TWO

"Skylar, you're nuts!”

I spun around and saw Sarah as close as she could get to me, but still in the back of the diner. I just shrugged, trying to ignore her, knowing what as coming.

“You just agreed to go to a party with four older guys, who you don't even know!" she practically screamed this time, and I stepped back, my ears ringing.

"Sarah, it's fine. He seems like a nice guy. And anyways, he was bugging me," I smiled at my friend, like it was no big deal.

"Yeah, well, you won’t think he’s a ‘nice guy’ when they ditch you and you're stuck without your car," Sarah warned.

"It's not like that, Sarah. I'll be fine. I'll get them to drop me off here after and I'll drive home. Sarah, you know I don't drink. I'll be here tomorrow night, and I'll tell you all about it," I promised her.

She was quiet for a moment, knowing I couldn’t change my mind now. "Fine, just be careful. And make sure you call your dad and tell him you're going to be late. I don't want him worrying about you," Sarah finally agreed.

"I will."

"Okay, you can leave early, go, have fun, and be careful," she warned again.

"Thanks, Sarah,” I replied. I was just happy to get out of that diner. “I’m sure I’ll have a blast.” Sarcasm. “I’ll probably be sleeping by the time we get there."

“Be careful,” she warned for the third time.

“You know me, careful is my middle name.”

“Just go.” Sarah was now annoyed, although she tried to hide it. I grinned, knowing I had pissed her off, and then headed to the back room again.

I tore off my apron and hung it up, then grabbed my purse. I felt kind of like a bum, although it wasn’t really my fault since I had been expecting to get in my car at midnight and go home to bed, not go out to a party with four guys I didn’t know. But, for some reason, none of that didn’t seem to matter at that moment. I said goodbye to Sarah, thanked her again and went out to the lobby.

"I got to leave a few minutes early," I stated, looking only at Duncan, as I approached the group of guys.

"Awesome,” he grinned. "Okay, Skylar, these are my three, you know, well, these are my boys.” I’m sure he was just as uncomfortable as he looked. “That's Mason Green, Dylan Winters and Tyler Fish. Guys, this is Skylar," Duncan introduced us.

"Nice to meet you guys," I smiled at each of them, but my eyes wandered back to Duncan.

"You too," they each replied.

"So, shall we go?" Tyler asked, and everyone agreed.

The five of us went outside together, and as I saw my car, I suddenly realized I should probably ask before we left the diner, "Will I be able to get a ride back here after? So I can get my car and drive home?"

"Not if you're drinking. I'll be driving you to your doorstep if you’re drunk," Tyler informed me.

"I don't drink," I stated plainly.

"Okay, then that's fine," Tyler laughed.

We all walked over to Tyler's huge, red Dodge truck. It was nice, looked practically brand new, not that I knew much about vehicles. Mine was a little crappy Honda that was rusted by the tires. Luckily Duncan spoke then, forcing me to stop thinking about my little crappy Honda.

"Do you mind sitting in the back? It's Ty’s truck, so he drives, and Dylan always sits up there in the cab with him. Mason and I sit in the back," Duncan asked, although what option did I really have?

"That's cool," I replied, not knowing what to say.

Duncan helped me into the box of the truck and we sat down on the spare tire. Mason, the cute, short one with the messy hair, sat with us, across from Duncan and I. As Tyler drove, the air was a bit cool. I just had a t-shirt on and a pair of jeans, and I could feel the goose bumps on my arms already. Duncan noticed as I shivered, but didn't know if he should do anything.

"I wish I had a sweater to offer you. You look cold," he whispered in my ear.

"I'm okay," I replied, smiling up at him, but soon looking away again.

"So, Skylar, is this a bit weird, or what? You're at work, like normal, and we come to your diner, and now you're going partying with us?" Mason wanted to know with a grin spead, it seemed, permanently across his face.

"It’s weird. I didn’t really come at my own will, you know," I told him. Mason gave me a weird look.

