Beyond The Sky

31

I sigh after, now just playing the instrumental of the song. I don't always sing along, because I don't always know the words. I obviously know these, but I love the sound for this one. I play it a couple times over, but then go back to the basics of the shorter songs I know. After about a half hour of this, I put my guitar away and checked my phone. Looks like everyone was trying to get my attention. Evynne, Lance, and heck, even Aimée checked in. Maybe she was trying to get my attention for Evynne? I don't know. I slide open to my messages, first checking Aimée's. I was basically right; she was getting my attention for Evynne's sake. I wonder what's up? Next I go straight to Evynne's texts.

'Duude! Serennaaaaa!! Pick up the phoneeee!! Seriously. You NEED to hear this!!'  Was the last one on the list after a bunch of them just saying my name. O-kay then...

Looks like she called me a couple times.

I call her back and she picks up right away. "What's up, Evynne?" I say.

I hear her sigh. "Dude, what took you so long?"
"Sor-ry, I was playing my guitar. I had my phone silenced so I could focus."

"I wouldn't think you'd be the type for that."
"I need some time to myself, Evynne."

"Tch. Anyway!! Guess what?!" I can hear the excitement in her voice.

I follow along with the excitement. "What?!"

Dramatic pause. I swear, I could hear a drumroll playing.

After a moment of squealing, I hear "I found my soulmate!" and even more squealing.

I almost drop to the floor.

Maybe of excitement, maybe of jealousy, I don't know. But I do know I'm happy for her either way.

"That's awesome, Evynne," I start, "now..." I hesitate. "Eh, never mind the second part. But seriously, I'm happy for you."

"I don't feel so ... alone ... anymore."

"You weren't alone to begin with." Is she seriously trying to say she was the last one to find hers? Hello, I am right here! Without a soulmate!

"What do you mean?" she asks.

Okay, she's just playing dumb. "Before you found him, you and I were the only two to not have a soulmate."
"Yeah, but you had found yours, too."
"But he died, Evynne."

"I know that. But does it still count?"

"Um, no, not really. I'm back at square one, Ev."

I swear I heard an eye roll before I continued. "So if anything, I should be the one that felt alone in the first place." I sigh. "So, tell me about him," I say, trying to change the subject.

She giggles. "So, you know how good looking the guys at our rival school are, right?"
"I haven't seen them -" I admit. She cuts me off before I finish speaking, though.

"Oh. Well, I've got one of them."

"No way - someone from...?"
"Yes!"
"So, which one?"
"Liam," she says, swooning, "Liam Hunts."
"Oh! Him... Yeah! I've heard of him."
"Yeah, I thought maybe you would've. It kind of surprised me when you said you hadn't seen 'em."
"Firstly, you didn't let me finish, and secondly, I don't really do sports anymore. That was kind of my middle school thing..."
"So the last time you saw any of them was in middle school?" She ignores the fact that I told her that she didn't let me finish my sentence.
"Yup. I'm surprised I didn't stay at that school for all of high school since it has both."

She hums a bit. "You followed me there."
"Ah... No, I didn't, I moved." I explain to her, again, for what felt like the 100th time since I started at our current school.

"But they're still close together."
"But not as close."
"Besides that though," she starts, "that school sucked anyway. We were the only two that got anything done. I'm surprised anyone is getting anywhere now."
Yup. There it is. Exactly why she moved schools in ninth grade and I followed a year later. But the moving thing wasn't a lie, either.

We've been friends a long time. But she made friends with the rest of the clique before I popped in and they just had to accept me. I'm not sure they're all fond of me, or if they just put up with me because Evynne said so.

It doesn't really matter at the moment. But maybe it will in the future. Should I ask her about that?

No. No, not worth my time. Or energy. Or effort.

We spent an hour talking about her Liam, about the clique and how they're doing, and then about stuff that's going on in both of our families.

After we hang up I go back to Lance's text.

'Serena... I don't know about you, but I think I'm seeing a little bit of color.'