Beautiful (4 page)

“Anytime you need me, Sky, hold on to this necklace, and I’ll be with you.”

Tears burned in my eyes. I pulled in, parked, got out, and sat on the hood of my car.
Why? Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?

I’d begged my parents to let me go to another school, but my father had said that I had to face my fears and stand up for myself, or others would always brand me as something I wasn’t. Only problem was, no matter how many people had tried to defend me, Charlie’s parents would somehow get to them and convince them that I was the one lying. Charlie’s father couldn’t have his son branded with a bad reputation as a rapist.

The person who had hurt me the most was Jacob. At first, he’d believed me, and then after one visit from Charlie’s father, Jacob had broken up with me and ignored me along with all my other so-called friends.

Oh my God, I was so stupid for trusting Charlie.

My cell phone vibrated in my back pocket. I reached for it and pulled it out to see a text from Mitch.

Mitch: Hey, where are you?

Me: I left school early. I needed fresh air.

Mitch: Sky, are you okay? What happened?

Me: Totally fine. Just need some time.

I loved my brothers and their constant need to protect me, but sometimes, I wanted to be by myself, alone in my own thoughts.

Turning my iPod on, I leaned back and slowly felt myself letting go of everything—every fear, hurtful word, painful memory. Each disappeared with every breath I took until I fell asleep.

I am dressed in a beautiful gown as Wyatt twirls me around. We laugh as he looks at me with such love in his eyes.

I never, ever wanted to wake up from this dream.

“Skylar?” I heard his sweet voice calling out for me.

This is the best dream ever.

“Skylar? You’re going to get sunburned, angel.”

Mmm…to feel his lips on mine would be heaven.

I wanted to know what it would be like to have someone kiss me with love and passion instead of lust and greed. Although I didn’t remember much about the night Charlie had raped me, I remembered enough that would haunt me until the day I died.

My skin burned on my arm as I tried to focus back on my dream.

“Skylar, please wake up.”

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up, pulling my earbuds out of my ears. I was looking directly at Wyatt.

What in the hell is he doing here? Who told him where to find me?

“Did you follow me here?” I asked as I slid down the hood of my car. I backed away from him. My heart slammed in my chest as fears from that night with Charlie came rushing back.

He looked so confused, and then he took a few steps away, as if he knew why I was scared.

He thinks I’m scared of him. Oh, shit.

“Um…no, of course not. I found this place a few days ago, and I fell in love with it. It’s a good place to come and study, to just relax. I didn’t even know it was you until I walked up closer to see if you were all right. Your face is sunburned. How long have you been out here, angel?”

I just stared at him. The look of concern in his eyes confused me. No one besides my family and Michelle had cared about me in so long. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone look at me like Wyatt was.

Why does he keep calling me angel?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “I, um…I’m not sure. I was listening to my favorite song, and I guess I fell asleep.”

Wyatt smiled and asked, “What’s your favorite song?”

I needed to focus, so I would stop stumbling on my words, making myself look like an idiot. “Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful
.
’ What time is it?”

“It’s five.”

Oh no! Oh, shit!

I pushed past him and opened up my car door.

“Hey, where are you off to in such a rush?”

“Work! I work at Pizza Mia. Sorry, Wyatt. I have to go, or I’m going to be late.” I jumped in my car and raced to work.
Thank God I keep an extra uniform in my car.

Twenty-five minutes later, I pulled into the employee parking lot of Pizza Mia and rushed in. Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse, I saw Jenny, Beth, and Rachael sitting at a booth. I quickly passed them as I ran to the back and changed. Clocking in with one minute to spare, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Eva walked up and motioned over to Jenny and her crew. “Do you want me to take their table? They know that’s your booth.”

I nodded my head and smiled at her. Eva was a sweetheart of a lady and one of the few people in this town who actually believed me about Charlie.

Once Eva walked over to take their order, I heard Jenny ask, “What section is Skylar’s?”

“Her section is full. Are you going to order or what?”

The bell rang as the door to the pizza shop opened. I looked up and saw Wyatt walking in.

What in the hell?

He looked at me and grinned from ear to ear. I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

Stop this, Skylar!

But something about him drew me to him.

As he walked up to me, his smile grew bigger, and I noticed people were watching.

“Hey,” he said as he sat down at the bar.

With a little girl giggle, I replied with a stupid, “Hey.”

I walked over to one of my tables to take their order. The whole time, I felt Jenny’s eyes piercing me. In a way, I kind of liked that she was so bothered that Wyatt had been paying attention to me.

But why is Wyatt doing this? Doesn’t he realize how they’re going to harass me for this? Or worse yet, harass him.

For two hours, while I was running around, working, and trying to avoid Jenny, Wyatt was talking to Mr. Jones, one of our regulars, about World War II. Jenny attempted to talk to Wyatt once, but she was quickly bored with his conversation about war. When she got up and went back over to her friends, Wyatt looked at me and winked. I had to giggle because he really didn’t like Jenny at all, and it was so obvious to everyone but her.

After getting tired of waiting for Wyatt to stop talking, Jenny and her friends finally decided to leave.

