Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!
The chapter title is from another of Elle Varner's songs of the same name. This one really goes with the party scene in the chap.
A little warning, the last part of this chapter is a bit intense. Oh, and to answer the question I know you're all probably gonna ask after reading this chapter, NO! :)
Hope you all enjoy the chapter, and don't be shy to tell me what you think.
Special thanks to, anon1 :)
Ch. 21: Not Tonight
Sky's POV
So, I have a house. And I'm absolutely in love with it. I, Skylar Danielle Burton, am a home owner. Damn, I feel like an old person.
Whatever. I don't have time to think about that. Today is September 25th. We're in Indianapolis. And I have a housewarming party to plan for the 29th.
Ugh, okay. First off, I didn't even want to have one of those. It was all Shelly's idea. Since getting fired because of that bitch bastard Batista, she's been on this overly-hyper happy party I-love-life, kick. And I love her to death, so I have no other choice but to pretend to love life, too.
So, she decided that I needed to have a housewarming party. Sending out invites the day after I got the keys to the house. And then she got on with TNA. Ugh. No comment on that one.
Anyway, she's so engulfed in her new job, she forgot to plan for the party. And a few hours ago, she reminded me about it. She hired a cute little party planner named Chico to help me out. Now I'm stuck with the annoying task of picking out color schemes and hors d'oeuvres.
"So, Shelly sent me pics of the house. Neon colors are in. Definitely. So I'm thinking that we're gonna keep with the neon pattern. What do you think?" That's Chico. I figured I'd get most of the planning shit out of the way since I'm not on the card tonight.
"Uh. Good idea." I murmured, not really paying attention. I'm in the women's locker room, alone. Fine by me. But I'm kinda distracted by the hot piece of ass on the monitor. Why does the cameramen love filming his ass?
"Great. Now what about decorations?" Chico cheerily asked. I shook my head, trying to snap out of my 'Punky ass staring' moment. "I really don't know. Party planning isn't my thing. And I'm not into the fancy shit." I sighed, already bored with this.
"I gotcha. I tell you what, how about we just do what you want? What do you want to do?" He perked up. I can't even lie, it perked me up, too. "Okay. Lets do this, my way."
"OMG, get over here!" Shelly squealed as she outstretched her arms to me. I ran into her arms and held her tight, as if she's my long lost lover. "You two are so overdramatic." Barbie laughed at us.
"I haven't seen her since August, Barb." I said to her, letting go of Shelly and leading the two girls into my new home. Shelly ragged on me for moving back to the Chi, but as soon as I did, she moved back to LA. They're both here for my housewarming party tonight.
"So, where's the decorations? Chico said that he was setting shit up earlier." Shelly was looking around the den. "He did. We decided against the fancy bullshit. It's just a housewarming party, Shell." I smiled at her little frown. "Uh, no. Obviously you didn't read the invites. It was a housewarming/birthday party, Sky. I specifically told Chico I wanted birthday party shit." She glared at me.
"I kinda didn't know all that. Sorry." I gave her a sheepish grin, melting her harsh frown. "Don't worry. I was prepared for something like this." Barbie smiled at us both. We gave her confused looks as she grabbed a big yellow bag that was sitting by one of her suitcases.
"What's in there?" I grinned at her. "Party decorations. Cause I knew you probably nixed everything Chico suggested. And I knew that Shelly was gonna get the pouty face. And then you'd start yelling and she'd start yelling. And then your party would be ruined and so would the weekend with my bffs." She gave us both a weak smile.
"Aww, come here." I grabbed her and pulled her into my arms. "That was totally genius, Barbie." Shelly smiled, joining in on the hug.
After decorating the house with annoyingly giddy streamers, and banners and balloons (that we had to blow up ourselves, by the way), my housewarming/birthday party was underway.
As we got dressed, I pestered Shelly until she told me exactly who all she invited over to my house. She didn't invite any crazies, luckily.
