her go, her movements still bouncy and childlike as they were
three years ago.

“Sky, thank you for the really nice day,”
Mom says, standing up.

“No, thank
you
,” Sky replies. She
watches Mom walk back into the house before turning to me. “So, you
probably had a heart attack when you walked back here, didn’t you?”
A smile spreads across her face.

“A little,” I admit.

She leans up and kisses me. Her mouth is
open and demanding. It’s like we’ve been kissing all afternoon and
still can’t get enough. The intensity of her kiss hits me hard and
fast. I pull her to me until we’re pressed together on the bench,
her body resting between my legs. “Wow,” I breathe out.

Her nose touches my cheek. “Your mom is
awesome. We hung out all day. Are you okay with that?”

I take her lips with mine
again. I wonder if it is okay with me.
I
mean, it’s okay…but what did they do? What did they talk
about?

“Don’t worry, we didn’t swap Jameson stories
or anything.” Her lips brush against mine. “Or, at least not a
whole lot. Sorry, Jay, but I need to get out of here.”

“But I just got home,” I protest.

“I have a lot of homework to catch up on,
and I missed class today.” She frowns in apology. “But I slept
great again last night. Thank you.”

Right, her
nightmares…
at least now I feel that I
really, actually did something to help her. “One of these days,
you’ll crash here. Or I’ll crash there. And we’ll actually get to
enjoy each other the next morning.”

“I’d like that,” I say, pulling a smile from
her.

“I need to call my Mom, too. It’s been too
long. Last night, the whole group was on the conference call with
me, so Mom and I didn’t get a chance to talk.”

“Why?” I want to know more.

“Because the phones out there are satellite
only, and they don’t have someone there all the time to accept the
incoming calls.”

“You’re kidding
me.”
Are there still places like that in
the United States?

“I’m not kidding.” She laughs. “One of my
aunts is the secretary at the school. That’s where the main phone
is. But some people have satellite phones now, like oversized cell
phones, you know?”

“Wow, tell me
more.”
Sky practically grew up in a
different world.

“About phones?” she asks, raising her
eyebrows.

“No, about where you grew up. About what
happened to you yesterday. How I can help?” How can she even begin
to function in a city like Las Vegas when she grew up in place that
didn’t have phones?

“Maybe another time.”

I’m suddenly confused. “Well, when you were
up there, I was able to reach you on your cell phone.”

“I was in Ketchikan. It’s bigger. Cell
phones work there.” She shrugs.

“Oh.” Why do I feel yet again that there’s a
huge part of her life that I know absolutely nothing about?

“I really should go,” she says, an
apologetic frown back on her face.

“Okay.” And as much as I don’t want to, I
give up and let her go.

EIGHTEEN

My last race of the meet, we’re lined up on
the platform—fingers by toes, waiting for the whistle. I love this
moment, the anticipation of it. Every muscle in my body is ready,
eager. The whistle blows, and I shoot into the water.

It’s a good start. I can
feel it. Some of the guys can pay attention to the swimmers around
them. I can’t. If a guy is directly on my right or my left close to
me, I might catch him in my vision. But it doesn’t matter—I just
swim. My arms pull, my legs kick, and I’m moving fast.
Spin, turn, and back. Push and pull, push and
pull. Spin, turn and back. This is it, last one.
I touch the wall and pull my head out of the
water.
I’ve won.

When my time is called, I end up setting a
new record for the 200 Freestyle. I punch the water a few times in
victory and climb out. Sarah meets me like she has since we started
swimming three years ago, and I pull her into a hug.