High School Never Ends Ch. 06

"There's still no new leads Skye." Sheriff Dupont's voice rang over the echoes of his booted shoes accompanied them with each step and Skye glared at his back as he led the way to his office. Same shit, different day. He could with the fake weary tone, but she knew he was holding something back. There was always never anything new with the case.

But he had stopped looking her in the eye when he said the same phrase about a month ago.

The phrase began to sound rehearsed about a week ago.

Movement caught her eye to the left as she continued to follow the Sheriff's distancing figure. There was a brief glimpse of someone that didn't belong in the shadows. reluctantly, she turned her focus back to the authority figure, getting further away from her, curious about the figure in the dark.

She would have to wait to find out why Nickolas was sneaking around the sheriff's office.

"I'm starting not to believe you Sheriff." That gave him the briefest of pauses. "Are you sure you're doing everything you can to find her?"

"Everything within my jurisdiction." She caught how he skirted around a direct answer. Disappointment clearly reflected, he sighed at the sight, before reaching out to her, his hands gently resting on her shoulders in what she could only would be interpreted as a comforting gesture.

It wasn't.

"Truly Skye, I am doing everything in my power to get your mother back." Disbelief and discomfort was written all over her face and he stepped away, the awkward silence stretching between them. "How's everything at home? Are you needing help with anything?"

Did she need help with anything? That was a laugh.

She needed help with everything. And was too proud to ask for it.

The shop hadn't reopened, Skye had only helped her mother with somethings, and unfortunately, she did not inherit her mother's genes when it came to cooking or baking, instead she had to get a job working weekends and that was barely enough to cover utilities.

It was a miracle no bill collector came calling, or knocking. She knew good and well she did not make enough money to cover all the bills, let alone a mortgage, but also she was knew well enough to let sleeping dogs lie.

Doing some tiptoeing of her own, she danced around the question, quickly stating everything was fine, and was out of his office, her escape quick. She didn't see Nickolas when she left the building. It was probably for the best, she had to get to work anyway.

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Tick Tick Tick

It was late. That much she was sure. In the ink darkness she couldn't tell the time on the wall, the face clock not having any back light and she didn't feel like leaving the comfort of her bed to get the phone that was somewhere, probably in her pants, across the room.

The work day had been long and tiring and the idea of putting weight back on the feet that had carried her for a twelve hour shift was not appealing.

Tick Tick Tick

Something had woken her out of her sleep.

Even though Skye was unsure of the time she was sure she hadn't been asleep long. It was irritating considering how long it hadn't taken her to fall asleep in the first place. She had been tossing and turning for hours and if it wasn't one thing it was another.

Tick Tick Tick

Sitting up in the middle of her bed, Skye had remembered something. It was a flash, fleeting across her mind.

She had been dreaming. Her dream woke her up, but what was she dreaming about. Her skin shivered, phantom caresses making their way down her spine. There was the briefest flicker of ... something and it was gone just as quick as it arrived, whatever it was.

She fell back onto the bed with a frustrated sigh, the satin pillows gently cradling her head, her unruly coils strewn about her.

Tick Tick Tick

It was hot.

She was hot.

In the dark, she stared blankly at the ceiling while her skin became clammy. Her pores slowly opening in preparation to cool her.

It wasn't fast enough.

Tick Tick Tick

Her shirt was cast from her body and now lay discarded on the other end of the room. In another fit of frustration, she kicked the blankets off. The heat was insufferable, she felt constricted, caged, confined in her own body.Heart racing and her breathing now shallow in an attempt to calm down and cool off, she laid still.

Tick Tick Tick

Jesus Christ!

A fucking metronome couldn't have done a better job at driving her bat shit crazy. Each time a second passed, it goaded her. Reminding her of how the air seemed too thick and how her skin felt too tight. Of how she was either too hot or too cold. Her thighs rubbing together slick with dew, subconsciously trying to relieve the rising agitation, relieve the building pressure within her, but nothing was good enough.

