Blue Sky and Other Things That Are Good For You

Monday morning I go straight to Cathy. I don’t even bother to knock on her door, I just go straight in. She looks up at me when I enter, surprised.

“um, please sit?”

I was already ahead of her on that.

“so, what can I do for you?”

“I’m having guy problems.” I mumble. She looked confused so I guess she didn’t hear me.

“what?”

“I’m having guy problems,” I look up at her but don’t meet her eyes.

Cathy literally jumps out of her seat, “really!?” like I said, she was just a tad bit over-excited about this. She realizes what she just did and sits back down, coughing. “so, uh, what’s the problem?” her smile still stayed in grinning mode.

I bite my bottom lip some, “when you kiss someone, is there supposed to be like, a spark?”

She narrows her eyes at me, like she’s trying to figure something out. “if it’s the right person, yes.”

“oh.”

“that’s not really a problem though Sky. Is there something else?” I look at the clock and realize I wouldn’t have time to tell her.

“um, I need to get to class.” I say, starting to get up.

“sit back down.” Cathy tells me, “I’ll excuse you from class.”

After that I tell her everything that went on Saturday. From meeting the family to the wedding to the kiss, everything.

“so at school and just around, Amanda and Ryan are a couple. But to his family you’re his girlfriend?”

“precisely.”

“but you said that Amanda was at the house the other day.”

“well, his family was out of town.”

“right.”

“it’s weird I guess. I never socialized with people and now I’m a fake girlfriend and a bridesmaid and just, ugh, a bunch of stuff that I was fine without.”

“All I can say is that he’s a good boyfriend…” Cathy tries being supportive.

“ha. As if. You’re forgetting that we were caught sleeping on the sofa together. And then the whole kissing this weekend.”

“that was for the play though.”

“It started out for the play, then his hormones took over. Trust me on that one.”

“boys will be boys. Plus everybody knows Amanda cheats on him, let him have a little fun himself.”

“you know, for a mother-figure you’re very okay with the whole sex thing. Actually, for a school principle you’re okay with it.”

Cathy sticks her tongue out at me and then the bell rings. I laugh and get up. “I’ll talk to you later Cathy.” I say before going into the over-crowded hallway.

Drama came too quickly. Even though I was more than ready for today, I also wasn’t even close. I mean, it was one thing to make out in the game-room and a total other to make-out in front of his girlfriend.

I was opening the door to the theater when I was pulled back. Ryan had a hold of my elbow and was pulling me over to the side.

His eyes narrow down at me, “you weren’t in Religion.”

“ow.” I rub my elbow. “I know I wasn’t in Religion.”

“but you never skip. It wasn’t because of me was it?”

“no Ryan, it wasn’t. I just had to talk to Cathy about something.”

“Cathy?” oh, right. I was the only student who called her that.

“um, Mrs. Shaw.”

“you call her Cathy?”

“She grew up with my mom. I knew her before starting school. Anyways, can we please go in there and get this over with.”

“sure. But this isn’t the last time it’s going to happen. You do know that?”

“thanks for reminding me.” He steps aside and lets me into the room first. We were the last to enter and all eyes were on us. I could just imagine the thoughts they had at the moment.

Some groups went into the hall to practice and others backstage. The rest had to sit while Ryan and I played out our scene. Sadly, that group included Amanda.

“okay, from the top!” Mrs. Bergs says loudly.

“But perhaps these offenses might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by every thing.” Ryan reads.

“you are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared-” I reply and then get cut off early with a kiss. Ryan grabs my hands and presses his lips against mine. It was intense, but nothing like what went down on Saturday.

“cut!” we hear and I pull away, slightly out of breath. “Ryan, what in the world? You cut her off two sentences early!” Mrs. Bergs exclaims. I thought it seemed early, but didn’t really know at the time, “as for the kiss, perfect.” I didn’t dare look into the crowd to see Amandas expression. I knew I would have to deal with that later. “take it from the top!”

Ten minutes later, we finally got it down to a point that Mrs. Bergs let us stop for the day.

I put my twenty pound books back into my locker and close it, ready to leave for work. To my dismay, other people had different plans.

“I told you to stay away from him!” Amanda shouts, getting all up in my face.

Honestly, she’s a little scary when she’s mad.

“it’s a play Amanda.”

“play or not. I don’t want you touching.”

