There's a Playground

Winter, no matter the fact that it was in Vegas without snow, was still my least favorite season. It didn’t usually get below fifty degrees during the day, and that was really nice. But all the same, winter just sucked. I hated it. It was ten times better than winter in Denver, though, that’s for sure.

So why was I currently hating winter? Well, the simple fact that my family was getting together for Christmas. My entire family. Which meant that my father and his girlfriend were to come along for dinner at my home. And with my father and his girlfriend, came Ronnie.

And yeah, despite the fact that he was dating Skye, definitely one of my best friends, I still didn’t really like him. He was a druggie and pissed me off in more ways than one. And it was obvious that he still didn’t like me, despite the fact that I was dating his best friend. Of course, that’s a rather large contender for the reason that he hated me.

Max had explained it to me a few times that Ronnie was a protective and jealous ass. Well, that was certainly obvious. I just didn’t understand why he had to take it out on me. Max and him still hung out a lot. They had parties every weekend, which I’d go to every once and a while, and they still hung out a lot at the band practices.

Why it was my fault that Max was splitting his time between me and Ronnie, I had no idea. But yeah.

Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Christmas dinner with Ronnie. And it didn’t help the fact that Max, his brother, and his mom would be there as well. It sort of did, but the thought of the embarrassing things that my parents and his mother were going to muster up was enough to just completely derail me from wanting to spend time with him. Which was kind of sad, now that I thought about it a bit more…

However, despite Ronnie’s aversion for me, I’ve managed to fit into Max’s group of friends pretty well. Omar’s an awesome person and he’s pretty fun to go shopping with. Don’t tell him I let that out, though. He might hug me to death. Bryan, despite his aversion for social activity, is a really cool person, too. He’s pretty much the person that I’ve ended up hanging out with during Ronnie and Max’s parties because he’s like me. As for Robert, he’s…amusing, to say the least. He’s really fun to hang around in general.

Max and Ronnie’s birthday had gone and passed about a week ago. That was actually really fun, honestly. I hung around Max all day, and I was glad that it was on a Saturday because that meant that he and I had more time to…well, make out. He and Ronnie’d had a party that night, which I attended. They got drunk off their asses. Not really the most attractive thing, to have your boyfriend slobber all over your face and neck while you’re trying to bat away his hands.

I was pretty pissed off at him for that…

Now. Back to the present day. Because I’m tired of explaining what’s been going on…

Christmas was in two days. We had just finished off our last week of school before the break and it was Sunday. Another two whole weeks before I needed to go back to that torture chamber and deal with being social again. So not what I was looking forward to, honestly…

I lay on my stomach on my bed, my Art History book in front of my nose as I tried to pay more attention to my notes than the music leaking it’s way through my window that Max was playing in his bedroom. I smirked, looking up from the pages to see him hunched over his bass across the way like usual. Ronnie was lounging on his bed and saying something that I couldn’t hear. Sighing, I returned my gaze back to my text book, trying to focus on what I was supposed to be reading again.

Damn it all. This wasn’t working.

And then, my phone began buzzing. I sighed, reaching over to grab it from off my floor. The caller id told me that Skye was calling me. Not that I minded much, I honestly could have done my homework later. But I’d rather get it done today and have the rest of the two week break to relax.

But apparently, everyone was determined to keep me from doing my work.

I flipped open my phone, holding it to my ear. “’Ello?”

Sniffling and ragged breaths met my greeting. “Skye?” I asked, worry flashing over me as I slammed my book shut and sat up promptly. “What’s wrong?” My voice was fairly full of panic at this point as I began to think the worst. Who died? Was she hurt? Did she get raped? All those question ran through my head at a break-neck speed as she continued to sniff and seemed to be trying to calm herself.

“Can….can I come over?” she asked in ragged breaths. I nodded eagerly, wanting to help make things better.

“Of course you can, Skye.”

“C…can…can you come p…pick me up?” More sniffs and I was out my door in a second, grabbing Mom’s car keys off the table as I asked where she was. I was really glad that I’d finally gotten my license a few weeks ago. It definitely made picking up my friend easier.

“I’ll be back in a minute, Mom!” I called to the house as I made my way to the car. I put Skye on speaker phone and set my phone on my thigh as I climbed into the driver’s side, keeping her on the line as I drove my way through the Vegas streets to find where the hell she was.

A few minutes later, I had found her. Curled up on the curb waiting for me, my friend had a sharp cut moving down her jaw line. I closed my phone and my heart dropped, my throat tightening as I threw the car into park and waited for her to climb in before I threw my arms around her.

