I walked into the sprawling, one-story building that was the library looking for him. It only took me a few minutes to spot him sitting at a desk by himself reading some huge book and jotting down notes in a note book. I walked over to the other side of the table and lightly tapped it to get his attention. Blue eyes shot up from the book and his face immediate flushed.
"Skye, I presume?" I smiled. The name hurt though, I hadn't said his name in so long. I heard his ghost laugh at me.
"Y-yeah, that's me. Tori?" he muttered, closing his giant book that I hadn't really gotten a good look at and the notebook that he had been writing in. He kept his eyes on everything but me as he placed everything in a black-and-blue backpack, the kind that had only one strap.
"Correct. The car's outside, we can get going now if you want," I smiled, trying to make it look as comforting as I could. I am so out of practice with talking to actual living things that can respond, I'm sure it shows.
"O-okay... Um, can I, uh, sit in the back?" he asked softly as we made our way to the front. His hands tugged at the pockets on his cargo pants and he walked kinda slumped, making him look more 5'5'' than 5'7''.
"Whatever you feel comfortable with. As long as you wear a seat belt, you can sit upside-down if it makes you happy," I shrugged.
He stopped for a second, taken aback. "I don't think I'll sit upside down..."
I had to stop myself from laughing. "Sorry kid, I say a lot of weird shit and I've been on my own so long my filter is long gone." I looked over him to see him looking at me curiously (i guess?). He looked away and his face flushed up again. I just chuckled as I unlocked my door and reached around to unlock the backdoor.
I have no clue why an '08 Chevy doesn't have automatic locks (or windows for that matter) but a car's a car.
"The ride back's about an hour long. Feel free to sleep and please inform me if you need to use the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I can find a place pretty quick. I'll keep the music pretty low, okay?" I asked him as I started up the car.
"O-okay..." he said softly. I caught him looking at me when I turned around to look out of my back window as I pulled out of the parking spot. Cue more blushing. He ducked his head down and instead started looking around the floor of my car.
"If you find any change on the floor you can keep it," I joked as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto West Street. He just bobbed his head and turned to look out the window on his left.
I hummed along to the radio as I drove. Some guy cut me off so I honked at him and gave him the one-finger salute. Of course, even when you avoid 97, people are still dicks. I looked into the rear-view mirror to see that Skye was still awake and looking pretty interestedly out of the window once we hit Crain Highway.
"I used to live around here, this street coming up on the left in a bit actually," I spoke up, causing him to jump slightly. "We could drive past where my house was. I don't know if they rebuilt it or if they just left it alone. County government sucks as bad as the lighting grid out here," I gave an attempted smile.
"U-um, sure?" he asked.
"Okay, we'll be waiting forever to turn left here though," I joked. And yeah, it took a good five minutes before there was a gap I could squeeze into.
"Third block, fifth house or lot on the right," I said when we finally turned. I tried to keep myself from looking, but the charred remains of my house were still there, after three years. I guess no one complained about it yet. I pulled in front of the driveway and parked the car. I also turned it off, gas isn't cheep.
"Skye, I'm going to be honest. This is what happens when you don't run. They make you run. You made the right choice, but you're not finished making choices yet. Okay?" I turned to see him staring transfixed at the skeleton of a house.
"Y-yeah..." he said. He turned to look at me and actually met my eyes for a few seconds before ducking his head down again to hide his blush.
"Let's go," I sighed softly as I started the car back up and took the familiar roads out of where I grew up. Soon we were back onto main roads and away from neighborhoods.
The rest of the trip passed uneventfully, until Skye spoke up.
"Do you think that... maybe we could stop at.... um a grocery store?" he asked softly.
"Of course. There's a Food Lion by my house, we can stop in there," I smiled.
I parked in the back lot to avoid people and cars alike and led Skye into the store. I grabbed a cart. "I'll just follow you alright? And don't worry, I can pay for everything."
He nodded and walked over to the produce section. Admittedly, I zoned out for most of the shopping trip. He got a lot of pasta and stuff. And some meat as well. Also Bacon, which made me pretty damn happy.
From there we went home and got to stock the fridge. It was actually pretty fun, even if we had to rearrange it literally ten times to get everything to fit right. And yeah, Skye was kinda blushy and stuttery and almost bolted when we'd accidentally brush against each other trying to stock my fridge, but I really didn't mind. Hell, I'd say that I'm used to it now.
After that I gave him a tour of my house. I think he was pretty surprised with how big it was, but hey that's the magic of having a split-level house built on a hill. It's like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside.
"Anyway, you can sleep in wherever you want. As long as it's not in my bed it's fine," I shrugged.
Skye blushed (to his credit, it was less than it was before) and assured me that that wouldn't be a problem.
For the next few hours Skye wandered around the yard before settling in the family room with his book, notebook, and pencil. That book is bigger than the 7th freaking Harry Potter book. But whatever floats his boat.
Around 5 he decided to get started on making dinner. I asked him if he wanted me to help and he managed a "sure."
"So, what're you making?" I asked as I watched him gather some noodles from the pantry and cheeses.
He didn't answer, instead he asked, "Do you have any basil?"
I shrugged and replied, "There's some drying in the pantry on the left. And that really narrows it down." I raised my voice a bit so he could hear me while he was in the pantry and I was sitting on a low counter in the kitchen. (It's kinda like a window seat so I generally eat all my meals there, it's a nice little nook.)
"You'll see," Skye responded, eyes scanning the cabinets.
"Looking for a glass dish?"
"Yep"
"Over there, bottom shelf," I pointed.
This went on for a while, he'd say what he needed, usually a utensil or a bowl to mix things. I'd tell him where they were, or open the drawer for him if it was close to me. He was actually confident as he went about preparing the pasta dish, he almost seemed like a different person.
"You gonna tell me what you're making now?" I asked jokingly when he finally slid the dish into the oven.
"Baked Ziti," he replied as he started microwaving some butter and garlic powder.
"Do you read minds?" I laughed, "Cause I swear that's my favourite pasta dish in the universe."
Skye turned around, startled. He met my eyes and blushed again, and turned back around. "N-no I'm just good at m-making it..."
"Well I think that's awesome. I'll go ahead and set the table, alright?" I gave a half-smile as I hopped off of the low counter and grabbed a couple of plates, forks and napkins. I put one plate at the head of the table and another on its left. I figured that Skye would be a bit more comfortable if he wasn't sitting across from me.
We ate in relative silence. Occasionally one of us would ask a question and the other would answer. There was no direct eye contact, but I could feel him looking at me all through dinner. At first I was paranoid that he was monitoring how much I'd eat, but then I realized that there's no way that he'd know about my up-and-down relationship with food.
Now it's around 8ish. Skye's back at his book, only he's in the room he's claimed. It's the one on the complete opposite side of the house from my room. I didn't expect much else really, he needs his space and I like mine.
So yeah I don't know what we're gonna do tomorrow... Eh, what happens happens.
~Tori