“I kinda begged her to come,” Duncan filled in his friend, who nodded.

"I just think I'd be uncomfortable hanging out with four people I don't know from a hole in the ground,” Mason laughed.

"Well, I guess you guys don’t feel like strangers," I finished, not looking only at Duncan, not looking at either of them. I just stared past Mason, into the dark of the night.

It'd been half an hour since we had left the diner and I suddenly realized I hadn't called home to tell my dad I'd be in late. I didn’t have a curfew, it seemed like my father just didn’t care enough to assign me one. But I knew I’d get a lecture, even if it was a short one, telling me that it would be nice if he knew where I was. He was always like that.

After realizing, I asked if anyone had a cell phone, and Mason pulled one out of his pocket a second later and handed it to me.

“A dollar a minute,” he told me, looking almost serious, and then burst out laughing.

“Thanks,” I half-laughed and dialed my house number quickly.

My little sister, Ashleigh, a sixteen-year-old spinning image of myself, answered after three rings. I told her I’d be home late, and for her to tell our dad if he asked. She immediately asked where I was and who I was with, but I didn't give her any details. She was still talking, trying to get anything out of me, when I told her that it was a friend’s cell phone and that I had to go. When I hung up the phone, Duncan glanced down at me and asked,

"You don't have a curfew?"

"No, my dad just likes to know where I am," I replied.

"So how old are you, Skylar, if you don't mind me asking?" Mason interrupted, and Duncan kicked him.

"I'm eighteen,” I answered quickly, not saying anything else.

“Eighteen,” Mason repeated out loud, and then continued, "I'm twenty one, Dylan is twenty one as well, and Ty is twenty two. My boy Duncan is our baby, he's twenty." He laughed, filling me in.

I smiled at Duncan who blushed and stretched one of his arms around me loosely. I moved a bit closer to him to keep warm, hoping we’d be arriving at the party soon. It wasn’t like me to do something like that, but I was comfortable around people most of the time. Even, yes, people I didn’t know. The truck pulled into a long driveway just a few minutes later and Duncan helped me out of the box again. I walked next to Duncan, with his friends just steps in front of us.

"This is Dylan's ex-girlfriend's place. She throws huge parties all the time and we just come out and get drunk and pass out," Duncan grinned, explaining.

“So, I’m sure there would have been another party?” I questioned with a laugh.

“Yeah, but I wanted you to come tonight,” he replied, as we approached the door.

“Well, that was obvious,” I finished. "Oh, I don't drink,” I repeated myself from earlier, but realized I probably should have explained a little bit into that. “I had a bad experience when I was sixteen and I just don't drink now," I told him, but he continued to smile.

"Well I don't need to drink now. I have you to get to know," he flirted, and I smiled, not knowing what else to do.

We entered the house and were greeted by a tall, thin blonde girl who hugged all four of the guys and then stayed wrapped around Dylan. She looked a lot older than me, I mean, a lot older. I suddenly felt out of place; one of these things just doesn’t belong.

"Who's your little friend, Dunker?" the blonde asked Duncan in a flirty voice, her arms still wrapped around Dylan, who was trying to push her away without being obvious.

"This is my friend Skylar, Skylar, this is Marissa; she hosts the parties here," Duncan replied, giving Dylan a look, although I didn’t see it.

"Hi," I said to the girl, but she stuck her nose in the air and laughed,

"She looks a little young for you, Dunker. What is she, fifteen?" Marissa giggled.

"Shut up, Marissa," Dylan ordered his already drunk ex-girlfriend.

Dylan pulled away from her, finally, leaned in close to me, and whispered in my ear,

"Marissa's a bitch, don't worry about her. You just have a good time."

I smiled and nodded and mouthed ‘thank you’, although still feeling awkward about being there. I should not have gone, I told myself. I should have gone home.

"So, we'll just meet back up later?" Mason asked, ready to go drinking, I could tell, and I barely knew the guy.

