A Summer Romance

Chapter Thirty-Five - Ryan and Skylar

Chapter Thirty-Five - Ryan and Skylar

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."

-Pearl Strachan Hurd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan

"Can you please tell me where we're going?"

Skye shook her head and smiled, "Nope, sorry."

I groaned and intertwined our fingers over the center counsel, "Please, Skye?"

"Ryan, I'm not telling you where we're going!" I sighed and looked out the window as the trees flew past us as she drove down the freeway. 

"Rude." I grumbled.

"Huh?" She questioned.

I shook my head and smiled as she smiled back at me.

When Skylar insisted that she show me something, I was terrified. I don't why, but I was scared of what it was. I didn't know all about her past, and I was scared of what she was going to show me.

When she pulled off the freeway, I looked over at her, and I forgot about being terrified, I immediately became worried. Skylar was staring at the window at the stoplight, biting her nails and tapping her foot on the floor.

I squeezed her hand and she looked over at me and sighed, "You okay?"

She nodded and turned when  the light turned green. After a few minutes of driving, she turned down an abandoned street and pulled to the side. "This is it."

She hopped out of the car as I did and stood in the middle of the road. I looked around in confusion for a minute, "Where are-oh." My eyes locked on the tire tracks that were still here after all these years on the road, leading into the spot where some of the pavement was crumbly and black from fire.

Where her dad died.

I looked over at Skylar who was looking at the ground while biting her lip, "Skylar, we don't need to be here."

"No." she sighed and shook her head, "I need to do this. I need the closure."

I stepped beside her and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into my side. "Okay."

There was a long silence. I don't know how long it was, maybe only five minutes, but it felt like a decade. I needed to fill the silence with something.

I kissed the side of her head and mumbled into her hair, "Tell me about that morning, before you guys came here."

She sighed and closed her eyes, "My mom was working, and my dad was home, he took the day off for my birthday but my mother couldn't care less, of course. So, since the cook wasn't home, he tried to bake cookies for me. When they burnt, I threw flour at him. And being the immature father he was, he threw it back at me." A few tears fell from her eyes and she wiped them away, "We started a food fight that continued for a while until my mother got home, and she was beyond pissed at the mess we had made. But when she saw how much fun we were having, she joined in." she smiled and stared at the ground, "It was the first time in months that they had laughed together." she sighed and sniffed, "But of course, that didn't last long, and not even two hours later, they were back at screaming at each other. My dad grabbed his keys to leave, and I begged him to bring me too and he did. And, two hours later, he was announced dead at the scene."

As more tears fell, the more my heart broke. I grabbed the sides of her face and cupped it in my hands. In a desperate voice, I asked, "Skylar, it kills me to see you this upset. It feels like my heart's being ripped in half knowing that you hurt everyday. I know that I can't take away the pain, but I want to help. What can I do to help?" I was sick of sitting on the sidelines and watching her suffer. I needed to help her take away at least a fraction of her pain, no matter the risk.