by Alisha Watts
Then, like a blow to the chest, it hit him. How to fix his problems with Skylar, with his thesis, and with his undetermined direction. Well, his thesis first. He couldn’t believe the now seemingly unnecessary emotional distress he had put himself under and was determined to face and solve all of his problems. With that thought, Chris began typing like a madman, while an ever-widening smile stretched across his face as he worked.
“Okay, life,” he chuckled to his computer, “I’m going to get you back in order again. No funny business, nobody gets sued. The mess you’ve become begins and ends here.”
Chapter Four
“Woah, Nellie, slow down!” Skylar scolded as the mischievous border collie knocked into her knees excitedly to greet her. “Down, no, down!” she said as she bopped her nose to startle her out of her excited prancing. “That’s enough!”
“You don’t have to scold her that harshly,” her mother said.
“I do when she freaks out like that. She forgets she’s a puppy sometimes and it’s not okay, Mom,” she complained.
“Who’s the animal? Give her some credit. She’s just happy to see you.”
“Well she can be happy on the ground,” Skylar replied as she went to the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal for herself. “Do you have any plans for the day?”
“No, not really. I’m off to work soon but have a shorter shift today. You have the day off, right?”
“Yeah, I was going to go down to the lake with Grayson later. Did you need me to get anything from the store?”
“Maybe some milk since that’s really the only thing you’ve been using up. Are you sure that you eat?”
“Mom,” she said mildly as she ate. She arched a brow at Nellie when the dog laid her head on her thigh and stared up at her pathetically. “No begging.”
Nellie sighed dramatically and curled up at her feet so that Skylar would have to all but kick her in order to stand up again. She peered around the table to give her a reproving look but Nellie was too busy staring out the window to notice.
“She seems pretty content with her life,” Skylar said as she checked her phone for a text from Grayson.
When her daughter started grinning at her cell phone she gave her a mild look. “I don’t think Nellie is the only one,” she commented wryly.
“Hm?”
“Nothing. Have a good day, don’t forget to let Nellie out for a while before you leave. If you’re going to be gone more than a few hours please put her in her kennel. She’s been getting antsy when left to her own devices lately.”
“Aww, are you a nervous lady?” she asked as she reached down to fluff the fur around her ears. “Yeah, it’s no fun to be stuck at home. Not sure why being stuck in your kennel is better.” Skylar rolled her eyes and did her dishes before going upstairs to get ready.
She was vaguely puzzled as to what to wear to go to the lake and ended up putting a swim suit on under her clothes just in case. She startled when her phone began to ring and answered it distractedly.
“Hey, Skylar, is this a bad time? It’s Chris.”
“Oh, hey! No, it’s not a bad time. What are you up to? I haven’t heard from you in a while. I kind of expected another call after you asked me to catch up the other day.”
He laughed self-consciously. “I guess it’s been a minute. I was in kind of a weird place mentally because Steve was a moron and kidnapped me to the mountains for a while.”
“What? Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he said, sounding somewhat as though he was frustrated at himself for some reason. “When I came home everything just started to fall together and I finished my thesis just about all at once. I guess I got caught up in that and forgot to mention the kidnapping thing.”
“You’ve finished it? Has it been that long since we actually talked? It seems like last time I heard from you you had no idea when that was going to happen.” She fluffed her hair as she thought about what she had been up to lately and was mystified that she had not made nearly enough time for her friends. The last time she had talked to Tara was at least a week ago, and it had been nearly a month since they’d had that double date at the movies. Or had it been longer? She’d been spending nearly every minute of her free time with Grayson so it was difficult to tell.
“I guess I just made a breakthrough. I was just thinking about where I was in my life and what I wanted out of it and suddenly a lot of the things I had been looking at and thinking were really convoluted actually made a lot of sense.”
“Um, that’s good,” Skylar said, feeling rather confused for her part at this change of heart she was seeing in him. Wasn’t he so worried about the world that he wanted to be a scholar forever? Chris was shy and reclusive, not at all like her charismatic Grayson, and she never saw much of him even before he disappeared into his books. Sure, she could understand him being a little out of touch with the world after his father died, but he’d taken it to an extreme that had worried her. “I’m glad.”
“Did you get my text about my graduation party?”
“Um, I think so. I’ll have to dig through my inbox and find it. Is that coming up soon?”
“Yeah. I was wondering if you might like to get some coffee today so I can tell you about my thesis. Maybe let you know some of what I’ve been thinking about. That is, unless you’re still too busy.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Chris, but I have plans. Maybe we can have lunch or something after your graduation party?”
“Oh. Sure, yeah, sorry to bother you. Hope your day is great,” he said quickly.
“Yours, too. Bye!” Skylar frowned briefly at her phone but did not spend too long puzzling over why he had wrapped the conversation up so quickly like that. Again. Anyway, she had too much to do to get ready since today seemed like it might be a big deal of some sort and she had to be prepared for anything. At least, she could only guess that it was going to be special because Grayson had sounded so excited when he’d asked her out.
