He knew her so well. Without knowing what the deal was, he sensed there'd been trouble with her dad. Of course, he was aware of her father's drinking problem, but he was more aware of when something was upsetting her. He knew not to ask too many questions. If she wanted him to know, she'd tell him. Besides that, she might not want Zac knowing about her dad's problem. She stood up and stretched, dropping the blanket. Zac's face lit up with recognition. "Hey! That's Tay's blanket! How'd that get there?" he seemed thoroughly amazed by this. "He let me borrow it yesterday. You can bring it home to him for me, okay? And say thank you for me. It's very warm. I would've frozen without it." She smiled as she folded the blanket and handed it to Zac. She squeezed between the boys and headed down the stairs. They followed. "What time is it?" she asked, hoping to find the house key still in her pocket. It was. "About ten." Ryan said. Both boys were still looking at her like she had horns. "Ten! I'm going in to take a shower. See you guys later!" She shut the door, thankful to escape their questioning faces.

A shower had never felt so good. She used lots of her favorite Juniper scented soap, washed her hair and shaved her legs. She yelped once or twice when she accidentally went over a cut on her leg. The band-aids were soggy and hanging on by a thread, so she tossed them and got new ones. As she dried off, she felt refreshed, except for the stinging on her arm, leg and cheek. After drying her hair, she painted her nails and decided what to wear. She picked out a little sundress, blue camouflage pattern. She put on a beaded ankle bracelet that she and Megan made together, her white canvas sneakers, and headed for the mirror. She almost cried when she looked at the cuts. But she didn't. I can cover these, she thought. She put foundation on and you could hardly notice the cut on her face. Putting on some blush, mascara, a little blue eyeliner and tinted lip gloss, she felt much better about her appearance. She spritzed on perfume and pulled the sides of her hair up in blue clips. Then she went downstairs to have some breakfast. The phone rang about five minutes later. It was Taylor, who told her to come over in about half an hour. She ate cereal, brushed her teeth, put on more lip gloss, and headed for the door. That's when she noticed a note on the fridge. She grabbed it and read: "Sky - I'm so very sorry about last night. Please talk it over with me tonight. Love,Dad."

Yeah, whatever, she thought, tossing it on the table. She went through the gate and decided against slipping through the Hansons' fence. She could just see herself getting wedged in there and having to have a fireman grease her up to get her out. At the thought of that she chuckled to herself. Then she started laughing. A little too hard. It must be stress, she thought, I'm going nuts. She peered into the Davis' sliding glass door. No one in sight. She opened the front gate and jogged across the driveway to the Hansons'. Then she crossed the lawn, opened their gate and jumped up the steps to the front door. She was forming a fist to knock when the door opened and a beaming Taylor let her in.

"Hi! You look really good." he gave her the once-over and led her to the living room. Ryan and Zac were slouched way down on the couch, playing a video game. Avery and Jessie were playing a game in the corner and Mrs. Hanson waved from the kitchen, where she was feeding Zoe. Mr. Hanson was just heading out the door. He said hello and goodbye and they exchanged waves. She was about to ask where Isaac was, when he appeared in the hallway. He was cradling the cordless phone against his right ear and he smiled and mouthed a "Hi" to her. He had a deep green shirt on with long, baggy black shorts. He had black high tops on and his hair was down. He wore it back a lot , so she always noticed how nice it looked when it was loose. She smiled at him and hoped she didn't look too awful. He hung up a minute later.

"You look nice, Skyler." he commented. "Thanks." she replied, tugging at her hair self-consciously. "Ready, Tay? Did you guys wanna go or not?" He looked into the living room at Zac and Ryan. They looked at each other and shrugged. "Come on you guys," Taylor said, "you don't want to sit in here and play video games when you could be out in the sun sweating like pigs." They looked at each other again and got up from the couch. "When you make it sound that good, Tay, who could say no?" Zac grinned. Ryan looked at Skyler with some concern, so she gave him a warm smile and it seemed to ease his mind. Ike was driving, so Ryan and Zac got in the back and Sky and Tay looked at each other. "I'll get in back." Sky said. Taylor looked unhappy. "Let Sky sit up front, Tay." Ike suggested. He still looked unhappy. "Don't you always want to ride in front, Zac?" he asked, bending down to peer into the back seat where Zac was settled in comfortably. "Nah, I'll sit with Ryan. Go ahead, Tay."

