An Open Sky

Chapter Twenty-Two ~Alexa~

And that’s how it went. Every day, no matter how bitter the weather was, I’d grab my book and go read by the tree. My tree. Our tree. I knew he was still there. I’d find his blanket all balled up or rarely neatly folded on the ground. I had to fight myself in order to keep me out of the blanket, out of his area, out of his life. I had to stay away, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t face him, but I couldn’t ignore him like I’d wanted to. I stared down at the dirt-stained blanket across from me. I wondered where he’d go during the day.

                School was starting in a week. Not going to lie here, but I was nervous. That was weird for me. School was like my home away from home, my way to escape. I couldn’t quite tell what I was nervous about, and that was weird for me too. I always knew. I could always tell. This time was different.

                I looked down at my book. It was a four-hundred page novel on a girl who tries to find love in Paris, but doesn’t realize she left the love of her life back in the United States of America. He tries to find her, but when he does he sees her with a different man. The whole thing’s totally cliché, but I had to look like I was reading something and not just hoping to see Aidan. I didn’t want him to think that I cared. I didn’t want him to see me waiting for him, longing to feel his presence next to me again, longing to look into those eyes…

                The sun was directly above me, but it was still freezing. I couldn’t feel the heat radiating down into my skin like I could on the arid wood of the deck. I decided to tuck my book under his blanket and engross myself with food. I stood and made my way over the moist grass that dampened my feet and numbed my toes through the thin protection of my shoes. I punched in the code to our garage door and pulled my car keys out of my pocket. I unlocked the dark red Ford Escort and yanked the door open. Stupid door, it always sticks. That could be a hazard, I sneered in my head.

                I threw myself down onto the seat and closed the door behind me. I pulled out onto the street, not taking the time to get out of the car and close the garage door. I drove past several houses with young children playing in their yards, raking leaves with their dads. I watched a young toddler jump into the pile and scatter the colored leaves all over the yard again. I can’t say I’d ever done that as a kid. There were no trees with beautiful leaves to rake back in Melrose.

                I pulled over on the side of the road across from the Frontier Bar and locked the car behind me. I walked across the street keeping my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt. I stepped through the door expecting to see Dale’s radiant smile beaming at me.

Nothing could have prepared me for who I saw instead.