“Skye! What the fuck happened!?” I questioned, my voice panicky as I avoided touching the cut on her jaw. She shook her head and wiped angrily at her eyes. I sighed, taking a deep breath and releasing my death-grip-hug on her. “You can tell me, Skye. You know that,” I told her, to which she merely nodded and seemed to try to calm herself down. I sighed, scooting across the large front seat to sit next to her. She curled up and burrowed her face in my shoulder as she began crying again.

Worry was overwhelming me and I prayed that whatever had caused that cut on her face was not Ronnie. However, considering the fact that Ronnie was over at Max’s, I doubted it. So who else could have caused it?

After a while longer, she’d calmed down enough to talk. “I’m sorry, Wendy. I don’t mean to worry you…Craig’s not in town, though…I didn’t know who else to call…” Skye told me, still sniffing and wiping at the tears that were still falling down her cheeks. She avoided touching the cut on her jaw and, when I’d kept a hand on her back for support, she winced. So she wasn’t just hurt where I could see… Anger and worry were pretty much controlling me right now. Though, for one reason or another, I almost felt numb.

I was glad that she had called, though. So Craig knew about it, obviously. It was a bummer that I hadn’t known or anything like that… Of course, then again, what was it that was going on? I’d have to figure that out soon enough… I didn’t like not being able to help Skye the best I could because I didn’t know what was going on. It was now, more than ever, that I wished that Craig had not gone off with Gab to Arizona for Christmas.

“Skye, don’t be sorry about calling me. You’re my friend, it’s not a big deal,” I told her earnestly, almost terrified of what she was going to tell me next.

“I…” Skye started, however she soon collapsed into another fit of tears. I sighed and hugged her again before sliding over to the driver’s side and starting up the car.

“You can stay with me as long as you need to, Skye. Don’t worry about it, okay?” I told her, looking at the clock on the dash board. “My mom is gonna have to go to work soon, so lets go curl up on my couch and watch a movie or something and gorge on ice cream.” I pulled out of where I had parked with that and smiled as she seemed to take humor in that. Then again, Skye very well could have been choking on her tears instead of laughing.

It didn’t take long for me to get home, and when I did, my mom came running out of the house angrily. Alright. So I probably should have just picked up Skye and returned instead of cutting close to making my mother late for the meeting that she had to go to today. My friend slipped away into my house and hid out in my room while I battled for forgiveness from my mother. After Mother left, I went back inside to drag my friend back out into the living room.

Three hours and a movie and a half later, Skye had calmed enough and managed to pretty much fall asleep. My mother still wasn’t home and I was on the verge of passing out on the couch next to my friend. However, a knocking at the door caused me to wake up to see who it was.

Ronnie. Figured.

“What do you want, Ronnie?” I asked, leaning against the doorway. I then saw Max was grinning at me behind him and I couldn’t help but to smile back. “Hey, Max. What’s up?” Alright. So I was ten times more civil with my boyfriend than with his best friend. But could you really blame me? Didn’t think so.

“Is Skye here? She won’t answer her phone…” Ronnie’s voice sounded worried and it was then that I noticed he looked worried. I nodded silently, not sure if now was the best time. “Oh. Can we come in?” I chewed on my lip at that, turning to look back at my friend, who was peeking her head up over the couch. I threw a questioning glance her way and she nodded quietly, giving the okay for Ronnie and Max to join us. Turning back to the boys with a sigh, I nodded and was immediately shoved out of the way by Ronnie before getting tackled with a hug from Max. I smiled and hugged my boyfriend back, ignoring my annoyance at the kid who had just shoved me out of the way.

“I’ll be right back, okay Max? I gotta make a call real quick,” I told him when he released me. He smiled and nodded, kissing me before moving to go join our best friends on the couch. Skye was crying again.

I stepped outside, making sure that I had my phone on me as I closed the door behind me. I made a quick call to Craig, holding the phone to my ear as it rang. Four rings later, my friend picked up from the other line, laughing and sounding like he was having a good time.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Craig. It’s Wendy.”

“Wendy! Hey! What’s up!?” I felt bad for being the one about to, probably, kill his happy mood.

“What’s up with Skye?” I asked simply, biting down on my lower lip as I scuffed my feet around on my porch. Craig’s laughing ceased and I could sense the seriousness that the conversation was about to take on.

“Fuck. What did that asshole do to her now?”