Before I Forget

The Most Normal Thing in the Universe

As soon as they'd gotten in his room, Sky dropped her bag on the floor and sat down on the edge of his bed without even asking if she could - as if it was the most normal thing in the universe.

Eli's throat went tight.

I have a girl in my room. In my fucking bed!

Well, not thecnically in his bed, as much as on his bed, but still - that was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him in his whole fucking life. Even if the girl herself seemed to be totally oblivious to the fact that Eli's whole world had just turned upside down.

"Thanks for texting me," She said, "And asking if I was okay. I really appreciate it."

Eli leaned on the wall and stuffed his slightly trembling hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"So, are you? Okay?"

"No," Sky said with a shrug. "There's a YouTube video of me getting coffee all over myself, called 'Crazy Slut wins wet T-shirt contest'. I've lost all my so-called friends and the school suspended me for a week. So yeah, I've had better days." She made a face. "Though, I've had worse ones too."

Eli looked down at his toes. Of course, he knew none of that was really his fault but still he felt guilty.

"I'm sorry—"

"Don't. It doesn't matter. I know how to study by myself anyways, so." A small moment of silence followed. Sky let out a sigh and looked down, so that her red curls fell to hide her face from Eli.

"I just... didn't want to be alone tonight." She continued. "You know, whenever stuff like this happened before, I would go to my best friend Kat - she lived next door - and we would talk about it, but now—"

"Oh, I get it, she still lives in–"

"She's dead." Sky replied, and Eli's jaw dropped. Whatever he had expected, it sure wasn't that.

"Oh. Oh, shit, I'm sorry Sky–"

He momentarily forgot the awesomeness of the fact that he had a girl sitting on his bed, forgot to be awkward and nervous, and just sat down by her side, so close that he felt the warmth of her body in the air between them.

"You want to... talk about it?" He asked, and Sky replied with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

"Kat and I, we were friends since kindergarten. Kinda like you and Demetri. She was like a sister to me. I fucking loved her. And now... she's been dead for six.. no, seven months." Sky said silently, still staring at the floor. "And I miss her so, that it drives me mad. Sometimes it gets me so fucking low. I just... I just miss talking to her."

"What happened?" Eli asked. "How did she—"

Sky made a small sound, which could have been a laugh or a sob.

"If I go there, I'm gonna cry. So let's not start that. Today has been shitty enough already."

Eli was pretty sure that there was something he was supposed to do or say in a situation like this, but for the life of him he couldn't think of anything. He desperately didn't want Sky to start crying - he was already so bad at interacting with girls, and if they were crying, well, just the thought of it made him panic.

It probably had something to do with the fact that he was on the spectrum. Social situations had always been difficult for him, so full of shades of grey, his black and white brain just couldn't grasp.

Luckily Sky seemed to be oblivious to Eli's inner torment. She turned to look at him, and as their eyes met, Eli's heart skipped a couple of beats. Even now, pale and tired and clearly at the verge of tears, Sky was so pretty, his throat went tight.