Blue Sky and Other Things That Are Good For You

It was noon on Christmas eve and Ryan and I were getting dressed for a long night ahead of us.

“so we're stopping by the apartments and having dinner there?” he asks, making sure of the plan.

“yes. You ran that through with your mom, right?” sometimes that boy can be quite forgetful. I slip on my shoes and stand up.

“yeah, she wants us to the party by seven thirty.”

“that we can do.” Ryan was fiddling with his tie, making it more knotted than I thought possible. I laugh and walk over to him, taking it out of his hands. “one of these days you're going to have to learn to do this. Seriously.”

“until then I have you.” I tighten the red tie and lean up to kiss him.

“come on, presents are getting opened at one whether we're there or not.” I tell him. He leads the way out to his car and we get in.

“you sure your parents won't be there?”

“positive.”

“so who will be there?”

I smile, “Ryan, you have nothing to be worried about. These people are like my family. My real family. You'll do perfectly fine.”

“if you say so.”

“I do.” he pulls in front of the apartment and we both get out. The holiday dinners were usually in Stan's apartment since Charlotte kept the place super-clean.

“Sky!” a crowd of people calls when they see me enter the apartment. Ryan had a tight grip on my hand, nervous of what was to come. This made me smile. I had finally made Ryan Richards nervous.

“hey guys.” I say happily. For once the happiness behind my voice wasn't a lie. Or at least most of it wasn't. They engulf me in big hugs, slightly ignoring Ryan who was standing awkwardly to the side.

That is until Charlotte brings attention to him, “well who's this good-looking fella?” she asks, the question directed to both Ryan and I.

I take a step back so that I'm at his side. “This is Ryan, my boyfriend.” I tell them.

Boyfriend. It had only been about two weeks since we finally put that label on us. Well, the real label on us. I was still getting used to calling us a couple to people who didn't already know about it.

“well Ryan, come on in.” Charlotte says, pulling on his arm to get him further into the apartment. “most of us don't bite.” she jokes.

We all pile into the living room where a nice freshly cut down tree was decorated. There were present of all different sizes sitting under the tree and I add Ryan and mine to it.

About ten minutes later, after lots of introductions for Ryan, we sit down and open the gifts.

Most of mine were Nutella. What can I say? These people know me. Other than that there were some clothes, and a present that Charlotte told me I couldn't open yet.

Vanessa, a little girl who lived next door to me, gave me a a necklace made out of my favorite candy. Best present ever? I think so.

Half way through dinner, my phone started ringing. Now I'm not usually one to answer the phone at the dinner table, but when I saw it was Alisa I started to worry. She never called me on the holidays.

I excuse myself from the table and walk into the living-room. “hello?” I answer.

“Sky! Oh god. Suzy, I don't know what's wrong but she won't talk to me or anyone. She's asking for you over and over again. We have a party to get to and we're already late, is there anyway you could take care of her for the night? I'll even pay you double. It's my husbands business party and-”

I cut in, “Alisa, calm down. It'll be alright. I'll be over in five minutes to pick up Suzy, okay? And you don't have to pay me anything.”

“okay-” she sounded like she was about to burst into tears.

I close my phone and go back into the kitchen, “sorry everyone but something came up and we have to leave.”

Ryan looks up from his food, disappointed. I laugh at how much food he had piled onto his plate, “do we have to?”

I roll my eyes at how childish he was being, “yes. We have to.” he pouts and pushes back his chair, standing up. We say bye to everyone and leave.

“what's up?” Ryan asks on the way to his car.

“can I drive?” I ignore his question for now.

“uh, sure.” he tosses me the keys and I slide into the drivers side, heading toward Suzy's house.

“we're going to be watching Suzy for tonight.”

“what?”

“she's flipping out and her dad's job is on the line if he doesn't get to this party tonight.”

he sighs, “fine.”

“I'm sorry Ryan, really, I wish I didn't have to do this tonight.” I park in front of the house and turn in my seat to face him. “really, we'll just have her and Sydney hang out all night, it'll be like she's not even there.”

Ryan leans over the seat and kisses me shortly, “Go get Suzy, I'll call my mom and update her.”

“thank you!” I say as I climb out of the car and walk up the steps of the house.

The instant I ring the doorbell, Suzy is holding onto my leg. Alisa comes to the door, “she's been asking for you. I hope you and Ryan didn't have big plans.” she says and then calls for her husband.