I push her away so that I could get to work, “if you find a way to kiss without touching, I’d be glad to know. But until then, give it up. It’s not like you don’t touch other guys daily.” With that I continued walking away. At this rate I was going to be late for work.

“Sky! Don’t forget that you need to dress up on Halloween.” Ted reminds me, yet again. I had to dress up to hand out yogurt.

Since I wasn’t really into Halloween, Ted took it upon himself to get me a costume. He gave it to me the other day. It wasn’t bad, not exactly what I call a piece of art though. I was Cinderella, in more way then others. The dress was the pink one that she makes with the birds and all, you know, the first dress she plans to wear to the ball. Then her ‘evil’ step-sister tear it to shreds. Well, I have the torn to shreds dress. It’s a cool idea, but also weird. Everyone thinks of Cinderella in a gown, not a torn up dress.

“I know. The dress is hanging at home.” I reply.

“so have it on when you show up Saturday. Don’t forget, you’ll be working all day and then handing out candy at the night. We’re part of the downtown thing this year.

A family with two little boys comes in. I get them their order and about five minutes later the boy decides that it’s a good idea to run with his yogurt, smashing it right into my leg. “great. Just the cherry to top my day.” I mutter sarcastically.

The boy breaks down into tears, “I’m sorry!” he cries. I crouch down so that I’m at his level.

“hey. It’s okay. It’s just some yogurt.”

“really?”

“really. Now what flavor did you have?”

“chocolate” he sniffles.

I grab another cone and fill it with some chocolate frozen yogurt, then hand it to him. “there you go. How about you sit down and have this, just in case.” The boy nods and walks back over to where is parents are sitting, the mother smiles a thank you to me.

I wipe off the gooey substance and then get back to work at the counter. Not that there was much work to get back to.

The bell above the door started ringing and I looked up from my book, Pride and Prejudice, to see not only Ryan come through, but both his sisters, Rick, and the kids.

The kids run to choose their yogurt while Ryan walks up to me, he glances around the store before leaning in and giving me a quick peck on the lips, “hey sweetie.” He says.

“hey.” I reply, glaring at him.

“you look like I can’t come see my girlfriend.”

“I dare you to say that ten times louder.” I say, smirking.

“let’s not go too far.”

“what are you doing here anyways?” I ask, “besides seeing your wonderful girlfriend” I add sarcastically.

“Charlie wouldn’t stop talking about this place, so Lydia and Rick decided to take the kids and then our parents wanted us to have some ‘sibling quality time’ so here we are.”

“quality time, sure looks like it.” I say. I glance over at them to see if they were ready to order. They weren’t. Charlie and Sydney were explaining each flavor to their parents. “speaking of quality time. I had a nice conversation with Amanda after school.” I mention.

Lydia looks up and smiles at me, I return a smile and look back at Ryan who had a smile plastered to his face, faking it of course, “you really want to talk about that here?”

“why not? There’s nothing to hide. She just wanted us to do the kiss scenes without touching.”

“when she finds a way…”

“I told her to let us know. Anyways, just thought I’d tell you that happened.”

Ryan leans in to whisper in my ear, “don’t know what I’d do without you Sky.”

“oh, I have a few ideas.” I whisper back.

The kids were ready to order now. “I’ll have Vanilla with pink sprinkles please.” Sydney asks.

I turn to Charlie, “and I’ll have Chocolate with blue sprinkles.”

Ryan smirks at me, “told ‘ya you got them hooked on those.”

“oh shush.” Lydia, Rick and Scarlet all wanted swirl, same with Ryan.

Ted came out while I was getting the order together, “oh, your boyfriend’s here! Why don’t you take a break dear.” He says.

“oh, no I’m-“

“nonsense. Go.” Ugh. Why did he have to make me do these type of things. I put the sprinkles on Charlie and Sydneys and a single pink one on Ryans.

I walk out with the tray of cones and take a seat next to Ryan at the booth. Everybody takes their own.

“Ted making you take a break?” Ryan asks, grabbing the swirl cone closest to him. The one with the sprinkle.

“he only makes me when you’re here.”

“then I should come more often.” His arm snakes around my waist and pulls me a little closer to him. “okay, when’s the whole pink sprinkle going to stop?”

“be lucky this is my payback Ryan. I could have come up with something a lot worse.”

“true.”

