Under the New York Sky | ✔️

•C h a p t e r E l e v e n•

Dedicated to Rspicy

Song for chapter eleven: Ocean by Mike Perry ft. SHY Martin

|Aden|

The sound of my phone's ringtone penetrated through my dreamless sleep. I groaned, rolling over into my side and grabbing my phone from my nightstand where it was laying. The duvet rolled back into my bed, exposing my bare chest to the cold. Goosebumps rose onto my skin.

Who the hell calls this late at night. I cursed in my head. My anger however immediately dissipated when I saw Skyler's name on the caller ID.

Why would she call at three in the morning? Then, what I'd said to her at the library hit me and a small smile spread over my face. She had taken up on my offer.

I slid my thumb over the screen to answer the call. "Hey Skyler," I greeted, rubbing my eyes as I sat up on the bed.

She was silent for a moment. "Hey, I'm not bothering you right? Oh never mind I'm dumb it's so late of course I'm bothering you," she rambled, her voice was soft.

I chuckled, "It's fine, you're not bothering me, are you alright?"

"I don't know. Define 'alright'," she laughed lightly and I smiled. She was silent for a short moment, the only thing that sounded through the line were her soft breaths. "Do you think our guardians— or our parents— always knows what's best for us?"

I pondered for a moment, "I don't think they know what's best for us, but I think they want to do what they think is best."

"So I should listen to them?"

"If you believe they're right," I replied, hearing her groan over the line and I smiled. "What is this about?"

"It's nothing, just something stupid," she said quickly.

It was something alright.

I heard her sigh over the line, "It's just... I need to get away from my own mind. It won't shut off."

A large part of me knew that there was more to what she was telling me. But if she wasn't ready to be completely honest I wasn't going to push her. Hell, there were some things I haven't even told her, even though I had said more to her in the last two weeks than I had anyone else, excluding Ryan.

"It's all good. I'm right here," I said softly as I laid back onto my bed.

"It's just, sometimes I need everything to stop," she said so quietly that I almost had to strain my ears to hear her, "like, I don't want to die or anything, but you know, I just need to breathe and... I can't."