"Okay, we'll just find you guys later," Duncan replied.

"Have fun you two," Tyler laughed as he walked away.

"But not too much," Mason finished, and followed Tyler; soon they were both out of sight.

Duncan lead me through the crowd and over to an empty couch. I looked all around me, and saw people everywhere, people, guy and girls, who all looked a few years older than me. I felt as if people were staring at me, wondering what in the hell I was doing there. Before we could even sit down, we heard,

"Dunker, you guys made it!"

Suddenly a short, dark haired girl was standing in front of us, talking to Duncan. I turned to face her and half smiled, afraid she would be as rude as Marissa.

"Yeah, we just got here," Duncan told her.

"Cool, come have a drink with me," the girl said, grabbing onto his arm.

"Actually, I'm not drinking tonight. I'm just going to hang out with my friend, Skylar." Duncan smiled down at me.

"Oh, I see,” the girl replied, but looked at me and smiled. “You two can go up to my room to chill if you want," she offered, which surprised me.

"Okay, thanks, Jess," Duncan grinned. After she walked away, he filled me in, “That's Jessica, Marissa's roommate. She and I dated a year ago, for, like, a month. We decided we'd be better as friends, and we are. She's a really cool girl."

"That's cool,” I said, but really didn’t care. “Why'd she said we could go to her room?" I asked him, confused, but still smiling.

"She's just cool like that. She knows I like to talk and get to know people," Duncan replied.

"Oh, ok."

I felt a little more awkward as I looked around and saw tons of people and no one that I recognized. Everyone seemed to be much older than myself, I felt like a child in amongst a group of adults. I think Duncan could sense that I felt weird.

"Are you uncomfortable here, with me? I don't want you to be uncomfortable," he asked, as the two of us sat on a dark colored sofa. The tone in his voice and his attitude had changed a little from where we were at the diner. He no longer looked as cocky and confident.

"I'm not uncomfortable with you. I just feel kind of young around all these other people," I answered honestly.

"We can go talk upstairs, if you want. I mean, only if you want," he suggested, trying not to sound pushy.

"Yeah,” I could barely believe I’d agreed to that. “I guess that would be cool."

I smiled as I followed him through the crowded room and to the staircase. A few more girls said hi to Duncan as we passed them, but he just said hi and kept on going. We made our way upstairs and got to a room with a 'Jessica' sign on the door. Duncan opened the door and led me into the room, closing it behind us.

"We can leave whenever you want. Just tell me," he smiled, sincerely and I nodded.

I was quiet, I mean, what was I going to say to him? I felt like telling him at that moment that I had to go, that I shouldn’t have even gone. I felt silly, desperate, that I’d come to a party with four guys who had just came to the diner for a bite to eat. But I managed to keep all of that inside, as I sat down stiffly on the large bed.

"So, tell me,” he began, not looking uncomfortable like I was. “I want to know everything about you.”

I looked away and then looked back at him again, “I feel crazy because I’m here, sitting next to you, and I know nothing about you,” I admitted. “I don’t even know your last name.”

“Well, just ask. But first I want to know about you.” His words were quiet, but loud enough, and soft, but not too soft.

"Well,” I forced a smile, hating to talk about myself. “My name is Skylar Anne Gibson, I turned eighteen in January. I live with my dad and his girlfriend, and my sixteen-year-old sister and ten year old half-brother," I began, and watched as he began to smile.

"Keep going," he grinned.

"I... I love to sing, I’m going to be a singer, and I was in modeling until the year before last. I have only had a few boyfriends, because I always wanted to find my soul mate," I continued, not sure why I was releasing such information to a total stranger.

"Why'd you stop modeling?" Duncan, of course, wanted to know.

"I lost interest. I got my job around that same time, and I just didn't have time for it," I answered.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" he asked me cutely. I couldn’t believe he had asked me that.