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Most people who saw her the next morning gave Skye plenty of room. The agitation from the night before had festered into something volatile and no one wanted to set her off. Last night wasn't the first time she had a hard time sleeping, but it certainly was the worst. She was starting to think her lack of sleep was the reason why she kept going off script with Daniel and Nickolas. Skye hadn't run into the latter yet, which was probably a good thing this morning. She was pretty positive their precarious relationship wouldn't survive the verbal strike she was sure to give.

Lack of sleep wasn't the only thing putting her in a sour mood. She couldn't shake the feeling the Sheriff Dupont knew way more than he was letting on. Always hating being left in the dark, it aggravated her to know end that he was keeping pertinent information from her, especially about her mother. Add that to the mix and Skye was a ticking time bomb.

She ripped down a flyer for prom that was taped to her locker. The tension inside of her dissipating with every exhalation. She just wanted her mom back home with her, she could hardly think of enjoying the revelry coming up.

She couldn't take being a bystander in her own life anymore. She was going to take life by the horns and find her mother herself.

And she knew just where to start.

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Did the Sheriff's office ever close?

It didn't seem like it, not that it was a bad thing in her case, and she didn't bother to look it up. In the middle of the night, she lurked the shadows of the building's parking lot. Instead of wasting time trying, and failing, to sleep, she chose to scope out the place and hopefully sneak in without being noticed.

The ding of the front door startled her and Skye jumped back into the shadows of the side of the building just as the man himself made his way out.

"Good night, Sheriff Dupont." Biding the night receptionist a good night, he was on his way to his car and out of the parking lot.

It was easy enough for Skye to get past the receptionist and the on deputy our front. All it took was a well timed follow into the building and a bathroom break by the deputy out front and she was able to sneak past the receptionist while her back was turned. Getting into the Sheriff's office, however, was not going to be a walk in the park.

"He locked the door." A growl left her mouth in frustration. "Of course the fucking door was locked." Still muttering to herself regarding the inconvenience of people doing practical things, she took a bobby pin from her hair.

"Let's hope this works." She had watched hours of online tutorials on how to pick locks with bobby pins and she understood the mechanics of it intellectually, but her application of the skill was low.

As in non existent.

"What the hell are you doing?" As much as she wanted to believe her sudden increase of her heart beat was because she was scared she had been caught, she knew the real reason.

It was Nickolas standing behind her.

"Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me!" Words escaped through clenched teeth as Skye clutched her chest, feeling her heart racing. He didn't look too pleased at the moment, yanking her by the arm, pulling her closer to him and around the corner to an empty hall.

"Let go of me!"

"No."

"What the hell do you think you are doing? I was doing just fine before you showed up." Actually, that was a lie. She had been struggling in her attempts to pick the lock, but he didn't need to know that. And anyway she knew she was getting close, until the hushed voice of his startled some foreign entity to possess her out of her concentration.

"Keeping you from getting booked. Now get in the car." He had led them both out a back door of the office and to his parked car on the other side.

"Oh I see you're back to your old domineering self again. I knew that kicked puppy act wasn't gonna last long." He was on her then, taking long strides from his side of the car to hers. Unprepared, Skye could only lean back against the car as he crowded her, making her space his. His hands on either side of her head, trapping.

She was aware of everything in that moment, the heat of the metal frame beneath the skin of her back, the body heat of Nickolas at her front. His chest had barely grazed hers and Skye's nipples were already painfully taunt against her bra. The pressure she had felt last night had returned only this time, the was a cool rush of need that came along with it. She could only squeeze her thighs in a lame attempt to keep it all at bay.

Their breaths mingled, hers quick and shallow, his slow and deep. Awhile had passed before she finally brought her eyes to meet his. She could feel her skin once again become too tight, her eyes catching the muscles flexing in his forearms as if he was trying to hold himself back from something.

Sky could almost her the seconds ticking as the quiet tension mingled amongst the two of them.

