Chapter One
I think I probably slept, at most, four hours that night. When I woke up the next morning I felt sick to my stomach as I lay in bed thinking about what had happened the night before. Jonathan was a cheater and a liar and I never wanted to see him again. What had I done to deserve having this happen to me twice in one year? Barbi’s words kept playing over and over in my mind and I wished I could flip a switch and turn them off. ‘You didn’t know did you?’ Had they been fooling around behind my back all along? I felt the tears welling up again as I thought about the incredible night I’d had with Jonathan that past Saturday, and I felt like a fool for sleeping with him. I really should have known better. He’s gorgeous, rich, in a popular band and every girl wants him. Why should he just be with one girl?
I heard Katie’s stretch and yawn float across the room and she looked over at me. “Sky, are you okay?”
“Not really, but I will be.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I really think you should talk to him. He looked really upset when he came to our door last night. He didn’t look guilty Sky, he looked distraught.”
“Katie, she was na**d in his bed.”
“Was he with her?”
“No, but he was coming back from the shower just wearing a towel.”
“But you didn’t see them together?”
“No Katie, but...”
“Just hear me out on this Sky. She was in his bed, but he wasn’t there with her. Maybe she climbed into his bed to wait for him so she could come on to him when he got back from the shower. That girl has not been subtle about the fact that she wants him and I wouldn’t put it past her to pull a stunt like this. Jonathan seems to really care about you Sky. I really think you should hear him out before you write him off.”
I thought about what she said and part of me agreed with her, but the hurt part of me wanted nothing more to do with him.
“I don’t know Katie. After what happened with Seth and Bethany I told myself I would never let that happen to me again. I don’t want to be made a fool of, you know? What if they have been hooking up all along and he’s just with me to throw his parents off? What if she’s the girl he really wants to be with? Or even worse, what if he just wants her around so he can have sex with her? I don’t want a guy like that, I don’t care who he is or how gorgeous he is.”
Katie’s eyes were kind. “Sky, maybe just take a day or two and then go talk to him. Trust me on this, okay?”
I took a deep breath and let her words sink as I looked over at her.
“Okay, I’ll give it a couple of days.”
“Good. Now, we have just enough time to grab breakfast before class, so get dressed, and don’t tell me that you aren’t hungry. You have to eat, so time to get up.”
I knew that she meant well so I didn’t even put up a fight. I could have easily stayed in bed all day with my head under the covers, especially since I had zero appetite. But Katie was right, I had to eat something so I just got out of bed and grabbed my stuff for the shower.
When I looked at myself in the mirror I was horrified at how incredibly puffy my eyes were from all the crying I had done the night before. There was no way that I was going to be seen on campus looking like that so I decided that it was a sunglasses day for the entire day. The only time I took them off was the second I sat down for class, and then as soon as my class was over they went right back on to hide my eyes. I sat in the back of every class and avoided talking to anyone.
By the end of the day, my puffy eyes had subsided so I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head. Thankfully I made it through all of my classes that day without running into Jonathan. I was headed back to the dorm to drop off my books before dinner when walking toward me was the blonde bimbo. I could feel my blood begin to boil and I wanted to rip those extensions out of her head and smash her face into the ground. Daggers flew out of my eyes as we came closer to each other and I shoved my hands into my pockets so that I wouldn’t hit her.
As she got closer, I remembered that, one day when I was 10 years old, I came home crying because someone called me names on the playground during recess that day at school. My step-dad sat with me, held my hand and told me the best way to handle someone who is mean to you or who says nasty things to you is to pretend that they don’t exist. He said that people like that like to get a reaction out of you and it makes them feel good to know that they have hurt your feelings. I was not going to let Barbi know that she had affected me so instead of having my eyes throw daggers at her, I decided to look right through her.
She must have been feeling pretty bold because she walked right up to me and stopped in front of me with a nasty smirk on her face.
“Last night was so…”
I looked right past her, stepped around her and kept walking. I smiled to myself as I imagined the disbelief that was probably on her face at that minute. She didn’t deserve one second of my time and I was not going to give it to her.
I ate dinner with a bunch of the girls and by that time they all knew what had happened between Jonathan and me.
Jenn couldn’t stop talking about it and I really wished that she would.
“I knew that Barbi was a skank. Look at the way she dresses! Skylar, if he wants trash like that you are so much better off without him.”
Amanda and a couple of the other girls co-signed what Jenn said.
Katie offered her two cents also, but I already knew where she stood with the whole thing. “You guys, I don’t think we know the whole story yet. Sky still has to talk to him to hear what he has to say.”
Jenn scoffed. “If it was me, I would say deuces and move on. Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
“Well then it’s a good thing it’s not you.” Katie for some reason seemed to be on Jonathan’s side with this.
“Okay you guys. Can we please change the subject?” I’d had enough.
Katie gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry.”
The conversation turned to shopping and I chimed in pretending to be interested. Even though my friends were trying to be supportive, I couldn’t wait to be alone.
After dinner Katie went to the student union to meet Mike, her newest crush. He was really nice and pretty cute so I was happy that she’d found a cool guy. I went back to our room to get my books and I planned to bury myself in a secluded spot in the library. I didn’t want to go to my usual spot because if Jonathan was at the library he would be able to find me. I had a lot of reading to do and I didn’t want to be found by anyone. There was an empty study room on the top floor of the library, at the far end of the hall so I spread out my stuff and dove into the books. Thoughts of Jonathan would creep in every now and then and I just pushed them right out. My grades were my first priority and I was not going to let what happened with him screw up my scholarship.