I glanced down at the folded paper in my hand once again. Without caring if anybody noticed me, I slipped the note inside Caden's locker. I had no idea if he would even see it.

I just hoped that he would.

The last time I'd seen him was almost a week ago--the time I fell asleep in class and he hadn't bothered waking me up. If he was avoiding me, he wasn't going to be doing that very long. He couldn't just order me to act along with Blake and then disappear.

That's exactly what I had written in the note.

If he'll ignore that like the douchebag he is, then I'd have no choice but to ignore him too. Him and all of this stuff. But ignoring it won't make it go away now, would it? Pretending that Blake hadn't stepped inside my house that night won't make it true. Pretending Blake had no bad intentions would also not make any of it true.

How was I supposed to just ignore this?

I rode back home with Alex that day after school. The whole drive was in total silence just like it had been for the past two days. Alex had been acting strangely for days now. At first, I thought it was just the fact that he knew I was hiding something from him. But it wasn't just that. Something else was bothering him, making him look so exhausted most of the days. Maybe it was just the football practice. Coach was going hard on the whole team, as far as I knew.

Still, Alex and I didn't say anything about it. I didn't ask him what was wrong. He didn't ask me that either. Which wasn't usual.

Things were drifting away from the usual.

And I wished I could tell him, all of the stuff Caden had told me, but I couldn't do that either. I didn't want another break-in at my house. I didn't want any more threats to be thrown at me. Mostly, I didn't want to involve Alex in this if this was really so dangerous.

I wasn't supposed to involve myself with this either.

"Can we catch up for a cup of coffee?" I offered, breaking the silence between us.

Alex looked at me as if he couldn't believe I had the nerve to break the silence. Then he just shrugged. "Sure."

A much better response than the silent treatment we were giving each other for the past few days.

When we were seated at one of the tables in the nearest café, I busied myself imagining shapes in the creamy foam of my coffee. When Alex didn't say a word, I looked up at him irritatedly.

"Stop it, Alex. You can't act like that."

He looked at me, narrowing his eyes. "Act? I'm not acting, Skylar."

"Don't."

"I would."

"Why?"

"Because you are being a bitch." He said.

I gave him a look of disbelief and he blew out a long frustrated sigh. There were faint dark circles under his eyes, I noticed. He looked tired and like he wanted to say a lot of things. But he said nothing at all.

"I'm trying not to be a bitch here, Alex. I'll tell you everything, I promise. But give me some time. Just a little." I pleaded.

His eyes found mine and for a brief moment, there was nothing there. Just clear impassiveness--something that I was so used to seeing on Caden's face.

"Swear?" He asked.

"Cross my heart." I said with a smile.

He nodded. "You will die if you break that. I swear."

Geez.

"How's your football practice going?" I rolled my eyes and asked him, changing the topic. "Coach's been going hard on you guys? You look like you haven't slept in ages."

Alex shrugged like that didn't matter. He didn't object to the sudden change of topic either. "It's been great, Sky."

I nodded slowly, looking down at my coffee and then taking a sip. The warm liquid felt like heaven for some reason. I think I was way too addicted to this, all thanks to Dad and his morning coffees.

"So," I started. "I've been hearing some rumours lately."

Alex glanced at me, raising a brow. "You've been."

"Are they true?"

I didn't get the answer I had been expecting to hear, not even close.

"Yeah, they are." He shrugged once again.

"Really?" I exclaimed, then lowered my voice quickly after passing a sheepish look to the table beside ours. "Really, Alex? Don't lie to me."

He smiled lazily then rubbed his whole face. "Who said I was lying? I'm not. They are true."

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I was partially devastated.

I had been hearing rumours all around school about Alex liking a girl (and I mean, really being obsessed with her), and even if it made me think about what Alex had been about to do at the homecoming night, I still didn't quite believe in it. After all, Alex would've told me first, wouldn't he? We were best friends, for God's sake. If he liked someone, he was supposed to tell me first.

"You like someone?" I asked him.

"What's so surprising about that? I'm a male destined to like a female." He replied.

I gasped, placing my palms flat on the table. "Who is it?" I asked him. "Do I know her? Do I have any classes with her? Have I ever talked to her before?"

Alex never liked a girl. He did hookups, yes. He never did relationships. Just that was surprising enough. And I hadn't known?

"Stop being so dramatic, Sky." He rolled his eyes for the third time.

"I'm not being dramatic, Alex," I said. "You are not supposed to like a girl."

He gave me a funny look at that. "Don't tell me you're in love with me."

"Of course, I love you." I frowned at him. "You're my only best friend." And my only real friend. Alex laughed at that.

"What I meant to say was, you never do these feelings stuff. You hook up with those bimbos. You don't ever fall in love." I tried explaining it to him. "But if you really like this girl, whoever she is, you'll leave me then. You won't care about your best friend anymore. Heck, you won't even buy me cupcakes since they would be eaten by that girl."

I finished my rant with wide eyes.

When he was done listening, his eyes widened a little too. "Why do you think so deep, Sky?"

"Does that mean you will do all that?"

"God, I haven't even asked her out yet." He laughed once again. Which again, was confusing. Alex never held back if he wanted to ask out a girl. "And I'll always be your best friend first. What's that about anyway? I've been friends with you since you were flailing around in smelly diapers."

"TMI, Alex."

