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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 13:37:58 GMT -5
OOC: Following Close Encounters of the Ex Kind
Christine sat on the bank of the lake, staring into the depths of the water. Tears streaked down her pallid cheeks as she thought about how big a fool she had been. Right now, Sky and Bloom were probably having such a big laugh at her expense. She wouldn't be surprised that he told her that they were over and he was getting back together with Bloom.
Somehow, she had this feeling that was exactly how things were going to play out - and she didn't need a vision to tell her this. "Can't get my love together, no matter how I try. Can't get my love together, don't know the reason why. Can't get my love together, can't make the pieces fit. Can't get my love together, can't make sense of it.
Why do I keep going in two directions at once? Seems like I keep fighting a war on two different fronts
Can't get my love together, how I wish I could. Can't get my love together, but once my love's together. I know we'll be together for good... Can't get my love together... But once my love's together, I know we'll be together for good!" she sang softly, bowing her head and continuing to sob quietly.
She quickly turned her head when she heard someone quietly cough behind her. "That'll be five bucks," she said in a quiet strained voice. "I don't give free sho...ws..." she said, her voice getting even more strained at the sight of what was probably now her ex behind her.
"Sky?"
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 18:42:57 GMT -5
Shooting Christine an odd look at the questioning tone in her voice when she spoke his name, Sky then said as he drew closer, his brows furrowing in concern, "I've been looking for you everywhere, Chris. What's going on? Why'd you run out of the shoppe like that?"
Moving to take a seat next to her, Sky glanced out across the lake before he sighed heavily. Softly, he then continued, "I take that back. I'm pretty sure I know exactly why you left. Because of Bloom, right?" Before Christine could reply, Sky forged ahead, knowing that this was going to be the moment of truth - that this had to be the moment of truth. He couldn't keep Christine in the dark any longer. It was just too difficult; because even though it had only been a few days, already he was sick of feeling constantly afraid that Chris was going to find out from someone else about his encounter with Bloom. He just had to put it out there, if only for the sake of his mental health.
"Look, there's something I need to tell you. And . . . and it may change how you look at me. I don't want it to and god, if I could take it back, I would, but . . . I can't. But before I tell you, I just need you to please promise me that you'll give me a chance to fully explain before you say anything. Please."
As he awaited Christine's response, Sky reluctantly lifted his beseeching gaze to hers.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 19:15:15 GMT -5
Christine gave him the faintest of nods and the weakest of smiles. "All right," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. A faint hint of pain flickered in her eyes. Somehow, whatever Sky was going to tell her... it couldn't be worse then what she was already imagining. That he was breaking up with her, that what they shared had been a joke at her expense.
A few tears coursed down her cheeks.
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 20:01:42 GMT -5
Lowering his gaze once again, Sky sucked in his breath before he began slowly, "A few mornings ago I got this call - from Bloom. It was weird, you know and it threw me off because the last time I had heard anything, she was still, well, a mermaid and so when she asked me to meet her here by the lake . . . I was curious. Part of me wondered if perhaps someone was impersonating her and was trying to lure me into some kind of trap and so I wanted to hang up, but, I couldn't. I had to know the truth. And honestly, I had to make sure that Bloom was okay. Even if there was the possibility that she wasn't who she claimed to be, because the chance existed that she was Bloom, I had to go. You understand that, right?" Sky asked, his tone pleading for Christine to nod her assent. "We're specialists; when someone's in need, we have to help. No matter what. So I went. She sounded really shaken on the phone and when I got here, she started acting funny. But not in the way you'd think if it had been someone in disguise - no, she was acting . . . like her old self. To make a long story short," Sky said as he absently ran his hands over loose stones along the shore's edge, "it turns out that she has absolutely no recollection of what's happened in the past few months. No memories of Demeter, of becoming a mermaid . . . of me and her breaking up."
As Sky drew closer to the part of the retelling that he knew was going to be the most difficult to share with Christine, his kiss with Bloom, he lapsed into a short silence. Then, he said softly, "For a while I kind of humored her - I didn't want to upset her more than she already appeared to be. I figured that if I told her about you and me, it'd put her over the edge, but then . . . but then I started feeling guilty because I knew that by not specifically telling her that she and I weren't a couple anymore, I was just leading her on. And so I told her and she . . . she was hurt. Really hurt. And . . . and . . ."
Rubbing a hand over his face, Sky shook his head as he continued, "And before I knew it, she was kissing me." Falling silent, Sky then finished, his voice a ghost of a whisper, "And I kissed her back."
Hanging his head in shame, Sky struggled with his emotions before he managed to choke out despite the growing lump in his throat, "It caught me off guard and I don't know . . . I pulled away, of course and I told her that I was with you now, but . . . but I still screwed up, didn't I?"
It was a stupid question - of course he had screwed up - but nevertheless, Sky couldn't help but keep the weak plea from slipping past his lips. He couldn't help but wish that by some miracle, Christine would nod her head and say that he had indeed screwed up, but that she would forgive him - even if that wish was completely unfair to her.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 20:09:32 GMT -5
Well, that did top the list of the worst things he could have ever told her, and she couldn't help but let a few heartbroken, heart-wrenching sobs escape her. "I trusted you," she whispered. "I trusted you."