"Get in the fucking car Skye." His voice was rougher now, deeper. There was an edge to it that wasn't before and he moved away from her and quickly to the other side.

She got in without another word.

Tension, not wanting to be left behind filled the car ride. An ache, delicious at it's core continued to build inside her and Skye did all that she could not to look at Nickolas as he drove.

It was a futile. No matter what she did, her wandering eyes sill managed to land on some part of him. Whether it was his full lips, set in a firm straight line, as he concentrated or his fingers, long and lean, as they gripped the steering wheel, while he drove. Her eyes were drawn to some part of him and her body was responding to it.

His lips were moving now. He was saying something to her.

What was he saying?

"Huh?"

"I said look under the seat." She did, pulling out a manilla envelope. "Open it." After a skeptical look, she reluctantly open the file. When she did, copies of documents on her mother reveled themselves.

"I assume that was what you were after back there." She recognized the signature on some of these files belonging to the Sheriff, it really surprised her that Mayor Russel's signatures where on these as well.

"How did you get these? When did you get these?" For a moment there was a pause.

"The night you came to me. I got a hold of these the next day. I made copies later." The car rolled to a stop in front of Nickolas home. "There's more inside."

She followed him in.

"Before you look at these,I need you to understand that there is a lot about your mother that you don't know. There's a lot in those files that might upset you."

"I want to know. If what is in there is going to help me find my mother, I need to know."

She didn't give it a second thought. Diving in head first to know what everyone else was so keen to keep from her.It was all there. Everything that made a person real on paper, birth certificates, medical records, social security cards, drivers licenses only it was wrong. There was her mom's drivers license with her face, but a different name listed.

"Jasmine Anderson?" She kept flipping through the files. There were deeds here and proof of sales and...

"Request to change name?" She looked to Nickolas imploringly, "I don't understand. What is all this?"

"From what I can gather, you're mom changed her identity and invented this whole new life for herself and I think Sheriff Dupont helped her. I don't know how or why."

"Why would she do something like this? Why would she lie to me?"

"I don't know. People don't go through all this for a change of scenery, Skye. You're mom was running from something, and from all the trouble she took to hide the both of you, I'd say it was something or someone pretty bad.

"Here's the thing the papers, they are all legit, but when I look up Janine Johnson a full detailed record comes up from grade school to college with a complete work history, that doesn't normally happen with a legal name change. There usually help involved with the type of people you aren't used to."

She couldn't think about this. It was too much. Her entire life was a lie and she had no way of finding out why it happened.

"I can't... I need to lie down." She was moving before she even finished her sentence, Nickolas following after her, before quickly taking the lead. He directed her to the bedroom across the hall from his own.

"You can sleep here." He paused as if he wanted to say something to her before changing his mind and turning away.

She had attempted to sleep throughout the night, but it was the same in this bed too, only this time there was no steady tick of the second hand to keep her company. The gentle red glow of the digital clock softly illuminated the time.

2:56am.

She wasn't going to stay in that bed a moment longer. Making her way downstairs she easily maneuvered her way back to the kitchen, still remembering the layout remarkably well.

"What are you doing up?" Concern colored his voice.

"Can't sleep. I thought a glass of water might help." He slowly approached her and her heartbeat picked up the closer he got. He wasn't doing anything intentional, that much she could tell. He was too hesitant, as if trying to approach a cornered animal.

And yet he still somehow stimulated her.

"What do you need Skye?" He didn't crowd her like earlier, but he was still extremely close, his eyes holding a sincerity there that she never saw before.

What did she need?

Where to begin? Her mother, sleep, this building pressure to ease up...

There was so much she needed and at the same time she needed very little. Most her problems where just symptoms of one big one.

She studied Nickolas as he watched her. He was always hyper aware, always one step ahead. Prepared, calculating.

Even now, he had found the keys to finding her mother and he wanted to help her, but she couldn't figure out what he wanted in return.

This had to be more than just getting a fuck buddy back. No sane person would go through the trouble, they would just get a new one.

