Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga (5 page)

She finally put her keys into the ignition and turned on her truck. She looked in her rear-view mirror to back out, and there was Israel standing outside his car parked right behind
her.

Her heart started to pound. She looked down taking a breath and smiled. Nervous, she slowly took off her seat belt, opened the truck door and stepped onto the
ground.

“I see one of your tires is kind of flat,” Israel smirked, looking at the back of her
truck.

Aira walked over and looked. It was. Completely flat. She didn’t say anything, she felt
embarrassed.

“Do you have a spare?” he asked, still smiling. He felt just as
awkward.

“Um... ya, I do,” she answered, nodding her head lightly, feeling painfully shy and knowing she had no idea how to change a
tire.

He smiled looking around for a second scratching his head. “Do you know how to change a
tire?”

Aira lightly smiled. “Not really – I’ll just... call Barry or something.” She shook her head feeling
stupid.

His eyes looked curious, of her more than anything. “I can change it, if you’d like. I have a jack and...” He looked back at her, then turned around and went to his
trunk.

Aira walked to the back of her truck, opened the tailgate and awkwardly pulled out her spare tire. She stood there trying to compose all of the feelings that were flooding her
brain.

He walked back over, smiled, put his tools on the ground and sank to his
knees.

Aira quietly watched everything he did. He was concentrating, his movements like art to her. He was like art to her. The pull and the draw she had to him was so strong, and the more she watched him, the stronger it got. His arms moved gracefully, the sleeve of his T-shirt kept pulling every time he moved his arm. She noticed he had two beauty marks on the back of his arm. They weren’t obvious, just to her. He lifted the back of his shirt just a bit to scratch his side. Never had she looked at anyone the way she was looking at him. He quietly smiled to himself. He could feel her. As nervous as he was he must have tightened those bolts a thousand times, making sure it was
safe.

“Okay, I think you should be fine.” He spoke, stood up, then put her old tire into the back of her truck and closed the tail
gate.

He was already done
? she thought. She couldn’t believe how fast it was. It wasn’t that he did it in any speedy fashion, it just felt like that to
her.

“Thanks,” she uttered softly. The feeling in her chest pulled at her, because she didn’t want him to
leave.

“I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen.” His words were calm and went straight into
her.

She looked down and took a small breath, holding back a
smile.

He picked up his tools, threw them back into his trunk, then ran his hand along the top of his car, making his way to the driver’s seat. It was like he wanted to say something else, like he didn’t want to go either. He tapped his fingers on his car roof looking at
her.

Aira put her hand onto her
chest.

“History,” he spoke letting out a smile, then he got into his car and drove
away.

Aira walked to the driver’s side of her truck, puzzled. She got in and put on her seat belt. She sat for a moment, then pulled out of the school parking lot and started to drive
home.

The entire way she couldn’t think of anything other than how he made her feel. It was like nothing she had ever felt. Him leaving felt to her like she wouldn’t ever see him again, like being wakened from a dream she couldn’t get back
into.

Eventually pulling up to her house, she saw her mother and her stepfather Barry hosing down the driveway. Barry was darker skinned, strong looking, muscular, handsome. Barry and Maddy have been together for about four years, married for
three.

Aira pulled her truck to the side of her driveway and put it in park. She sat there for a minute watching them. They laughed and played with the water. Barry picked up Maddy and spun her around as the water from the hose sprayed all over. They looked so
happy.

Aira turned off her truck, got out and walked over to
them.

“How was your first day back, kiddo?” Barry asked as he started to spray the soapy driveway
again.

“Ya, honey, how did it
go?”

“Mom, how did you know Barry was the one?” Aira stood there holding her book bag to her
chest.

Maddy and Barry just looked at each
other.

“Does this have anything to do with that so-called boyfriend of yours?” Barry sounded a bit
disgruntled.

“It’s just a question,” Aira replied, holding back a
smirk.

“Well, honey… I think I just knew.” Maddy smiled at
Barry.

“She was the only thing I could think about since the moment I first laid eyes on her.” Barry gave Maddy a quick
wink.

“You guys are really perfect for each other.” Aira smiled at them. She walked over to the front porch and put her things down on a
chair.

Barry handed Aira the hose and she finished helping them with the outside
work.

As the afternoon turned to night, Barry and Maddy made supper. Barry loved to cook, and it was something they enjoyed doing
together.

Aira was in her room, with books and papers laid out all over her bed. Her stereo was on low. She was trying to do homework. She wrote something, then stopped, wrote, then stopped, until finally she pushed all of the books and papers to the side of her bed, and grabbed her laptop off the floor. Aira signed herself into Facebook and began to search for
him.

Israel was laying on his bed reading a book he was given in history. His room was simple, medium-sized, the walls dark blue. He had a dark plaid, thick blanket on a queen bed, which had a beautiful dark-wood headboard. There was a smaller solid wooden desk with books and some drawings he had done. They were all of scenery. He also had an antique sitting chair by his dresser across from his bed which he usually threw his sweaters
onto.

