The City | GirlxGirl

fourteen ➳

"Hello?"

Skylar was surprised at the sound of her own voice. Although she'd been woken moments ago by the shrill ringing of her phone that she now wished she had shut off last night, she had yet to open her eyes. The early afternoon sun warmed her skin, sunlight peeking in through the drapes that were always kept open in Blair's bedroom.

"Where the hell are you?"

Skylar raised her eyebrows. Finally opening her eyes, she blinked through the sunshine, trying to ignore the immediate pounding that struck the back of her head.

"This is going to sound really weird," said Skylar. Slowly looking around Blair's bedroom, she let her eyes adjust to the light, and smiled. "I'm in your bedroom."

There was a pause. Definitely not where she was expecting me to be, thought Skylar.

"Sorry?"

"Uh," Skylar picked at a loose thread on Blair's duvet cover. "It's kind of a long story."

"Skylar, I swear to God, if you hooked up with someone in my room-"

"I didn't!" Skylar laughed, surprised by the sound that crawled from her lips. Like smoke. "I didn't. I'm not alone, but I didn't-"

"What did I miss when I was sleeping? At your house? Why are you in my house?"

With a smile that felt incredibly foreign to Skylar, she filled Blair in on last night. Starting with her inability to sleep, skipping the part about the convenience store and the cigarettes, and ending with finding a girl sat on the curb, brokenhearted.

"So there's a stranger in my house? What's her name?"

Skylar's smile vanished. It was like in a movie, when the kids are busted for having a party, or something like that, and the music shuts off. Everyone falls silent.

Everyone-everything-silent, other than Skylar's heart. Thumpthumpthump.

"Oh, God," Skylar grimaced, holding her palm to her face. "Fuck. Blair, I can't remember her name."

Blair laughed-a short, irritated laugh. "You forgot her name? Did she get you drunk?"

Skylar's mind flashed back to hours before, when the girl had asked her if she was having a drink, too. For a moment, Skylar had seen her expression soften. The girl's eyes, as blue as the sky had been on the day she was out catching snowflakes, widened. And at that moment, Skylar thought, She understands. She knows. Without me saying it, she knows.

But of course, Jude didn't know why Skylar didn't drink.

"No," Skylar shook her head, just for the effect. Just for herself. "You know I didn't get drunk. I forgot her name because of my stupid brain."

Blair was silent for a moment. Skylar remembered the first time she met Blair, and the days they had spent together after the funeral. They'd driven all over the city-everywhere but the highway where Logan was killed. They watched sunsets and sunrises; they didn't sleep much. They drank until they puked, and then Skylar vowed she was never going to drink again. Not after what it had done to Logan. Not after what it had done to her, and to Blair.

It tore hearts apart. It broke strings.

The liquid that burned the back of Skylar's throat on its way down and up was a thief.

"Right. Your memory."

"Yeah," Skylar said, closing her eyes. She searched and searched, as if pursuing a physical place, for any trace of the girl's name. After a minute, she sighed. "I don't get it sometimes."