Her Broken Rainbow

Jar of Hearts

“I hear you’re asking all around 

If I am anywhere to be found 

But I have grown too strong 

To ever fall back into your arms“

 ~Jar of Hearts 

Christina Perri

I hear shuffling around me, whispers and giggles. I hate mornings. I keep my eyes closed as I allow sleep to leave me. I’m acutely aware of the arm that’s draped over my side and the warm sculpted chest I’m currently pressed up against. Sky is behind me spooning me, I climbed into his bed last night and we snuggled. I realize suddenly that’s probably what the giggling is from. I’ve been caught. I can hear someone whisper again and then feel the vibration as Sky responds. So he’s awake. “Shh, she’s still asleep.” someone responds to him from the doorway. “Yeah go ahead, I’ll wake her up in a second and we’ll meet you there.” He whispers back.  

I hear the door close and feel Sky snuggle in closer to me, tightening his hold on my waist. His nose burrows in my hair and he breathes in deeply. “I know you're awake, baby girl. Your body tensed up a little. Did you sleep alright?” 

I rolled over to face him and tugged the blanket up to cover the lower half of my face. In case I had morning breath. “I slept great, better than I have in a while actually. How about you?” 

“Best sleep I've ever had. They’re starting breakfast, let's go brush our teeth first before we join them” He stands and offers his hand with a smile, mocking my subconscious actions with the blanket. 

I take his hand and stand up to follow him out to the bathroom, noticing everyone has already woken up and I was the last. That’s a first. 

After a quick breakfast and some haggling from almost everyone for how they found Sky and I this morning, we started on the Cherry Blossom. Sky and Zach stayed behind to help with areas I couldn’t reach, they both have wonderful artistic skills so I wasn’t worried about them not being able to follow my lead and designs for the tree. The rest of the gang went off with Alaria to purchase her new curtains among other things to go along with her theme. She was always the girly type so no doubt everything would be frilly and match with the floral theme of her room. I started the highlights throughout the trunk as Zach climbed off the ladder to watch my hands work. “Wow, you really are pretty good. It’s starting to come together nicely.” 

Pretty sure he only stayed behind to see if I could actually pull it off. The boys finished off the rest of the details in the tree and we’re all ready to start adding the blossoms to the branches. I already drew out a rough draft yesterday so that there was a reference point on how I wanted them orientated around the tree and how I specifically wanted them detailed. “I’m not so sure I can match them as well as you have here.” Sky points to the picture we have taped to the window nearest to the tree. Crap. This poses a small problem for me. If I can’t get them to match the draft I have then that only means one thing. I have to climb a f*****g ladder myself. A tall, wobbly, dangerous ladder in which I could plummet to my death on the hardwood floor below. Well f**k me. 

“Ok…. So how do we do this, boys?” I turn to ask. Zach snickers and nudges Sky, “I guess this is your time to shine isn’t it.” 

“Shut up,” Hissed Sky as he sucker punched Zach in the arm. I think I saw a slight blush on his face. “Alright well, let's see. Rae, climb up the ladder and I’ll climb up behind you to stabilize you and Zach can stand on the side in case he needs to catch you if I can’t.” 

“Um…. what do you mean if you can’t. What if he doesn’t catch me!” I can feel sweat forming on my forehead already. My hands are getting clammy and I think I’m going to throw up. It must have shown on my face because before I could register anything Sky was in front of me, hands cupping my face trying to calm me down. 

“Shh, it’s ok, don’t panic. We’ve got you. This is the only way I can think to make this work. Neither of us can do it so it has to be you.” I feel the tightening around my lungs and heart loosen as I start to calm a little bit. Come on Raenn you can do this. I nod at him and walk to the ladder. Hands on either side I put one foot at a time as I begin ascending the ladder. I felt Sky start to climb up behind me and it did help just a bit knowing he was behind me, holding me in place so I didn’t fall. Once at the top of the ladder I closed my eyes for a minute to regain my composure. “Alright bitches, let's do this.” Trying to show as much confidence as I can. 

