Star Crossed (13 page)

Skylar stared at her cell phone screen in utter fascination. She reread sections of it and then stared at the words again. Was he saying that he loved her? After all this time, after all that he’d said about relationships and love and how he was too busy or it was so overrated to think that the cosmos had something deeper in mind for them all. After all the times he’d pestered her about going after love wholeheartedly and tried to seek out which spirit belonged with hers.

Now he was coming forward with this. What was she supposed to think of this? Of any of it? Someone must have stolen his password and written that last blog entry. They couldn’t have, though, because the words were so perfectly his.

She couldn’t do anything about it, though. He could perhaps be the one she was supposed to be with but she was engaged. It wasn’t fair of him to bring up his feelings now.

Her heart fell as the realization hit. He’d tried to talk to her but she’d been too busy to listen. She had been so caught up in Grayson she had let her other friendships fail, at first because she’d wanted to spend more time with her fiance and then because he was angry with her anytime she didn’t choose him over her other friends. He’d been controlling and overbearing and overwhelming this entire time and she hadn’t seen it because she had convinced herself so completely that she was in love.

Now she had to ask herself again if she truly loved Grayson. Was he the kind of person she could stay with for the rest of her life? Could she look Chris in the eye when he came home and tell him that she was happy?

Skylar turned off her phone and fled to the bathroom before anyone could see that she was crying. She couldn’t, she couldn’t tell him she was happy. She’d lied to Tara and the others about it but she couldn’t keep lying forever, not when she knew that all she had to do...

She locked herself in and sank to the ground to sit at the door, her knees drawn up to her chest protectively. As her sobs caused a shudder to go through her, she began dialing some numbers on her phone.

It had rung for long enough that she was starting to feel calmer but she couldn’t help the hiccupping sob of relief when he answered. “Hello?”

“Chris? Where are you?”

“Skylar, are you alright? You sound like you’re crying.”

“I, I am, I just. I need help. I don’t know what to do. Where are you?”

“About a day’s drive out, if I’m taking my time. I can make it in six if I need to. What’s wrong?”

The protective edge to his voice brought another wave of tears to her eyes. How could she have not known? “Why couldn’t I tell?”

“What? Tell what? Are you hurt?”

“No, I. Not really. I just. My life is such a mess, Chris. Everything’s awful and I’m trapped and I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t know... Skylar. Where’s Grayson?”

“He’s coming to get me,” she whispered fearfully.

He was quiet for so long that she was afraid he had hung up. “Where are you? I’ll have Steve pick you up, or Tara.”

“But Tara’s mad at me, I haven’t talked to her in forever. I bet she hates me,” Skylar said forlornly.

“She’s your friend and won’t want you to be in trouble. Don’t worry, I’ll be there as soon as I can but until I get there I want to know that you’re being taken care of. Tell me where you are?”

“I’m at the coffee shop.”

“It sounds like there’s an echo there, are you in the bathroom?”

“I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Then stay there and I’ll get help. Don’t worry.”

“Chris?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize. I thought you didn’t love anybody. I thought you only wanted to be with your school books.”

“Oh, Skylar. We’ll talk about it when I get there but there’s nothing for you to apologize for, okay? It’s fine, it’s going to be fine. Let me call someone to get you and then I’ll call you right back, okay? I’ll stay on the line with you until they get to you.”

“Chris?”

“Yes, Skylar?”