“don't worry about it, we can have a Christmas Eve any day. Enjoy the party!” I tell them and carry Suzy back to the car. Ryan had taken over the drivers seat and I set Suzy in the back before sliding into my own.

“Hey Ryan.” she speaks finally.

Ryan smiles at her through the rear-view mirror, “Hey Suzanne.” Suzy giggles. No one was allowed to call her by her full name except for Ryan, something I have yet to figure out why.

“where are we going?”

I turn around in the seat to talk to her, “We're going to go to a party at Ryan's house. Sydney is waiting to play with you, so you won't be alone.”

“but I want to play with you!” she whines.

“I have to meet some people first and then I'll play with you guys, okay?” she nods, “is that why you wanted to see me? Because we haven't played in awhile?”

she nods again, “you're always with Ryan.”

I smile, “aw, sweetie, Ryan and I had a play to rehearse for before. Now though, I'll be around more often. Just the two of us. How does that sound?”

“fun!”

“yes, it will be fun!”

Suzy and I talk a little more and Ryan parks the car. “okay you two, we're here.” he says, getting out of the car and opening up our doors. Suzy grabbed both of our hands and dragged us to the house, ringing the doorbell herself.

Ryan laughs, “Suzanne, this is my house.”

Suzy looks up at him and smiles, “I know.” she says and then the door opens to a maid standing there, “hello,” Suzy puts on her best smile, “I'd like to know where the kids are?”

Samantha, one of the maids I came to know, smiled down at Suzy, “upstairs in Ms. Sydney's room.” she informs her. Suzy pulls both Ryan and I inside.

“I'll be upstairs you two, so don't get into any trouble.” she orders us and then runs upstairs.

Ryan and I both laugh, “you've raised quite the girl there Sky.”

“with help from her mother.” I remind him, “come on, let's get this over with.” I tug on his hand and we enter the crowded ballroom.

There were a lot of people I recognized from Thanksgiving, some of the people went to school with Ryan and I, and then the rest of the crowd just seemed like strangers.

“we're going to go meet my friends.”

“as in Joel, Eli, Nathaniel, Dominic, and Conner?” I ask, looking over at the group of guys.

“okay, so you know them. But they don't know you. Please, it's much better than meeting a bunch of old rich people.”

“yeah, you convinced me with the last one. Let's get going.” Ryan laughs and we walk hand in hand over to his friends. They were talking about the basketball season starting when we showed up. Though when they noticed me they all went silent.

“Hey!” I say overly-excitedly, “I'm Sky.”

Ryan's five friends, or followers as I like to see them, weren't all terrible. Joel was known

as the bad boy of the school, always doing things that get him in trouble. Not enough trouble to get kicked off of teams though. Eli wasn't very smart, but tried to understand what was going on. He'd ask questions and do his homework on a regular basis, just couldn't keep the information so well. Nathaniel was probably the nicest out of the group. He was friendly to almost everyone. I say 'almost' because if somebody would try anything on his sister, who was a sophomore like me, or was just a bitch to everyone (like Amanda) he didn't like them. Dominic was flirtatious. Very, very flirtatious. Though, I know for a fact that he's a virgin, so he's not really a player or anything, just likes flirting with the girls. Conner was smart, really smart. Okay, not as smart as me or Ryan, but he got decent grades and knew what he was talking about. That was my problem with him though, if he wasn't talking about some political thing, he was talking about sports. Always sports. It really does become annoying. Blake, before him and Ryan started ignoring each other, was Ryan's best friend since they were in diapers. Blake was the full-out player at the school. Slept with anything that had two legs and a vagina.

The five guys glance me up and down and then look at Ryan. “I thought those were just rumors.” Joel comments.

Ryan furrows his eyebrows, “I told you they weren't Joel.”

“you joke all the time Ryan.”

“not about who I'm dating.” I could tell that if someone didn't stop them, they'd be fighting soon.

“whoa, guys, calm down,” Nathaniel says, stepping in between the two of them. He turns to me and smiles, “hey, I'm Nate. We've heard a lot about y-” Ryan kicks him to make him shut-up. Nate laughs and then his face goes stern, as does everybody else's.

“okay, she's not that bad, guys.” Ryan jokes, but I have a feeling that's not what this was about.

“she's here.” Eli says.

“he's here.” Dominic adds in. Ryan and I turn to see what they were talking about and were surprised when we saw Blake and Amanda walking through the door.

“dammit,” Ryan mumbles, “why the hell did he bring her?”

