Walls

Saturday morning, Skylar woke up in an unfamiliar bed with an all too familiar arm wrapped around her waist. She looked over her shoulder at Alex, who was smiling in his sleep. That's when memories from last night flooded her memory.

"FUCK." Alex's eyes fluttered open and eh shot out of bed when he heard her yell. He found her running around the room, wrapped in one of the sheets, picking up her clothes from the floor that were leading from the door to the bed.

"What's going on?" Skylar continued swearing and began getting dressed in last night's clothes.

"We had sex, Alex. Fuck. What did I do? Why did I have to get so drunk?" As she was putting on her shirt, she started to cry. Alex put on his boxers and jeans and rushed over to her.

"Calm down Skye, please? What's so bad about us having sex?" He wiped away her tears and grabbed his shirt from the floor.

"I-I dont...I have to go Alex." He stared at her sadly, unsure of what he did wrong.

"What did I do wrong? Are we going to be okay?" She grabbed her purse and opened the bedroom door but stopped before continuing down the hallway.

"As cliche as it sounds, it's the truth. It's not you, it's me. We'll be okay. I just need a bit of space right now alright? I'll call you." With that, she ran through Kara's house, right past Lacey and Kara watching TV with Zack, Jack and Rian. When they saw her run out of the house, and Alex running after her, they got off the couch and followed her. Alex let her go, and watched as she got into Kara's car with them, and drove off.

"Soo what did you do now?" Alex shrugged and hung his head down.

"I don't even know."

--

When Kara was driving Skylar home, the ride was completely silent, aside from the radio playing softly. Skylar stared out the window, still hungover, thinking about Alex and what she was going to do.

"Mind telling us why you're upset?" Skylar bit her lip and changed the radio station when a sappy love song came on.

"I'll tell you guys later. Let's go to the diner. I need to eat to clear my thoughts." Kara drove to the diner down the street and parked the car. Once they walked inside and sat down, Skylar took off her jacket and flipped through menu, unable to decide what to eat. She tapped her fork on the table as she flipped through, and when the waitress brought her coffee, she switched the fork to a spoon.

"Skylar what the hell is going on? Why are you so agitated?" Knowing they would find out sooner or later, she thought it best to just tell them.

"I had sex last night." Kara's jaw dropped and Lacey clapped yelling "FINALLY" for everyone to hear.

"IN MY HOUSE? WITH WHO?" Kara wasn't mad, she was just overly curious.

"On your bed actually. And it was with Alex." Now it was Lacey's turn to drop her jaw.

"You had sex with Alex? Wow. So why did you run out?" Skylar gulped down her coffee and the waitress brought their food so they all ate their meals, still chatting.

"I didn't know what to say or do so I left." The other two girls laughed and shook their heads at her.

"You have to talk to him." Skylar shook her head now.

"I don't know what to say to him. I don't know if we used protection. I don't know if it meant anything to him. We were both completely wasted. I could've just been a one night stand." The girls paid for their meals and left the diner. They resumed their conversation in the car ride to the mall where they decided to have a girls day.

"You know what this means right?" Lacey looked between Kara and Skylar, grinning.

"That it's your turn to fuck Zack?" Lacey smacked Skylar on the arm and laughed.

"Uhhh, too late?" Skylar laughed and they high fived.

"YOU GUYS SUCK, IM NEVER HAVING A PARTY AGAIN."

--
A week passed by and Skylar still hadn't confronted Alex yet. He knew better than to be the first to talk so he gave her the space she asked for. Their friends however, kept pushing them to talk to each other but they both refused. Alex was miserable from the lack of communication, wondering what he had done wrong. He was always late for school, or in detention for talking back. Skylar had distanced herself from everyone but that didn't stop her from drinking at school, and smoking a pack a day.

Sunday night, Skylar was having supper with her parents, but she was just pushing the food around on her plate. Her mother noticed, and sighed.

"Why aren't you eating?" So many thoughts were racing through her mind that she couldn't even answer the question.

"Skylar answer your mother." Her relationship with her parents had never been a good one since Cody died. It mostly consisted of her ignoring them or vice versa. When they did pay attention though, it was just arguing and fighting all the time.

"I'm just not fucking hungry." She pushed the plate away and got up, her mother sighing.

"SKYLAR, LANGUAGE." Skylar rolled her eyes at her father, who was now standing up and walking towards her.

"What? it's not like you don't swear." Her father crossed his arms and stared down at her, sternly.

"Fine you want to be that way? What the fuck has gotten into you?" She was taken aback, her dad had never sworn directly at her before.

"What the fuck do you care? You never give a shit about me anymore! Ever since Cody died, you guys just fight and ignore me. It's fucking pathetic." Before she could even react, her father raised his hand and hit her. Skylar brought her own hand up to her stinging cheek which was now red. Her mother was now standing behind him, shocked. She quickly grabbed her purse and ran out of the house, despite the rainstorm that had started.

