Blue Sky and Other Things That Are Good For You

What did I want for Christmas? Nothing really.

What did I get? Chaos.

I woke up in Ryan and my bed upstairs, stripped down to my undergarments and put under the covers. The first thing that came to mind was how this probably wasn't good to add on to my already damaged head. The second thing was that I just met the only family member, outside of my parents, I now knew.

The door opened and then closed and Ryan came into view. He sat down next to me, on top of the comforter, still in his party clothes.

“how long was I out for this time?” I joke and he cracks a smile.

“about half-an-hour. They're serving dinner right now and I was to come see if you'd wake up for it.”

“I really don't want to go back down there Ryan.” I whisper, but then against my will my stomach started to growl.

“well, you're hungry. I guess I can bring the dinner up here.”

I smile, “that would be great.”

“but you're going to have to talk to her Sky.”

“why?”

“because, this isn't one of those things you just forget about.”

“Since I know you're going to make me do this anyway, I'll talk to her. But after dinner and I'm still not going down there.”

“fine, but you're not eating naked either. So get dressed while I go grab your food.” I nod and he kisses my forehead, “I'll be right back.” he says and gets back out of bed. I toss the covers off of me and walk over to the closet, slipping on a pair of pajamas. Then I climbed back into bed because I didn't want to be walking around in my sleepwear. Especially with a house filled with guests.

Ryan appears with a tray holding two plates on it. Both of the plates were over-filling with food. “I know I eat a lot, but that's like an insult.”

He rolls his eyes at me, “did you think I was going to let you eat by yourself?” I shrug and he sits back down on the bed, setting the tray in front of me. “well I'm not that mean.”

“could have fooled me.” I mumble, taking a bite of the ham. “hey, we still have a present to open from charlottes.” I comment, remembering the box I hadn't opened.

“didn't she tell you to open it later?” he asks and I nod, “maybe you should call her.”

“that is a genius idea. Though it's going to happen when I'm finished stuffing myself with this food.”

During this meal I learned a lot about Ryan. Like how he doesn't eat bacon because it looks too fatty or that he's totally afraid of snakes, even if they are harmless.

When I finished and felt like I was going to explode, I decided to call Charlotte.

“Sky!” she practically screams into the phone.

“Hey Char, I was wondering when I was allowed to open the gift?”

“actually...” she trails of a little, “the present is really for Ryan. I just didn't want him opening it in front of everyone.” I glance over at Ryan and notice that he was watching me. “so he can open it now.”

“okay, thanks.”

“how's everything going?”

“um, it's going. I'll tell you all about it when I see you the day after tomorrow.”

“you better.” she says seriously, “well, hope you have an amazing Christmas.”

“you too.”

I close my phone and hand to box over to Ryan, “it's for you.” I tell him. he looks at me strangely but takes the box out of my hands anyways.

He slips the paper off and an envelope falls from it. Ryan picks up the envelope and takes out a letter.

“what does it say?” I ask, curious now.

“nothing.” he says, smiling. “just some things about you.”

“she wrote about me?!” I freaked.

Ryan leans over and kisses my cheek, “only good things. Don't worry.” he opens the box and grabs something smaller from it. It was behind the bigger box and I couldn't see what he had in his hands from my angle.

“what did she get you??”

He closes whatever it was and shoves it into his pocket. “don't worry about it babe.” he whispers, and then clears all the wrapping and things off the bed. “I'm going to go put this stuff away and have Mary come up here.”

I groan. She wasn't exactly the person I wanted to talk to. “why now?”

“better now or later. I'll be here the whole time.” I smile weakly and he walks out of the room.

After about fifteen minutes of throwing darts at a picture of Ashton Kutcher that was on the wall, Ryan came back with Mary next to him.

“okay Sky, you've hit Ashton enough for tonight.” Ryan says, taking the last of the darts out of my hand and setting them aside. I sit up straighter and cross my legs while Mary takes a seat at the end of the bed and Ryan sits next to me.

Silence filled the air. I didn't know what to say, and I'm assuming neither did Mary.

Finally, she broke the ice, “so, how are your parents?”

“don't know.” I answer truthfully.

She looked uneasy about my answer, “um...do you have any siblings?”

“why are you trying so hard here? I mean, obviously you knew my name and it's not a common name so you could have found me ages ago if you really wanted to. So this whole 'playing nice' act is really just a bunch of bullshit. And I have enough problems in my life that I really don't want to deal with this too.” I tell her. “how are my parents? My parents are drunks and drug addicts. Do I have any siblings? None that I know of, but hey, who knows, I could have one somewhere.” Mary looked scared now. “Please, don't mention this to anybody in the family. The last thing I want or need is to have you guys in my life.”