As an early birthday present, my mom sent me a few dresses from her upcoming collection. She knows I'm not the fancy type, so they were mostly regular little black dresses. But one of the dresses was heaven to me.
It was a strapless white mini dress with yellow and pink stars. Perfectly my style. Kerri must have had me on her mind when she made this.
"You're so lucky to have a fashion icon as your mom, Sky." Barbie eyed my dress with envy. "Yeah, the clothes are hot, but trust me. Growing up with said fashion icon was hell." I scoffed. Luckily, my mom is not here for the party. Shelly conveniently forgot to mail her an invite.
"So, are we still in denial?" Shelly asked as we headed downstairs to greet the early guests that Luis and Diego let in. For some reason, they're playing the part of house bouncers. "It's my almost birthday. Can we not do this today?" I playfully pushed her once we made it down the stairs. "Only if you dance with him tonight." Always with the bribes, that Shelly. "Maybe." I half caved.
After about an hour, the party got going. Chico and I hired a badass DJ for the night. He knows my preference for Beyonce and Rihanna, so I was really feeling the tunes. The partygoers weren't too interested in my new house, much to my relief. They just wanted to dance some of their stress away. I wanted to do that, too. But being the guest of honor, I had to smile and accept gifts. Even though I specifically asked that no one brought me anything.
I had just finished posing for pics with my childhood friend, Tyanna when I lost my cool completely. He walked in with a small gift wrapped in yellow wrapping paper with a big white bow on the top. After greeting Luis and Diego, he put his gift in the little corner designated for gifts. Then he went over to talk to Shelly and Jug. They were a little closer to me, so I could see him in full.
He was wearing a Ramones t-shirt, kinda baggy jeans, his usual pair of chucks, and that damn dingy cap that he always wears. I want to run my fingers through his goddamn hair. Ugh. "Okay, you two are getting ridiculous." She startled me.
"Amy, hey. Thanks for coming." I smiled at her, a little embarrassed that she caught me staring at Phil. I know she's gonna go and tell him later.
"No problem. Nice house, chick." She grinned, looking around the crowd of people and admiring my kooky style. "Thanks. What'd you get me?" I gave her a cheesy grin. "My gift is outside trying to find a place to park." She winked at me.
"You brought me Brad Dourif?" I smirked. She rolled her eyes at me. "Yeah. And I brought Robert Englund, too. Complete with ugly sweater vest." That made me laugh. "Okay. Well who'd you bring?" I started to look around, glad that her 'gift' isn't Phil. Cause that would've been an awkward situation.
"Lori's here. I got her out of Texas, and brought her here." She grinned giddily. I have to admit, it was pretty nice. Lori and I haven't seen each other in a while. That whole Benoit situation fucked her up pretty badly. But she's slowly coming around. "Oh, thank you! You really are a cool chick." I smiled at her, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing her tight.
After I realized that I had done that, I quickly let her go. "Sorry." I smiled weakly. "No biggie. Oh, look. There she is over there. With your friend, Luis." She pointed over to the front of the room. "Thank you again. Enjoy the party."
Yeah. Amy and I are kinda friends. I don't know how the hell that happened, but it did. I think I was with Lori one day, and she called. And Lori put it on three way and we sorta hit it off. She really is a sweetheart. Ugh, maybe Shelly's happy, I-love-life attitude is rubbing off on me.
"Luis, stop harassing my friend." I had snuck up behind Luis and Lori, who were chatting by the door. "I'm not harassing her. Just saying hey." He cut me one of his make-you-melt smiles. "Uh huh, Lu. She's taken." I rolled my eyes at him, playfully pushing him out of the way so I could greet my girl.
"Lets dance, mami." That was Luis. Everyone had snacked on the little snacks Chico had picked out and now it was full on house party. Red cups, loud music, and writhing bodies. "Okay." I smiled and took his hand.
