The Elements Trilogy: The Primaries

Chapter 38: Earth

Night had fallen. Skylar's eyes were still puffy from crying, and she was wearing the engagement ring despite Troy's protests. We ate a little, and then set up the tent to sleep. But I stayed up with Skylar, comforting her. Trying to distract her from Jamie. She was crying silently, and I put my arm around her.

"Heyy," I soothed. "It'll be okay."

"It's easy for you to say!" She snapped, her voice sounding like it had been wrapped in flannel. "You never lost anyone important to you!"

I removed my arm from her, and cleared my throat, trying not to let her comment bother me.

"Oh, Diamond, I'm sorry." She then apologized.

"No, no it's okay. You've been through, a hard time, you forgot," I picked at my thumb nail. "Skylar, tell me about your family."

She sniffed, and wiped away a few tears. "I told you, Troy is my only family now,"

"Come on, Sky. I know you grew up with two parents, and another brother. What were they like?"

She sighed heavily, her eyes and tears glinting in the darkness. "My older brother, Zach. He was the best. He always could make me laugh when I didn't want to. Helped me with my school work. Took care of me when I was sick." She smiled in the darkness. "He even helped me get over Harry when he dumped me." Then her smile disappeared. "All my life, I've been protected. Zach, Harry, Troy, and Jamie have always been there to protect me." She turned to me and frantically grabbed my hand. "I've already lost Harry and Jamie, and I'm going to lose Troy soon. And if we don't succeed, I'll lose Zach and who will protect me then, Diamond?"

I squeezed her hand. "I will. Evie will. Evalynn will. We won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

"Why?" She croaked, squeezing her eyes shut as more tears spilled out of them.

"Because. It's like Evie said. You're our best friend. You would die before you let anything happen to us. Sky, I've seen your heart get smashed into a million pieces a million different ways, but you are still the bravest person I know. You're the only one who could have bribed the man to take us across the Mississippi. You're the only one who's suffered broken bones with out crying or screaming. When Harry dumped you in front of the whole school, instead of having a major meltdown like I would have, you did something amazing. You slapped that whore Tiffany right on the mouth, blew a kiss to Harry and waltzed right out the front doors of the school. I don't know anyone else who could have done that after losing someone they dated for three years. You're the strongest person I know."

Skylar let out a little laugh. "Yeah, well as soon as I got home that day it all went downhill from there. I did...I did something really stupid that night."

"Like what?"

Skylar held out her left wrist to me. I shone a flashlight on it, and on the back of her wrist was some barely visible, red scars. I looked up at her questioningly. "Is this...self inflicted?"

Tears streamed down her cheeks again as she nodded. "I don't want to die, Diamond. I don't know why I jumped back into the river today, maybe I thought I did, but I don't want too." She then looked up at me, her eyes full of fear. "Don't let me hurt myself, Diamond. Please. Don't let me hurt myself."

I pulled her closer to me, and I held her close as she drifted off to sleep repeating the same words, over and over again, a cry for help, on repeat.