Chapter 8: The Sky Could Fall Tonight

I found myself zoning out through the day, and only finding any form of comfort when I talked to Chad. I wanted nothing more than to fly back right now and see him again, but I knew that there was no way that that would happen. Skylar clearly wanted nothing more than for me to keep my distance, and I found it far to easy to oblige to his wishes. Besides the talk that I had had with Silvia previously, I didn't bring Skylar up again. Instead, my withdrawn attitude seemed to make me the center of attention. On a few occasion, late at night, I could hear Silvia in the living room fighting with Jay. Sometimes it was about bills, or traffic, or work, or whatever. The topic never mattered because within minutes, they always mentioned my name.

It didn't matter if it had something to do with space, the extra money put in for food, the time she wanted to spend with me, or the fact that she was afraid I was mad at her, no matter what conversation began, I couldn't help but feel completely uncomfortable.

It was a Saturday night that Silvia had popped into my room. "Jay and I were thinking about going to dinner. Could you babysit Skylar?"

"I-I don't know," I stammered. "I mean, I-I don't think he likes me very much." Just the thought of spending hours with nobody in the house except for Skylar made me want to puke.

"Than this will be a great opportunity for you two to bond a little more," Silvia replied, her voice incredibly cheery. She sighed for a moment and turned her head away. "Its been a while since Jay and I were able to spend some quality time together. Sonny, please do this for me. It'll only be for a couple of hours and I'll pay you."

I couldn't help thinking, 'why in the world would you want to spend time with that creep,' but I simply nodded my head. The money wasn't really important, but the last thing I needed was for Silvia to burst into tears and make me console her. Or even worse, she could decide to keep me here.

"Oh thank you Sonny," Silvia said embracing me. "I'll talk to Skylar. I promise you, he'll behave."

It was obvious that this night meant a lot to Silvia. She had made dinner reservations at the most expensive Italian restaurant in the city. She also decided to curl her brown hair into an almost Marilyn Monroe style, wear a little red dress that I had never seen a mother find fitting, and decorate her face with her most expensive make-up. Seeing the joy on her face as she finished applying her lipstick, I tried my best to bite back my discomfort about baby sitting. If this night really mean that much to her, I had no right to ruin it.

Silvia and Jay took off at 6:30. Silvia promised me that they would be back by 9:00 o'clock, and reminded me about emergency contact numbers. I assured her that everything would be alright before sinking down onto the couch with my laptop.

Skylar had retreated to his room, and something told me that he wouldn't be coming out anytime soon. Besides the fact that he would do just about anything to avoid me, it was pretty obvious that he really missed spending time in his own bedroom.

I found myself channel surfing, desperately searching for anything to occupy my time. My eyes continued to glance back at the clock in anticipation for Silvia and Jay to return. 6:45... 7:00... 7:03...7:14... 7:22

"I'm hungry," Skylar said, nearly giving me a heart attack as he appeared in front of the television screen.

"So, go eat something," I replied, once again flipping desperately through the channels.

Skylar walked around to the back of the T.V. and pulled the plug. "I said I'm hungry."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" I asked.

"Make me something to eat, duh," he replied, plopping down on the sofa next to me. "I like steak."

"Well, I'm afraid today just isn't your day," I said, getting up to plug the T.V. in again. "I don't cook. Call your mom and ask her to bring something home for you."

"I'm not waiting two hours to eat something that I can eat in two minutes if you get off your lazy ass, open the fridge, and cook me a damn meal," Skylar said, glaring at me.

"You've got quite the filthy mouth for an eight-year-old," I remarked.

"And you've got quite slow limbs for a fifteen-year-old," Skylar replied. "Is it really that hard to..." His sentence broke off into a fit of coughing.

"Are you sick?" I asked.

Skylar's eyes began to water as her gasped for a breath. This attempt lead to more coughing. I sat down next to him and began patting his back. "What's wrong?"

"A..." Skylar choked. He raised his arm and pointed towards his bedroom. "In...hale..."

"What?" I asked. My heartbeat quickened as his face began to turn red.

"Dress..." Skylar choked again, desperately fighting to take another breath. "Dresser."

I raced into Skylar's room and over to the dresser. I opened drawer after drawer as I searched for whatever he had been asking for. Opening the bottom drawer, I found a small white object pushed into the corner; an inhaler. I picked it up and rushed back out into the living room where Skylar continued to choke, his face turning purple. I handed him the inhaler and waited as he finally managed to take in a breath. Within a few moments, his breathing returned to normal and I gave out a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Skylar nodded, his eyes falling to the floor.

"What happened?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

He scooted as far away from me as the couch would allow. "I have asthma," he mumbled, still avoiding my gaze.