"No," I answered sternly. "So, tell me about you."

"I’m Duncan Myles Russo; I turned twenty on Christmas Day. My parents divorced when I was a baby, I grew up with my mom. She remarried when I was eight and she has two more sons now, who are nine and five," he told me.

"We've got kind of the same background,” I smiled, and then added, “You were born on Christmas Day?"

“Yup, my mom’s favorite present ever, she told me,” he laughed.

“So, being a hottie like you are, you’ve had a lot of girlfriend?”

Duncan’s cheeks turned red for a second, and then he shook his head 'no'. "I was actually an ugly teenager; I didn't start dating until I was eighteen, honestly. I've never had a long term relationship," he grinned at me again.

"You? Ugly? Yeah, right!" I laughed, as if it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. It kind of was. "You are gorgeous."

I was outspoken, what can I say? I liked to tell people what I thought of them, and that is what I thought of him. He was gorgeous, I wasn’t just saying that. His hair was shaggy, even a little too much for my liking, but the hat he was wearing just made that okay. He wasn’t exactly a guy I would be attracted to on normal circumstances. But these were not normal circumstances, and Duncan was cute.

He blushed and grinned from ear to ear, "You're the one who's gorgeous... damn, look at you.” He turned the attention to me and I just shook my head at him. “I can't believe I'm sitting here with you right now. I'm the luckiest guy in the world," he flirted, putting his hand up to my cheek. I got shivers down my spine when he touched me.

"Whoa," I said quietly, but didn’t explain why I’d said it. It didn’t matter. "So, do you believe in love at first sight?" I asked him.

"I didn't until I walked into that diner," he answered, making me smile. “I’m not really like this, if you’re wondering. I don’t pick up girls this easily. It was just something about you.”

“What about me?” I asked, wanting to know.

“I don’t really know. Something,” he told me, not really telling me anything.

We sat in silence, just staring at each other for awhile. I took my eyes off of him and looked around the bedroom; there were pictures on the walls and around the mirror, the room was painted light blue, there was a bookshelf full of books in the corner and CDs stacked on the dresser. An average girl’s bedroom.

A few minutes later Duncan built up his courage and asked, "Is it wrong that I want to kiss you?"

"I don't know," I replied, smiling. I reached up and ran my hand through his curly hair, taking a deep breath. It honestly felt like I’d known him forever. "This is weird, Duncan. Is this weird?" I asked him.

"It’s kind of weird. Not bad weird, just weird,” he replied, using the word ‘weird’ far too many times in one sentence.

"Ok, I get it,” I joked, and his cheeks turned red for second again.

"Something inside of me is just like 'this girl is amazing, don’t let her get away'," Duncan laughed.

“My friends are going to kill me; honestly, they are so protective of me. They're not going to like this," I laughed back, changing the subject.

"Why are your friends protective of you?" he wanted know, obviously thinking it was strange.

I froze, suddenly. I couldn't tell him. It would ruin everything. Everything? What was everything? He would look at me differently. But really, I didn’t know how he looked at me in the first place. He might have thought I was just a slut who went to parties with guys she didn’t know all the time. Still, I didn’t want to tell him. I tried to change the subject, but I couldn't get any words out. I looked around the room again, looking for an answer. As if the walls were going to whisper something for me to say. I had two options, make something up, lie, and change the subject quickly, or tell the truth and risk it all.

"What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"Do you really want to know?" I asked, and Duncan nodded. "You have to promise you won't get mad."

"I couldn't get mad at you," he informed me.

"Remember when I told you that I don't drink because I had a bad experience when I was younger?" I asked. Duncan just nodded, waiting for me to continued. "Well, I was sixteen, and I went to this college party with a few friends. This, like, nineteen or twenty year old guy got me so drunk and took me to a bedroom and... you know... raped me. My friends feel so bad for letting it happen to me, that now they are really protective about guys," I told him.

