I'm not sure why I'd assumed Onyx would stay in the car while I ran in to grab my mother's groceries; I guess I'd grown so used to Michael throwing a fit anytime he'd accompany me anywhere because I made sure to go up and down every isle to ensure I didn't forget anything. My friends and mother had poked fun at it my entire life, but it irked me anytime I was rushed or my routine was disrupted. Having Onyx trailing along behind me was sure to cause all of the above.

I leaned into the cart, staring down at the sticky note and raising a brow at some of the necessities my mother had thrown on to the list. I'd just made it out of grabbing some fruit in produce when Onyx finally spoke up.

"You are one of those people aren't you?" he grumbled, falling into step beside me as I wheeled the cart down the cereal isle.

"What do you mean?"

He heaved out an overdramatic sigh, "You go down every isle and sometimes even circle around to it a second time."

Feeling attacked, I shrugged a shoulder and avoided his knowing look and whispered, "And?"

"And I do not want to be here for hours, Sky."

"Well, nobody is stopping you from calling yourself an Uber, Hayes."

It wasn't until he raised a brow that I realized just how light and fine they were; they were hardly visible.

"If we're going to be here a while, I need to grab a few things."

I made a gesture toward the cart in front of me, "By all means. I just hope you know I'm not paying for them."

He flashed a quick smile before he shook his head and disappeared to the other end of the isle and out of sight entirely. I'd made it through most of the store before I quite literally ran into Erica as she had appeared out of nowhere and in the millisecond from me glancing down at the list to make sure everything had been checked off to the end of the isle, she'd slowed to a stop.

I expected a loud, bitchy remark about me watching where I was going, but someone must have talked to her because she only stood there and stared at me for a few minutes without any emotion.

She looked far different than the cheerleader that was always parading around school in her uniform or short skirts and shirts as she'd thrown on an oversized hoodie that swallowed her entire body, her usually straightened hair thrown in a messy, tangled updo.

"I'm sorry." I was taught to be the bigger person no matter the circumstances. "I didn't see you."

She shrugged one of her shoulder and shifted the basket from her left forearm to her right. "It's fine."

I leaned forward on the balls of my feet, ready to move past her, when she spoke up again.

"You and Ty, are you getting pretty serious?"

I immediately wanted to snap some kind of cruel remark to make her feel at least a fraction of what I'd felt walking through that party smelling like a distillery, but seeing the sadness residing in her eyes, I decided to continue to keep my head held high. "We haven't even been out on a date yet, not that it's any of your business."

"Look, Rory, Ty is—" she started but the words fell flat as tension started to fill the air between us. I waited a couple more seconds to see if she was just struggling to get the words out or she wasn't going to finish her sentence at all, then followed her intense gaze to something, or rather, someone, over my shoulder.

Onyx had haltered to a stop in the middle of the isle, his right hand grasping the basket hanging from it so tightly the color had drained from them and it'd started to twitch. Then, as if there was some silent understanding between the two, she looked to me with a weak smile and started forward and disappeared into the mass of people heading for produce.

Given that she'd cheated on Ty with Onyx, I wasn't exactly sure why there was such a tension between the two of them.

"What'd she want?" Onyx asked as soon as he'd recollected himself and joined me at the register.

I sent him a quick, disinterested look as I unloaded my cart on to the conveyer belt. "Nothing. I accidentally hit her with the cart."

"She didn't say anything to you?"

I shook my head, smiling at the cashier as I handed over my membership card, then looked back to Onyx, "Nope."

That seemed to satisfy him and he luckily didn't say another word until we were pulling along the curb between our houses.

"Shit." Onyx croaked the minute I'd put the car in park, not yet able to pull the keys from the ignition.

Confused, I looked up and swallowed the words that had been ready to slip out.

Both of our mothers were standing on the Hayes front lawn in a very intense conversation with Jeffery. Being that I was my mother's only defense to everything, I immediately climbed out of the car without hesitation and walked around it and up to both women.

"I don't understand why you have to always involve yourself in everything, Amanda." Jefferey snapped; cold, spiteful words spat at my mother. "This matter doesn't concern you."

"Olivia is my best friend! She's sick, Jeff!" Mom shouted, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "All of this, every fucking second of it is my business."

I fell back a step, blinking as I processed my mother's words. Mom very rarely cursed, and when she did, I always knew not to cross the boundary she laid out. But now, seeing her seething hatred for the man before her, I felt as though she were awaiting the very second he did so.

"You can't just pretend nothing is happening." Jefferey decided not to take my mother's bait and looked to his petite wife beside her. "In case you forgot, you have another child that has no idea what's going on."