Reluctantly, he got in front, since Sky had gotten impatient and jumped in the back already. It wasn't that far of a drive, maybe twenty minutes. She was glad Ryan was with her, in case she didn't know anyone. She did know quite a few of their friends. The nice thing about them was that they seemed to have friends of all ages. There were actually people older than her, plus the usual family members that show up for birthday parties. Everyone was nice. She was sorry that she'd worn a dress at first, but ended up running around anyway. She sat talking for the first hour or so, but Ryan begged her to play frisbee, so they went over away from the pavilion to play. There was food and music and all the usual things. At one point, she noticed Isaac talking to some girl in a white top and black shorts. She felt a twinge of jealousy and was surprised at her reaction. She looked around for Taylor. He was also talking to a girl, but she was way older than him and not so pretty, so she couldn't tell if she would've reacted the same way. Ryan was yelling for her to wake up and throw the frisbee, so she forgot about the jealousy thing.

As Skyler turned away, Isaac had found Taylor, talking to Chris' cousin Mary Beth. He asked if they could talk for a minute so they walked out towards the car. "Tay, I have to ask you something. I need an opinion." Isaac said, kicking a stone across the parking lot. "Go ahead." "Okay...lets say you like someone, and you don't know if she likes you. I mean you really can't tell." "Yeah...You should ask her out. If she says no, she doesn't like you. If she says yes, she probably does. Then after you go out, try to kiss her. If she kisses back, she likes you for sure. If she pulls away, she either doesn't like you or you need a breath mint." He laughed at his own joke. Isaac was busy mulling this over. "So...just ask her out?" "Yeah! What's the harm, right? It's not Laurie, is it? She's ugly..." "What? No! It's not Laurie. Thanks for the advice." He turned and ran, leaving Taylor standing in the parking lot trying to figure out who the girl was.

Sky had run into the trees for the tenth time, fetching a bad throw by Ryan, when Ike startled her. She tripped on a tree root and almost fell. He caught her. "Thanks, man." She kidded. "Yer welcome, pretty lady." he replied, in one of his many accents. "I'm going to die if I play anymore with him! I feel like a dog fetching the frisbee wherever he throws it." She headed out of the trees with purpose. "Sky, wait!" he yelled. She turned around. "I want to ask you something." he looked around before making eye contact. "Yes?" "I was wondering...if you were doing anything tonight." He cleared his throat. "Me? No...I don't think so. Why?" She reached down to pull a leaf off of her sneaker. "I thought maybe we could do something. If you want." "You mean alone? Together?" Duh, Skyler, she thought, you sound bright. "Yeah. Like, a date. You know. Where you go somewhere and do something?" "Right...I remember what that is...vaguely. Sure, that sounds good." She wondered if she should have pretended to think it over instead of saying yes right off the bat. Oh, well. "Great. So...how about dinner? Like around seven?" "Sure, Ike." Then something occurred to her. "Hey Ike, aren't you going to ask me where my cuts came from?" She was hoping Taylor hadn't told him. She didn't need any pity dates. "Well, I didn't want to be rude. But now that you mention it, I have been wondering. So Sky, where did the cuts come from?" he said, half joking. "I fell on some broken glass at work." she blurted off the top of her head. "Ouch. Are you okay?" "Yep. Just a few cuts and a little embarrassment." She laughed nervously and hoped he believed her. They were back out of the trees by now and Ryan was yelling for Sky to hurry up and throw the gall-danged frisbee. She chased after him instead. Thankfully, her conversation with Isaac was through for now. But he'd caught up with Tay again, over at the cooler where he was getting a soda. "Well, you were right, Tay, you were so right. I'm so glad I asked you!" he slapped his brother on the back. "Ow! Good. I'm glad, Ike. You mean she's here?" He suddenly had a sinking feeling. "Yes! Didn't I tell you who?" "No..." "Skyler. I asked her out tonight." he tried to get the smile off his face, but it was useless. "So...what'd she say." he didn't really want to know. "She said yes! So she must like me a little, right? Or she just wants a free dinner..We'll know at the end of the date, eh, Tay?" He winked at his brother, who looked a little pale. "Right..yeah. I have to go find the bathroom." He wandered away before Ike could respond. He headed straight for Skyler. She didn't notice him approach. "I have to talk to you." he said, taking her by the arm before she could respond, and leading her back into the trees. "What is it?" She asked, though she already knew perfectly well. "I can't believe you're going on a date with my brother! Just like that!" he looked so betrayed. She felt so guilty. "I'm sorry, Tay...But what should I have done? Told him I can't because we were making out in the tree house last night? We're not going out with each other. He's closer to my age. I didn't do it to hurt you, Tay. I like you a lot. I just didn't have a reason to say no." "I'm not a reason, then." He turned away. He really had a good pouty look to him. She took his hand. "You're a great reason...but you know what we talked about. I mean, you could take me out if you only had your drivers' license.." She burst out laughing then stopped herself and apologized. But a smile was fighting to appear on his face, and finally did. "Only a few more months, Sky! Then look out..." he hugged her and they walked back to the lawn holding hands. Isaac, Zac and Ryan were standing right there. Isaac had a strange look on his face. "I thought you had to go to the bathroom." he asked. "I went in the woods." he smirked. "Were you helping him, Sky?" Ryan said wisely. "Yeah, I zipped him up." She replied, and continued walking past them. She couldn't see what the reaction was. A short time later, Zac was tired and bored and wanted to leave. On the way home, Sky sat in the front, but nobody talked much. She wondered if Ike was bothered by she and Taylor holding hands. She didn't get into games like that, so she really hoped it hadn't bothered him. She was surprised that he'd even asked her out. She didn't think he liked her.