He led me over to the middle of the makeshift dance floor. All eyes were on us as Rihanna's Break it Off blared through the DJ's speakers. It was Club Thunder all over again as everyone watched Lu and I move to the beat. Only exception now is that the people watching are mostly my coworkers.
I couldn't help but notice that one of those pairs of eyes was the handsome guy in the Ramones tee and Chuck Taylor's. This time though, he wasn't looking at us like he wanted to break Lu's face in. Maybe their little bromance is not that bad.
"Why don't you go dance with him? You know you want to." Luis whispered into my ear. "That'd be kinda awkward. We're trying to be just friends." I said back. He started to laugh. "Miela, we're just friends, and we're bumpin' and grindin' right now. No awkwardness between us at all." I hate it when he has good points.
"It's cause I don't want your dick, Luis. That's why we can bump and grind freely." To further prove my point, I turned around and began to move my ass into his crotch area. "Okay. I got you." He grabbed hold of my waist and matched my hip movements.
After a little while, the partygoers had started cheering us on and getting into their own groove. Lori and Shelly came over to join us when Don't Stop the Music started. Apparently, everyone loves this one. And of course I know every word.
For some reason, when this song comes on, I start to get my hyped up rave dance on. As we jumped around and swung our hair like maniacs, I couldn't help but sneak a peek at Phil. He was across the room joking around with Jug and Colt. I guess he noticed my stare, cause he instantly looked over at me. I gave him a tiny smile and he winked at me. Now that made my head whirl.
"That's cute. Are you gonna ask him to dance?" I guess Shelly noticed that little exchange. "Nope." I replied as I kept on jumping. This is by far the most fun I've had as a sober citizen.
"Okay. Denial over. Hey Luis, wanna know what your two buddies were up to a few months ago?" She grinned widely as she led Luis away from the crowd of dancing wrestlers, divas, and childhood friends.
"What'd you and your buddy do?" Lori asked, clearly intrigued. "We made out in the backseat of Shelly's rental." I said nonchalantly, grabbing her hand and pulling her close to me. The song, Lemme Get That was playing now and it makes me wanna dance really naughty. And my girl crush is perfect to get naughty with.
"You what?" Her eyes bugged out as I danced around her. "Long story. We sorted it out." I tried to assure her. "I don't believe you." She giggled, moving her hips in ways that I only do behind closed doors.
"And why not?" I smirked, egging her on. "Because he's sexing you with his eyes right now." Now she was smirking. Normally, I'd turn and look, but if what she's saying is true, I don't want to. That lustful look he gives makes me heat up.
"Aww, you're turning red. That's cute." She chuckled. "I hate you." I mumbled, turning my head away from her gaze. "Uh oh. Your friend Luis is up to something." She grinned at me. "Damn." I scoffed.
And that's when Nirvana's Something in the Way started. That kinda became one of me and Phil's songs. And only two other people in this room know that. Phil and Shelly. I looked up at where the DJ booth was set up, and of course, Shelly was up there grinning at me. "Ask him to dance." She mouthed to me.
My cheeks were so red, they started to burn. Then I looked over at him and he smiled and I panicked. I quickly took a seat on the other side of the room. And obviously because I love to torture myself, I looked at him again. He still had that smile.
The more I stared at him, the more I had the urge to ask him to dance. But if I did that, I'd end up spilling my heart out to him, cause I tend to do that shit every time I talk to him. And I really can't afford to do that right now since my heart is bubbling with mushy longing for him. My heart wants to go over to him, so bad. But my brain won't let me. Not tonight.
I'm still scared.
"Thanks for coming." I smiled at the last of the partygoers as they headed to the door. Relief washed over me when I went back into my den and saw that no damage was done to the 1920's hardwood floors. Actually, red cups, my presents, and decorations were the only remnants of the party that were left.
Luis, Diego, Shelly, Jug, and surprisingly Phil all stayed and helped me clean up. Once the trash was bagged up, the guys brought all my furniture back in the room. Scoffing as I directed the way the table and couches should be angled. When they were done, we all sat down and they helped me open my presents. That's something I've always done. I hate opening presents by myself.