“I love you, too.”

~~~

Steve had been really confused when he’d gotten Chris’s call. The urgency in his voice could be explained by the cowering Skylar he’d found silently crying in the coffee shop bathroom while Chris apparently talked about nonsense things about his trip on the phone to her. Still, though, he was pretty sure that this girl was taken and he kept expecting the rock singer to come pounding on his door looking for her. After all, hiding a girl from her boyfriend had to be some violation of a guy code somewhere.

Anna, though, seemed to instantly side with Skylar and would not hear Steve’s worries voiced. It probably was because she was another girl, Steve thought darkly. They were always taking each other’s sides over siding with guys.

Anna brought her some coffee and set her up on the couch in front of the TV and made Skylar a peanut butter sandwich. He almost laughed when he noticed what she was doing. Anna sucked at cooking so her ‘I know you’re sick so eat this and feel better soon’ go to was peanut butter sandwiches. Steve watched suspiciously as Skylar picked at her food and stared at her phone.

“Why are you looking at her like that?” Anna asked.

“Huh? Oh, I was just wondering what her deal was. One minute she’s all over this singer guy and the next we’re plucking her out of coffee shop bathrooms?”

“It’s possible that something bad happened to her. She’s acting like she’s got too much on her mind to talk too much about it. Besides, I doubt that Chris would have asked you to pick her up if it weren’t an emergency. Would it kill you to be a human being and be nice?”

“There are plenty of humans that aren’t nice.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not an inherent trait in the human race.”

“Fine, I’ll be nice. I’ll get her some juice to go with her sandwich or something, okay?”

“That sounds very nice, dear. You might want to text Chris and let her know she’s here, too, just in case.”

Steve sighed and wondered why he even had opinions when he wasn’t allowed to express them. He let Chris know that Skylar was fine and then went to get her some juice. She was staring at her phone when he got back.

“Is something wrong?”

“Grayson’s looking for me. I should tell him I’m okay.”

“Won’t he want to know where you are?”

Skylar’s eyes grew huge and she gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re right! What will I tell him? I can’t just call off the engagement!”

Steve gave her a long look. “Then what are you doing? How can you lead Chris on if you don’t intend to end things with Grayson? You know he’s a good guy and he doesn’t deserve someone playing with his heart, friend or not.”

She looked down shyly and then back up at him. “He’s really in love with me, then?”

“Um, yes. He has been for a while but has been too worried he couldn’t be what you wanted him to be so he didn’t say anything. Then you were busy, then you were engaged, and I think he’s crazy to keep trying with you because obviously you aren’t who he thought you were.”

“I’m not a bad person! I don’t want him to be unhappy, or to think that I don’t like him. We just never clicked the way that Grayson and I did.”

“... clicked.”

“You know, like that moment when you look into someone’s eyes and everything in the world suddenly makes more sense? Like you’ve been waiting for them you’re whole life and suddenly they’re right there?”

“Huh, that sounds pretty much like how Chris feels when he looks at you every day, if I know him. Maybe that look never happened because you’ve been looking for it in the wrong places.”

“But it didn’t happen like that with Chris, and he doesn’t look at me like that.”

Steve sighed. “Well, if you can’t see it, then maybe you should just text that Grayson guy back and tell him to come pick you up here. Because I don’t want you hurting Chris’s feelings and he doesn’t deserve to be played around with just because you’re having a conscience attack. Are you only saying that you might have feelings for him because of that blog post or do you actually care about him?”

Skylar looked away in the hopes that he wouldn’t be able to tell that she was crying. “How could you ask me that? I’m not that kind of person.”

“How am I supposed to know you aren’t? You’re with this Grayson guy and you’ve known him for how long?”

“I thought I knew him,” she said, but Steve was too irate with her to hear how lost she sounded.

“Well, was it worth hurting Chris’s feelings?”

“No,” she said, hunching in on herself further.

“And now you’re, what, going to call this guy and tell him that you just changed your mind?”

“No, I can’t!”

“Why not?” he demanded hotly.

“Because I’m scared!”

“Scared of what?”

The silence that met him was disturbing enough to break him out of his anger to realize that her tears were legitimately fearful rather than the fake tears that he was expecting from her. “Hey, what is it you’re so scared of?” he asked again, softly this time. “Does he hurt you?”

Skylar started to shake her head and then slowly nodded. “Nothing bad, just a few bruises here or there.”

Steve stared at her for a long moment and then put a hand on her shoulder. “I think you need to talk to someone. Like, the police, a therapist, Chris. Don’t even answer your phone again, just change your number and let the law handle phasing him out of your life, okay? And if you don’t feel safe, my buddies and I can put on some leather and hang out on our bikes outside your house for a while. I bet that would make him think twice about coming over to bother you.”

“I can’t tell Chris! He’ll worry, and it’s not his problem.”

“Not his... Skylar. Chris is whatever the bookworm nerd equivalent is to head over heels in love with you. He wants the world for you, and with that comes everything about you. You’re good and you’re bad. Heck, I knew that when I started dating Anna, and she’s got more bad than good in her.”

“I heard that!”

Steve grinned. “Just checking to see if you’re listening, honey. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, if you can’t trust Chris with what’s bothering you now then how will you learn to really trust him with your heart? The road to finding the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with is usually not marked with signs and arrows. You kind of have to forge your own path through it.”

“What?”

“I’m just saying, if you’d just let go and let God then maybe this all would have fallen together much more smoothly.”

“If you’re trying to be Shakespeare, dear, then you’re failing miserably,” Anna said as she joined them once more.

“I’m trying to speak her language! She’s the one that started waxing poetics about eye meeting magic... stuff.”

Skylar couldn’t help but laugh at Steve’s bumbling attempts. “I can see why you’re Chris’s best friend. You have a good heart.”

“It’s buried in there somewhere. That’s why I try to keep him around,” Anna retorted with a wink.

Steve rolled his eyes dramatically and pulled Anna to sit in his lap. “The things I put up with here, I’m telling you. I can’t even lecture damsels in distress without getting a talking to. If anything else, this woman keeps me honest.” Anna gave him a look and Steve started guiltily. “Speaking of, I’m sorry if my prying hurt your feelings, Skylar. I just want what’s best for Chris.”