"I mean it, Sky." He nudged my leg with his under the table. "As much as a bad friend I am at times, I'm still a whole lot glad to be your friend."

I smiled at that. "God, you in love with me or what?"

"Of course, I love you." He mimicked my voice. "You're my only best friend."

I kicked him under the table. "I don't sound like that."

"You do sound like that."

"I do not, Alex. Shut up."

"Yes, you do, Sky."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"I can do that." I grinned before kicking him in the shin.

"Ow, fuck!" He cussed out loud. One of the elderly couples glanced our way disapprovingly. "Sky, what the hell?"

I laughed. "You asked for it. Anyways, am I getting a name then?"

Alex was still busy grimacing in pain.

"The girl you are in love with?"

A beat of silence passed by.

"Hanna." He spoke up almost instantly, not even caring to lower down his voice when so many people were here in this café besides us. I'm sure some of them were from our school.

"What?" I gasped. "Hanna as in Hanna Hanna? The locker beside mine Hanna? The girl who's mostly quiet in the hallways Hanna? That Hanna?"

Alex gave me a not so endearing look. "Do you know any other Hanna?"

My eyes widened.

"And there's nothing wrong with being quiet in the hallways." He added.

"Oh my gosh, that's so cute!" I shrieked and Alex was the one who kicked me under the table this time. "You just stood up for her! Oh my god, Alex. Damn, man, you're whipped for her, aren't you?"

Alex sipped his drink.

"What have I been living under? A rock? Why didn't I see you both making goo-goo eyes at each other, like ever?" I questioned.

"She doesn't know."

"What do you mean she doesn't know?"

Alex shifted in his seat and I almost started bawling my eyes out at the sheer cuteness of this all when his cheeks reddened a little. "I don't think I'm made for relationships, Sky. Not right now at least."

"What?"

"I'll ask her out when I think I'm capable of giving her..." He trailed off. "Happiness."

"The moon?" I asked him in awe.

Alex grinned. "That, too."

I rested my forehead against the tabletop and groaned. God, this was just too adorable for my weak heart.

"I think you should ask her out."

I heard Alex fidgeting with his cup. "I can't."

"Do it, or I will."

"You'll ask her out?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"You'd steal my potential girlfriend?"

"Either that," I said, "or hear you saying lovey-dovey Shakespearean shit for the rest of my life. I think I'll go with the first one, thank you very much."

Alex laughed again.

And I was glad, so glad that we were finally out of the whole silent treatment phase.

•••••

If I thought my life was starting to go a little easy on me, I was so wrong. I came to that realisation soon enough when I reached back home.

Things took a turn for the worse, and I would've done anything to avoid what had been coming my way.

But it was inevitable. Even I knew that, deep down.

It all happened when Mom called. And believe me, whenever Mom called on the house phone, things always went a little wonky. Like a few years ago when she had reminded me to lock the storeroom over a phone call so that their paperwork wouldn't be messed with if anyone came at the house (she thought I was a wild party animal, for some unknown reason). I had done as I was told and ended up falling down the roof ladder, spraining my ankle in the process.

I had a few more unbelievable memories up my sleeve, but that wasn't the point. What my mother asked from me this time was something like this,

"There is this black file in your father's office. It must be on the white shelf. Take it out and Blake will arrive there to pick it up." She told me. "Can you do that?"

I was all fine by it until I heard the B word.

"What? You mean, Blake Matthews?" I asked her, clutching the phone tightly as horror bubbled in my stomach. "Of course, I can not do that!"

The sad part was, however, that Mom usually asked such questions in a rhetorical sense.

My mother hummed on the other end, almost as if she hadn't even listened to me.

"Mom, I won't be here. Alex is coming to pick me up any second now." I didn't even know I was lying until I had said it out loud. Anything seemed acceptable to get out of this situation.

My heart had already started racing. Even though Caden had told me to play along, I just couldn't stand the thought of having Blake inside my house. No way.

"It'll take only two minutes, Skylar." She sounded confused.

"Mom! You can't just send strangers to our house when I'm all alone. Do you even care about my safety?" I heard my voice raise a bit in fear.

Maybe Mom heard it too. There was a shuffling sound at her end before she spoke up, "What do you mean? Why are you so scared to face a harmless boy?"

"A harmless boy?" I let out a small laugh of disbelief. "Mom, he's not harmless!" And when I blurted it out, I realized that maybe I had said too much.

"Why isn't he?" She sounded suspicious now. "Have you two met before?"

I anxiously clenched and unclenched my fingers and let out a small groan. "Mom--"

"Skylar--" I wasn't the one who interrupted her, though. It was the doorbell that rang, freezing me to my spot.

"That must be him." Mom let out a deep breath. "Go now. It's the black file, okay?" Before I could've argued any further, she hung up.

I couldn't believe this. What was I supposed to tell her though? That Blake was supposedly in a gang and trying to kill his brother (and maybe even me)?

This wasn't right.

I placed down the phone and rubbed my whole face with another groan. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to face Blake. However, when the doorbell rang once again, I knew I had no choice.

You can do this, Sky.

Hopefully, he wouldn't be that stupid to come to my house--after telling my own mother--and do me any harm.

Still, I shoved the nearest thing in my back pocket, which happened to be a butter knife, and opened the door. And there he was, just like my mother had mentioned.

I just hope this goes fine.

______

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Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