Winning Skylinn

70

A/N: This is gonna be my first ever chapter in Jake's POV. Hope you like it!
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||Jake's POV||

We drove back to the theater where I worked, and once my shift was over, we saw a discount movie. I loved working at a theater and getting to see all the new movies for cheap. The only downside? Most of my coworkers were gross, weird, or stuck-up.

I chose a comedy, wanting to get Skylinn's poor mind off Denver. I still couldn't believe they'd broken up. After all these years, they were just...done. I couldn't even imagine being in Skylinn's shoes. Right now I only saw Denver as a conceited jerk, but deep down, I knew he was hurting too. Who wouldn't be, after four years of exclusively dating that one person?

Skylinn and I laughed the whole way through the movie, and I knew I'd succeeded at cheering her up. I just hated to see her upset.

As we got in bed that night, a thought occurred to me. "Are you gonna tell Jonny about this?"

"I don't know how," Skylinn replied with a frown.

"Yeah, that's a tough one. He was always so supportive of you two."

"Actually..."

"What?" I asked. Was I wrong to say that?

"Jonny likes me. No, actually, he has liked me. For seven years, and I never knew until last week."

"Whoa. That's huge."

I honestly wasn't expecting to hear that. I mean, I always had my suspicions about the two of them. Neighbors, best friends, boy and girl, same age... But she never showed an interest in him the whole time we'd been friends, so I didn't think anything was gonna happen. Maybe I was wrong to think that.

"I've been thinking about it ever since," she admitted.

"Sky...is that why you said no to Denver's proposal? I'm sorry, but I have to ask."

She paused. "Maybe it was part of the reason? I don't know. When I think of him, I just get confused. I don't know what to do. All I know is, I don't want to get married and move away from him."

"But is it that you don't want to get married, or that you don't want to marry someone who isn't him?"

She looked at me with such a pained expression that I almost wanted to take it back. But before I could say anything, she answered. "Probably a little bit of both."

"So you're saying you have feelings for him?" I asked.

She sighed. "Probably. Buried way down under, but still there. Just waiting to be dug up."

"Then why don't you?"

"Because I've been so focused on my relationship with Denver that I didn't want to think about anyone else."

"That's smart," I said, meaning it. "But now that you and him are...I guess over, do you think you might want to move on? Maybe tell Jonny how you feel?"

"That's just it. I don't know how I feel."

"Oh. But you must have some clue, or you wouldn't be turning down someone else's proposal."

"I guess you're right."

We laid in silence for a minute or two, and I stared up at her popcorn ceiling, trying to find shapes and patterns.

"I don't know how to tell him," Skylinn whispered, breaking my concentration on the ceiling.

"Tell him what?" I asked.

"About Denver breaking up with me. I don't know how he'll take it. Like, will he assume that since I know how he feels and that I'm not with someone else, it's okay to ask me out?"

"Sounds like what any normal guy would do. But Jonny isn't a normal guy, Skylinn. He knows what he's doing, and he knows how you'd react. He's a smart guy. And I don't think he'd do anything to hurt you."

"I don't think so either. But you never know."

"Don't do that. Don't give yourself reasons to doubt. Jonny is your best friend, and maybe even more than that. You've gotta give him a chance."

"I know," she said, almost sadly.

"Things are gonna be okay. You know that, right?"

"They don't feel okay, Jake. It feels like everything in my life is just crashing down around me."

"I know how you feel, but it really isn't. You still have your family, and me, and your cat, and your job, and this college thing, and Jonny. I know Denver was a huge part of your life, and it's gonna suck not being with him, but this is how it always is at the beginning of a breakup. It'll get better."

"What if I don't want it to? What if I just want him to come back and apologize and say it's okay and we can just be together instead of getting married so soon?"

"You can say that all you want, but I know you don't mean it. You'd only take him back because he's familiar to you. You don't really want to be with him, do you?"

"I did this morning. I did yesterday, and last week, and last month, and last year. So how could things change so suddenly?" she asked, sounding curious and broken at the same time.

"Sometimes things just change, and it's out of our control. Feelings change, Sky. They're constantly changing and there's nothing we can do about it."

"So if feelings are always changing...how come Jonny's liked me for seven years?"

"Good point. But maybe that's a sign."

"Of what?"

"Of fate. That you were meant to be together. I know I sound like a dork, but it's true. Couples who grow old together and are still in love until they die...they're not simply 'putting up with each other,' ya know? They really love each other, for years on end. And maybe that's what Jonny is experiencing. Maybe if you don't love Denver anymore, it's a sign that it wasn't meant to be. And maybe if you allow yourself to have feelings for Jonny, those feelings could be strong enough to stay for life."

"Wow. Since when did you become such a love expert?" she joked.

"Since I went through two horrible break-ups in high school."

Skylinn giggled into the darkness. "You're a good friend, you know that?"

"I know."

We were quiet for awhile, and then she spoke again. "I still don't know how to tell Jonny about the breakup. Do you think maybe...you could do it for me?"

"I think it would be better coming from you, but sure, I can tell him. If you really don't know what you want to say."

"I really don't."

"Okay. Then I'll tell him."

"Thanks. You're a lifesaver."

"I know, I know."

I don't remember any conversation after that, because pretty soon, I fell asleep.