N O

S U C H    T H I N G

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It's Friday night and I must say, I'm happy this week is finally over.

All week long both James and Percy have emotionally pulled me. They are not backing down and I honestly do not know what to do. Why can't they just understand that I am not interested in being in a relationship? Why can't they both realize that I only want to be friends, and nothing more?

Okay, maybe that isn't entirely true... but I refuse to get my heart broken again. I just can't.

Lena and Abby have been my saving Grace.

They have also been annoying.

Lena is insisting that I go with James, and Abby thinks Percy has that villain type of look going for him, and she finds him extremely hot so you can guess which side she is on.

I have told them numerous times that there are no sides. That I am single and staying that way.

I guess they don't believe me.

I told my mom everything about what happened between James and Percy, and she said I handled it the best way I could have.

Suddenly, my cell phone rings and I pick it up to see who is calling. The number isn't saved in my phone, and it's a number I've never seen before.

I shrug and pick it up anyway.

"Hello?"

"Skylar? Wow, it's so good to hear your voice!"

"Wait, is this...?"

"Gosh, you sound so grown up! How are you doing? How have you been? Tell me everything!"

My heart stopped. I felt my anger increasing by the second, and I knew my face had to of been red by now.

"I'm going to say this once, and once only. Do not call this phone again!"

After that, I hung up and tossed my phone on the couch cushion beside me.

I brought my knees up to my chest and laid my head against the tops of my knees.

My eyes began to water. I absolutely hate how much he affects me.

"Sweetie, I'm off to work, I won't be home until late. You can invite Lena and Abby over if you want." My mom said as she came down the stairs.

Once she neared me, she must have heard my faint sobs.

"Oh no, what's wrong?" She came beside me in an instant and put her arm around my shoulders.

I leaned my head against her chest and sighed.

"He called me. He actually called me himself. Do you know what he said mom? He asked me how I've been. What kind of nonchalant question is that? He acted as if we were long-lost relatives that only speak during holidays. What is wrong with him?" I vent, while my mom listens.

"Honestly, I wish I knew. When I gave him your number, I told him to wait a while before trying to call." She admits, and my eyes instantly widen.

"You gave him my number? Why the hell would you do that?" I exclaim, and my mom points her finger at me.

"Don't curse at me like that, young lady."

"I'm not a child." I scoff, leaning back over to my side of the couch and crossing my arms over my chest.

"I don't care if you're sixty years old, you will respect me." My mom warns and I nod.

"Yeah, yeah." I mumble.

"Excuse me?"

"Okay, I will. Sorry. Geeze." I whine, and my mom frowns at me.

"I'm sorry I gave him your number... I just didn't want him calling me anymore and I wanted to at least give him a chance to say what he needs to say to you." She explains.

"I understand that, but I don't need to hear what he has to say. He should've thought about this before disappearing with no goodbye." I huff, and my mom nods.

"I agree."

Suddenly, my phone starts to ring again.

"Maybe you should at least let him speak his peace, and then you can decide to ignore him for the rest of your life if you want? At least then, he will stop calling." My mom shrugs while standing up. "I gotta get going; I'll see you tomorrow morning. I love you, Sky." My mom kisses the top of my head before heading towards the front door.

"Love you too, mom." I say and then she's gone.

I pick my phone up and stare at the number. I didn't answer in time, so he called again.

Finally, I found the courage to answer.

"You literally have five minutes, and then I'm hanging up." I say as soon as I answer the phone.

"Thank you." He says, and then starts his speech.

"I know you think I'm a horrible person, and I probably am. I'm not going to say that I had reasons and there were special circumstances as to why I left, because I'd be lying." He began.

Okay, not a very warming start.

"The truth is I just couldn't stand how your mother and I would treat each other. You don't know this, because you were too young, but we fought a lot." He explained.

Mom never mentioned this before.

"When you were about six years old, we had a very big argument. Funny thing is, I can't even remember what we were even arguing about anymore. Anyway, I told her I wanted a divorce, and she lost it. It's completely understandable, but at the same time, it was difficult to see her so hurt. I tried to explain that I would still be around, obviously for you, but she wasn't having it."

