Unnamed Sky

A seventeen year old man sits under a gray sky with his three week old daughter and as he reads his girlfriends journal he recounts the last moments and how he got where he was now.

 

I laid back in our spot or what was left of it. The sky had long since turned gray and I hadn't seen a blue day in a while. When the rays of the sun beat down on my face I was reminded of you. And how you left me. I tended to the child in my arms as her little wails became loud enough so I could be heard across the field. She is not alone in the pain we share. But with her she will never know. Never know you or your voice. She looks up into an unnamed sky, that doesn't hold the life of today anymore. She will one day hate me when she grows and knows the truth as to why her mother isn't here. Why your face and hair, voice are gone from this world and plummeting me into an eternal darkness. We made a mistake but in the end you were the one burned and I shot to never stand fully again. Broken parts of me is all that is left, but I hold together for our daughter. For her to guide alone.... I remember the day you left me, we are young but as of those days you will remain forever.

I had came home late again that night....

 

"Dakota where were you, I had made dinner and you never showed." Payton's voice was full of anger. Dakota stood tall and firm.

"I hung out with the guys after the game." They had won our last exhibition game and were placed in first. Scouts were at the game looking for this years prospects. Dakota looked to his pregnant girlfriend . At sixteen neither of them expected their little slip up, but they were in love. Lately they always fought. Her slowly growing abdomen held their creation and even as up set as they were Dakota was proud of how strong she was. He did love her and nothing would change that. He went to hold her but she backed. Her brown eyes full of pain and worry. Her silky brown hair was up in a bun, which for her was unusual. Dakota held out his hand but Payton never took it.

"Is there something wrong?" Dakota had not known of what he had done, To him Payton was acting odd. She stood and Dakota could see the tears that threatened to fall.

"You cheated." Dakota was shocked she would accuse him of that, and she held out his phone. Dakota's face fell, he knew what was in there and why she thought that. He reached for his phone but she backed out the door and that was when he noticed her bags all stacked by the door.

"Where are you going?" He said a little pissed off now.

"I'm going back home Dakota. This was stupid to think that we would be ok, I knew when I got pregnant you would leave my side." Dakota advanced on her. Trapping her between the wall and himself.

"I have never, once left your side. I got this apartment for us, our child. Why in hell can't you trust me?" His voice began to rise as Payton began to shiver. He was scaring the hell out of her.

"Your phone says ' ill meet you later baby' 'text me when shes not around.'" Payton shoved the phone in his face and he ripped it out of her grip. Then he moved to the side drawer and pulled out a black box.

"the first one was from my mother. The second one was so you wouldn't find out about this. I was going to propose." He threw the black box to the floor and she crumpled to the floor crying, picked up the box and looked at the simple diamond ring. Dakota was so disgusted he walked out. Payton got up realizing her mistake and went to grab him. She whirled him around.

"When were you going to propose." He looked at her with a mixture of anger and pain.

"I..I don't know" He said firmly. He left her grip and walked away. Payton followed and grabbed him again. He tried to shove her off and when he did she slipped. He watched in horror as he reached out for her to grab her but his hands missed and she rolled down the steps. He ran after her quickly forgetting of their argument.

"Payton, baby wake up. Payton, please be ok, I'm sorry. I love you wake up." He screamed at her shaking her shoulders. But then he noticed the blood beginning to pool out of her. The baby. He reached for his phone and called 911. They rushed her to the hospital, managing to save their baby but she was in critical condition. Dakota never left her side but in the middle of the night her vitals went flat. He screamed out for help but they were to late. A blood clot had formed and would kill her. He didn't find that out later on. He clutched to her hand and screamed for her to wake up but she laid still. He kissed her forehead and placed the ring on her finger before he tore his gaze away from the beauty that he had come to love. He walked to the nursery with salt tracks fresh down his face and stared at their creation. His daughter. It would be all he had left.

 

Dakota finally got the baby quieted down.

"I know you miss her Skylar. I do to. But one day you will look up into a blue sky. One that doesn't have marks of a regretted past."

The wind began to pick up as Dakota looked up into the sky, he swore he saw a ray of blue and in that blue sky he saw her, laughing, smiling with her hair whipping about. The battered journal fell to the ground as he stopped reading her last entry's, he couldn't stop looking up into the sky and seeing his glimpse of hope. He saw her and it was as if she was urging him on. The pages flipped into the wind and it came to a page dated three years back and all was written was 'I love him'. Dakota closed the book and stood with their child and walked towards home. All the while Skylar looked up into an unnamed sky.