Israel read a line, put the book down on his chest, pick it up again, put it down, until finally he put it on his night stand. He stared up at his ceiling for a while. Whatever he was thinking made him
smile.

He finally got up and walked out of his
room.

Aira, frustrated that she couldn’t find him, closed her laptop and went downstairs to see if supper was
ready.

Walking into the kitchen, Aira watched as Maddy made up a plate of food while Barry brought the rest of the food to the table. They were having chicken Alfredo with garlic bread and
salad.

Aira sat down, grabbed a plate and started to dish up some
food.

“Where’s David?” she asked, pulling the salad up with
tongs.

“He wants to eat in his room again.” Maddy gave Barry a light smile to reassure him it wasn’t his fault. For three years David had refused to eat with them. It hurt Barry’s
feelings.

Maddy took David his plate of food and then she, Barry and Aira all sat down and ate
together.

Aira more or less picked at her food, too deep in
thought.

“Honey... are you okay? You’re not hungry?” her mother
asked.

Aira looked down at her plate and nothing was touched. She had sat there for fifteen minutes moving her food around with a fork. “Ya — no, I am.” Aira answered, and started to
eat.

Maddy smiled, used to Aira’s
daydreaming.

After dinner, Aira helped Barry do the dishes, then watched a little bit of T.V with her mom and Barry. They always watched the news at night, something Aira didn’t care too much to watch, but she did anyway to pass the time. After a while she said goodnight, went upstairs and had a shower before
bed.

After her shower she put on her favorite sleeping T-shirt and crawled under her bed covers. Her phone started to vibrate on her nightstand. She picked it up and answered
it.

“Hey babe, it’s late, I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier. I got caught up with something.” Jaidas tried to sound
convincing.

“It’s fine,” she answered, pulling the blanket over her head and turning
over.

There was silence, and then Jaidas spoke again.
“Babe?”

“Yea.” Aira spoke drifting off to
sleep.

“I love you…
Hello?”

There was no reply, and Jaidas hung up. Aira had fallen
asleep.

Sometime through the night, the recurring nightmare Aira had been having for the past few months
started.

The same unrecognizable forest was dark. The moon barely lit up anything. The dampness of the ground offered up some comfort. There was very distinctive smell — it had to be fall. She looked down. Her arms and legs were cut up and bleeding, and something started flying towards her that she couldn’t clearly see. Aira moved to try and get away from it, until finally she got knocked to the ground. She sat paralyzed with fear, not knowing what to
do.

Footsteps that sounded heavy, more apparent because of her fear started making their way towards her. A raven cawed in the
distance.

Her alarm went off and she opened her
eyes.

She reached over, irritated, and turned it off. Another night of pointless nightmares that made no sense. This was the eighth time in two months she’s had this same
dream.

Aira sat up, moving her hair out of her face. She sat with the exhaustion that was starting to set in, looking around the room. Leaning over, she grabbed her phone. There was a text message from
Avery.

Joshua is going to pick me up today, is that okay? I’m so
happy!!!!

Of course it’s okay, you deserve to be happy.
Aira texted
back.

Joshua and Avery finally admitted to their feelings for each other, and had the long overdue conversation that probably wouldn’t have happened if Joshua hadn’t found it in himself to just do it. Israel probably had a lot to do with it. Joshua got brave, and he told Avery how he felt about her. He had been waiting for the day that she would be braver than him. But because she didn’t, because it was the last year of school, and she would probably go off to college, he wasn’t letting her go without at least talking. If there was any
chance at all, he wanted it to be
now.

Avery might have eventually said something, but she probably would’ve waited til the very last day of school, and the chances were she might have backed out, and then spent months hating herself for being such a chicken
shit.

We saw Jaidas last night at The Moose, Kaitlyn was all over him. He’s a jerk Aira
. Avery wrote back
again.

Kaitlyn had moved to Hope in grade ten and had been eying up Jaidas ever since. She was truly obsessed with him, but she never had the nerve to approach him. Kaitlyn was very jealous of
Aira.

Aira put down her phone. She wasn’t surprised, it was bound to
happen.

She pulled herself out of bed, walked over to her dresser, pulled out some clothes and went into her bathroom to get ready. Whatever these dreams meant, it didn’t matter anymore. Lack of sleep was the only thing she could be sure of lately. She finished getting dressed, walked back into her room, grabbed her phone and her book bag, and went
downstairs.

No one was
home.

Barry’s white diesel was in the shop being worked on, so Maddy had to take him to work. Barry worked as a personal trainer at the gym where him and Maddy had met. Maddy had started going to the gym shorty after Aira and David’s father left. She thought the failed marriage had everything to do with her, at least that’s what Frank had made her believe. He had left for a younger woman, and Maddy wanted to feel beautiful and young again, so she started taking yoga classes and working
out.