She nods slowly and gets up off the bed, walking to the door. Ryan gets up to and I'm sure he apologizes when they talk in the hallway. When he reappears he doesn't look happy with me. Instead of arguing with me, which I'm sure he wants to do. He just walks over to the window and stands there, watching the groups of people leave.

Honestly, that probably hurt more than the yelling would have.

“Ryan,” I say, getting out of bed and walking over to him. He doesn't respond. “Come on, please talk to me Ryan.” I put my hand on his arm and he shakes it off. I step back, “fine, I think I'm just going to go home for the night.” I grab my bag from the closet and head toward the door, but Ryan caught my arm.

“you're not going home.” he says harshly.

“why not? It's where I live, I think I have the right to go there when I want.”

His grasp tightened around my wrist. Great, that's going to leave a mark. “just, don't go home.” nothing in his voice lightened up which scared me, add that to the grasp and I was terrified. I'd never seen Ryan like this. Sure, on the football field he may not have been the nicest guy, but that was playing a sport. This though, this was a lot different.

“dammit Ryan! You're hurting me!” he looks down at his hand and quickly lets go. “I'll be in my room. Don't bother stopping by.” With that I left and he didn't say another word.

Lydia had shown me to the guest room about a week ago, though I had yet to stay in it. The walls were a nice yellow color with a vintage looking wallpaper on the bottom half. Everything looked old which probably meant it was since this house had been in the family for decades. I set my bag on the chair and walk over to the window, opening the blinds. The night was clear and cold, just like most winters around here. I had a view of the backyard which was covered with a rose garden and a small orchard. Everything was lit up with Christmas lights and it looked amazing.

There was a knock on my door which made me jump. “who is it?” I ask, walking across my room.

“Jane.” Ryans mom, or Jane as she likes me to call her, answers.

I open the door with a smile plastered to my face. “hey.” she steps in and I close the door.

“what did you two fight about?” she obviously one that got straight to the point.

“um, we didn't fight at all.”

she cocks an eyebrow at me, “oh really, so you just decided after two weeks of being here that you'd try out your own room for the hell of it?” I was surprised that she just swore but then brushed it off.

“we just had a small disagreement that I'm sure will be resolved by tomorrow.” she nods, accepting that as the answer.

“may I ask why you fainted this evening?”

I couldn't tell her the truth because then she would know who I was. So I went with what I do best, lie. “I hadn't eaten much today and with that added onto some stress I guess my body was just done.”

she sits down on the bed next to me, “oh dear, what were you so stressed about?”

okay, so what would I be stressed about? Something that wouldn't give away who I was... “um, well the first would be that I still haven't found a present for Ryan. He kept telling me that he didn't want anything but I know he must've gotten me something amazing.” that's what girlfriends worry about, right? Plus it was true, I hadn't gotten him anything. Though I wasn't worried about it.

Surprisingly, Jane had an answer to this. “well, whenever I was stuck on getting something for Henry, I'd always think of some inside joke we had and get something related to that. Nobody else would understand the present but he always loved it.”

I smile, “wow, that was actually really good advice.”

Jane laughs, “I'm known to give some every once in awhile. So, what's the second issue?”

“well, I just realized tonight that Ryan would be going off to college soon. I've never had to deal with that before and it's just freaking me out a little.”

“don't worry about that so much. He won't be far and knowing Ryan I know he'll make sure to see you every time possible.”

“how can you be so sure?” I ask, curious now.

She sits back, resting on her hands. “what I'm about to tell you, you can't tell Ryan, got it?” I nod. “We've planning on joining forces with the Collins, you met their daughter tonight, Mary Richlet. Anyways, Mary has an older sister, Caroline, who has a daughter around your guys' age. She's off at boarding school so no one has really seen her in awhile. We were planning on arranging Ryan and Veronica, the daughter, to get married. But then when I met you back in October I just couldn't do that to you two. The way he looks at you, and vice versa, it's pure love and I'm not one that can tear love apart. Veronica was happy about this too because she also had a boyfriend and didn't want to break up with him for Ryan. So it all worked out in the end.”

wait, hold on. This seemed like too much information. If Mary is my aunt, then her sister would be my aunt, making Veronica my cousin. Which means Ryan was arranged to marry my cousin. “So you broke the contract because Ryan loves me?”

Jane nods, “I've never seen him like this with anyone and it just didn't seem fair to you or him if I did that.”

“and this helps with my worries...”

“because he cares about you and wouldn't do anything to purposefully hurt you. So if that meant coming home every weekend, he'd be home every weekend.” I nod, understanding now, “I'll let you get some rest. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow.” I smile and thank her as she leaves.