The indirect mention of Onyx had me glancing over my shoulder at my mom's car. He had gotten out too, but was leaning back against the passenger side door, arms crossed, blonde bangs in his eyes so we couldn't get a good look into them.

"Leave." Onyx's voice was quiet, but the iciness of it had even me growing still as he approached the four of us. "Get the hell out of here."

I had seen just how far both of them had been willing to take their anger this morning, and deciding it'd be best for everyone, I reached out and touched a hand to Onyx's shoulder, "Onyx, come on. Help me get the groceries inside."

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Jefferey directed those dark, empty eyes on me for a minute.

"Sky, go inside." Onyx whispered, throwing a look my way.

My mom, momentarily distracted from the argument, cocked her head to the side in confusion, "Sky?"

"He can't remember my name." I responded. "So he decided to call me Sky."

Mom, with her newfound knowledge turned to Onyx with a nod and stern look, "She's right, honey. Both of you need to get inside. This conversation is between us adults."

"Then you shouldn't be making it so the neighborhood can hear everything." I found the words escaping me, but before I could be scolded, I turned and hurried down the driveway to Mom's car and grabbed the bags in both hands.

After a moment of contemplation and looking back and forth between our mothers and his father, Onyx dropped his head and walked over to help me. His eyes drifted from the concreate under our shoes to my eyes, and for a second, I just stared helplessly back into them. Not knowing what to do, what to say, or how to comfort him.

*

"This one?" I asked my friends, spinning around so they could get a full 360 of my outfit. Angie shifted her position on her bed from where she sat in her room and Mikey scratched at his jaw.

"Nah." Mikey eventually said with a shake of his head, moving back so his entire face was in camera view. "Do you have anything with nice cleavage but kind of flowy?"

I considered the question before I walked over and grabbed a black shirt with lace sleeves, but it had a nice dip in cleavage that I could make work with the right bra. Turning my back to them despite both having seen me change, I hid by the closet until I'd adjusted the shirt before throwing myself back in front of my phone.

"Yay or nay?"

Angie immediately started clapping, "Yay! One hundred percent yay, Rory! That look so cute! And with some red lip stick and a sexy, seductive eye look it'll be perfect!"

I smiled and my eyes flickered to Mikey, who was in the middle of nodding in agreement. "I like it. Gives sexy but also like a serious baddie vibe."

"I love you guys." I said, blowing them kisses. After a few more minutes of small talk, we hung up and I crossed the room to close my window, pausing when I saw Onyx had yet again decided his interest was going to be watering and planting flowers.

"Hey, Hayes." I leaned through the window and offered a weak smile, "You good?"

He set the small shovel beside his mother's rose bush and fell back on his hands, turning his head in my direction. An exhausted yawn was followed by a jerking of his chin in my direction, "Where you headed?"

"Oh, nowhere." I pinched the fabric of the shirt between my index finger and thumb. "This is for my date with Ty Friday."

He nodded but didn't answer right away. He waited for a few minutes before he looked back in my direction and said, "You told your mom that I called you Sky because I couldn't remember your name."

"Well, yeah, it's the truth, isn't it?"

"Aurora." he said my name softly, but with an edge that had my nails digging into the windowsill. "I've spent most of our lives across a table from you. Did you really think I didn't know your name?"

"You sure acted like it." I deflected.

Onyx pushed himself up from the grass and crossed the small distance between the yards so he was a few feet away from my bedroom window. He looked different, shadowed in darkness with nothing more than my dim bedroom light bleeding out and lighting his blue eyes.

"You're fun to mess with." he said with a smile. "I mean, you're so petty and immature you wrote an entire list of contradictory reasons why you hate me."

"Ha ha." I mumbled.

For the first time all day, a genuine smile brightened his entire face, and he leaned forward so his hands were resting on the outside of the sill, his face inches from mine. "I call you Sky because nobody else does."

I opened my mouth to respond but his close proximity had me wondering just how much distance he planned on leaving between us. Even worse, I wasn't whether I was totally disgusted with the idea of it.

"To everyone else you're Aurora or Rory. The people pleaser, the jock's best friend, the matchmaker." he smirked, then touched his finger to my jaw so I was forced to look into his eyes. "But you're my Sky. I see you for you, Aurora. The sad, depressed girl so desperately wishing for her happy ending."

I shook him off, pushing his hand down against the sill, but he didn't seem the least bit fazed by my response. Instead, he fell back a step, the quick movement sending his hair into his eyes. Of course, he couldn't leave it at that, and he said one more than before turning his back to me and becoming one with the darkness.

"Don't worry though, Princess." he breathed softly, "You'll get your happily ever after."