“Zach, grab the tray I set up with the flower colors and three brushes. Two thin and one medium sized. Please.” Zach hands everything to Sky knowing I’m not going to look down to take them from him. Little by little Sky hands me the tray first and then the brushes. I’m sweating profusely at this point and I’m pretty sure I’m going to hurl if I can’t get my nerves to calm. I force myself to concentrate on the brush strokes as I effortlessly spread flowers along each branch. It takes me an hour to complete the upper half of one side as I’m trying not to panic and still take my time and not rush. It’s harder than you think when all you can think about is getting off this tall ass ladder. Sky’s hands aren't helping either. He has a hold on my hips with his face too close to my ass and a little part of me is praying I don’t get the nervous farts or something. That would be horrifying. Down right embarrassing. I finally reach the last few branches in the high areas I can’t reach from the ground when I feel the ladder wobble just slightly. 

“Sorry just adjusting. It’s ok, you’re ok.” I fell his hands leave my hips and it hits me that no one is holding onto me. My knees begin to wobble and I feel my body slowly leaning back. Before I know what’s happening my body starts falling backwards and my arms are flailing around like I’m a baby bird taking flight for the first time. It all happens so quick, one minute I’m standing on the ladder gracefully and the next I’m falling to the floor like a rock thrown off the highest building in Downtown Denver. Someone screamed, probably me. With eyes shut tight and body tense I expected to hit the hard floor but instead I landed on something big and squishy with a huff. Below me I can hear the squishy breathing irregularly causing me to open my eyes and roll over. “Oh my God Zach! Are you ok? Sky! You guys saved me! I almost died! Did you see that?” I rambled out quickly. 

“Yeah, I can’t feel my spleen. Do I have a spleen? Is this my leg?” The boys were piled together with me having landed on both of them. I jumped to my feet and reached out for either one to grab. Sky grabbed my hand first, as I helped him up Zach rolled over and onto his knees. 

“Geeze, you don’t look as heavy as you felt Rae!” Zach said as he rubbed the back of his head. Sky was stretching out his arm, probably because my fat ass crushed it. 

“I’m so sorry guys, I panicked and started falling. I didn't know what to do." I hugged Zach and then Sky, who wrapped his arms around me and held me tight with his head buried in my neck.

“You did it! Although I didn’t think I was going to catch you.” He says low in my ear so only I could hear. 

“You did save me though.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek. 

“Yes I did. And that also means I won the bet." He laughs and hugs me again. My mind froze for a second. What bet? Did this asshole really bet on me falling off the ladder? I felt some irritation slowly begin to bloom into a beautiful ball of are you f*****g kidding me? 

“Bet? I’m sorry, the f**k do you mean bet? If someone doesn't start explaining, heads are gonna roll.” Hands on hips, b***h mode activated. Sky’s face paled and Zach looked like he just won a million bucks. 

“Wait, don’t think like that now. I see those wheels turning. Just take it back a notch Rae. We didn’t bet on you falling if that’s what you're thinking, but …. We did bet on if you would actually climb the ladder. Which you did! I’m so proud of you!” Sky ever so slowly steps towards me like the Crocodile Hunter on an animal planet special about raging bulls. 

“Let me get this straight. You decided that you were going to what? Help me conquer my fears? By telling me you couldn’t paint the flowers as elegantly as I did and in that process you decided ‘hey why not make this a bet and win some money off someone's fear?’ Did I get close?” At this point Zach has come to the conclusion that he’s in this heat of mess too. Which he is because really? Who does that? I mean touche and someone’s using the winnings to buy me dinner but they don’t know that yet. For now …. Let’s have some fun. Cue evil scary smile and hand rubbing per typical villain. 