So why did he do it...

Did he...

Did he actually care?

The thought alone was surprising.

"I... I don't know what I need." His hand gently holding her wrist prevented Skye from running away from him. Goosebumps prickled along her flesh when he released his hold and his fingertips lightly traced a path past her shoulders and cupping her neck at the base of her skull.

A slight pressure and she was facing him now. His chest eye level. Warm breath stirred her curls as he leaned down, a gentle kiss caressing her forehead.

"Yes you do." The words whispered in her hair stirred a response in her body. Nipples strained against the fabric of her bra and moisture pooled between her thighs. Her eyes widened in shock. This couldn't be what she needed, not after all she had been through with him. Nickolas was the cause of her discomfort.

But could he also be the cure?

Fingers traced lazy circles along her lower back and again her body responded and she looked up to him for some kind of confirmation.

The desire was there. She had learned enough from him to know that look, but there was more to it this time. There was uncertainty in his eyes that surprised her.

"Nickolas I..."

"It's okay."He held her closer his chin resting on her head. "Let's get you to bed." He scooped her into his arms as if she weighed nothing and he took her back to the room.

It was quiet as Nickolas carried her back up the stairs. Tension leading the way to their final destination. It was funny that she had never noticed it before, the small scar that ran along his jaw. It this positin, she could see the jagged line clearly. The idea of someone else being able to physically harm Nickolas was unfathomable. It was more plausible that an cluster fuck of his very own doing caused him harm than someone else.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that it wasn't until he was laying her in the bed that she even realized they were back in the room. His warm breath fanning across her cheek as he pulled away.

It was do or die. Now or never. She understood that she wanted him, at least in a physical sense. Words formed in her mind, her mouth moved to speak, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

If he rejected her now after everything he put her through, she was sure she would die. The fear of rejection was hitting all the right notes for the insecurity solo playing in her head. Had she not told herself she would make things happen own her own...

"Please stay." Nickolas barely heard the words. Her voice was so quiet, in fact he thought his mind hand conjured the voice of a wood nymph to torment him with his only hope, the words he waited to hear flowing every so gently in the air.

He was momentarily stunned, frozen above her as he stared into her eyes looking for something, anything to confirm that she had indeed whispered the request. Fear was present, he saw that in her dark brown orbs, and recognized it quite easily, having been used to seeing it just beneath the surface with Skye. He didn't want to push her, not this time, all her wanted to do was hold her, he saw what he was looking for as he stared in her eyes.

He moved to turn away.

The reaction was instant, her lips crashing onto his. She thought maybe he hadn't heard her and she couldn't bring herself to ask again.

It was all or nothing.

His body was rigid, as she exposed herself to him. Her soul laid bare, raw at his feet as she showed him her desire and requested his in return and still he was unresponsive.

It was when she pulled away from him that Nickolas took action. One arm encircled her, supporting her lower back while the other gently lowered them both back to the bed. He had waited so long for this, for this moment where she would open up to him. Never in his life had he worked so hard for anything and the reward was just as sweet as everyone told him it would be.

His tongue gently traced her lower lip, requesting entry that she granted, their mouths slowly fusing as Nickolas deepened the kiss. Taking his time to taste her, he indulge in the thing he had wanted for so long. The effects where near instantaneous for Skye, her core once again pulsing with the now familiar need as she became aware of herself in his arms.

This was what she needed.

This was what her body craved and as he moved from her lips, trailing open mouthed kisses from her jaw down the column of her neck, she cried out at the bundle of nerves he found there making her core flutter and her thighs flex around his hard body. She had forgotten how he could make her feel, how he could pull the strongest responses from her with even the slightest of movements. Even when she didn't to, her body responded to his touch.

She tensed at the memories. The thought of her falling victim to being a plaything once again sent her heart racing for other reasons. How would this be any different from the last time. She thought she could handle it then. What makes this time so different. She could't breathe around him and there was droning sound all around her, muffling any other sounds in the room.