She kept running, with no particular destination in mind. The rain fell harder, but Skylar didn't seem to notice. Eventually she stopped running and found herself standing in front of an all too familiar house. She put her hood over her head and knocked on the door softly, and waited for someone to answer it. Finally, a woman in her mid forties opened the door.

"Skylar? Oh my goodness, come inside honey. You're shivering." Skylar stepped into the foyer and took off her shoes. She thanked the woman and made her way upstairs where she could faintly hear a guitar being strummed. She slumped to the floor, her back leaning against the doorframe and just listened to the music. A moment later, the door opened.

"Skye? What the hell? Why are you soaking wet?" He bent down to face her, but she kept her head down and sniffled. "Are you crying? Look at me, please?" He lifted up her chin so he could see her face which was streaked with tears.

"A-Alex, i'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He wrapped her in his arms and picked her up, bringing her into his room. He set her on the bed and sat in front of her.

"Why? You have nothing to be sorry for. If anything, I feel like I should be the one apologizing. What's wrong? Why is your cheek red?" She started shaking and burst into tears again.

"I-he-Alex" She wanted to speak, but she was still too shaken up. Alex told her to go take a shower and that he would make some tea. She nodded and went to the bathroom while Alex went downstairs to make the tea. Downstairs, he found his mom already pouring some into mugs.

"Mom can Skye stay tonight? I think something happened." His mom nodded and he thanked her, taking the tea back upstairs.

Twenty minutes later, Skye came back into his room wearing one of his shirts and sweatpants. He handed her the tea and they drank it in silence, until she was ready to talk.

"I'm sorry I've been so distant." Her voice was almost a whisper.

"Why were you crying before?" She looked down at her feet and put the mug on his night stand.

"I got into a fight with my dad tonight." He sat next to her, both of them leaning against the headboard. He wrapped an arm around her and she leaned into him.

"Is that why your cheek is red?" Nodding, she reached up to feel it, and it still stung so she winced. "Are you okay now?" Again she nodded, saying that she just needed to get away. Alex told her she could stay the night, so they just sat there, on his bed. She told him about the fight, and that she had just ran out with nowhere else to go, how she couldn't concentrate at school anymore and how she was going insane. He just sat there and listened, trying to calm her down and comfort her.

It was silent for a while; Skylar was looking at the pictures on his dresser and picked up the one that stood out the most to her. It was from when they were younger, at the first school dance and Alex had been the one to take her. She smiled and turned back to Alex.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"You know the night that we...you know..." Alex looked down at her questioningly.

"Yeah, what about it? Are you ready to tell me why you ran out?" She sat up straighter and then got up from the bed to lean against the wall.

"I ran out because I was scared. I still am. I mean, did we even use protection? Was it a one time thing?" She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, but she ignored it.

"Scared of what? Me? Yeah we used protection, and I don't know Skylar. Where is this coming from?" She shook her head no and sighed.

" When we had...sex...it was...I didn't...ugh fuck." She ran a hand through her hair and started pacing. Alex got off the bed and went over to her, grabbing her shoulders to stop her from pacing.

"Skylar.....was that....was that your first time?" Her phone vibrated again.

"Um. Yeah." She avoided eye contact and she could feel a tear prick the back of her eyes. Alex started laughing. "I'm glad you find this funny, asshole." He shook his head, still chuckling.

"Skye, no. It's not that I find it funny. It's just...you've been avoiding me for a week when you weren't the only virgin in the room that night. That was my first time too." Skye's head snapped and she looked into his eyes, trying to see if he was telling the truth or a lie. When she realized he was being honest, she relaxed and hugged him. "So we're okay then? We can go back to being us?"

"Yeah, we're okay."

Alex went to the bathroom to shower while Skylar checked her texts, to find one from Lacey asking where she was because her mother had called her. Two were from her mother wondering where she was and telling her not to come home because her father was still mad. She texted Lacey back saying she with Alex and ignored her mother. When Alex came back, Lacey was on his bed, writing in her notebook.

"What are you writing?" She looked up at him and smiled.

"My assignment for music class. It's due tomorrow." He sat down at his desk and opened up his own. "What about you?"

"Same thing. I'm almost done." They sat in silence, scribbling in their notebooks until it was past midnight, and they were fighting back yawns.

"Push over, I'm going to bed." Skylar put her notebook back in her purse and moved over to the side of the bed near the wall, to make room. Alex laid down beside her under the covers and shut off the
bedside lamp. Darkness and silence surrounded them, and Skylar simply thought to herself that she was lucky to have Alex back in her life.

"Hey Alex?" He mumbled a tired 'yeah?' and faced her. "Thanks for everything." She kissed his cheek and snuggled closer to him. He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead.

"You're welcome. Go to sleep, we have school tomorrow." They exchanged goodnights and fell asleep like that.