"You could have warned me about that," I said, managing to keep my voice in check as opposed to yelling at him like I really wanted to.

"I haven't had an attack in almost a year. I didn't think it would happen again," he mumbled. He rolled the inhaler around in his hands, trying to occupy himself so he could pretend I wasn't there.

"Do you want me to call your mom?" I asked.

"No!" he said, too immediately for me to not be concerned. "I mean, I'm fine. There's no reason for you to worry her."

It was hard for me to believe that the incredibly rude adolescent I had just been dealing with could so easily change into this modest little boy. Either way, I simply nodded figuring that it would be easier this way than for me to bother fighting with him over it. I could tell Silvia once she got back.

"I'm going to bed," Skylar said, getting up from the couch and heading to his room.

Part of me had expected Skylar to come running out of his room at any minute and start some magnificent ruckus. However, he spent the rest of the night in his room, so I could only assume that he had gone to sleep when he said that he was.

Silvia and Jay returned home just shy of nine o'clock. I imagined Silvia rushing Jay out of the restaurant and forcing him to break a few traffic laws to get home when she promised me she would. Silvia's face looked absolutely glowing, so I could only assume that she had had a wonderful night. Now it was my turn to spoil it.

"Silvia," I started, following her into the kitchen as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Yes, honey?"

I winced, but managed to quickly cover it up. "I don't want you to worry, but Skylar had an asthma attack tonight."

Silvia dropped the glass onto the floor. It shattered immediately, sprinkling glass around our feet. Jay was in the room in a second carrying a broom and a dustpan. "Is he alright?" Silvia asked, looking like she was about to have a heart attack.

"He's fine," I replied. "He went to bed."

Silvia let out a sigh of relief. "Well, good." She took in another breath and placed her usual smile back on her face. "Sonny, you should probably wake him up so you can have the bed."

"Oh, I really don't mind taking the couch," I replied.

"Don't be ridiculous," Jay said, emptying to dustpan full of glass into the trash can. "Skylar can learn to share a little bit."

"He seemed really tired," I continued my persisting. "We should just let him sleep. I'll be comfortable on the couch."

Jay tossed the dustpan onto the counter with a grunt and exited the kitchen. A nervous look past over Silvia's face for a moment, but once she saw that my gaze was fixed on her, she wiped it off her face and replaced it with that annoying smile.

"Let go of me!" Skylar shouted.

Silvia and I walked into the living room to find Jay dragging Skylar out of his room by his hair. "You know you're supposed to be sleeping on the couch."

"I fell asleep in my bedroom!" Skylar shrieked. "So sue me."

Jay pushed skylar to the floor near the couch. "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry," Skylar pleaded.

Jay backhanded Skylar across the mouth before grunting and retreating to his bedroom. Skylar wiped the blood away from his split lip with his Nickelback t-shirt.

I found myself staring at Silvia wondering how she would respond.

"Well," Silvia said, quickly overcoming a moment of shock and returning to her cheeriness. "Now that that problem is settled, we can all get to bed." I expected her to at the very least be upset that her boyfriend and slapped her son. Instead, she simply continued to smile as she walked into her bedroom and closed the door.

"Are you alright?" I asked Skylar, part of me wanting to reach down and help him.

"Leave me alone," he sobbed, tears streaming down his face.

Not knowing how to console him, I decided that all I could do was follow his wishes.

The next morning, Jay left the condo early to go run some errands. As soon as I had woken up, Skylar had retreated to his bedroom. I wasn't sure if he was trying to get away from me or everyone else. Silvia made breakfast, although she only made enough for her and me. I wondered if that was because she knew Skylar wouldn't be willing to leave the safety of his room, or if she didn't care enough to make him anything. I found that hard to believe with how worried she had seemed when she had heard that he had had an attack. But then again, she didn't even care when she saw her boyfriend slap him across the face.

"Silvia," I began, hoping that she wouldn't strike out at me once this conversation was over, "why did you let Jay hit Skylar?"

Silvia looked at me, unsure of how to respond. "Skylar knows better than to talk back."

"So you just let Jay hit him for saying a couple of bad words?" I asked, slightly relieved that neither she nor Jay had been home when Skylar had been cursing at me.

"Jay does have a different method of discipline than I had originally planned to use with Skylar, but whatever's effective, I guess," she replied, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Don't you even care about how this is affecting your son?" I asked, wanting to scream it at her.

"Skylar's learning manners, that's what matters," Silvia replied. The tone of her voice stated that the conversation was over. I wanted to slap her across the face.

I'm sorry it took so long to update, and I'm very sorry that the updates are coming slower now, but I did manage to make this chapter longer than any other chapter that I've written. YAY. Anyway, thank you all of you that have stayed loyal to my story and please keep reviewing because reviews keep me writing.