Before I Forget

Butterflies

When Sky woke up the next morning, she was full of determination.

It was a bright and beautiful Saturday morning - and she knew exactly how she would use this weekend.

First - she would start working out again - it was now six months since the surgery on her shoulder, and she'd been a good little soldier and done all the boring physiotherapy exercises three times a week - but today she would fucking kill it. She would go for a run.

Sweating her ass off, was no doubt gonna help with her disturbing Eli obsession - at least she hoped so.

And after the run, she'd go shopping for a Halloween costume - preferably something super hot that would blow Eli's mind—

And I'm NOT going to think about Eli Moskowitz!

A super hot Halloween costume that would blow everyone's mind, she decided. Maybe with Sam, she thought and sent her a quick text to ask if she was free later today. Then, rushing through a quick breakfast of cereal and milk over the kitchen countertop, reading Sam's reply that said she'd be glad to join her shopping expedition, changing into sneakers and sweatpants and she was almost out of the door before Dad noticed she was leaving.

"Where are you going?" he asked, yawning, still in his jammies. "It's the weekend, isn't it?"

"What does it look like?" Sky replied. "I'm going for a run."

"Oh. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I'm gonna have to start again someday, aren't I?"

Dad furrowed his brows but didn't argue. "Just take it easy. If there's any pain–"

Sky rolled her eyes. "There's always pain, Dad. Fucking always! Just gonna have to live with it, I guess."

And with that she was finally out of the door, inhaling the fresh morning air, her feet suddenly light and restless in her sneakers, the road ahead of her ready for the taking.

She lasted less than 15 minutes.

By that time she was sweating through her clothes, her lungs felt like she was breathing in fire and the shoulder - the fucking miserable, useless, a piece of a shit shoulder was fucking killing her with pain.

She had to stop for a breather, and tears of anger, disappointment, and agony filled her eyes as she leaned her hands to her knees to catch her breath.

Eight months ago she'd been running half marathons. Now she barely managed a mile. And the shoulder wound–

Tentatively Sky pulled up the sleeve of her T-shirt and winced. The spot where the bullet had torn through skin and flesh and bone was bright red, the whole area around it swollen and almost purple in color, which was a definite sign of internal bleeding.

"Shit–" she muttered. "That's not good."

She pulled the sleeve back down and scanned her surroundings. No way was she gonna call Dad! He would freak out as always, and probably lock her in her room for weeks. Luckily there was a 7-Eleven on a closeby corner. Taking a deep breath Sky headed towards it, and not caring one bit about her messed hair and sweaty face, entered the store.

She picked a bag of ice cubes from the freezer, and shambled her feet to the counter, clenching her teeth to manage the pain. Only when she slammed the ice cube bag on the counter, did she realize that she wasn't the only customer.

The two guys who were just finishing their business at the cash were Demetri and Eli.

Oh for the fuck's sake. It's Eli fucking Moskowitz.