“Well …. You see …. I was trying to help and I knew you wouldn’t do it willingly and I swear that isn’t how we meant it …. And it was all Zach’s fault anyway! He said bet so I agreed. But only because I knew you could do it and I swear ……. Wait where are you going??” Skylar rapidly fired his response and since I didn’t think it was going to stop anytime soon I decided to enact my plan and started walking out of the room. Now I have to respond perfectly or he won't believe me and he’ll just follow me. 

“Don’t worry about it and leave me alone. I don’t need you following me. Just gonna end up a joke to you anyway.” Ok a little harsher than I initially planned but I think it worked. Skylar stood there jaw slack in a state of horror or shock or both at the fact that I just barked at him that way. But a girl has to use whatever she can to get her revenge. Oh and revenge is a dish best served cold. At that I turned on my heel and ran downstairs to the kitchen. I could hear Zach cursing as I left. I got down to the kitchen and had to act fast. I took a couple of pans out of the cupboard and set them on the island. Next I grabbed the eggs and milk out of the fridge. No I’m not f*****g baking. I got a large bowl and cracked all the eggs that were left, nearly a full dozen. I’ll replace them. I poured half a gallon of milk and then got another bowl and filled it with flour. It’s easier to handle this way, I’m not just dirtying dishes I swear. I am, however, wasting food but I’ll replace it I promise. Once in position with both bowls on the floor next to the doorway but out of sight. 

I grabbed the pans and banged them together, then tossed them a little bit away making them sound as if they dropped to the floor. Within seconds I hear what sounds like a herd of elephants tear down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Come on, good timing please don’t fail me now. The second I hear them reach the doorway I grab the egg milk mix and toss it towards the doorway, ultimately hitting Sky directly in the face with the fluid, but still getting Zach as he was too close to not be a casualty. With a quickness I grabbed the bowl of flour and tossed that towards them as well. I grabbed my phone and took off around the island putting distance between me and the bulls, scrambling to open my phone’s camera. I was able to snap off a few pictures before I had to run again. Remember when I said I’ve been friends with Alaria for a HUGE chunk of my life….. Yeah well it paid off. Cue evil laugh. I hit the pantry just right of the fridge and slammed the door shut behind me. There’s this pretty little latch that allows me to open the secret hidey hall behind the shelves of food. I get into the passage and pull the shelves back in place. At a speed I’m not sure I even knew I could go I took the passage to the down stairs office. It’s an office that is pretty much never used unless they have to have business talks during a fancy dinner party. I don’t understand it either. Rich people have a thing for houses with far too many rooms. 

Once at the door leading to the office I blindly search for the latch. My hand slid down the edge of what should be a doorway and felt something loose. I pull the latch and open the door, stumbling out onto my hands and knees. I’m just a breath away from victory when a hand snakes around my waist and halls me into a hard chest. Someone screamed again, man that just keeps happening. “Tsk, tsk baby girl. Don’t you remember, I grew up with them too. Did you think you were the only one who knew of the passageways?” Skylar’s voice, low and toe curling, vibrates through my ears, squeezing my lady bits in such a sensuous way. I felt his face nuzzle into the crook of my neck and my knees went weak. This is so cliche but quite literally if he wasn’t holding me my knees would have already buckled. His hands started to stray north to my bust line but stopped before he was within cupping range. My heart was racing a marathon in my chest and my v****a was begging for mercy. Unconsciously I pushed my ass out and did a little grind against his groin, just barely in reach with the position we were in, his chest to my back slightly hunched forward. Didn’t realize how short I was until now. Sometimes it just hits you randomly like, Damn I really am small. Life as a short person. He stands us up right and turns me to look at him. 

“Damn, you’re good. You really had me going there thinking you were mad at me. I felt so bad. But to think here you are plotting revenge schemes. That’s naughty baby girl.” Sky tsk'd at me and shook his head. He was sporting the biggest grin I’ve ever seen on a person. I didn’t know if I should be scared or excited. Truth be told I’m so turned on right now, it’s not something I’m used to feeling. Just because my flower hasn’t been touched, doesn’t mean I don’t pollinate.