Unveiling The Sky (12 page)

“Are you okay?” I jumped when I felt his breath on my ear and his hand resting on my elbow.

“Yep, I’m great,” I said as I stepped out of his grasp and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. I could feel his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him, which meant I practically inhaled the water. There were only a few sips left when he spoke again.

“Was that too weird to say since we hardly know each other?” His voice was laced with insecurity and unease, and I immediately felt guilty. Despite the outcome, he was clearly just trying to alleviate my awkwardness with a joke.

I cleared my throat and shrugged before pouring myself more wine.

He nodded thoughtfully. “I was just joking. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I sleep around…” He trailed off and coughed awkwardly before starting again. “I’ve actually only ever had one girlfriend.”

“Really?” After his solemn nod, I asked him what happened.

“Life.” His jaw ticked as he took a sip. “We grew apart when…” Gabe shook his head as he trailed off, and even though I wanted to know what the
when
was, I knew I wouldn’t get an answer if I asked tonight. “We wanted different things. I ended up leaving for Europe a few days after we broke up, and when I was there, I hooked up a little. But it wasn’t what I thought it’d be. I guess after we broke up, I just wanted something different. I’d never been single before, and I didn’t want to worry about settling down. I just wanted to have fun and be normal. But that didn’t work out so well.” His eyes met mine, and he gave me a small smile.

“What makes being in a relationship abnormal?” I asked, teetering on the edge between hope and fear.

“Nothing. It was just all I’d ever known. At the time, I was going through something difficult, and I wanted to be someone different; I thought that was the way of going about it. But I guess that’s not how real life works.”

We were quiet for a few minutes as we both thought his words over. But I already knew what I wanted to say. Because this kind of stuff I could talk about. Weird, deep, philosophical life crap I could go on about all damn day. It was the weather or the new movie coming out or that kind of “easy” stuff that I had trouble discussing.

I took a deep breath and moved my body slightly toward him. “I think real life works however you want it to. I guess the only question is… what do you want?”

“Oh, is that all?” he asked wryly, like figuring out what we wanted out of life was the hard part. He tried to make it a joke, but it fell flat along with his laugh.

I didn’t say any more because I didn’t really agree.
 

We knew what we wanted out of life; that was never the problem. People were the problem. People telling us we couldn’t. We shouldn’t. We’d fail. It’s wrong. It’s not normal.

We knew what we wanted. We just didn’t know how to say what we wanted. And we knew who we were. We were just afraid to be who we were.

My mother had always been big on communication, so I knew it would have killed her to know how little I’d interacted with Samantha since returning home. She never expected much from her husband, but she had always wanted Sam and me to be close. Which is why three days after the impromptu Rock Band night, I found myself staring at her contact in my phone.
 

I stared for ten minutes, disgusted with myself for how hard it was, before making the call. Sam answered right away, almost like she had been sitting there waiting for it. I don’t know why I was nervous when I asked her to meet me for lunch; Sam was the nicest person I knew. She wouldn’t hold a grudge and she certainly wouldn’t turn me down out of spite or retribution. My sister had always been the type of person who saw the best in people, even if they didn’t deserve it. So I don’t know why I was surprised when she (enthusiastically) agreed to lunch, but I was.

Even as I sat there in the half-crowded restaurant I found it hard to believe this was happening. I glanced toward the door, excitement and dread warring in the pit of my stomach. After not seeing her in six months and only briefly talking to her in that time, I was more than ready to see her again. But how would I feel when I did? Would the guilt crowd out everything else? Whenever I thought of my mother I only felt pain; I didn’t want that same feeling to follow me whenever I thought of my sister too. Maybe staying away had only made that worse.

I had just turned back around when the waitress walked by for the third time. She glanced at the empty chair across from me and offered me a sad smile before walking away again. My sister was never late, but she was also never inconsiderate enough to blow someone off. But maybe that had changed since I last saw her, maybe—

“Gabe?” The voice was a little tentative but a whole lot excited.

I slowly stood up and turned around, and what I saw nearly knocked me on my ass. I was staring at my mother. She had the same shoulder-length brown hair that held a slight wave, the same deep brown eyes, and the same light-up-the-room smile. My chest pinched with a slight pain at the resemblance.
 

“Gabe!” Sam’s voice was firm this time as she enveloped me in a hug that erased the last six months.

“Hey, sis.” My reply was hoarse and low as I pulled back and looked into her eyes. “You look…”

“I know.” Her smile was resigned as we both took our seats and awkwardly looked between our menus and each other, offering nervous smiles whenever our eyes met. The server came and went, and before we knew it we had nothing to do but to talk.

“How have you been? I tried calling a couple days ago.”

I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “I know, I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you called back. I’ve really missed you.” Sam also never had a problem laying it all out on the table.

I looked down and closed my eyes. “I know you probably won’t believe me, but I really missed you too.”
 

Sam’s hand found mine, forcing my eyes back open. When our gazes met I found tears in her eyes. “Of course I believe you.” A few seconds later she lifted her hand and took a drink of water before sitting back in her seat.

“What about you?”

“I’m really good. I started taking some college-level courses offered by the high school and I’m already pretty optimistic about them.” She smiled proudly.