That was fun. I got a shitload of knee high and thigh high socks and random home appliances.
Shelly and Barbie bought me a charm bracelet with yellow stars for me, black skulls for Shelly, and pink hearts for Barbie. It was so sweet. They have matching ones.
Lu gave me a finished sketch of the mermaid tat that I've been working on for over a year.
Diego got me a pair of custom made Chuck's.
Jug's goofy ass got me a Catwoman mask and Harley Quinn's skintight jester suit. Because of course, I'm Catwoman Quinn.
I looked around for PJ's gift, but it had randomly disappeared. "Check your room." He said to me, knowing that I was looking for it. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you up to, Brooks?" I squinted.
"Just go to your room, Burton. Damn." He shook his head at my suspiciousness. I looked around the room at the others to see if they would give anything away, but those traitors just gave me idiotic grins. Ugh.
My curiosity got the best of me, though. So I ended up getting up and going up the stairs to my room. When I turned the light on, Rocco jumped out of his little doggy bed and ran to me. "Hey, my little caporegime." I greeted him, looking around for the yellow gift. "Aha." I grinned when I spotted it on my bed.
I was so eager to see what was in it, I practically ran to my bed to grab it. This gift was definitely not wrapped by him, cause it was perfect. Ha.
When I ripped the pretty paper and bow off, I was shocked into breathlessness. My gift from Phil was a framed picture of he and I in high school. We were outside sitting under my favorite tree. I was staring hopelessly into his eyes like a lovesick puppy and he was making a face at the camera, oblivious to the googly eyes I was giving him.
Seeing that made me laugh, hard. "You know, if I'd seen that picture years ago, I probably would've sucked it up and asked you out." That was Phil. Rocco had already let me know someone was on their way up.
"Where'd you get this?" I asked, now finally realizing that the frame was actually beautifully crafted to resemble an underwater fantasy. Complete with a blonde mermaid. "Old camera." He sighed, taking a seat beside me.
"Thank you, Punkin." I smiled at him, finally tearing my eyes away from the photo. "You're welcome. I thought you'd like it." He smiled back. "I really do."
"Hey Sky?" He said in a soft voice. "Yeah." I gave him a sweet smile. "You want your present now?" He asked, sweetly. A little confused, I just nodded. He stood up and reached for his jeans.
As soon as he did that, I instantly got excited. I'm thinking that this guy's gonna give me the dragon for my birthday and its not even my birthday. WIN! But nah, it was too good to be true. He ended up digging into his pocket and pulling out a little black box.
My excitement quickly turned into panic. "It's not a ring, crazy." He chuckled, noticing my weird stare as he handed me the box. "I knew that, dammit." I snatched it from him and quickly opened it. It was a silver necklace. The pendant was a yellow lightning bolt with little red stars around it.
"Me and you, huh?" I mumbled to myself. Obviously, the lightning bolt represented him and the little stars were representing me. And they're red and yellow. Our favorite colors. Shelly most definitely helped him with this. But it's adorable nonetheless.
"You know, you look really pretty tonight." I made the mistake of looking up at him, completely mesmerized by those lust filled eyes. "Thank you." I murmured, grabbing both of his arms and pulling him on top of me as I claimed his lips.
"You're very…welcome." He breathed into my mouth, as he straddled me. My hands ended up in his hair and his crept up my thighs. We started off with gentle pecks on the lips, but as soon as his hands started creeping under the dress, the kissing got intense.
His hands were at the tip top of the elastic of my panties when he stopped. I guess, finally realizing what he was doing. "You're still scared of us, huh?" He asked, looking down at me. Face red and barely there lips swollen from all of my sucking and nipping. I sighed. "Yeah." I couldn't even look at him. I can't deal with the sad face.
