His Wild Blue Air

Day 14

Sunday

She woke up in telephone booth. She recognized the surroundings outside the booth. She was back in her town.

She was sore. And it was painful. And her wet hair hadn't dried. She was still struggling for air. 

They just abandoned her here. After everything they'd done to her, they just abandoned her here in a telephone booth. Like they didn't need her anymore and she was just something they could throw away. 

She wrapped the torn jacket around her tighter and cried into her curled up knees. She was sore and in pain and she couldn't believe everything that had happened. She didn't even know how long she'd been gone. Had anyone looked for her? Did her uncle looked for her?

She cried for god knows how long until the door to the telephone booth was opened frantically and a pair of arms were around her and she shrieked. She shrieked like a banshee because no, no, she would not let them take her again.

"Oh dear god, Sky, what in god's name happened to you?" Her uncle found her.

**

That was the umpteenth sigh she'd heard from him and she decided that was enough. She slammed her book closed with a resounding clap and glared at the man who was hanging over the couch like a dead man. Judging by his countless groans, he was already dying.

"Will you please keep your man pain on the down low?" she hissed in low tones. He lifted his head from hanging over the couch and looked at her in surprise. "You're distracting me from reading."

Of course he would grin. Only this man would take a scolding as a compliment. "I'm so glad that I have the capability to distract you from books," he drawled. She rolled her eyes at his childish antics. "I'm bored!"

She flicked her eyes to him again. "That's a Sunday in this small little town to you. There's another word for it: relaxed," she supplied haughtily. "Now shut up." She went back to reading her book but she didn't even get a full sentence in when he talked again.

"This is really what you do on a normal Sunday? Reading and lounging?" he said, sounding disbelieving.

Skylar slowly lifted her eyes from the paragraphs on her books. "Which part of that is so hard to believe?"

"Every part of it!"

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers, as if he was a child and she was having a hard time talking to him. "Well, Ethan, I'm sorry if my daily life is boring you. This is New Zealand, not New York. We don't have nightclubs or even pubs to keep you entertained. So you're just gonna have to make do." She shrugged.

He heaved an audible sigh and groaned again, letting his head hang over the couch once more. Thinking that he was done complaining, she went back to reading. And then, "There's gotta be something!"

She growled lowly in her throat. "Okay, how about this?" She smiled at him, albeit a little fake. "Use the computer. Look up interesting places around here. I'll go with you."

"You should know the interesting places," he said with a frown.

She stopped and then said, "I haven't really gone out much."

"In five years?" And there was the tone of surprise again. "Wow, how much of a hermit are you?"

"A gigantic one," said Skylar. She applauded herself mentally for keeping her composure and not breaking her stance.