50 Shades of Andy

Chapter 4 - Sky Blue

Paige POV

I woke up before noon. I stayed up late texting Andy. I didn’t move after I woke up because Skylar’s small body was pressed up next to mine. She was holding on to my arm which only meant one thing: nightmares.

Ever since she was young she would come and sleep with me if she had a nightmare. It was better than trying to get any amount of affection out of our mother. She always told me she felt better being near me, even if I was unconscious. She never told me exactly what they were about, only vague details. Never anything more than a few words. Her tired eyes slowly opened and she smiled when she saw me. "Hey," I said, my voice flooded with exhaustion.

"Hey," Skylar’s voice contained the same amount of fatigue.

"Another nightmare?" She nodded. I sighed. I pulled her closer to me and pulled my blanket tighter around us. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I’m trapped. I don’t know where. It’s dark and I’m running down a never-ending hallway. There’s a sinister laugh behind me and I can’t get away from it." Her breathing gets shaky at the end. I smooth down her hair and tell her it was just a nightmare. My phone beeps, telling me I have a new text.

"Can you hand me my phone?" I ask Sky. She nods and disconnects my phone from its charger. "Who’s it from?"

"Andy," she said, "with a heart after it." She looked confused as she tried, and failed, to put the pieces together. "What the fudge happened yesterday?"

I smiled at her expression. Skylar and I were open books to each other. If I had a boyfriend, Skylar knew about him before Lexus did. "You know that band I like?"

"Black Veil Brides?"

"Yeah. You know how I went to go meet them with Lex yesterday?" She nodded. "Well I sort of became friends with their lead singer."

"The one you’re in love with," she clarified.

"I’m not-"I started but Sky gave me a come-on-now-don’t-even-bother-lying-to-yourself-because-you-love-him look. "Yeah, the one I’m in love with. He’s coming over today to hang out with us."

"Us?" Sky questioned.

"He wants to meet you."

"You and Lexus were friends for three months before you let her meet me, but you met this guy yesterday and you’re already letting him meet me?"

"Well, yeah. I don’t know there’s just something about him." I realized she hadn’t given me my phone yet. "Can I have my phone?"

"Oh, yeah," she said and gave me my phone. "What’s it say?"

"Hey, Paige Allison can’t wait to see you and meet Skylar. Be at your house in twenty minutes." I looked at my clock, then Sky. "Okay, you know our ‘rapid-spitfire-get-our-asses-ready-in-under-ten-minutes-so-we-look-at-least-decent’ plan we have?" She nodded. "We need to do that right now. So I need you to go into my closet and pick out an outfit, then go downstairs and wait for Andy to get here."

"Okay. Where do you want me to put your clothes?"

"In the bathroom, because I need to shower," I inform her. We lock eyes and smile. "Ready?"

"Ready."

I literally fall out of my bed but spring up and run to the bathroom in the hallway. I turn the water on, not checking the temperature, strip and get in. "Cold, cold, cold, so freaking cold!" I turn the dial to make the water warmer. Once it was at a tolerable heat, I washed my face and my body. I let the warm water run all over me before I shut it off and stepped out. The cold air hit my body as I realized I didn’t have a towel. I opened the door slightly and shouted, "Skylar." I waited as I got no response. "Skylar!" I heard her come up the stairs and watched as she stood outside the bathroom door. "I need you to go into mom’s bathroom and get me a towel and her chair and bring it back here.