What the hell? Is he trying to turn me against my mom?

"Two minutes." I said.

"She told me if I were to leave, to never come back. I didn't want to leave you, but I didn't want to stay in a marriage that I knew was long over. I told her regardless that I was going to come and see you when I wanted, and she reluctantly agreed... but after the first week and then the second week, I just thought you were better off without me. She never called me to try to make me come see you, and I never called her because I didn't want to start an argument. I just didn't realize that drifting away from your mom, would also cause me to drift away from you." He finished.

"For the record, you still could have made an effort to see me. I was your daughter for crying out loud. You and mom were the only two people that I knew. That I trusted. How do you think it felt to go to bed with a mom and a dad... only to wake up with just your mom? It hurt. It hurt a lot and you didn't even seem to care. Not one phone call or birthday card. Nothing. It was as if I didn't even exist to you anymore. Do you know how that feels?" I felt tears already rolling down my cheeks, but I couldn't stop. Everything just came out at once, and I didn't want to stop before I had a chance to say everything I needed to say.

"I am so sorry, Skylar."

My name sounded foreign coming from him.

"If I could go back, I'd do everything differently. I know that means nothing now, but I want to get to know you again. I need to somehow make up for the pain I caused. I want to know my daughter." He pleaded.

"I stopped being your daughter, when you stopped caring." I said, and I knew he felt the seriousness of my words.

After that, I hung up. I couldn't hear anymore and I didn't want to say anymore.

My eyes were bloodshot with tears, and I knew my face was probably red and puffy.

I wiped my eyes and tried to take some deep breaths. I forgot that I texted Lena and Abby telling them to come over, so when there was a knock at the door, I jumped.

I walked over and yanked it open, not caring about how I looked.

"Hey girl!" Lena said with a smile, but once she saw my appearance, her smiled immediately vanished.

"Oh no... him?" She raises an eyebrow, and I simply nod.

I step aside so she can come in, and we go into the living room to wait for Abby.

"I'm so sorry Skylar." She frowns while sitting beside me.

"I wish people would stop telling me they're sorry. I hate pity." I mumble and Lena rolls her eyes.

"You know we don't give each other pity, but I am sorry that you have to go through this." She softly nudges my shoulder with hers, and I softly nudge her back.

"What am I going to do Lena? He wants to 'get to know me again' but you know what... he shouldn't have ever not known me to begin with." I cross my arms over my chest and Lena nods.

"I agree. He should have never stopped seeing you. That was wrong. But at the same time, don't you wish you could have a do-over? A second chance to have a real relationship with the man who helped create you. I'm not saying to forgive him, that's going to take time, and you might not ever forgive him for what he did... but you can try to move forward? To let go of all this pent up anger and resentment, and just be happy. You deserve to be happy." Lena says while leaning her head against my shoulder.

I find myself thinking about what she just said.

"Let's say, hypothetically of course, that I do decide to give him a chance. Who's to say he won't disappear again? Who's to say it won't end in disaster?" I try to reason.

"You'll never know if you don't at least try." Lena replies. "Wouldn't you rather have known that you did everything you could to make it work, even if it doesn't in the end? Wouldn't you want to live the rest of your life with no regrets?" Lena raises one eyebrow, and I honestly don't have an answer to that.

"I'm not saying this because I want you to get hurt again, I'm saying this because I'm your best friend and I want you to at least try to mend the one relationship that seems to overpower all of your other ones." She smirks, making me realize that she's talking about James.

"I'm glad Abby isn't here yet to defend Percy." I laugh, and as if Abby somehow knew we were talking about her, she opened the front door and let herself in.

"What's up bitches?"

"Hello Abby." Lena laughs, leaning back against the couch.

"Whoa, your face is all red. Were you crying?" Abby asks, taking a seat on the other side of me.

"Maybe."

"Why?"

"Reasons."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really."

"Fair enough, got any chips?"

"Oh my god, you two are so annoying." Lena sighs, and both Abby and I laugh while getting up and heading into the kitchen to find snacks.

_______

Half way into our movie, there was a knock at the door. It's pretty late, so I have no clue who it could be.