“That’s great to hear. What classes are you taking?”

“They’re all pretty basic so it’s nothing too impressive, but—”

“Hey, it’s a start. You can’t ace the harder subjects if you don’t understand the basics.” My voice was stern and somehow despite all the heartache of the past year and the missed opportunities, I just fell right back into big brother-mode. It almost felt like I’d never left. Her eyes were bright and happy as she looked at me, and it seemed she was thinking the same thing.
 

“Yeah,” she whispered, her tone thoughtful and optimistic. “You’re right… I forgot how smart you are.”

“Maybe…” I paused and took a deep breath. “Maybe we can fix that.”

Sam’s smile was so wide it must have hurt. “I’d love that.”

We continued talking like no time had passed at all; I was shocked at how easy it was. I expected awkward pauses and passive-aggressive comments about me being gone, but again, I didn’t know why because that’s not who Samantha was.

Sam had just finished telling me about her dress for Homecoming when the waitress placed the bill on the table.

“I know you probably don’t care about the dress, but I’m just so excited and well, you know I lost touch with a lot of my friends last year.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I knew it had bothered her.

“Sam, I’d listen to you talk about paint drying,” I said as I grabbed the check. “I’m just happy to be talking to you at all.”

At that she smiled shyly and reached for her purse. “So we’ll do this again soon?”

“Of course.” I pointed at her purse and waved the folder I had already put money into. “I hope you don’t think you’re paying for any of this.”

“Of course not. But I do have to get going,” she said regretfully as she nodded toward the door.

We both walked out and before she could leave I abruptly pulled her into me and hugged her tightly, as if I could make up for all the times I hadn’t in the past six months.

…

It was almost a week later and I still hadn’t seen Alara again. I had just gotten back from the gym and was in the process of untying my sneakers, internally debating how to casually hang out with her, when Derek popped his head in my room.

“So the group tries to get together on Sundays to hang out. Naomi calls it ‘Sunday Funday,’” he said as he rolled his eyes. “Anyways, I’m heading over there in a little bit if you wanna join and bum a ride.”

Perfect
. I smiled as I finished throwing the shoes in my closet. “What do you guys do?” I asked, even though it didn’t really matter.

“All kinds of things. There’s really no set plan, except that we’re together.”

“Sounds good. I just need a quick shower.” I paused. “So what’s tonight? More Rock Band?”

He snickered. “Yeah, right. I’m surprised Alara didn’t ban you for that shit. I think Naomi said dinner and a movie? They still have homework to finish up, but I was gonna go over early and play some video games while they work.”

“Works for me.”

“Okay,” Derek said while typing on his phone. “Fifteen minutes?”

“I’ll be ready.”

He nodded once, disappeared from view and I heard the door shut a few seconds later. Quickly divesting myself of my sweat-stained workout gear, I hopped in the shower. I was just exiting my five-minute shower when I heard my cell phone vibrating on the dresser.
Dad calling.
Yeah, there was no way I was taking that call. I pressed ignore before toweling myself off and standing in front of my closet.
 

I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was actively thinking about what I would be wearing. As I was pulling out my best pair of dark denim jeans I told myself it was because they were comfortable, and as I debated on two different shirts I’d been told countless times looked good on me, I told myself that today I was simply indecisive. But in the end, I knew.

I had just finished slipping on my shoes when Derek hollered that he’d be waiting in the car. A couple minutes later we were off, and as we drove in companionable silence I felt my phone buzz again. But this time when I looked at the ID, I smiled.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” she rushed out. “I know it’s last minute but I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner?”

“Actually I’m already on my way out…” I trailed off.

“Oh.” Sam’s voice was laced with disappointment, but she quickly tried to cover it up. “Well, that’s okay. I understand—”

“Hold on,” I cut her off before pulling the phone away and turning to Derek. “Do you think the girls would mind if I invited my sister over? I know I just met you guys—”

“Of course invite her. Dude, Naomi could have a fucking skunk with an AK-47 at her door and she would invite the damn thing in.”

Smiling, I put the phone back to my ear. “Sam, I’m gonna send you the address of the place I’m going and you can come over and eat dinner with us.”

“Oh, that’s okay—”

“Sam,” I said, my voice stern.

“Okay,” she said softly.

We arrived ten minutes later, and Derek didn’t even bother knocking before opening the door and hollering that we were there. We walked in just as Alara and Naomi came in from the kitchen. They were laughing and were each carrying a bottle of water and some homework.

Alara’s eyes widened in surprise, but her lips quickly tipped up into a smile before she refocused on Naomi. My eyes skimmed down her body as I took in her baggy pajama pants and loose T-shirt. When I made my way back up I realized she was looking at me once more. My relief at her attention quickly fled as her cheeks turned red and she started tugging at her T-shirt, almost like she was embarrassed. I tried to reassure her with a smile, but she avoided my gaze as she and Naomi took a seat.

Alara settled in the armchair closer to the door while Naomi sat on the floor and leaned back against the middle section of the couch. I moved to sit on her left and as soon as Derek set up the video games he sat on Naomi’s right, leaving the middle section of the couch empty.