The Penderwicks in spring again

Running

Skye couldn't breathe. From the moment Jeffrey had closed the door behind him, leaving her alone on the bed, she couldn't breathe. He was walking away, out the door. Probably at his car now, out of Cameron, on the highway. She sat curled up for what felt like hours, unable to make herself move.
Finally she heard her father and Iantha come up the stairs, Mr. Penderwick came to Ben's  door and stood outside, knowing she was inside and debating whether or not he should go in. Evidently deciding against it, he walked away and Skye heard his bedroom door close moments later. She couldn't bear to sit any longer, the room felt as though it was slowly becoming smaller and closing her in.
At the door of her shared room, Skye stopped. Jane was snoring loudly although the light was still shining through the doorway. Skye sighed and walked in quietly, careful not to wake her sleeping sister. Why had she let him go, made him go? Jeffrey had made her feel so out of control, she couldn't trust herself with him. It was as though there was this invisible force pulling her to him and Skye couldn't help but want to back away from it. Her first reaction was always to run away from affection. Before it had always made her feel smothered confined, but now whenever she saw Jeffrey now there were these butterflies in her stomach and she found herself wanting him to like her. It was too frightening, too out of the ordinary and Skye needed to get away. She stared at her perfectly made bed in the dark and groaned, there was no way she could just lay in bed alone with her thoughts. She moved to the window and opened it, breathing in the sweet smell of the rain that had come suddenly. It was pounding down on the roof and coming in through the open window, dampening Skye's shirt.
Out onto the garage roof she climbed, barely thinking about the wetness. I'm being an idiot I am being and idiot. The roof was slippery and Skye sat down and inched herself along it towards the big tree at the other side. The rain came down fast and hard stinging her cheeks and clinging to her jeans and hair.
Skye reached the edge of the roof and clung to the tree, sliding down towards the ground. She needed to get out, jumping off the tree, Skye ran to the woods.

As soon as Jeffrey left the house and stepped out into the pouring rain he instantly regretted it. The look on Skye's face as he left the room was tearing him apart. He ached with her misery and couldn't help but want to pound down the door and run up the stairs into her arms. But he didn't. Instead Jeffrey made his way to his car and slowly climbed in, sighing and resting his head on the steering wheel. He started to sob. The tears came slowly, roughly and strong, not unlike the rain pounding on the car roof. He cried Not only because he wasn't with her but because she was alone, alone. She looked so small when she was upset, so unlike herself and fragile.
But she didn't want him and that was it. Jeffrey pulled himself up and started the car, suddenly needing to get away from that house, from thoughts of her. He drove, up the street, past darkened houses and trees that were barely visible in the rain. At the end of the street just before he was about to make the turn, he stopped suddenly and fast. Jeffrey got out of the car as quickly as he could and began running, back from where he had come. Past the house he had just left, past the Geigers, to the edge of the culdesac. He stopped at the wall of trees, water dripping off every bit of him, tears still sticky on his face.

Skye was moving fast through the forest, knowing exactly where she was going. It was dark and the rain was blinding but she knew this forest as well as her own house. Barely stumbling she rushed forward needing to get to the spot. The spot she had claimed as a child and took almost no one to, the spot she went with her mother.
Skye didn't have many memories of her mother, but one thing she could always remember were the walks in Quigly woods. Her mother would take all of the girls out on many mornings, with picnics and books and drawing papers to some secluded spot in the trees. And they would sit and run and play and laugh. On the few occasions Skye could her mother alone, they would come here. To the spot surrounded by trees covered in moss and little pink flowers in the spring. The trees formed a perfect whole, so when you lay on the moss the sky was in perfect view. Skye came here often now that her mother was gone, she came to think and sometimes even to cry, something she rarely did anywhere else.
Once she had arrived, Skye collapsed onto the ground, exhausted and frantic. The rain continued to fall on her back, but she folded herself onto the earth and didn't want to ever leave this place.

Hey!
I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in such a long time, but I hope you enjoy this longish chapter :) please let me know how you feel about the story so far and thank you sooooooo much for 300 reads!!
I hope you have an amazing day 💕
xxxx