"It's okay." He said as he climbed off of me and headed to the door. "I'm sorry." I heard my voice crack as I tried to hold back those traitor tears that were welling up in my eyes. "Don't apologize. It's cool. Happy early birthday, Sky." He said before he left my room.
I just lay there. Face flushed, lips swollen, and heart aching for the man that just walked away from me. And now the traitor tears decide to fall down my cheeks.
Fucking dammit.
Happy birthday to me. I'm officially twenty-six. I guess I should feel something, right?
Like good something, huh. Well, I don't. He hasn't talked to me since the party. I'm not used to that. I mean even when he's pissed with me, he'd talk to me. Even if it's just to be sarcastic. But the past few days have been different.
Since Shelly's unceremonious departure, I've been traveling with Barbie, Tommy, and Punky. So yeah, him not saying anything to me was torture. He barely even looked at me.
And today I'm in no mood for happy birthday wishes. I locked my phone in the closet because it was the only thing I could do to get the thoughts of smashing the damn thing into pieces out of my head.
Everyone in the world has been calling me today. I've even gotten a few calls from some of my mom's celebrity friends. Yawn. I only wanted one person to call and he hasn't, yet. For some random reason, I have hope that he will. He won't avoid me like he did in 97. At least I think he won't.
Isn't this pathetic? Today's my birthday, I actually have a day off, I'm in my brand new house in my brand new bed… And I'm moping around because I pissed off the love of my life because I'm paranoid that he's gonna fall out of love with me.
And then I look at that picture he gave me as a present. It was on my nightstand, angled toward my bed so I could stare at it when I laid down. Which is exactly what I've been doing all day.
My phone rang for like the fiftieth time and I realized that in order for me to see if he'd called, I'd have to go get my phone. As soon as I got to my closet door, my doorbell rang. Great. It's probably Shelly, who told me that she probably was gonna be in Orlando. I guess not.
I grabbed my phone and checked my missed calls and texts as Rocco and I headed downstairs. I was starting to lose hope when I spotted his name among the tons of names of people who've texted me today. I instantly opened his.
It read: October 3, 2004. The first time I told you I loved you. October 3, 2007. I still love you. Always will. Happy birthday, Danny.
And now I want to cry again. But instead of succumbing to my confused sorrow, I answered the door. "Shelly, I'm so glad you're here. Guess who just sent me-" I was chattering away, still staring at my phone when the person who I thought was Shelly walked into my home. The footsteps were too damn heavy to be her, so my head snapped away from the phone.
I found myself staring into the cold blue eyes of my uncle Terry.
My brain started to function faster than I could comprehend. I wanted to scream, I wanted to fight him, I wanted to run to the kitchen and grab a knife. But I was glued to the spot I was in, speechless. "Skylar, I know I'm the last person you want to see." He started, closing the door behind him as he took the few steps to close the gap between us.
"Get out." I managed to say through clenched teeth. "I know I don't deserve it, but if you could just hear me out for a few minutes, please?" He gave me a weak smile. His sandy blonde hair, big blue eyes, and round childlike face makes him appear almost innocent. Yeah, innocent to those that don't know how completely fucked he is.
"Terry, get out of my house." My voice was calm, but internally I was screaming. "Five minutes, Skylar. That's all." He pleaded. The internal screaming dissolved into red hot anger in a matter of two seconds. "Okay. I'm calling the police." I said to him, remembering that I had my phone in my hand.
As soon as I pressed the number 9, he snatched the phone from my hands, slamming it to the floor. "Sky, we need to talk." This time when he spoke, he wasn't asking me. This time when he spoke, he had a gun pointed at my head.
"O-okay. We'll talk. Okay. We'll talk in the kitchen." I tried to keep my now shaky voice as calm as I could as I slowly backed my way into the kitchen, him following with the gun still pointed at me.
He took a seat at my dining table and I took the one across from him. He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity and I stared back. That dark, seemingly endless hole of the barrel of the gun still positioned at my face.