Not that he wasn’t excited to see her anytime, but today... she could feel it. Today was going to be special.
~~~
Chris spent the better part of the morning spinning his phone around between his fingertips. With his thesis submitted and nothing to do while he waited for his mentor to read it he found that he had more than enough time to pay attention to the world. He knew it was Thursday, that Steve had gone on one of his road trips and so had missed getting wings with him, and Chris had no idea what Skylar was up to. Not that what she was doing was any of his business but he found that he could not stop thinking about her now that he had realized that she had been on his mind.
It was incredibly frustrating to him because he couldn’t simply acknowledge that there was an elephant in the room and then go on with his day. Since he hadn’t been able to talk to Skylar he had not been able to figure out why she was on his mind so often. It seemed odd to him that she suddenly always had plans when before it seemed as though she would frequent certain areas in the hopes of being visited by random friends.
He tapped his finger on the phone as he mentally counted out how many times he had turned her down for a lunch date or had just missed having coffee with her. Now that he was making a tally of sorts it felt as though all those lost opportunities had only multiplied the longer he had kept to himself. If he had just made more of an effort to get to know her and to keep her friendship then he wouldn’t be wondering about her all the time.
Chris opened up the inbox on his phone and stared at the text messages that had been sent to him. He didn’t really understand how people could carry on texting conversations since he’d never engaged in one. Aside from a quick message here or there he had no need to use his phone for anything other than calling people or simply reassuring his mother that he hadn’t fallen prey to a raving monster made out piles of books and notepaper.
He was an intelligent human being and therefore the puzzle of how to approach a social interaction should not
be this overwhelming. Chris studied Skylar’s message saying she would be at his graduation and wondered if he was being foolish. After all, one didn’t send a friend as many smiley faces as she had put in the texts she had sent to him, did they? Perhaps it was possible that she had noticed that he was going to be out of school soon and was busy with work now but keeping him in mind as an option still.
That seemed a bit presumptuous but he hoped that it was the case. It didn’t seem all that unlikely since he had seen a spark of interest in how she had sometimes looked at him. He was fairly certain that he hadn’t imagined it and the last he had heard she was waiting around on guys like Joey to notice that she was an interesting, sweet, sensitive person in need of someone to fall in love with.
He was an absolute idiot for being one of those guys, not involved in her life when he could have been.
Chris got up and put the phone on his nightstand and started to walk to the kitchen before realizing that he had too much nervous energy to do much of anything. He didn’t want to make lunch just yet since it was too early in the day for it and he really wasn’t all that hungry. He didn’t want to watch TV and he’d only been able to concentrate for a few paragraphs when he had cracked open a book.
“You’re the kind of kid that needs something in your hands to distract you,” his father had told him as he handed Chris a wrench. “Come on and help me tighten a bolt or two and maybe everything else will start to make more sense. I’ve learned that bikes are like problems. They can spin you out when you least expect it but as long as you keep your head and know yourself you can get back on target. It helps if you know what went into keeping the bike together in the first place.”
Chris smiled as the memory struck him but the thought of going home to fix up his old bike to make it able to hit the road was painful. His mother would want to know what he was doing and would disapprove and he shouldn’t upset her so much over something that may not even help. He wanted to be doing something with his hands and that was it but she would take his working on the bike as some sign that he wanted to pick up the habit of riding it again. That would cause her all sorts of worry even if he never touched the ignition or moved to get on the bike.
He sighed and decided to look up a complicated recipe for something to make for dinner. Perhaps if he had something that he could shop for and had to spend most of the day making then that would help keep him from pining away all day.
There were far more people on the beach of the lake than Skylar had expected there would be. Grayson seemed to know several of them and would stop every so often to strike up brief conversations with them. On such occasions she would trail behind him and listen to him talk until he introduced her. It thrilled her so much to be introduced as his girlfriend that she didn’t mind all of the time on their date that he spent talking to other people.
At least, she didn’t mind it much.
As the sun set he took her out to the edge of a pier and they watched the gulls harrying a heron. Boats sailed along the horizon and somewhere a child shrieked at his mother about something he had found on the beach. Skylar couldn’t tell if it was a delighted noise or a fearful one.
“So I’ve been thinking. About a lot of things, really, but mostly about you,” Grayson commented as he turned away from watching the water to look down at her intensely. His hold on her hand tightened and he smiled. “Almost entirely about you.”
She couldn’t help but blush and a flattered laugh escaped her. “What about me?” she asked coyly.
“I feel like you are the perfect person for me. I can be myself with you and the more I get to know you the more I fall in love with you. I’ve found that I get up in the morning and look forward to falling deeper in love with you, that I can do nothing but anticipate being with you. I can’t imagine a day without you and I want to spend the rest of my life looking forward to your smile. Though the day that that becomes reality for us may still be long in coming I want to promise myself to you.” He got down on one knee and pulled out a plush jewelry box to flip open.
