Don't Look Back

The Box

Ross's POV

The next day Sky wasn't at school she texted me this morning that she wasn't feeling that good. I saw fliers all over the halls, the all said to come to the courtyard for a memorial service for Charlie at eight. I picked up Sky at her house. I was wearing a suit and Sky had a black dress on. She climbed in and sighed, “Here we go.” And we drove to the school. The principal left the school open so we could have the memorial. We expected just some of his friends, but it turned out that he was more popular than I thought. The entire courtyard was flooded with people. I didn’t even know he went to our school. As Sky walked through the crowd, everyone made a path for her. I followed right behind her. When we got to the front, I saw that Charile’s picture was on the wall. There were so many flowers all along the wall, it was like a garden. Sky looked at his picture and a tear fell from her eye. I put an arm around her. Then music started, we turned around and saw that it was the girls from chorus. They sang amazing grace. After, everyone said a few words. When Sky went up, she said, “I never even got to really know Charlie. He was my brother, but we were separated. And it really sucks, he was almost free too. I know who killed him, and Charlie, he just couldn’t escape him. Charlie was a good guy, and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. Thank you all for coming. It’s nice to know so many people loved him” When she was done, she came over to me. “Can we go now?” I put my arm around her shoulder and we walked back to my car. I dropped her off at her house and before she got out of the car, I said, “Are you going to be okay?” She said, “No, he’s coming after me.” I said, “Do you want me to sleep over?” She shook her head, “No, Dylan’s going to look out for me.” I said, “You call me if you need me.” She nodded and went inside.