“how did she get out?” I ask, “I almost died.”

“money.” Ryan says. He turns back around and pulls me with him, “okay, so, new goal for tonight. Not letting Amanda find Sky.”

“and not letting Ryan find Blake.” Conner jokes. “seriously dude, you look like you could kill the guy.”

“because I could.” he tugs on my hand, “we're going to go meet some family, talk to you guys later,” they all give a small wave good-by and Ryan pulled me to another group of people.

“Ryan!” his mom calls, “when did you two get here?” she asks, walking up to us with another woman behind her.

“about an hour ago or so.” hey says.

“is Suzy alright?”

“yes,” I answer, “she's upstairs with the kids.”

“great,” the woman behind her steps forward, “well, Ryan, Sky, this is Mary Stilt. Mary this is my son and his girlfriend.”

“oh gosh, last time I saw you, you were just a baby.” Mary says to Ryan.

“hopefully I don't look the same.” Ryan jokes.

She laughs and I roll my eyes, “of course not.” she laughs again, “so, have you decided on a school yet?”

This caught my attention. We hadn't talked about college since the day I met his family, and that was on me. “I've decided on Stanford.”

“oh Stanford! What a lovely campus.” She turns to me. This was the first time I really got a look at her and she reminded me of someone. Though I couldn't remember who so I just shook the thought out of my head. “what about you Sky?” I noticed that Ryans mom had left us, making it so that I didn't have any escape.

“I'll be applying to Stanford this summer. It's really the only school I've ever wanted to go to.” I tell her.

Before she could comment Ryan broke in, “Sky's supposed to be a sophomore this year. She got bumped up to a junior in October.”

“That's great dear! Goodness Ryan, you know how to pick 'em.” Ryan and I awkwardly laugh. “So Sky, are your parents here?”

“No, they weren't able to make it tonight. My mom has been sick for the past week and my dad just hates leaving her home alone.”

Mary put her right hand over her heart, “aw, that's so sweet. I wish more husbands, or guys even, were like that.”

“I know, my mom sure got a good one.”

Ryan saves me then, well sort of. I'd only call it saving if he had taken me along, “I'm going to go get a drink, would you ladies like anything?”

“anything non-alcoholic,” I tell him.

Mary doesn't ask for anything so he goes to grab the two drinks. “So, how long have you and Ryan been together?” she asks, starting conversation.

“five months. I guess he's been crushing on me since like fifth grade. Poor boy only got the guts to ask me out when we got put as the lead roles in a play.”

“that's so cute! I never would have pegged Ryan for the romantic type but you're definitely making me second guess that one.”

I smile, “do you have any kids Mary?” I change the subject.

“oh yes, I've got twins. Mark and Grace. They just turned thirteen in November.”

“Thirteen, that's got to be fun with twins.”

she laughs, “oh it's just fabulous.” she says sarcastically, making me laugh too. “They're upstairs playing in the kids room. I'm sure you'll meet them before the end of the night.”

“that would be great.”

“So is Suzy your sister?”

“no, I babysit her. She had some meltdown at home so I offered to take her in for the night.”

“where were you when I was having kids?”

“the same age as them. I've learned the hard way that there shouldn't be any less than five years between the babysitter and the kids.”

“good point. Otherwise they wouldn't listen to a thing you said.”

“exactly.”

Ryan comes back holding two cans of Blue Sky. I glare at him when I take mine, “what? They were out of all the other kinds you like.”

“and this was the only option, huh?” I ask, rolling my eyes.

Mary looks at us weirdly, as if this were a strange argument. “is there something wrong with Blue Sky?”

I look up from my soda, “oh, no...” but it was too late because Ryan was already telling her the truth.

“it's her full name, and it's also the only soda around the house so she's probably tired of it.”

Mary goes pale. Paler than me. It was freaky really, how fast the color just drained from her face. “you okay?” I ask, worried now.

“Blue Sky Anastasia Reynolds.” it wasn't a question. It wasn't even really a statement either. She just said my name in a whisper like she had known it this whole time.

I look at her, confusion written all over my face now. “what?”

Mary was getting color back into her cheeks, but it was still faint. “that's your name, right? Blue Sky Anastasia Reynolds.”

“how did you know that?” I ask, automatically taking a step closer to Ryan.

What she said next made Ryan and I drop our glasses of soda. Made the women around us scream in horror. And made me, the strong, nothing can get to me girl, faint.

“I'm your aunt.”