She curled into a tight ball and lowered her head. "You know, Sky," she said in a broken voice. "When you screw up, you screw up big."
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 20:20:01 GMT -5
Her words ripping through his heart, Sky remained silent, knowing that there wasn't anything else he could say. An apology would just add insult to injury. Somehow, the words 'I'm sorry' seemed to fall far too short for him to even attempt using them to show how much he regretted what he had done to her.
Instead, Sky slowly rose to his feet as he said achingly, "I'll . . . I'll leave you alone now. I can see that I'm probably the last person you want to be around right now." Beginning to turn away, Sky hesitated when he felt the wind pick up. From the looks of it, a cold front was on the verge of setting in, but he had a feeling that that wasn't enough to move Christine from her position by the lake. And what was more, he knew that if he tried to urge her to come back with him to Red Fountain, she'd snap and demand to know why he suddenly decided to care about her at that moment and not when he had been locked in Bloom's embrace. Wincing at this thought, Sky then shrugged out of his jacket and gently bent down to drape it over her shoulders. Even if she despised him at the moment, there was no way he was going to let her get herself sick. She may insist that her health was 100% and that she was as strong as anyone but somehow, Sky doubted that. She always seemed far too fragile for his liking.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 20:22:16 GMT -5
"Sky?" she asked before he left. "Is... is there still an us?"
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 20:32:46 GMT -5
Having turned his back in retreat, Sky paused mid-stride at Christine's tentative question. Not turning to look back at her, Sky closed his eyes before he said softly, "That's up to you, Christine. I'll say this much, though: I do love you. I can't lie and pretend that I felt absolutely nothing when I kissed Bloom because she's my past. She's always going to mean something to me whether I like it or not because she was my first love; but what I feel for you . . . it's real."
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 20:37:37 GMT -5
Christine rose slowly and silently padded over to Sky. Placing a thin hand on the small of his back, she leaned against him. She was silent for a long moment, gathering her thoughts. Silently she came from behind him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up and kissed him gently.
Lowering herself back to the ground, she looked up at him. "Let's go home.."
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 20:44:03 GMT -5
Leaning back slightly after Christine pulled out of the kiss, Sky's brows furrowed in confusion as he asked, "Just like that?" Shaking his head, he then continued softly, "What about . . . what about how you trusted me? What about how I screw up big? You can't just get over that. I mean . . ."
Trailing off in a loss for words, Sky shook his head again in mild wonder.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 20:48:21 GMT -5
"I'm still hurt, I still feel betrayed, but," she blushed and went crimson. "I kinda hoped that my kiss would overwrite the memories of Bloom's kiss so you don't feel as guilty." She curled up close to him. "But right now... I don't want to be alone."
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 21:16:22 GMT -5
Deciding that it was best to not press his luck with any more questions, Sky simply gave Christine a smile as he nodded his head. "All right then," he replied as he took her hand into his his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
As he guided Christine back onto the path that connected the three schools, however, Sky couldn't quite shake the feelings of guilt that still clouded his thoughts. She was letting him off the hook too easily . . . it wasn't right. And he still hadn't told her the full truth; he had hinted at it, had hinted that he had indeed felt something - something wonderful - when he kissed Bloom, but he hadn't put it out there definitively. He hadn't told her point blank that he didn't know if he could ever forget that kiss with Bloom. Hadn't told Christine that even though he was absolutely certain of his love for her, he wasn't so sure anymore that his love for Bloom was dead.
And it was in that fact that Sky knew deep down that the situation with Bloom was far from over. More like it had just begun.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 21:31:06 GMT -5
Christine clung close to Sky, trembling a bit. Something between her and Sky had changed - and she wasn't sure if she liked it. But she'd stay silent, as always. When it came to matters of the heart like this, she was silent. Of course, she'd come up with a punishment later - like him doing something stupid. Oh, she could always punish him by making him do an ice cream run during the wee hours of the morning - that would be fun.
"Sky?" she asked, turning, pivoting in front of him. "Can I stay with you tonight?" she asked, her voice trembling.
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Post by Sky on Nov 4, 2006 21:55:36 GMT -5
"Uh...I hardly think Saladin would approve of that," Sky said with a slight nervous cough, trying to ignore the tremble in her voice. "But here's a compromise; I'll let Lady spend the night with you tonight. How's that sound?"
Truth be told, Sky wasn't sure why he was turning Christine down. Any other guy would have leapt at the chance to spend the night with her, but then again, Sky wasn't any other guy. For one, even if the other guys teased him about it, he had a strict set of boundaries and morals. And no matter what anyone tried to tell him about how these were 'modern times,' he just couldn't convince himself that it was right to spend the night with a girl who he wasn't married to. He blamed that on his parents' old-fashioned ways that, of course, had been transmitted to him over the years.
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Post by Chris Strongheart on Nov 4, 2006 21:58:21 GMT -5
She nodded. "I just don't want to be alone, Sky. I'm scared," she admitted quietly. Tears welled up in her eyes.
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