I couldn't believe I had told him. I hadn't told anyone, except my friends who were there. I felt so comfortable with Duncan, it was unreal. He was a stranger, I told myself, a complete and utter stranger. Why the hell was I opening up to him so quickly? A look of sadness and concern crossed his face right away, and I looked away, again, so I didn’t have to see it.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. If I knew who the guy was that did it, I'd kill him," Duncan said seriously.

"Don't be sorry. It was my own fault - ” I began, and I planned to continued but he cut me off.

“It wasn’t your fault, something like that is never the girl’s fault. You didn’t deserve that,” he told me, suddenly very serious.

“I know, I don’t know,” I answered. I didn’t know what else to say. “I can't believe I just told you that. I can’t believe I feel so comfortable around you," I smiled.

“Well, I’m glad,” he told me quite plainly, but then continued. ”I wouldn’t want you to be sitting here scared to death of me.”

I almost laughed but couldn’t, considering what I had just told him. I wanted to take it back; never let those words leave my mouth again.

“I promise I'll never let anything bad happen to you ever again," Duncan told me cutely, tearing me away from my self pity.

"You can't promise that, Duncan," I looked at him.

He moved closer and whispered in my ear, "I can if you'll be my girlfriend."

And there it was; the third time he’d caught me off guard in one night. His girlfriend? Did I even hear him correctly? No, he couldn’t have said that. But when I looked up at him and saw that face, those gorgeous eyes, that perfect smile, I knew that he had. Tears practically filled my eyes instantly and I shut them tight so he couldn't see me crying. I wasn’t that type of girl, who cried over silly things. I was strong. And yet I felt like I was in a movie, like this couldn't possibly be real. Guys didn’t just show up at girls’ work and invite them to a party and then ask them to be their girlfriend. That just didn’t happen in real life. But it happened to me. I didn't answer him, so he continued,

"C'mon, Skylar, don't leave me hanging here.” He raised my chin with his hand, and told me, “Open your eyes and look at me."

I felt a few tears drip down my cheek as I slowly opened my eyes. There was this gorgeous guy, sitting right in front of me, asking me to be his girlfriend. I was just the cashier at Sam’s Diner, I wasn’t anything special. I didn’t deserve to be swept off my feet by some guy named Duncan.

"Skylar, don't cry." He wiped my tears with his soft hand and asked again, "Will you please be my girlfriend?"

"You don’t even know me,” I argued, not wanting to say yes or no.

“I’ll get to know you, and you’ll get to know me. I know this is crazy, I do. I just want to see what could happen,” he informed me. “I don’t want to leave you tonight and never see you again and then wonder for the rest of my life if we could have had something.”

“I don’t do stuff like this,” I continued, holding back more tears. “I’m not that type of girl.”

“You don’t have to be any type of girl. You can be my type of girl.” His words didn’t sound corny, although they really were, at that moment they sounded sincere and truthful.

“You’re cute,” I said plainly.

“I’m not usually,” he said cutely again, and I could tell that he was usually. Or always. “So, what do you say?”

“What do I say? What can I say?”

“You can say that you’ll be my girlfriend. You can’t tell me you’re not interesting in finding out what might happen with us.”

And he was right. I couldn’t say that.

“Yes, yeah, okay," I replied, as he wrapped his strong arms around me and hugged me tight. He held me close to him for a few minutes, and then pulled back and looked into my eyes,

"Tell me more about you," he demanded cutely.

I went on to tell him about how I was born in a small city outside New York, and my sister was born two years later, but my mother died giving birth to her. My dad packed us up and moved us down to Tampa, where we grew up. I told him every detail about my life that I could think of, and he wanted to know more. I told him about my two closest friends, Melissa Wyatt and Kayla Grey, who I'd known since the first grade.

I then asked him more about him and he told me that he'd known Mason the longest, since they were in kindergarten. He and Mason met Dylan and Tyler, cousins, in the sixth grade. Since then, the four had been inseparable.