A few stray tears began to fall down my cheeks as I stared that thing down. And I realized that I had no reason to be scared. I have every reason to be pissed, though. "So, what are you gonna do Terry? Rape me on my birthday and then kill me?" I growled, sick of the silent stare off between us.
I guess I caught him off guard, cause he jumped a bit at the sound of my voice. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I didn't come over here to rape you, Skylar." He gave me a soft smile, placing his gun filled hand on the table. "So you came over here to kill me? Happy fucking birthday, Skylar." I scoffed.
"No. I came to ask for your forgiveness." When he said that, I almost forgot that his psychopathic ass had a gun in his hand. It took all of the restraint that I had to not jump across the table and pummel him. "Well, I don't." I frowned at him.
That obviously wasn't something he wanted to hear. I found myself staring into that black hole of the gun again when he spoke.
"See, my psychiatrist told me that in order to help myself, I have to apologize to everyone that I've hurt. He didn't tell me what I should to if they didn't accept it." He let out a confused sob.
"Well, I'm pretty sure your psychiatrist didn't tell you to ask for forgiveness while pointing a gun at their heads, either." I scoffed. "I knew that you wouldn't have let me in any other way. I don't want to hurt you, Skylar." His voice got louder as he spoke.
"You don't want to hurt me, but you have a fucking gun pointed at me. Smart." I can't help but be snarky. It's kinda like a defense mechanism. Some people find it endearing. But Terry Burton is not one of those people.
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up! It's not supposed to happen like that." His voice was shaky and he was yelling now.
That shocked me. My tears flowing out like rain water, now. "You actually thought that you could come over here and ask me to forgive you for trying to rape me twice and I'd forgive you with open arms? You're a fucking dumbass!" I yelled back, startling him to the point where he almost dropped the gun from his shaky hand.
"If you let me explain myself… you just won't let me explain myself. It's not supposed to happen like that." He was crying now.
"You could explain yourself a million times, Terry. I'll never forgive you. I hate you. You're a pervert. You're fucked in the head." The anger rolled off of me in droves.
"Shut up! Just shut up! You won't listen! You just won't shut up! Do you want me to shoot you? Is that it? Do you want me to blow your face off and call your wimpy boyfriend over to find you? What's his name again, Phil?" He screamed, gripping the gun tight as he got up and walked around to me.
This whole time I wasn't really scared. I thought that he was a pussy. He didn't have the balls to do it. I didn't get the 'OMG, my life is flashing before my eyes' feeling. I didn't panic over the things that I haven't done yet and probably will never do.
That was until he said his name. At that moment, the only thing I could think about was the way he said my name. The way he kissed my lips. The way he grinned when he told me he loved me. And I missed it. I longed for it. I'm staring down a gun and I realize that I'm not scared of us.
He loves me. He wants me. And I'm ready to embrace it.
"You're right. I'll listen to you. I'll hear you out, Terry. Just put the gun down." I tried to sound calm, but the shakiness in my voice couldn't be hidden.
"Oh, no. See, it's too late, now. I tried, and I failed. You don't forgive me. No one will forgive me. I am fucked in the head. I know what I have to do." He was still pointing the gun at my face, shakily caressing the trigger as he sobbed.
"No, no. You don't have to do it. We can talk." I pleaded with him. "No. I have to end it. I have to end it now." He nodded to himself, suddenly calmer.
This time, my life did flash before my eyes. Memories of Shelly, Barbie, and Luis swam through my brain as the tears flowed freely. Then my brain got to Phil. The first time we met, the first time we kissed, the first time we danced. We had a lot of firsts.
"When you call him, could you let him know that I'm not scared anymore?" I choked out before I closed my eyes and braced myself for the eminent pain I'd be feeling.
Terry didn't respond. The only sound I heard was the gun cocking. "Be a good boy, Rocco." I whispered in the silence.
And then I heard a single gunshot.