As I laid back on the bed, watching Skylar jump up and down to gain my attention, the situation felt all too familiar.
"Shawnie!" she yelled, the springs grunting as her weight shifted them up and down. "You gotta get up. Es muy importante!" She jumped off the bed, landing next to Hunter, who was forced to sleep on the floor. The hotel room only had one bed, but it was big enough for all three of us. Skylar insisted that he sleep in the bed next to her because a) she needed someone to protect her from the evil garden gnome (no seriously, he's still "after her"), and b) it just wasn't right to make your friend sleep on the floor. Unfortunately for him, he learned the hard way (as did I) that Skylar wasn't the best when it came to "sleeping straight." When he finally gave in, her legs where sprawled across his face and stomach while she dozed peacefully on my chest.
She opened the curtains and lifted the blinds, letting the bright Tallahassee sunlight in. I covered my face with a pillow and Hunter groaned from under us. At least it isn't five in the morning.
"Come on! You gotta get up, we gotta go!"
"Where are we going, Skylar?" I asked, agitation lining my words.
"Palm Beach!" she said excitedly. "Me, Andy, and Teddy's place? Where we grew up? Where you'll get to meet my parents!"
"He's met your parents Skye," Hunter said, standing with his eyes closed. He attempted to walk across the room but ran into a wall halfway to the bathroom.
"Yeah, but he doesn't remember," she whispered. I'm not sure if she knew I could hear her. I doubt it.
"Shawn, this is a very special day," she sang into my ear. I pulled the pillow down low enough for me to glare at her, but her overly excited expression bought a smile to my lips. It was just like the time I showed her double sided tape.
"Okay, I'm up," I said, grunting and rolling out of bed. I went into the bathroom, showered and got dressed. Cool air met me as I stepped back into the main room. Skylar had the window open and a light breeze was flying through her hair as she leaned out the window.
"SKYE!" I yelled, running over and pulling her in. She whipped around and stared at me with wide eyes.
"What is it?" she asked, panic intertwined in her words. "Is something wrong with the children?"
"You could have killed yourse-" I stopped and gave her a strange look. "What children?"
"Evan and Rey, Shawn!" she said, her eyes getting wider. "Oh no! Don't tell me you've forgotten about the children!"
"Why are you hanging out the window?"
"I was making sure Hunter put everything in the truck right," she said, turning back around.
"But I haven't even repacked my bags!"
"I packed them for you," she said, all the while making wild hand gestures at Hunter. "And I got rid of your razor blades."
That's fine. I'll just get more. No no, can't do that anymore. Promised Skylar. Can't loose Skylar.
"Okay, I guess that's fair. But what am I supposed to do with the clothes I wore last night?"
She reached around and took them from me, leading me out the door. "Gosh, you're so needy," she said, a teasing grin on her face. "Come on, we've got to hurry! My mommy's cooking and I'm making dessert."
Oh joy.
The truck was all packed and ready to go when we got downstairs. Hunter was in the driver's seat messing around with the GPS on his Blackberry, which really didn't matter. We were gonna get lost anyways. Skye slipped in the middle and I sat in the passenger seat next to her and we were on our way.
Hunter had been smart and purchased his own iPod so he didn't have to tune into Skye Radio, but I hadn't been. I guess I'll get around to it, if I can ever figure one of the damn things out.
"Aren't you gonna listen to your iPod?" I asked Skye who was flipping through radio stations. She shook her head.
"Uh uh. We need to talk."
Damn. The four most dreaded words in the English language. My mind reeled at what could be wrong as she found her favorite station.
"Hell yeah! I love this song!" she said. She bobbed her head and blasted out the lyrics, full volume (I used to be love drunk, but now I'm hungover...) , while I waited to know what we had to talk about.
"So?" I asked when the song ended and she settled down.
"So what?" she asked. A smile came to her face. "SO WHAT? I'M STILL A ROCKSTAR!"
"No, Skylar, what do we need to talk about?" I asked before her ADHD set back in.
"Umm... anything. I just like talking to you. I like to hear your voice."
I smiled. "Okay, well, what do you want to talk about?"
"Well, you never told me how your visit with the children went."
"Evan and Rey?"
"No, silly. Your kids. Chey and Cam."
"Oh." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well, Cheyenne doesn't hate me."
"That's good," she said, her face twisting in confusion. "And... Cameron?"
"He's on his mom's side. He's still mad at me about the divorce and coming back to the WWE."
"Oh," she said. "But things are good in Chey world. How is she?"
"She's good. Starting to get monsters under her bed, but we'll work that out."
"Her too?" Skye asked, her eyes wide again. "Damn. Poor kid. At least she doesn't have an evil gnome after her." We laughed. "So, when do I get to meet her?"
"As soon as we get back to Texas," I said, a smile playing on my lips. I sure did miss my little girl, and now that it was officially summer, I could bring her with me on our trips. There was no doubt in my mind that she would like Skye. I'd seen Skye with other superstars' kids, such as her Uncle Mark and Chris Jericho, as he liked to be called. They loved her, probably because she could relate to them, which I'm still trying to figure out is a good or bad thing.
"I want to meet her. She's really pretty in all the pictures you showed me." She stopped at took a deep breath. "So, why did you hurt yourself that night?"
"Well," I cleared my throat. "Rebecca just said some things that upset me."
"What did she say?"
"I don't really want to talk about it Skye," I said, playing with my thumbs. I was starting to pick up her bad habits.
"Well, if you don't talk about it then you'll want to hurt yourself again. And I know Cheyenne is the most important thing in the world to you. And she wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, would she?"
Skylar had really started to piss me off. She didn't even go to college. She went to school to become a massage therapist, not a psychiatrist. And the worst part is that she knew what she was talking about. Whenever something was wrong, a nice heart to heart with Skye always made it better.
"No, I guess she wouldn't." I looked at Skye who was still expecting an answer. "Rebecca told me, that as long as we were together, I'd never see Chey again."
I'd only ever seen Skye's face twist into that chilling, morbid look of evil once, and that was when she was mad at Hunter for getting rid of Xander (we were all sick of the fucking spatula, okay?). After he did it, she lost her mind. She jumped on him, pinned him to the ground and slapped him. With her fingernails. He still had three deep gashes in his face where her nails had clawed into him.
"But that's your daughter too, right?" I nodded, too frightened to say anything. "So that fucking anorexic, piece of trash, fugly ass, skanky, wanna-be diva, trying to take Eric from me...bitch, is telling you that you can't see your daughter, because of...me?"
"Trying to take Eric from you? When did she try to take Eric from you?"
"Huh. Ain't that some shit?" She reached into my glove compartment, taking out one of my cigarettes and lighter. "Don't worry Shawn, she's gonna let you see Cheyenne."
"How do you know?"
"BECAUSE I FUCKING SAID SO!" she yelled at the windshield, blowing out a puff of smoke. She turned to me and smiled a satanically evil smile. "Don't you worry about it."