When the place started to clear out and Mr. Jones couldn’t keep his eyes open a second longer, Eva told me to take off.

I clocked out and walked up to Wyatt with a smile. “Hey.”

He laughed and gave me that panty-melting smile of his.

Good Lord, that smile knocks me to my knees.

“May I take you out for coffee?” he asked as he reached out for my hand.

My heart started pounding
.

“Do you want to go see a movie?”

I started to shake my head, and Wyatt must have noticed how freaked out I was.

“I mean, not on a date…just as friends. I’ll follow you there. You don’t have to ride with me or anything.”

He knows everything. Oh God, he knows everything.

I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. My brain clearly wasn’t thinking tonight. Before I knew it, I was agreeing to meet him at the coffee shop even though I hated the fact that he knew everything about what had happened with Charlie.

As we walked out of the pizza shop, I noticed strangers staring at us. I looked around and saw two girls walking into the pizza shop, whispering something to one another, as one glared at me like I was a piece of trash.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” I said once we got outside.

“Skylar, you can’t let what other people say about you run your life. Please come have coffee with me.
Please
.”

I chewed on the corner of my lip as I glanced back at the two girls.

“Don’t let their stupid, petty jealous ways keep you from one delicious cup of coffee.”

I smiled as I nodded my head. “I’ll meet you there in five minutes.”

Wyatt fist-pumped as he took a few steps back. “I’ll see you there, angel.”

Once I was in my car, I called my mom. “Hey, Mom. Um…is it okay if I meet a friend for coffee for just a bit?”

Silence.

“Mom?”

“A friend? A
girl
friend or a
guy
friend?”

I sucked in a deep breath of air and slowly let it out. “A guy, Mom, but he’s new. He’s offering to help me in calculus, so it’s nothing. Besides, Jenny has her sights on him.”

My mother laughed. “Well, it’s nice of him to ask you and to offer to help.”

I heard the excitement in her voice.

My parents knew I was teased at school, but I never let them know the full scope of how bad it really was. They would be filled with guilt if they knew they’d been forcing me to stay at a school where I was treated like a common whore. I’d made Mitch swear that he wouldn’t tell them. My father had had a heart attack not long after he’d found out I was raped, so he didn’t need the added stress, and neither did my mother.

As I pulled up and parked at the coffee shop, I looked into the window. Wyatt was already there, and the waitress was flirting with him.

I leaned my head on the steering wheel. “What in the hell am I doing?”

I looked back up and stared at him. He was breathtaking with his dark brown hair and the greenest of green eyes. He had the kind of hair that Michelle called sexed-up hair—all messy but hot as hell. If I had to guess, I would say he was about five feet ten inches. He was built, really built—more so than Skip. I’d overheard him asking Mitch if he wanted to work out before school. I could only imagine what his body looked like underneath his clothes.

He looked out the window and saw me sitting in my car. He frowned for just a second before smiling and waving for me to come in.

Pulling in a deep breath, I reached over and grabbed my purse. “Here we go. Let’s see how this turns out.”

Wyatt

The door to the coffee shop opened, and Skylar walked in. She seemed really nervous, and I wasn’t sure if it was just from meeting me or from the idea of what people might think of us sitting and having coffee together. I couldn’t care less what people thought, and I needed to make her feel the same.

With an adorable smile, Skylar slid into the booth. I’d never in my life met anyone like her. She was beautiful and funny, and she had the most positive outlook on life, even after everything she’d been through.

“For a second, I thought you were going to drive off and stand me up.”

Scrunching up her nose, she giggled and said, “No. Sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve had any kind of normal.”

I frowned at that thought.

The waitress walked up and asked for Skylar’s order. After she gave her coffee order, the waitress smiled. “It’s really good to see you in here, Sky. It’s been a long time.”

Skylar smiled, but I could see the shock on her face. It was as if she was used to people treating her as an outcast.

“So, what are your dreams after high school?” I asked Skylar after the waitress left.

She smiled. “To leave Marble Falls…and never look back. I’d like to go to Baylor University and get my degree in history. I love history.”

“Teacher?”

“Nah, probably law.” She slowly looked away.

“Why law?”

Her head snapped over as she looked at me with probing eyes. “How much do you know about the whole Charlie incident?”

With a shrug of my shoulders, I took a sip of my coffee. “I know that some people are eager to talk shit about what happened. Some tell the story, but I can see in their eyes that they know what they are spitting out is bullshit.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Like who?”

“Jacob.”

Skylar looked down at her coffee. “Yeah, that one hurt a lot. Besides Michelle, I really thought my boyfriend knew me better.”

With a nod of my head, I sighed. “I’m guessing that Charlie’s parents are pretty influential people? I mean, it seems like his dad talks to people, and then they change sides.”

Skylar rolled her eyes. “You could say that.”

“Fuck ’em.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Excuse me?”

“Screw all those people who try to put a label on you. Do you know what I see when I look at you?”

Her face instantly blushed.

“I see a beautiful young woman with an amazing smile who seems to be smart as hell, except in calculus.”