Touch the Sky

The Taste of Stars

I turned around on the wooden bleachers to see Cheryl walking into the arena with Sky. She walked up some small steps and hopped onto her horse.

The instructor stood in the middle of the rectangle and watched as Cheryl began walking her horse around. The woman was quite short and chubby, she looked very strong though.

After about ten minutes, Cheryl turned her horse towards the blue jumps that were set up. The first one was a cross and the second was straight.

She rode up to the cross and popped over it fine, then the second, bigger jump came and she flew over that, her horse picking her hooves up and tucking them to her chest.

They did this a few more times, each time raising the second jump a little bit higher, until it was about a meter high.

Cheryl then walked her horse around for a few laps to cool her off, then stopped and hopped off her back and walked towards the gate.

She had a huge smile on her face, as if she'd just won the Olympics.

'Did you see how Sky flew over that final jump? Her striding was perfect!' She exclaimed, as she let herself out of the gate and we headed to the stable block.

'I have no idea what that means, but you looked great,' I told her, giggling.

I waited outside of the stall whilst Cheryl untacked her horse.

'Hi, I'm Bella, I'm the riding instructor here,' the woman who gave the lesson told me, 'are you going to be trying out for any of the classes this year?'

'No, I don't ride, just wanted to support Cheryl,' I said, smiling.

'Okay, well if you change your mind, let me know, we have a novice class for completely new riders,' she told me.

I said that I would think about it, but I knew that I'd never even get close to a horse, let alone ride it.

Once Cheryl had finished with Sky, we headed up to the cafeteria for lunch, but we had been a bit too long at the barn so there weren't many options left.

'Jacket potato it is,' I said to the lunch lady, since that was the only thing left. She put some beans on it, then some cheese.

My next lesson was English Literature, which I was really looking forward to. It was an elective course, and Cheryl wasn't in it, so that made me a little bit nervous.

I headed there as soon as I finished eating. It was twelve fifty, ten minutes before the class began, so I sat on the chairs opposite that classroom door and opened my backpack, pulling out my phone from the front pocket.

I wanted to start writing a new story, so I started to note down some ideas in the notes section of my phone.

Nine minutes later, I shut it off and put it back in my bag and headed into the classroom that the teacher had just opened.

English came and went quickly, and it was the end of the school day. I picked my bag up from the floor and headed up to my dorm room.

The long, tedious process of walking up the stairs eventually came to an end when I reached the top. I opened my room to see Cheryl on her bed looking upset.

'Are you okay?' I asked, concerned, as I closed the door.

'Yeah,' she said, quickly wiping her tear-stained face despite the fact that there were no tears there anymore. Her eyes look kind of puffy, as if she'd rubbed them quite a lot.

I wandered over to her side of the room after placing my bag next to my bed.

'What's wrong?' I asked her.

'I just always screw everything up!' She shouted. I sat on her bed to try and comfort her, but she immediately stood up and left the room.

I didn't like her purposeful vagueness, so I decided to go and see if Betty and Veronica knew what was wrong with her. Their room was only two doors away from mine, so within a matter of seconds I knocked.

After hearing a voice telling me to go in, I opened the door. Veronica was the only one there, and she was sat on her bed on her phone, but she turned it off when she saw that it was me.

'What can I do for you?' She asked in a polite voice that I knew was fake.

'Cheryl was just in our room crying and then she left, I was wondering if you knew what was wrong with her,' I asked quietly, not wanting to make Cheryl look bad.

'Look,' she said, standing up and wandering towards me, 'Cheryl is a complicated person, and when you live with people you just have to learn to deal with them.'

By this point, she was stood in the doorway, holding onto the wooden door.

'Okay, should I go after her?' I didn't know what else to do.

'If you want, try by the lake,' she suggested, before shutting the door.

What a lovely person.

I headed down to the lake at the back of campus to see Cheryl sat under the bridge, only noticeable for her foot that stuck out and into view.

'Hey,' I said softly, as I ducked under the low part of the bridge. She had an opened bottle of white wine in her hand, but didn't seem drunk in the slightest.

The area under the bridge was quite dark and secluded, and no more than three people would ever be able to sit under it. She was perched on top of a big rock that was under there, so I just sat in the long grass on the ground next to her.

'Hey,' she said, taking a swig of the wine, 'want some?' She offered the bottle to me.

'No thanks,' I replied, not wanting to get caught breaking the rules on the first official day at Saint Helena's. 'So what's wrong?'

'Just my father,' she sighed, 'he phoned me and talked about how great my brother is doing at Saint Harvey's and how I have to be as good as him because we're twins.' She was referring to the all boys' boarding school ten minutes from here.

'You don't have to live up to anyone's expectations but your own,' I told her, 'it isn't your dad that needs to be happy with what you're doing during your time here, as long as you are happy and have a strong mindset, nothing your father says should affect you or your choices.'

'Yeah,' she agreed absentmindedly, as she took another gulp of the alcohol.

I suddenly realised how grateful I was to be an only child. No one was compared to me and my father loved me.

'So what about you?' She asked, breaking my thoughts.

'What about me?' I didn't know what she meant.

'What's your family like?' She clarified.

'It's just me and my dad,' I told her, 'never had siblings and my mom is out of the picture.'

'Where's your mom?' She seemed genuinely curious.

'I wish I knew,' I replied, telling the truth yet also keeping things hidden, 'pass me the wine.'

I took a big swig of it, feeling the warm sensation travel down my oesophagus and into my stomach, creating a pit of warmth. If you could drink the stars, I imagine that they would taste like this. 

~~~

Author's Notes:

I've been struggling with things irl recently, and because of that I've not written much, so I don't know when the next chapter will be out, I hope you understand.