"Oh my God, that was a rush!" Nick laughed and looked at Sky as they climbed out of the ride.

"Yup" Sky replied, absently.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Nick asked gently.

"Of course not!" Sky said quickly.

"Yeah, there is. I can feel it," he looked at her intensely.

"Don't look at me like that, please ,not now," she brushed him away and started towards the ski ball.

Normally, Nick would have persisted until he found out what was going on, but he could tell Sky really wasn't in the mood. He caught up to her and handed the employee tickets, so he and Sky could play the game. She furiously threw ball after ball up the aisle. Ten, fifty, eighty. Nick watched as Sky racked up points. When the game was over, Nick pulled her into a corner and studied her face in the semi darkness.

"What's wrong?" he asked her again. Sky opened her mouth to speak as Nick said "And don't you dare say it's nothing. So, Sky pressed her lips together once more.

"I'm loosing patience, Sky. Don't pretend that there's nothing wrong, because we both know that there is. And don't lie about what it is either, because I'll know."

Sky hadn't been looking Nick in the face, but finally found it necessary. But as soon as his image was mirrored in her eyes, she looked away again. She just couldn't look at him. She couldn't look at Nick, with his blond hair caressing his temples, and that serious, concerned look in those determined blue eyes. Nick, the guy she had only known for a few days, but felt like she knew all her life. Nick, who had been there for her, and treated her better than most of the people she had grown up with. That was Nick, the person she couldn't look in the eye right now, because she loved him too much.

"Why won't you look at me?" he was pleading with her.

"You want to know why? Do you really want to know why? Because I love you! That's why! I love you more than I thought was humanly possible and it's killing me! So, there you have it. That's what's wrong! That's why I'm acting odd! That's why I won't look at you," Sky's screaming suddenly turned into a whisper.

Throughout the whole time Sky and Nick had known each other, every silence they shared had been an awkward one. This silence was no different.

After quite a bit of time had passed, Nick finally managed to choke out, "I don't love you, Sky. Not that way. I'm sorry."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Nick regretted them. Why did he have to be so blunt?

Center-of-a-flame blue eyes tightly squeezed shut, Sky turned away from the only man she had ever really loved. Her five foot two inch body seemed to vibrate as sobs escaped from her dry lips. Sky's emotions hit Nick so hard, the wind nearly got knocked out of him.

'I hurt her. More than I've ever hurt another person in my life.' He wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered, "Don't cry, not now, not over someone as stupid as me."

Sky quickly freed herself from his embrace. "I know you feel guilty. I don't want your sympathy, pity, or whatever you want to call it. Just get away from me. I want to be alone."

"I'm not saying that because I feel guilty. I'm saying it because I really do care about you, and I don't want to see you hurt. Especially not you, this bright, wonderful girl. Don't be upset over me!"

"Oh, that is such bull and you know it!" Sky spat out the sentence.

"What!? It's the truth!"

"Then, why don't I feel it!?"

She ran off too fast to hear Nick reply, "I don't know."