Chapter 6: Underneath it All the Sky is Blue

Skylar stared at me eagerly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Silvia silenced him with a hand on his shoulder. "Skylar, do you mind letting Sonny have your room?" she asked, speaking the words more as a command than an actual question.

"But, it's my room," he replied with the average eight-year-old attitude.

"And Sonny is our guest," Jay said, his face not looking very pleased. "A good host offers up what he has for a guest."

Skylar looked down at his toes, seeming to want to be anywhere but the room that he had appeared happy to be in moments previous. He reluctantly nodded his head.

"Thank you, Skylar," Silvia said, turning to face me. "You can move your stuff into Skylar's room. Just allow him a little while to clean up."

Skylar practically dragged his feet against the linoleum floor as he made his way back to his room. It was pretty obvious that having to give it up, and then having to clean it wasn't exactly the highlight of his day.

"Silvia, I'm really okay with just sleeping on the couch," I explained.

"Nonsense!" Silvia shrieked. "No guest of mine will be sleeping on the couch," she said, picking up her suitcase and heading for her room. she stopped halfway there and turned to face me. "And Sonny, please, call me Mom."


Skylar's room was a pretty decent size, especially compared to the size of the home in the first place. There was only one window, but it was large enough to fill the room with a bright ray of sunshine once it was opened. There was a twin sized bed pushed off to the side and two dressers. There was a bookshelf overflowing with comic books and magazines, and the closet looked like it hadn't been cleaned in days. Basically, it wasn't exactly the choice of scenery that I would have chosen.

'Just get over it and suck it up, Sonny,' I told myself. 'This is where you're going to be living for a while, and you might as well get used to it.'


The next morning, Silvia insisted that she take me shopping. I declined, telling her that I had all that I needed, but she persisted saying, "I've never seen a girl turn down a shopping spree before. Get dressed, this will give us some time to bond."

Clearly she didn't realize that the last thing I wanted was to spend time 'bonding' with her, but to hide my aggravation, I simply nodded and retreated back into Skylar's room to change. I found myself passing over Tawni's gift. Part of me wanted nothing more than to wear it, but another part of me said that what she had given me was special and therefore needed to be saved for a special occasion.

I found myself slipping in to one of my old outfits that Tawni would have criticized me for wearing. Reminding myself that Tawni wasn't here, I followed Silvia out to the awaiting cab.

Silvia dragged me from store to store that morning. She continued to pick random articles of clothing off of the shelves and piled them into my arms. Besides grabbing everything in sight, I'm pretty sure that I never once saw her check a price tag. After forcing me into a dressing room to try on about thirty shirts, twelve skirts, three pairs of jeans, five sweaters, ten pairs of shorts, and seven dresses, she finally decided to take me to lunch at a small diner on the side of town.

The service was pretty quick seeing as how we were the only people there except for an elderly couple that spent the entire visit whispering things to each other. Silvia smiled at me over her cob salad and dove into the other stores that she wanted to take me to and all of the other things that she was sure I would love to do in New York. I took a bite of my cheeseburger and nodded, not sure that I could choke out a response that wouldn't upset her.

The next thing she did was take me shoe shopping. She brought me into quite a few expensive retailers, grabbing anything ranging from seven-inch heels to Nike sneakers. She pretty much wiped the shelves clean, forcing me to accept any pair that fit. I nodded and smiled even though I only found a few pairs to be anything near worth the price that the retailers were asking for.

Of course, feeling bad about making me move all the way to New York (or so she said, but I didn't exactly believe her since she was smiling the whole time), Silvia also brought me into the apple store to buy me the new Iphone and a brand new laptop.

When we arrived back at her condo, I wasn't sure what to say. I thanked her and went to take my bags to Skylar's room, although one simple look at the completely overflowing taxi trunk and backseat would tell me that there was no way that I would be able to find a place to put all of my stuff.

"Simple," Silvia said when I explained my dilema to her, "we'll simply have to get rid of your old stuff."

I felt miserable as we spent the rest of the day going through all of the clothes that I had brought with me and putting them into a large garbage bag to donate to poor children. It wasn't that i had a problem with chairity work, but all of these things, as simple as they may be, all meant a lot to me. They all held stories in them and memories that I felt I might never be able to recapture.

It was nearing midnight that I saw quietly on Skylar's bed. I could hear Jay snoring in the other room, and I wondered how these people managed to deal with that every night. I turned the laptop on and went on to AIM. I had almost completely forgotten about the time change, so when I saw that Chad was on, I felt tears of relief flooding my eyes.