Charlie leans over the table toward me and before I can ask what he’s doing he puts a dot of chocolate on my nose. “do the trick Sky! Do the trick!”

“ah, I don’t think I’ll do that in front of your parents Charlie.”

“They won’t mind, will you mommy?” Sydney asks in her sweet little voice.

“I’m sure it’s nothing that will offend us.”

I turn to Ryan, “your family is too open.” I say before licking the chocolate off my nose.

Rick chuckled while the rest sat there is daze.

“you really just licked your nose?” Scarlet asks.

“you should see what else she can do with her mouth.”

“Ryan!” Lydia, Rick, and I all exclaim at once. Scarlet laughed while the two youngsters were totally oblivious to what was going on.

“I’m going to go check out the teen section.” Scarlet says. And gets out of the booth.

“mommy! Mommy! Can we go to the toys?!” Sydney asks.

“sure sweetie.” Lydia slides out with the two kids and takes them to the other section. Honestly I expected Rick to go with them, but instead he sat back in his seat and stared at Ryan and I for a moment.

He crosses his arms before speaking, “what’s really going on between you two?”

Ryan obviously wasn’t going to answer, so it was up to me, “what are you talking about?”

“’Ted is making me take a break’? what girlfriend wouldn’t take a break when her boyfriend is around?”

“one that needs to pay the bills at home.” I say. Ryan didn’t even know that before. That really wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with him any time soon.

Rick thinks about my answer for a second, “I don’t know. You all act like a couple. But for some reason that’s all it seems like, acting.”

“well I can tell you that I’m not acting, I don’t know about Ryan here.” I nudge him a little in the side to make him answer.

“of course I’m not acting.”

Rick eyes us one last time, “right.” And then he leaves to go play with his kids.

“this seems wrong.” I say, turning to face him on the booth.

“wrong or not, you’re an amazing actress.” Ryan comments.

“Ryan, I’m serious. I can only come up with instant replies for so long. At some point we’re going to have to tell the truth, or break-up.”

“break-up, after the wedding though.” Ryan says, “hey, about this Saturday, you guys can still come over if you want, but since it’s Halloween we’re going trick or treating.”

“I’ll see if Suzy wants to go with you guys, I’m stuck here though to hand out candy.” I say. “I was going to tell you at school tomorrow, but this works better.”

“and what are you going to be, a sexy doctor??”

“it’s a surprise.”

“well then I’ll just have to stop by.”

“you will.” I smile sweetly, “what are you going to be?”

“firefighter? I think”

I burst out laughing, “you’re kidding, right?”

“not at all. Charlie wanted to be a firefighters dog and needed a firefighter. My sister volunteered me.”

“well I think you’ll make an amazing firefighter.”

“do you really have to work to pay the bills?” Ryan changes the subject. Great.

“I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

“Sky, even if you’re not actually my girlfriend, I still care about you.” He says and I know he’s being honest. I just wish he wasn’t.

“you really shouldn’t.” I whisper, my voice cracking a little.

“whether I should or shouldn’t, it doesn’t matter. But I do. I’ve cared since I met you back in elementary school.”

“when we met back in elementary school, you cared about a totally different girl than who I am now.” I let my head drop as I examine the stitching I did on my jeans.

Ryan studies me for a second, I can feel it. He lifts my chin up so that I have to look him in the eye, “you’re right. Before you were this vulnerable, helpless girl who just went along with the flow, nothing really special about her. Now you’re this strong, confident girl who is a secret genius and has awesome talents that make her more different from the crowd then she, or anyone else, realizes. And even if you say you don’t need any help, I know for a fact that even the strongest of us fall at some point.”

The tears were pushing to get out, but I wouldn’t let it. I couldn’t cry in front of him, show him how weak I was. That wasn’t how this worked. I had never shown weakness in the past five years, and I wasn’t about to start now.

“I-I need to get back to work.” I whisper and slip out of his grasp, going back to the counter. I sit down and start reading the book again, sniffling behind the pages. I knew Ryan was watching me, but I didn’t care, I couldn’t care. He would just leave when he got tired at trying.

When they left I set the book down and sigh. It wasn’t until I was cleaning up and dumping out the tips that I noticed the white napkin in the jar.


Blue Sky,
When you’re ready to talk, you know where to find me.
Love You,
-Ryan

A tear finally escaped and slipped down my cheek, hitting the napkin with a splash.