Turns out Caden found out about my house address from Alex. Or at least that's what he told me,

"So about that question I asked." The curiosity must've been evident in my voice. "How did you find out where I live?"

"From that boyfriend of yours." He replied in that blank tone of his.

I was surprised and confused, both. "Alex's not my boyfriend."

But perhaps that shouldn't have been what I asked him. Because there was no way in hell that I believed him. Why in the world would Alex tell Caden where I live? As far I knew, Alex hated him. He was ready to fight Caden just because he thought something was going on between us!

Unless Caden had forced it out of Alex? Maybe threatened him?

I got the answer to that when I entered my house. Only when I had absentmindedly stepped past the front door that I started to freak out. The front door hadn't been locked. When I cautiously entered my lounge and found Chicken curled up on the couch beside Alex, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Dammit! What if it hadn't been Alex?

It wasn't a surprise that Alex was here, though. He had an extra key to my house, while I had an extra key to his--something that we had done a few years ago. That way, we slept over at each other's house whenever the need came up. For instance, whenever Alex came back from those jock parties, usually higher than a kite, he slept over at mine to save himself from his parents' wrath. As for me, if I ever felt too lonely in my house--which happened quite a lot after I watched a horror movie--I stayed over at his.

"Hey," I said once I saw him seated on the couch. Both he and Chicken perked up at my voice. I slid my backpack off my shoulder and threw it near the couch.

Alex eyed me with a narrowed gaze, his dirty blond hair messed up in every direction, almost as if he had been running his hands through it again and again. Judging from the look on his face, it was probably out of frustration.

"Finally, Sky." He rolled his eyes when I didn't say anything.

I gave him a sheepish smile in response and sat down on the other side of the couch, letting Chicken jump in my lap. "What's up?" I was dearly hoping he wouldn't ask me about anything.

But right then, his eyes trailed down to my hand and he frowned at the bandage. "What happened to your hand?"

I licked the dryness off my lips and opened my mouth, stroking Chicken's fur with the other hand. "Uh well..."

When I trailed off, he surprisingly didn't press onto it. Instead, the frown deepened on his forehead and he turned towards me, leaning back against the armrest. "Who dropped you here?"

"Caden," I stated, thankful for the change of topic, although this topic wasn't going to be an easy one either.

"Caden?" He didn't sound happy. "I told you to stay away from him, Sky. What part of you don't understand that?"

I rolled my eyes at him and hugged Chicken. I wanted to get out of these clothes, take a really long shower, and spend the rest of the day quietly; peacefully.

"Weren't you the one who told him my house address?"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

Caden, you bastard. I shifted a little. "I don't know?"

"I wouldn't do that even for the fuck of it." Alex's eyes widened. "Did he say that? Fucking hell, why were you even..." And as Alex continued, I sighed and slumped back into the couch.

Here it goes, I thought. Fucking hell, indeed.

•••••

Everything after that went downhill extremely fast, as I had expected. Alex was obviously nowhere near happy about the whole Caden thing, and the whole afternoon turned out to be one of the biggest lectures for me. Sometimes, Alex really acted like the older, protective brother I never had.

On the other hand, I was really pissed off too. Not at Alex, but at Caden. Why had he even lied to me? More importantly, why had I thought, even for a second there, that he hadn't been lying?

What a shitty liar.

"Why do you hate him so much anyway?" I asked Alex before he could've started saying anything else. "Did he--"

"He's involved with stuff no one should be involved with, Sky." Alex cut me off with a shake of his head. He was still frowning and something told me that he was serious. That this was serious. "You don't need to mess around with him."

I wasn't messing around with him, for God's sake.

I didn't say that, though. And thankfully, Alex didn't ask anything further related to my injured hand either. I knew he was just worried and I couldn't really blame him. Everyone stayed away from Caden. Must be for a reason. Everyone knew Caden wasn't a nice person to be around with. There were a lot of rumours around him. Sketchy, mysterious rumours.

But he had saved my life too. He was the one who'd told me to use an ice pack when the back of my head was paining like shit. He was the one who'd taken me to the nurse's office when the deep gash on my palm was bleeding so badly.

He did that.

And there was that part when the nurse lady had been murmuring something to him back in her office. He'd stiffened, seemed momentarily uncomfortable too. There was so much that was hidden behind that scowl of his. Who was he really?

"So." I leaned my back against Alex's arm, stretching out my legs in front of me on the couch and flipping through the TV channels. "What did I miss in Biology?"

That's one thing I loved about our friendship. Even if he got really angry at me, we both sorted it out the next second.

"How would I know?" He asked, scrolling on his phone. I slumped against him and stopped at a black and white movie.

"You make me worry about your grades, Alex," I murmured, my gaze still fixated on the screen. Chicken, who had been roaming near the back door, came and curled up near the TV.

That cat loved those movies.

"You know who you sound like?" Alex looked up from his phone with a slight smirk on his face. I didn't need to ask him to know who he was talking about. "You sound like your mother."

I grinned at that. When we were kids, we used to go around mimicking my mom. And honestly, we both nailed it every time.

I stretched out my arms, almost hitting Alex's face, and stood up from the couch. "I'll go make some popcorn and then we can watch a movie together."

"Sure." He replied, still focused on his phone. "I'll pick out the movie, though."

I hummed in response as I went over towards the kitchen. Almost near it, I stopped in front of the back door. It was locked, I had made sure of that, but I still couldn't help and let a shiver run down my spine. "Hey, Allie?"

Alex groaned at that name and I almost smiled.

"Why don't you stay here tonight?" I suggested casually, going inside the kitchen to get some popcorn ready. Once I was done, I held the bowl in my uninjured hand and plopped myself back on the couch.

"It's almost night anyway, and I really miss my best friend," I added a small pout in the end, looking at him pleadingly. It was the truth; we rarely had any sleepovers these days. And I really didn't want to be alone tonight.

He rolled his eyes and snatched the bowl of popcorn from me. "If only you promise not to eat a single popcorn from this bowl."

My eyes widened at those words before I snatched the bowl back, wrapping both of my arms around it. "That's never gonna happen, Alexander. You know it." I chose a comfortable spot on the couch as the movie played on the screen. "I don't know how you could even think I'd give all this to you."

He shook his head and shoved me away. "You're such a pig."

I huffed and linked my arm through his. "But you're still my best friend."

He shoved me once again and this time, to my horror, the bowl fell down from my lap, and all the popcorn littered the floor. Alex chuckled out loud while I looked down in shock. Even Chicken looked surprised at the mess, letting out a small mewl.

"You are so dead." I hissed, picking up the nearest thing and smacking him with it.

"Ouch! Stop it, you monster." He shouted as I kicked him down from the couch. Once he was sprawled on the floor between his fits of laughter, I crossed my arms and slumped back against the couch, totally not happy right now.

Someone was going to make another bowl of popcorn and no way in hell was it going to be me.

______

Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