"Grab a bat from the closet!" Lena whisper-yells.

I give her a pointed look while rolling my eyes.

"Well, you never know!" She shrugs while crossing her arms over her chest.

"Who is it?" I shout once I'm standing at the door.

"It's me."

I know that voice anywhere.

I unlock the front door and pull it open, revealing a very pissed off looking Percy.

"Percy, what are you doing here at almost midnight?" I ask, and I look over my shoulder to see Abby grinning while Lena glares.

"I needed to show you something. Can I come in?" He asks very persistently.

"Um, sure." I step aside so he can walk in. After shutting the front door, I turn around to face Percy.

Percy looks over into the living room and waves at Abby and Lena. "Hey girls."

"Well hello there."

"Whatever."

I'm sure you can guess who said what.

"Is Lena mad at me or something?" Percy asks once he turns back to face me.

"No, so what's up?" I urge, trying to get to the reason for his visit.

Suddenly, he pulls his phone out and shows me a picture of a screen shot.

It was a text conversation between Avery and James.

James?

"How did you get this?" I ask.

"Avery sent it to me." He shrugs.

I take his phone and read the conversation.

Avery: Are you sure you want me to do this for you?

James: Yes. I already paid you. Just do it.

Avery: Why do you want me to do this, when you got mad at me for the blue paint?

James: Because, if I got mad at you for that, she wouldn't suspect me for this.

Avery: Fine, I'll spread the rumor, but Percy isn't going to be happy with me if he finds out.

James: So make sure he doesn't find out.

I stood there stunned as my eyes read the screenshot. He lied directly to my face. More importantly, he lied to the entire school saying that I slept with Percy when I didn't.

I don't know why, but I felt a really bad feeling inside of my chest. Almost as bad as when I found out my dad didn't try to keep our relationship going.

"Can you please send that screenshot to me?" I asked Percy, who nodded.

"I just wanted you to see this for yourself. I know James is good at telling you what you wanna hear, but I'm telling you Skylar, he isn't a good guy." He says while taking a step closer to me.

"Thank you for showing me this, Percy. It really means a lot that you care enough to make sure I know the truth." I smiled, though the smile never reached my eyes.

"Of course." Suddenly, he pulls me in for a hug, and I allow it. I wrap my arms around his waist while resting my head against his broad chest.

I peered behind us to see Abby smiling with victory, while Lena looks highly upset.

"Hey, do you want to do something tomorrow night? My treat." Percy asks once we pull apart.

"Um, sure. Just call me tomorrow night." I smile and he nods before leaving.

"Okay, what the hell was all of that about?" Lena asks as soon as Percy is gone.

I walked over and showed them the screenshot that Percy texted to me.

"This is what all of that was about." I glare. "James lied to my face. I can't believe it!"

"I don't know Sky, maybe Percy tricked Avery into making a fake conversation using an app, it's possible." Lena tries to defend James, but I'm not buying it.

"I highly doubt that." I roll my eyes.

"Wow, James is an asshole. Percy for the win!" Abby cheers with a smile.

"Ugh." Lena sighs, slouching back into the couch. "Just when I thought you and James were finally getting somewhere..."

"Why is it so important to you that I end up with James?" I ask.

"Because... James and Ian are best friends. We're best friends. I thought it would be cute, plus we could have gone on a lot of double dates together." Lena whined as Abby laughed.

"Sorry, but this isn't a movie or whatever. Fairytales like that aren't real, there's just no such thing." I sat down in between Abby and Lena on the couch. "I'm just really upset that he would take it that far."

"At least talk to him first, hear him out." Lena pleads.

"Oh I'm talking to him alright. First thing tomorrow." I nod, asserting my decision.

"Good. Now, can we get back to the marathon?" Abby says while reaching for the remote.

"Yes please." I say, grabbing the bowl of popcorn from the coffee table.

As Back to the Future Part Two resumed, I couldn't help but bring my thoughts back to James.

Something about this entire situation seemed wrong, as if I were missing something.

Then it dawned on me...

How does Percy know Avery, and why would Percy get mad at Avery for spreading the rumor that he and I slept together?

So many unanswered questions that I am determined to get to the bottom of.