Blue Sky // Josh Kiszka

Do I wanna know?

"Sky blue," I tell Josh after stopping him in the middle of the hallway.

"Excuse me?" He replies confused, earning a laugh from me.

"My dress for prom, it's sky blue. My sister said I should tell you, so we could match."

"Wow, you already bought it?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Venus said we should hurry, so, yeah."

"Alright then, sky blue it is."

We stand there, toe to toe in the middle of the hallway, just staring at each other, not knowing what to say next. Around us, the mess of teenagers make their way to the cafeteria, swerving to avoid us.

"Ok," I say, after an awkward moment. "I have to go now."

"Yeah, alright. I see you around."

I nod and leave him, heading to the the pair of green eyes gazing at us, a little below them, her lips shake as she tries to hold her laugh.

"That was weird," Ash announces when I finally get to her.

"And embarrassing," I add. "I'm starting to regret saying yes." I tell her as we walk together to the cafeteria.

"Why?"

"First of all because I did it for the wrong reason, which is getting close to Jake, my sister's boyfriend."

"We've been through this," she rolls her eyes, sitting at our usual table.

"Besides, I talked to him for 30 seconds, just to let him know my dress color and it was super weird. Imagine trying to make conversation for a whole night."

"You will be fine," she assures me, squeezing my hand from across the table. "The boy is always talking, I'm sure that won't be a problem for him. Now tell me," she starts, turning to an excited tone. "How was shopping with Ve?"

"It was nice," I tell her, looking at her toothy grin and her widen eyes. Scary. "She was very nice, even said I was beautiful." I smile, remembering the moment.

"She said that?" Her voice gets an octave higher and her eyebrows draw together. Disbelief covers her face.

"Wow, is that so hard to believe?" I ask, genuinely hurt.

"No, it's just that, you know, Venus, saying nice stuff to you is all, you know, odd." A wave of red goes up her neck and takes over her whole face. She hides herself on her lunch, I quiet myself.

"Anyways," I speak again after a minute. "I got this beautiful blue dress and she said we're going to a salon on prom day to get our hair and nails done. I thought it was too much at first, but I've been wanting to cut my hair for a while now, so it will be good after all."

"That's really nice." She smiles widely and changes the subject, talking animatedly about some guy from her math class.

My eyes divert from her a little, traveling around the room, finding Jake on the way. His own eyes are bored into me, making a shiver run down my spine. He shuts them quickly and turns away when he notices I caught him staring, but it's too late, they already burned a whole on my skin.

-

"I think it really suited you," Venus tells me with a bright smile as the hairdresser finishes blow drying my hair. She stops behind me and take her hands to play with the strands, I can see in the mirror she's still smiling. I had it cutted a bit above the shoulders and bangs a finger above the eyebrows. "Mom will hate it," she laughs.

"Yeah, I'm kind of expecting it."

"I'll braid it for you," she says, taking a lock on each side and making them meet on the back of my head. Our eyes meet through the mirror and we smile to each other. "Alright, let's get going. I have to do your makeup and then mine, we're gonna be late."