A loud giggle rippled through the summer air as Skylay and Derek danced around the backyard together. Their fingers interlocked as they spun around in circles, the grass nipping at their barefoot feet. Their parents stood on the deck, watching their young children dance around with smiles spread across their faces.
"How much do you want to bet they fall in love when they're older?" Spoke May, Derek's mother. Dawn, Skylays mother, chuckled softly as she nodded her head.
"I think they will. But I'm going to love watching it happen." May nodded her head in agreement with her best friend as she sighed, watching the two children run around the backyard, now playing tag.
Evelyn, Skylay's older sister, sat on the floor of the porch, playing her own little game by herself. Little did she know, she would be the person to cause a wedge in the relationship of the two children playing right next to her.
As the husbands of the best friends made their way outside with plates full of burgers and hotdogs, they smiled at the sight of their children.
"Evelyn, dear, why don't you join Derek and Skylay?" Derek Senior asked his best friend's daughter. The young girl only looked up at him and shook her head, finding no interest in the matter. Shrugging, the man quickly gave up as he helped Tom, Skylay's father, get everything set up.
"Alright everyone! Let's eat!" Tom shouted, causing the two in the yard to run up onto the dark oak porch and plop themselves down, letting their mothers fill up their plates. Evelyn took a much slower approach as she put down the small dolls she was playing with and headed over to the table, filling up her own plate.
The day and part of the night was filled with laughter and joy, the two families smiling together and teasing. Soon, it became close to the little one's bedtime, causing May and Derek Senior to take their son home. Luckily, their house was just across the street.
Skylay and Derek hugged one another so tightly, their parents grew slightly worried they may pass out from the lack of oxygen. Of course, they soon pulled away as Dawn had to practically drag Derek away, even when he was fully aware he would see her the very next day.
This routine continued on for many more years to come. The pair tied together at the hip and never broke away for too long. As they grew older, Derek wished to join the Navy as Skylay wished to join the arts. Of course, this didn't affect their relationship as they stayed strong.
Both madly in love with one another, their emotions swirling together as beautifully as poetry. The smiles and laughs only adding to the utmost detail. No matter how obvious, neither one of them admitted their half done poems for one another, never admitting how much they craved to finish their poem about their love.
It was the day that Derek brought roses to the door and asked Evelyn on a date that Skylay truly and fully felt the crave for her poem to be complete. Watching the two go on dates, share the same smiles and laughs that Derek and her had shared.
This continued for around a year until Skylay gained the courage to go on dates of her own. This was Derek's calling. The calling for his poem to be complete as well. Only, it seemed too late. But, this was Derek's calling, finally realizing he was certainly with the wrong sister. Evelyn noticed almost automatically, ending things faster than a blink of an eye.
This left Derek in Skylay's old place. Being the third wheel, watching his love smile and laugh for someone else. The urge to hold her close to his chest and whisper sweet nothings in her ear only grew stronger by the day. This was far more than a childhood crush.
Unlike Skylay, Derek couldn't handle this mental, and physical torture. Not being able to touch her as he wished, not being able to call her his. In order to cope, he only distanced himself. Ignoring the calls and texts from his love, his eyes became hard and his shoulders tense. Everyone noticed a difference, but no one seemed to understand why.
Skylay was left on the ground, sobbing her heart out from the pain and confusion as to why her best friend from her whole life had left her. He had seemed to completely rid her from his mind, not even noticing her presence no matter how hard she tried to gain his attention she didn't realize was so precious to her.
Graduation grew closer than she wished. Derek joined the Navy as soon as he was able. Skylay took a small break from her studies, before getting accepted into her dream college. She often found herself looking down at her phone, hoping to see it light up from a text from him. But it never came.
It took years, years for her to accept that he wasn't coming back. Only blaming herself, she finally stopped staying up for nights and nights on end, wondering what she could have possibly done wrong.
"I do." Derek smiled at his soon to be wife, Ava.
Ava was a snake in disguise. Derek's family had grown quite rich due to his fathers business, in which Derek had been a part of for about a year now. After spending fifteen years in the Navy, Derek had moved to Portland, Oregon. Far away from his hometown, Cleveland, Tennessee.
"I do." Ava smiled before locking her lips with her new husbands. Her shoes were sparkly, being only fifteen thousand, she was slightly impressed with the diamonds. They weren't that large, considering they covered the whole shoe, but the sparkle made up for it.
Thanks to Derek, she could have whatever she wanted.
Skylay didn't attend the wedding, nor was she even aware of it happening. After all, they hadn't talked in over seventeen years.
The couple walked down the aisle with smiles as cheers were heard through the crowd. The happily married couple held hands, not a single worry in their eyes.
Cold hands gripped Skylay's as dark, stormy brown eyes stared into her own. A soft smile rested upon her soft pink lips. "I do." The dark voice of her soon to be husband, Ryan, boomed.
"I do." Skylay's much quieter voice mewled. The two were married. The two that couldn't be more wrong for one another.
Ryan had already cheated countless times in the three years they had been together. One of his many one night stands sitting in the audience of the wedding with a fake smile plastered across her makeup covered face. Her lips were an obnoxious pink with some lipstick smeared across her cheeks, blush seeming to reach her neck, with contour in all the wrong places.
However, despite all that, Ryan still sent a small wink to her as he walked down the aisle with his wife on his arm.
Skylay wasn't completely innocent in this either. Her mind had wandered. Wandered so far to think of Derek, her first, and what seems like only true love. To be completely fair with herself, she wasn't totally keen with Ryan as her set husband for life. She just wanted to settle, even if that meant dealing with all the times he had cheated.
A quiet sigh left her lips as her head dropped, holding back her tears that wished to flow like the Niagara Falls.