Hey guys! So it was my birthday on monday (3/31) and I received a Mac Air! So happy and I'm trying this story on it. I'm still getting used to it and I typed this on fan , i don't have microsfot word yet so its kinda weird. But I'll (hopefully) get word soon and be typing as fast as I can get these stories out to you!
So this is a SkyeWard high school AU; i don't typically do high school AU's, I've only ever written a Clintasha one, and that one was okay. But now I present, the story of a boy lost - and the girl who saved him.
"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone." -John Steinbeck
He saw her, first, out of all of them; they were a clumsy mess, all limbs and no muscle, but that would soon change. He had been running for four years now, and as he scanned their faces, so eager, some bored, he could almost instantly spot the ones that would rise to the top. His eyes flickered over heads of brown, blond, and black - they were of all races, ages (though mostly freshman) and equally contained mostly zero amount of talent at the moment.
Then he caught sight of green eyes, and froze his gaze fixated on a mix of long legs, a bright smile, and a challenging spark that appears the moment his eyes rest on her. She's speaking fluidly, quickly, to another girl is rather small and seems more suited for the lab than the track by first glance. But he's not one to judge on appearances, so.
But her - he can't seem to stop watching; she's dressed in a pair of black spandex and a tank top, something none of the other girls are wearing. He elbows a person beside him, eyes narrowed.
"Who's that?" he asks, trying to keep the curiosity out of his voice.
The boy turns, giving him a puzzled look. "That's a lotta kids. Which one?" He points her out then, and the other boy whistles. "Damn. No idea, but she's-"
He mentally turns off his hearing before the boy can continue, allowing himself to look at her. something about her seems almost too perfect - what is is, he cannot tell, but quite honestly he should stop staring because its starting to feel prevented. Him, a junior, eyeing a freshman? Impolite, and he was raised to be a gentleman.
When it is her turn to try out, however, he can't take his eyes off her.
Her name is Skye, he quickly finds out, and she transferred from somewhere far away along with her brother, Fitz, and father, a man named Coulson who appeared on campus at the most random of times if only to check up on her. He can't help but notice that she's different from all the other girls, even the ones in his grade; she carries herself with grace, yet still manages to keep her footing and holds her own. It's a rather strange mix that is not normally seen in a girl, but he sits on the sides and watches.
His running schedule is different than hers at first, but when she quickly moves up the ranks, joining him and a few other of the junior runners. She's not very popular with other people in her age group, he notices. The freshman boys are juvenile and the girls only care about looks; he's known that since his first year in high school. But she's different - she wants to get better and doesn't particularly care about looks.
But she's stunning anyway, and he continues watching like the true pervert he was; she's beautiful in every way possible and something about her draws him more than any other girl in his grade did. But it's not right for him to be feeling like that, so he shoves it in the back of his mind.
They stay far apart, though he rather thinks its because she doesn't know he exits (and hopes she believes vise versa) but he knows better than that; he's keeping his distance, trying to stay away. It isn't right to have feelings for a girl barely older than his dead brother.
He shivers at the thought, the wind blowing through the track. It's dark now, with the stars just barely coming and peaking over the moon. His feet scuffle against the rough red color, his mind escaping through thoughts; he hasn't seen his older brother, or his parents, for years now. After the death of Benjamin, his older brother had been tossed into prison and his parents had been killed soon after, in a car wreck. He remembers them, though faintly - its the kind of memory that has more taste than true realization to it. His aunt had taken him in, a single older woman with no kids of her own. She had raised him, yes, but it wasn't the same.
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he fails to her the slight sound of gravel nearby. So when he looks up, it's into a half-smile, white teeth and all. She's standing before him, hands wrapped around her waist in a clear effort to keep out the cold. He watches, eyes narrowed, as she sits against the white post so he's looking down at her.
She offers him a rather half-hearted grin. "Mind if I join you?" she asks, voice carefully kept void of emotion.
He stares. It's not often he finds another person at the track, let alone her, the girl who's littered herself among his dreams in the last few months. Inappropriate, he scolds himself, so he only offers a half-hearted shrug.
"It's a free country," he replies shortly, before turning and staring back up at the sky. The sky, he thinks bitterly.
Their breathing melts into the darkness, so much that before long he can't tell his breath from hers. But then there's scuffling again and she's suddenly standing beside him, head tilted slightly.
"Why do you come out here?" she asks, curiosity bleeding through her tone.
His walls fly up faster than he could barely realize, but then he fights to lower them. It's her, he inwardly screams. But the words tumble from his lips anyway. "I come here - well, not for the same reason you're here."
She stares at him, softly this time. "I doubt that," she speaks, voice slightly amused before melting into seriousness. "I come here to escape," she yells, echoing on the last word.
His hand is on her upper arm in a split second, as if to quiet her - it doesn't work. She smirks. "Wanna shut me up, pretty boy?"
He can't help it; he kisses her.
She responds, slow and steady, fingers digging into the front of his jacket while his find their way to her hips. When they finally break apart, breathless and breathing heavily, she speaks first.
"So," she whispers, not releasing the front of his jacket. "Why do you come here?"
"To escape," he whispers back, before capturing her lips with his once more.
They quickly learn that they're more alike than he first realized. They both love music - she has the voice of an angel and he plays guitar. Over the months following they fall deeper and deeper in love, more than anything he's ever felt before.
He graduates in May, after a year of being with her. She's getting ready to start her junior year and when he goes away to college, the last words he says to her are, "I think I love you."
And she responses with a laugh, a smirk, same as that night before. "You think? I've been half in love with you the first time I saw you."
But when he gets the call, two months into his first year at college, it's not a happy one. The night is a blue after that, but he still remembers those exact words that were whispered to him in those short two minutes: Ward, it's Fitz. Skye's - she's been in an accident.
Those words echo in his mind as he drives there, fingers white against the wheel.
When she dies in the hospital with him beside her, her last words are, "Don't forget me."
"I won't," he swears.
And then the world is shattered into a thousand pieces and he's not sure where to begin picking himself up again.
Yup. Sorry guys, that one was a bit depressing. There's not always happy endings - sometimes life happens and everything falls apart.
