Tell Me I'm Different (Finished!)

(18) Remember Me

Lighting pierced the sky and for an instant it lit up the small town making it appear to be daytime. Thunder followed a second later, brutally shaking the rickety blue jeep they were in. Skye tightened her arms around her stomach and stared at Elvis’ and Melody’s fingers entwined in each other’s. A tear slipped from Skye’s dark brown eyes, but unlike the many other tears that had left her eyes today, they weren’t because she was mourning the loss of her unborn child, but it was because she didn’t understand what kind of love would allow murder. The sight of their hands clutched together tightly reminded Skye of her own parents, so in love that they didn’t notice their own family falling apart. Was love really like that? Did it make you so blind and stupid that you would do anything for your partner, even if it meant ruining someone else’s life? Skye thought, if this is what love meant, then she was glad she would never be with Ace.  

The car jolted to a stop and instantly Skye felt a painful pang in her abdomen. A small noise escaped from Skye’s mouth before she had time to hush herself. Melody turned around instinctively and when she saw Skye holding her stomach in pain, her eyes filled with tears. Her mouth moved as if she was trying to form some comforting words, but nothing came out and she just turned around and clutched onto Elvis even tighter.

Skye felt like she was being ripped inside out. Every breath she took brought a fresh wave of equally horrifying pain to her weak body.

She couldn’t imagine a pain greater than this.

Skye knew this was not how pregnancy was supposed to feel. There was something seriously wrong with her and the baby, yet she could not fathom losing Cara.

“We’re here,” Elvis said roughly from the front seat. In an instant he was outside of the jeep holding the backdoor open, waiting for Skye to come out. Skye stared at his dark blue polo, now drenched in rain and she remembered where she had first seen that shirt. He wore it the first time he had bumped into her in the streets of Chicago.

Liliana had a backpack full of clothes and $20 in her pocket. She had no idea where to go and was starving. For the past few days since she had left the greyhound from Oklahoma to Chicago she would sleep in the slide of a jungle gym in a small park in Jarvis square.

Liliana was on the verge of a mental breakdown. She was seriously considering going back home and sneaking into her bedroom just for a good night’s sleep in a soft bed. But then the she remembered the last time she saw her bed, soaked in her own blood, and she thought against it.

Liliana grabbed her backpack and slid down the slide head first. Instead of the bright sun that always assaulted her eyes when she did this, a figure dressed in dark colors blocked her vision. Liliana fought to sit up, but because she was in such an awkward position, she ended up half lying on her stomach and half propped up on her elbows. The man laughed and extended a hand to help her off the yellow tubular slide. Liliana stared at it for a moment before reluctantly accepting it.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” the man laughed, after Liliana had pulled herself out of the slide. She gripped onto the straps of her backpack where her pepper spray was and thought of all the possible escape routes in case he tried to rob her. But something about him, maybe it was the expensive Cuban cigar he was puffing on, or his blue Ralph Lauren polo, told her he didn’t.

“Leave me alone,” she replied, already beginning to walk away.

She was halfway across the park when he shouted, “Wait! At least let me get a lady some breakfast. You look starved.”

Liliana stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t lie, breakfast sounded really good right now.

“There’s a Denny’s right around the corner!” he shouted, enticingly.