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“But it’s been years since we’ve been together.” Elena paused, then shook her head. “The band, I mean. It’s been a while since the band was together.”
Skylar responded without thinking, “And us, too.”
Elena looked over at her, and Skylar met her brown eyes. There was a hint of sadness still in them, and Skylar wished she still was the remedy for making Elena’s sadness go away. But things were different now. They were different. Life was different. It was all… different.
Skylar knew she needed to change the subject. “We should eat.”
They ate their lasagna in silence. The only sound between them was the wind gently rustling the leaves over their head and Atlas crunching on the kibble Skylar had brought with her. She thought several times about asking Elena how she was doing after the divorce, but that information seemed too personal for Skylar to be asking already. So, instead, they sat in silence.
By the time they were finished, Skylar assumed they would pack up and head back to town. But Elena found a ball and tossed it with Atlas as Skylar watched.
This. This is how I thought our lives would go.
There was no denying the pain in her heart. It crept up on her at the most random of times. Granted, it wasn’t entirely random today. She was with Elena, after all. But the other times were random. Like every time she heard their song playing in a store and froze in her steps. Or when she was at a New Year’s Eve party with her friends and saw Elena and Peter on the TV screen in Times Square, and she proceeded to lock herself in the bathroom and cry.
Even after all the years, Skylar hadn’t figured out a way to move on from Elena. A part of her would always be twenty-three and begging Elena to be with her. Truly be with her. Not just in secret.
But Elena never did.
A slobber-covered ball landed in her lap as Atlas bounded over to retrieve it.
“Come play with us,” Elena called out.
As if I’m going to say no to this.
Standing, Skylar held the ball above her head as Atlas anxiously bounced on his front feet. He always did that when he was excited. She tossed the ball to Elena, who caught it just as Atlas reached her.
“Throw it into the water.”
“The horse can swim?”
“He’s not a horse,” Skylar laughed. “He loves the water.”
Elena shrugged as if not believing her. But she threw the ball into the water anyway as Atlas went diving off the dock as if he were a pro. He grabbed the ball in his mouth before coming back on shore and dropping it at Elena’s feet.
“I think he likes me,” she giggled and tossed the ball again.
“Does he ever get tired?”
“My arm usually gets tired before he does.”
“Well, good thing he has me here. Now he can play twice as long.”
Elena seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself, which was a relief to Skylar. She’d only seen Elena’s life in pictures the last few years; she had no idea if being out in nature was still something she enjoyed. She got her answer when Elena said, “I’ve missed this. Being out in nature. Being by the water. We used to do this all the time in high school.”
“I remember.”
“Do you remember,” Elena could barely ask the question through her laughter, “that time we got caught skinny dipping down by the campground?”
“Do I remember?” Skylar pulled up the hem of her shirt to reveal the scar on her side. “I still have the scar from where you and Jones Garner pushed me down to run from the cops.”
“Oh, I forgot about that.” Her laugh was still as infectious as it ever was. “Man, we had some crazy times together, didn’t we?”
“We sure did,” Skylar chuckled as she threw the ball once more.
When Atlas brought it back to shore, he dropped it before running a few yards away to do his business. Skylar picked it up and threw it back into the water. She wasn’t expecting Atlas to charge after it like a bullet out of a gun.
And she really didn’t expect him to knock right into Elena.