The next time I looked at my watch, it was three-thirty in the morning. We'd been talking for more than two hours. Just as we were about to get up and go find the guys, there was a knock at the door. Duncan jumped up, startled, and opened the door, only to find Dylan and Tyler grinning at him.

"Jess said we could find you two here. We're just checking to see if you want to leave or crash here or what?" Tyler asked Duncan.

"No, I got to get her home; I can't make a bad impression right off the start," Duncan told his friends.

"Whoa, Dunker, relax. We'll go find Mace and take off then," Dylan laughed.

I stood up and walked towards Duncan, and he reached out to hold my hand. I gave him my hand and felt warmth all through my body. It just felt right. It felt like a dream, like it all wasn’t really happening, but it felt right. We walked downstairs together and Dylan and Tyler had already found Mason, who grinned that infamous grin when he saw us holding hands.

"What's going on here?" he wanted to know. I could smell alcohol on his breath, but he didn't seem drunk.

"Nothing, let's go," Duncan said to Mason, smiling at me.

The guys said goodbye to a bunch more friends before we actually left the house. The air was even cooler then and I shivered when we stepped outside.

"Skylar, I have a sweater in the truck you can wear, if you want," Tyler told me, and I nodded, silently thanking him.

"You can sit in the cab with Tyler, if you want, if you're too cold," Duncan offered, but I knew he wanted me with him, and I wanted that too.

"It's okay, I'll just wear Tyler's sweater. I want to sit with you," I replied, making him smile.

We climbed back into the truck, along with Mason, and I put on Tyler's big yellow hooded sweater.

"Did you two have a good time?" Mason asked us as Tyler started the drive home. Duncan and I looked at each other and smiled.

"We know a lot about each other now," Duncan replied.

"Well, you're going to have to fill us in, Dunker, because we don't know anything about her," Mason smiled at his best friend. "So, are you guys going to be friends, or what?" Mason had another question.

"I don't think I could settle for just being friends with her," Duncan told Mason.

"You two are crazy, you know? You're nuts,” Mason laughed. "But I'm happy for you, Dunker."

"Thanks, Mace," Duncan finished, and those were the last words I heard.

The next thing I knew, Duncan was whispering in my ear, trying to wake me up. He shook me gently, as I opening my eyes and looked around.

"Skylar, we're back at the diner. Are you okay to drive home?"

"Yeah," I replied, stretching and yawning, "I'm just tired."

"Ok, I'll walk you to your car," Duncan smiled and helped me out of the truck again.

The two of us walked around the parking lot to where my car was parked, hand in hand. I unlocked the driver’s door and then turned back to Duncan. Tears filled my eyes again and I held them back.

"I had an amazing night, Duncan," I whispered to him. “I’m glad you begged me to go.”

“I’m so glad you came. I'm glad you had a good time. I had an amazing night, as well," he answered.

"Are you sure this isn't just a dream? I don't want to wake up at home and not be able to see you again," I wanted to make sure.

"It's for real, Skylar. I promise you.” He let out a laugh. “I'll call you in the afternoon, okay? Get some sleep,” he finished, whispering into my ear.

"Ok. Goodnight, Duncan."

"Goodnight, Skylar."

He leaned in to kiss me, but decided at the last second to just kiss my cheek. He didn't want to seem too pushy, and I understood. I was hoping he was going to kiss me, though. Not that I was into that, kissing guys I’d just met, but things were different with Duncan. I watched as he walked back towards the truck, as I got into my tiny little car. I started it and waved out the window towards the truck, and pulled out of the parking lot. The drive home was short, just a few blocks away. It was after four when I pulled into our driveway. I unlocked the front door with my key and locked it behind me again. Tip toeing through the house and up the stairs to my bedroom I past both my dad’s bedroom and my sister, Ashleigh’s. I turned on my bedroom light and screamed, shocked to see my little sister awake, sitting on my bed, staring back at me.