After they pulled in the driveway, Ryan and Zac headed for Ryan's house to get out of the heat, and Sky, Taylor and Isaac stood in the driveway for a minute. Ike was obviously waiting for Taylor to leave. Taylor was going to walk Sky home, then realized he was missing this important cue. "Uh..well, then, I'll see you later, Sky." he touched her shoulder and jogged to the front door as she yelled goodbye to him. She felt weird, as if this was an important moment. "So, should I come get you a little before seven?" he asked. "Yeah. I'll be ready." She noticed how nice his eyes were, even for being brown. "Okay. See you then." He turned and walked quickly to the front door. She broke into a run and only slowed down when she saw her dad's car in the driveway. She was dreading this. He was waiting for her. She dropped her keys on the counter and bent down to unlace her shoes. Her father stood there looking down at her, and when she finally looked up she saw a look of pain on his face. "Sky...come and sit down." She did, reluctantly. He sat across from her. "Honey..I'm sorry about last night. Bill got Jason to admit what really happened and he feels just awful." "So now you believe me?" she said bitterly. A look of hurt appeared on his face. "I'd believe you no matter what he said. I hardly remember what I was saying or doing last night. I was pretty far gone. But I put you in danger, and I can never forgive myself." He looked her over. "Are you all right? I don't know what made me do that." "I'm fine." She touched her cheek and looked away. "Now listen, honey, I haven't been a very good father to you in a long time. I know that. It's just...it's so hard. Your mother would know how to handle these things, but.." his voice cracked. He cleared his throat. "But she's not here to help me, and I have to face that. I haven't dealt with this very well, but I'm ready to try." "Sometimes I wish I'd died with them that night. Because you act like I'm not here anyways." she said, a lump forming in her throat. "Don't you say that.." He put his hand on hers. "Don't even think it. I should be thankful that I didn't lose you, too. I am thankful. But I've also been angry and guilty. Angry because I lost my only son and my first born daughter. Guilty that your mother and I had that dumb argument and my God if only I could take it back..." "But you can't, Dad..." Sky whispered, rubbing her eyes. "I know that, honey...There are a lot of things I can't take back. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm alive. I wonder why I was left here. Was it a blessing or a punishment? But all we have is each other now, Sky, and I'm going to try to straighten out for you. After work I called Tom Sciatta, the guy I went to college with. He's a member of AA. We had a long talk. He's going to try to help me through this. But I can't do it without your support. So I hope you can forgive all the lousy damned things I've done to you and let me be a father again." He looked at her, waiting.

Her dad was not an emotional person. Admitting he was wrong was not something he did often. If some other guy had just said this, she would've rolled her eyes and shrugged it off. But when she heard him say it, she knew he meant it. She knew that whatever she said at this very moment was crucial to what remained of their relationship. "I was really mad at you last night. But I know you didn't mean it. I know you're sick and you need to get help. So I'll do whatever you need me to do." She inhaled deeply and let it out. "Thank you, Sky...thank you." He pulled her to him. She hadn't hugged her father since the day of her mother's funeral. It felt foreign to her, but so needed it was like medicine for her aching heart. She hoped this was a sign of things to come.