It was 3 A.M when the phone rang. Iris hadn't gone to sleep yet, actually slept in exactly nine days. She was sitting on the dusty concrete floor, underneath the window, wearing only an oversized T-shirt. Iris deleted every number in her phone a long time ago so she didn't recognize the number, but on the third ring something inside of her warmed up, as if she knew that it was him calling. Knots instantly tied up in her stomach at the thought of talking to anyone. She had only spoken to her mother for the past seven months. The same amount of time she'd been living on her own in a crappy apartment. She answered on the fifth ring without saying hello, but he knew that she was there listening. "What happened to us Iris?" said a deep voice. Iris took a deep breath and her mind told her to hang up on him, but no matter what had happened, she could never do that to Tristan. Her first kiss, first boyfriend, first love, and her best friend. They had been in love from the time they were ten. He was the boy who ruined her life, and altogether, ruined her. Iris whispered into the phone, "life happened." A long moment of silence followed until finally Tristan said with a small laugh of acknowledgment, "oh, the things we do for blue skies," and with those eight words Iris was transported back to who she was only one year ago. ***
She was seventeen, brilliant, and hoped to escape her small Texas town where it constantly rained and the only color of her sky, and world, was gray. She desperately desired to leave, and she had the best chance of getting out than anyone who lived there. Tristan was going with her of course, after all, he was the love of her life. They had plans to move to a big city and live beneath a blue sky together. This dream was close to being a reality until Iris found out she was pregnant. Even that news wasn't going to slow them down, but then one Friday night they went to a party at a nearby river with the rest of their senior class. Tristan had gotten so drunk when the sheriff's son, Bobby had drunkenly muttered to Iris, "It's too bad you couldn't get knocked up by a real man." Tristan had thrown a punch, Bobby had thrown two back. Iris was trying to separate the two at the exact unfortunate second that Tristan had pulled out his pistol and fired a shot towards Bobby. Only the bullet didn't hit Bobby. Iris's stomach had caught the bullet and she lost the baby. Tristan dropped her off at the hospital and drove off and never came back. After that something turned cold inside of Iris. She realized she would never find a blue sky because her soul had been gray too long; so had Tristan's. ***
"It's been a year since we last spoke" she said into the phone. She could hear Tristan sniff, "I called to see if you were miserable." Tears welled up in Iris's eyes, and anger rose in her chest, "well I am! I'm rotten and miserable! I really wish you hadn't run away. You need to be in jail, as much as I love you, you do." There was a long and bitter silence on both ends of the phone and then Tristan said, "I'm sorry Iris. I will never forgive myself. I love you more than anything. I never even wanted a blue sky, I only wanted you to find one. But with me in the same world as you, you'll never be able to find one so this is goodbye." His voice was quiet and slow, as if he were drifting off to sleep. Iris felt panic in her whole body, "Tr-tr_Tristan! Wwwhat are you saying? Tristan answer me!" She feared what she already knew being confirmed. "I took the whole bottle...I love you." Iris screamed, "TRISTAN!" He barely whispered, "you were my blue sky..." She heard him take one last breath, and then there was just silence. Everything she had ever known was gone. She wheeled on into the gray, perhaps never escaping, not hoping, but praying for a blue sky.