You can't tell me you've never had regrets. Everyone regrets something; maybe something they did wrong to someone, maybe lying to the people they care about. Either way; everyone carries regret. I do too.
My name is Skylar. And this is a story about what I regret.
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Sun flavoured beaches and refreshing sea water makes for a good 11th birthday. It almost felt like a graduation of a sort, into a vast never ending world of blissful life. Kids run around me, and we dance to the loud music and drink assortments of fizzy drinks in reckless abandon, any inhibitions an 11 year old child could have scattering in the wind. The warm summer wind running through my hands as I stand, arms outstretched, ankle deep in sea, eyes closed.
I feel a warm set of hands on my eyes, and a body lightly pressed up against mine. "Guess who!" They giggle, and I can feel it rise from their chest and resonate. I smile involuntarily; lowering my arms. "You gave yourself away before you started, Em." I say, as she releases me and I spin to face her.
We hug, familiar with eachother. She smiles at me, full of joy and happiness. "Happy birthday, Sky." She says, picking up a paper bag and handing it me. I open it, and see an assortment of things.
"You got me a ring?" I ask, holding up a small blue box. It looks expensive. She laughs warmly. "You wish. Open it." I comply, opening the box. I gasp.
"Symbol of angels. We match." I take it out. It's a necklace, shiny silver with a wing on it. Its a unique design. Ember runs around behind me, and as she presses herself on my back I see a small shimmer of something in the corner of my eye.
She fumbles around for a second before she holds up her own necklace to mine, and I realise that the wings actually clip together. Due to its shape; it forms an angel, one side silvery white, the other coppery and dim. I laugh."Well they did always say we were like heaven and hell." Just then, we're called back to further up the beach by our mothers, something about tides. I'm not really focusing, caught by the necklace that before I can say anything is around my neck. Then I'm being pulled gently by the arm into a world that I know wouldn't understand what I feel, no matter how hard I tried.
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"Skylar~" A sickly sweet voice wakes me, and I grimace knowing about the long day ahead. "Let me sleep damn it..." I mumble, curled up under the safety of orange and blue sheets, a perfect clashing of fire and water. The safe warmth of that place is dragged off me, and I hiss at the light. "Sky, c'mon~ Its our first day."
I sit up, tired. Light streams through the windows, and I notice that there's two plates on a nearby oaken desk; with stickers of all degrees and scratches lining its body. "It's usually me waking you up....what's the occasion?" I ask, leaning on the fiery haired girl beside me, her warmth almost lulling me back to sleep.
She laughs softly, and I stretch as she does. "I just couldn't sleep very well is all; besides - I wanted you to test out some of my new amazing recipes."
I will not lie, her cooking is the most bizarre things you could ever taste. But to me, it was perfectly enjoyable. "You're acting like a perfect house wife, yknow." I say as I polish off a plate of who-knows-what-pancakes. She grins at me, that same reckless grin, and I resist the urge to wrap her up in blankets and stay beside her forever.
Then we're up, pulling on new school clothes and getting ready to face a whole new challenge. I think back to our last school, the first day. As I stand waiting for her to put on her socks and shoes, she notices my expression and pats me on the shoulder. "There there my sweet child; there'll be no silly boys to stick gum on your blazer this year. I promise."