Skylar put a hand to her heart as she saw the diamond ring nestled in the box. “Grayson,” she breathed in hopeful surprise. “Oh my god, really?”
“Of course,” he said, being bold enough to slip the ring on her finger. She allowed him to as she was still too surprised to stop him. “After all, I know I only want to be yours so why not make the promise now?”
“It’s perfect,” she gushed as she examined the ring on her hand. “This is so unexpected and romantic.”
“Hopefully it wasn’t too unexpected,” he quipped with a grin.
“Well, no, but I would have thought we would be together for longer. Not that it’s a bad thing, I just am surprised but not really but yes. Yes, I’ll marry you!” She threw her arms around his neck and held him excitedly. “Oh, Grayson. You’re so wonderful.”
“You’re better,” he said as he gently tipped her chin to kiss her chastely.
Skylar shivered and leaned in for another kiss, wanting to explore the foreign feeling of it more deeply. The way that he held her as if she was his most cherished possession caused a fire to burn in her heart and she felt the imprints of his palms on her back even after he let her go. He didn’t allow her to back up too far, though, but instead took hold of her hands so that he could look deeply into her eyes.
“You’re sure? I’m not moving too fast for you? I just feel so connected to you,” he admitted almost sheepishly. “I sit down to write a song and all I can think is that I’m in love with you.”
“How will marrying me fix that?”
“Well, if I have you with me all the time then perhaps there will be room for other thoughts to happen on the sidelines.”
Skylar giggled. “You always know just what to say to make me feel like I’m the only person in the world.”
“Good, that is my intention. I do like it when my missions in life are successful.”
She leaned in for another kiss and sighed contentedly. “I think I like it, too.”
~~~
Steve chuckled as he watched his friend try to fade into the backdrop at his own graduation party. His family and friends kept trying to engage him in conversation and having to pull him out of his secluded corners. He appeared to take it in good grace but kept looking around as though there was someone that was missing. Steve’s eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out his friend’s behavior. His first thought was that his mentor had told him that he had something important to tell him about his thesis but he couldn’t see a sign of the professor anywhere.
If it wasn’t the professor that was of interest then Steve started to catalogue who in his family was around. There were a few cousins, his mother, his grandparents. His father’s family was mostly absent since Chris was apparently some kind of painful reminder to them that they had lost his father. Steve didn’t recall Chris mentioning anyone that was important enough to cause him to be so inattentive and so Steve surmised that it must be because of a girl.
After all, knowing Chris, the one thing he wouldn’t share would be embarrassment that Steve had been right. As much as he had been egging his friend on to find someone and as much as Chris had resisted it the only conclusion that made logical sense was that it was a girl.
He wished he could attribute his brilliance solely to the fact that he was a deductive genius. However, the fact that Chris continued to look more closely at people with longer hair was also a telling clue.
“Congrats,” he said as he pulled Chris aside from a discussion that vaguely concerned the economy in some fashion. “So what are you going to do now?”
“Everyone keeps asking me that, though you’re the first to imitate a talk show host while doing so.”
“Well, it is my duty as your friend to be the first to do several things in your life. Such as listen to a serious answer to my question instead of the usual cover story. Only the people that don’t know you buy that ‘totally have a plan and am on my way to figuring out my life’ stu
ff.”
Chris voiced an offended sigh. “I do have a plan. I’ve applied to several teaching jobs and have been offered a couple of interviews. I’m mostly conducting them over the computer since some of the jobs themselves are so far away.”
“So you have the work aspect covered, I figured that would be the first thing. What about having someone to make those trips with you?”
“Someone like...?”
“Well, you can’t always spend your life having Wing Tuesdays with me. You could, I guess, but that would probably lead to a lot of unhealthy habits. And what happens if you get a job in another state? I’d have to make special road trips out to see you and you’d just refuse to hang out with me because you’re nervous of my bike.”
“That is so not true, dude. If you can make a special road trip across the country just because some guy with weird hair on TV had a really good pulled pork sandwich there, then you can make a trip or two to see me. And just because you are around to visit does not mean I have to spend time with you when you’re on your bike.”
“I’d have Anna with me.”
“You bring her along to some of our trips and wings nights, anyway. What would that change, overall?”
“Not much on my end but won’t it bother you? My always having my girl and you always having some super cool fact that you found in a book?”
“Why do you keep ragging on the things that I like?”
“I’m not! I think it’s cool that you’re into... smart... things and that you like to spend time learning. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I can look at you and see that you feel like something is missing in that life you have built for yourself. There’s something else that you need to be happy and I don’t see you pursuing it and the only way I can get you to pay attention to me is if I light a fire under you.”