I turned the camera on and waited until I could see him on my screen. "Chad!" I practically shrieked, only managing to lower my voice when I thought about how mad Jay would be if I woke him up. I knew that I was only looking at him through a computer screen, but it still felt like an amazing reuinion. "I miss you."

"Who wouldn't?" Chad replied, smiling at me. "Yeah, I miss you too. When are you coming back?"

I sighed, trying not to think about how long I would be forced to stay here. "I really don't know. I'm not sure how long Silvia's gonna force me to stay before finally releasing me from her clutches. I'm sure if Tawni was here she'd be having a load of fun, but nonstop shopping for useless items just isn't my thing."

"I know," Chad mumbled. "If it makes you feel any better, So Random pretty much sucks without you."

"That doesn't really make me feel better," I mumbled, turning my face away from the screen to hide the tears that threatened to fall again. "I don't want my friends to have to suffer just because I have to."

Chad laughed lightly. "Sonny, Sonny, Sonny, always thinking about everyone else."

I redirected my face towards the screen again, and seeing his face, as always, made me smile. "Any chance of you visiting me here in New York?" I asked, trying to hide the desperation from my voice.

"Can't. We've basically been filming over time over here and I can't really pull myself away," Chad said.

"Oh," I mumbled, not even bothing to conceal my disappointment.

"Sonny," he whispered, catching my attention. "I'm sorry. I would come if I could."

"I know."

"I'll see you when you come back."

I could only bring myself to nod pathetically.

A loud banging came from the door along with, "Sonny, who are you talking to?"

I got up from the bed and approached the door, yanking it open so hard that I could see Skylar wince when he saw my face. "I'm talking to my boyfriend," I replied angrily. I wasn't really sure why I was being mean to Skylar since he hadn't done anything to me. When it came down to being honest, I think it was mostly because he was Silvia's son, and I couldn't bring myself to like her.

"Well, can you stop being so loud? I'm trying to sleep and it's hard enough on that lumpy couch," Skylar stated, sounding just as irritated as I did. He stomped away without looking back.

I was tempted to slam the door, but remember Jay in the next room sleeping, I simply sighed heavily as I let it swing closed. I sat back at the computer to find Chad looking expectantly at me. "Who was that?" he asked.

"Apparently it was my brother," I said. Seeing the confused look on his face, I simply responded with, "It's a long story. I'll explain later."

"Good," Chad said. "Look, Sonny, I have to go, but I'll be back on later, alright?"

I almost cried as I said goodbye.


Chad kept his promise and he was back on an hour later. I stayed up until four a.m. simply watching him watching me. I told him all about the feelings that I had been trying to hide since the moment I first met Silvia. He told me all about my friends from So Random. He talked about the sketches that they had been doing and the horrible prank that Nico and Grady had pulled that had almost gotten them completely kicked off the show.

Thinking only of Chad when I went to sleep, I knew that I would have peaceful dreams, and at least this time, I wasn't disappointed.

Silvia woke me up at ten a.m. with a loud knock and the smell of breakfast. When I finally managed to drag myself out of bed and into the kitchen, it was to find Silvia slaving over what smelled like a delicious breakfast, and Skylar sitting at the table, practically playing drums with his silverware. I sat down across from him and poured myself a glass of orange juice. The whole time, Skylar's eyes seemed to be glued on my every movement.

Jay walked into the room yawning loudly and smelling of stale liquor. From the look on Skylar's face, it was quite plain that he had seen Jay drinking last night, and it wasn't any small shot either.

"Hungry?" Silvia asked, setting a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, hashbrowns, and pancakes in front of me. I nodded, obediently picking up my silverware and cutting into a pancake.

Skylar sat impatiently tapping the table as Silvia placed a plate in front of him. "I'm still her favorite you know," he said once Silvia had retreatecd back to the stove. His voice sounded insecure, and part of me wanted to tell him that it was obvious that his mother loved him.

Instead, I simply took a bite of my eggs and mumbled a simple, "I know."

Jay peered over at us over his coffee mug and his eyes settled on Skylar. I wasn't sure what, but I knew that he was imagining something that couldn't possibly be good. Skylar shivered and I couldn't help but wonder what Jay may have done to him. I shook the thought off. There was no way that Silvia would date somebody who hurt her son. Of course, the feeling of dread never seemed to go away as I sat at the table, waiting for breakfast to end.

A/N: I am soooo sorry about the wait for this chapter. My family has shown up from Hawaii and my mother has been dragging me around like crazy. Add that to the fact that Monday is my first day of school and I don't exactly have a lot of free time. I'm sorry to say that the following chapters may take a while to get up since once school starts I will be incredibly busy again. Either way, I tried making this chapter quite a bit longer than the others and I hope that this can make up for the wait. Thanx guys and dont forget to review. ;D