A Falling Sky

Chapter 26

“Which ugly Christmas sweater should I wear? The one with bells on the sleeves or the one with fuzzy ornaments down the front?” I ask Heath through the phone.

“I’m not sure. What is Harry wearing?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him.” This statement weighs heavier on my mind than 100,000 ugly Christmas sweaters piled on top of me while I am gasping for air under the smell of mothballs and Grandmas’ feet. I haven’t talked to him in two and a half weeks. Or rather, a more appropriate way to say it is that he hasn’t talked to me in two and a half weeks.

“Actually, I think Harry has already left for the pub crawl without me. Bradley stopped by on his way out of town to drop something off and he mentioned that Harry was with Chuck and the others already in Midtown.”

“I’m sorry, Sky. Are you still going with Jessica then?”

“That’s the plan, at least.” I shrug even though he can't see me on the other side of the receiver. I really don’t want to go on this Ugly Christmas Sweater Pub Crawl thing but I already paid 50 bucks for the wristband. When I signed up for it, it was when Harry and I were inseparable and we were planning on making our own matching sweaters. Now I’m chewing my lip over two options lying out on my bed that I fished from a bin at the flea market a few hours ago.

“Are you and Harry okay? Did something happen over Thanksgiving break, because you were fine before then…?”

What didn’t happen over Thanksgiving break?

And now I’m feverishly chewing the skin on my lip for a whole new reason. Are Harry and I okay? Nope, I wouldn’t say so. He can’t be in the same room with me for more than five minutes anymore. I try to play around like old times, but he is back to not touching me. I have two explanations for his behavior. One of which, I won’t even put into words because it is too preposterous. But the other has me thinking that he might be staying away from me because of his thing he has going on with the redhead. Whether or not he has feelings more than ‘caring’ for me, he sure as hell is finding it easy to overlook them by spending more time with her than a normal bootycall. He has never labeled their relationship, nor does he even like to talk about it in the first place. It’s usually Bradley who always brings up the redhead—whose name I have learned is Jenny—on multiple occasions. Bradley told me that they are basically dating and that Harry is just too scared to admit it.

I’m not even mad anymore, nor do I feel the need to call her slut, or bitch or banshee. I just want my best friend back. And if he is dating her, then I can learn to move past the pain if that means we can go back to the way it was. Especially since Heath and I have gone back to normal. No. I wouldn’t say that I ever stopped loving Harry nor have I rediscovered my feelings for Heath or anything like that. But I am beginning to learn how to deal with the different kinds of love that I have for each boy. It’s been a tough two and a half weeks, but I feel like me going home for 18 days will give us both some much needed distance. And we’ll come back together in January refreshed and missing each other’s company… Or it could have the opposite effect and it is never the same between us again… but I’ll deal with that crippling heart pain when it happens.

I realize that I haven’t replied to Heath’s question and it’s been a good half a minute.