Ross's POV

I was sitting next to Sky in our last period, she was sketching something in the corner of her notebook when a guy walked up to her desk. He pulled out a wrinkled picture out of his pocket. He sat down in the seat in front of her. I saw the picture in his hand. It was the picture Charlie took from the Austin & Ally set. Sky looked up, he had a shoebox in his other hand. He said, "Skylar? This is you right?" She put down her pen and nodded. He put the shoebox and the picture down on her desk. "Charlie asked me to give you this if anything ever happened." She looked like she was about to cry, she leaned over her desk and gave him a hug. He said, "I'm Danny. Charlie was my best friend. He told me a lot about you. I'm really sorry." She said, "Me too. It's nice to meet you, I never really knew much about Charlie, but he still was always there." Danny said, "I don't suggest opening that until you get home. Do not lose it." She nodded, "I won't. Thank you." He said, "I'm always around if you need anything." She nodded, "Thanks." And he got up and left. I looked at her, "Are you okay?" She said, "Will you come home with me to open it? I don't know what might be inside. I can't do it alone." I understood, "Sure thing." After class we walked to her house because the rest of my siblings took the van. She hugged the box tightly. I was dying to see what was inside. When we got inside we dropped our bags at the front door and went into her room. She said, "Can you open it?" I said, "Okay." We sat on her bed, I turned it away from her and lifted the lid. "Holy crap." Was all I could say. The box was stuffed to the lid with twenty dollar bills. She said, "What is it?" I turned it to her. Her eyes widened. She dumped it out on her bed. A notebook fell out from under all of the cash. She opened the notebook. A note fell out of the front, she read it out loud, "Sky, I know I won't be able to use any of this soon. If Danny got this box to you, I'm probably dead. I'm sorry, it's not your fault, I met with you because I wanted to. I was saving up so we could buy a car and drive off somewhere and restart. But I realize now that that was all just a fantasy. It could never happen as long as dad is alive. But I want you to have all of it. Anything you need, you can have now. Buy that car and runaway, start over and be happy. Or stay with Ross, I know he will protect you. My notebook is filled with songs and poems I wrote, I thought you might like to read them because I know you are always writing. You can quit most of your jobs too. And please, please, please, just tell Ross already that, duh duh duh duh duh." She skipped that last part. Then she continued, "I love you Blue, stay safe.  Love, Charlie." I said, "What did he want you to tell me, why did you skip it?" She said, "It's not important." I said, "Come on, it's in his last note, you have to tell me." She said, "No." And she walked over to her dresser and stuck it in her bra drawer. Then she came back and sat on the bed, I said, "What are you gonna do with all the cash?" She said, "I have no clue." I said, "Do you have somewhere to put it, like a bank account or a safe?" She said, "I have a safe." I said, "Put it there." She put all the money in the box and closed the lid and then she put it on her dresser. "I will when you leave." I was dying to know what that note said. I said, "Well, I gotta go home, I won't tell anyone about your new wad. I'll see you later." She said, "Okay, bye." Then when I was almost out her door she said, "Wait, Ross." I turned around. She ran over and hugged me, "Thank you." I said, "Was that what the note said?" She said, "Nope, you'll never get to know what that said." I said, "Why not?" She said, "Because it doesn't matter." I said, "Whatever it is, it does matter. Bye Sky." And I left. I left my phone at Sky's place so I went back. I knocked at the door and Dylan answered it. I said, "Hey, I just gotta get my phone." He said, "Come on in." I walked into Sky's room, the box of money was gone, I said, "Dylan, where's Sky?" He said, "I think she went to the park." I said, "Did she have anything with her?" He said, "Yeah, some old shoebox." I ran out the door to the park. What the hell, she can't hide everything in a tree. I got there and saw her walking down the sidewalk at the park. I kept my distance to see what she was going to do. Then she crossed the street and went into the orphanage. She had the box under her arm. I sat down on a park bench, and about ten minutes later she walked out. She had the box under her arm. But she dumped the box in the trash, it was empty. Was her safe in the orphanage? When she was down the street I ran into the orphanage. It was really depressing in there. Broken floorboards and holes in the walls, how did Sky love here? I went over to the woman at the front desk, I said, "Excuse me, did a girl with a lot of money walk in here?" She said, "Yes, yes she did." I said, "What did she do with it?" She said, "She donated it. She used to live here, she said she wanted these kids to have it better." I said, "I know, Sky is my best friend. Does anyone live in the room she used to?" She shook her head, "No, she was in a separate floor. You can look around if you want. It's nice to know she did have a friend other than Dylan and Derek." I said, "Who's Derek?" She said, "Dylan's older brother. I'm Ms. Donovan." I shook her hand, "I'm Ross." She said, "I know, the kids love your show." I said, "I could come back and play a few songs one day." She said, "Really? They would love that." I said, "Sure." She said, "Anytime you want. We don't do anything here." I said, "Okay. Which room was her's?" She said, "Just go up to the top floor. It's ten floors up, and the stairs are over there." I said, "Thanks." Ten floors? Ugh. I went up, practically dying when I got to the top. I opened the door and it opened up into a hallway with doors going all the way down. I opened the first door, it was an empty room. I went all the way down the  second to last door was a bathroom and the last one was an empty room with a big piano. I sat down and played some chords, it still sounded great. Then I got up and went to the room across the hall. The walls were pink. And it was a little girls room. All if it looked a little dusty. There was a little bed on the left. It had a stuffed animal, a little pink elephant with yellow polka dots. It had big black button eyes. I smiled when I looked at it. I remembered Sky would bring it to the park and we would play house, the elephant was our baby, we named it Sophie. Then we grew up and she stopped dragging it around. I walked over to a little table in the corner, it had some crayons and old drawings, they were pretty good too. I looked through them, they were pictures of a little boy. I looked at the back, they all said Ross. There were hearts all over him too. She did like me. My smile grew. I kept walking around, I felt a little strange looking through her things, but I had never been in here because visitors weren't allowed. After I basically went through all of her stuff I started crying. She had basically nothing. I got everything I wanted. A few minutes later Ms. Donovan walked in. "She was a really sweet girl. It was a shame she was isolated." I said, "Isolated?" She said, "We are supposed to put any child with a sickness away from the other children. Even though hers wasn't contagious we still had to follow the rule." I said, "What was her sickness?" She said, "Not 'was' she still has it. And she asked me not to tell anyone." I said, "Ok, I understand. I should probably go now." Ms. Donovan said, "Please, bring her the elephant." I said, "Okay." I thought it was weird but I picked it up anyways. And I took one of the drawings of me and put it in my pocket. I walked back to Sky's house with the elephant in my hand. I knocked on the door, Sky opened it. I put the elephant in front of my face, I made its hand wave and in a high pitched voice I said, "Herro." She took it from me with a smile, "Oh my gosh, where did you get this!" He said, "I followed you. Did you donate all of the money?" She said, "You followed me? No, I only donated some of it, I kept most of it, but I knew they could use it. I hated it there, everything was always so broken." I said, "That was an awesome thing you did. And Ms. Donovan wanted me to bring you Sophie." A tear fell from her eye. I said, "Whats wrong?" She said, "You remember." I said, "Yeah, we would play house all the time at the park. Sophie was our baby." We sat on the couch in her living room. She said, "Sophie was my sisters name." I said, "The one your dad drowned?" She nodded, "Yeah, her." I said, "I'm sorry Sky." She said, "No, it's okay." She said, "What was in the little brown box that my dad wanted, it was her bracelet." I said, "He was going to kill you and my family over a bracelet?" She said, "It was a diamond bracelet, worth $32,000,000." I said, "Oh, why did she have it if it was worth so much?" Sky said, "When my mom married my dad, she spent all of her money on that bracelet, so she could have half of his money, the bracelet was her backup for when she left him." I said, "Wait, they're divorced?" She nodded, "My mom is still out there, but she doesn't have her money." I said, "Oh. But now your dad has the money?" She said, "Yes, and me and Charlie were supposed to keep it from him, for Sophie. But I couldn't let him hurt you. All of you." I said, "Thank you." I gave her a big hug. She said, "But now that he has it, he doesn't have a reason not to kill me." I pulled her even closer, "But I won't let that happen. I promise."