My first instinct was to freak out. And I did, so much so that when the person behind me turned me around, with a strong grip on my arm, I gripped the candle stand in my hands and hit him with it. Not just once, but repeatedly.

I freaked the fuck out.

"Ow! Skylar, what the hell?" Caden hissed at me.

The candle stand fell from my hands in surprise, resulting in a sharp thud as it hit the floor.

"Caden?" My voice came out in a strained whisper. "Oh God, I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you! Why the hell are you even sneaking up on me?"

His dark brows pulled into a frown and he was probably about to say something when he jerked his head towards my backdoor, his face clouding with alarm. I followed his gaze despite the uneasy feeling inside me and saw absolutely nothing.

"What are you--" I shut up almost instantly when he directed a menacing glare towards me, something that almost made me cower away from him.

"Lower your voice, Anderson." He whispered and he didn't even have to say it twice.

I nodded as he once again looked over at the backdoor, almost as if expecting someone to barge in any second. That's what scared me the most.

"W-What are you doing here?" I asked him in an even tinier whisper, eyeing him cautiously. "Is someone..." I trailed off then, not really sure what to ask.

What was going on? Why was Caden here? How had he even come inside?

He looked back at me and must've seen the fear on my face since his grip on my arm loosened a little.

"I saw someone in your backyard. Climbing through the fence." Something in his eyes looked troubled. Unsure.

My eyes widened and my heart started beating wildly at the same time.

"What? Why were you even coming here in the first place?" I couldn't help but hiss at him. Was he trying to scare me on purpose? Was this all a setup?

His eyes found mine and he was still frowning, a bit taken aback by my question. "Because you weren't answering my calls."

"And how did you...how did you come inside?"

"The glass windows." Then he narrowed his eyes. "They weren't locked."

So it had been Caden when I heard that loud creak upstairs.

"And...you saw someone?"

"Outside, yes." His gaze kept flickering towards the back door. "Someone with a black hood on."

I suddenly started feeling too hot, not out of embarrassment, but out of fear alone. I think I was starting to hyperventilate too.

Mom had told me to lock the doors and the windows, almost as if she had known somebody was going to break in. She knew someone was coming.

"Is it locked?" Caden asked me, nudging his head towards the back door.

"Yeah. I locked all the doors." I whispered, stepping closer towards his side. "No one can--maybe I should call the police--"

I didn't even get to finish my sentence when the doorknob of the backdoor started rattling like crazy. I nearly jumped in surprise, my heart in my throat as I watched. It felt like just a handful of seconds before the rattling stopped and the door started creaking open. I felt Caden tense up beside me.

"I locked it," I whispered in panic. "I locked that door."

Caden sent me a quick glance before pushing me behind him ever so slightly, all the while his gaze fixated on the backdoor that had just opened.

"Go and hide somewhere. Do not get out until I say so." He whispered just as quietly.

I didn't want to leave him. But I didn't want to stay here either.

I didn't get to choose between my conflicting thoughts, however, when something came flying in our direction. I didn't even get to react to it when Caden gripped my arm once again and pushed both of us down. I closed my eyes shut and felt the floor meeting me, hitting my back, feeling Caden's strong arm around my waist.

The object hit the wall behind me and clattered down, making a small wince escape from my lips. Twisting my neck to look at it, I noticed it was a very familiar knife.

From my own kitchen.

"I'm going to be sick," I confessed just as quick because really, I could feel the bile rising up my throat at the mere sight of that sharp knife (which might've just impaled me, now that I thought about it).

Caden looked down at me with a small frown before pulling himself off of me. I barely managed to sit up when I saw the hooded guy rushing towards us. Caden handled it just as quick, throwing a punch on his hooded face before he could've lunged for us.

I felt my insides lurch at that and I started scrambling backwards, my heart pounding a bit feverishly this time. This was surely not normal.

Why was this happening to me?

Unfortunately, the hooded guy was a good fighter too and that worsened the problem. He punched Caden in the stomach, making him fall back and crash the glass vase in the process.

I was left stunned at the mess when I saw that same hooded guy advancing towards me. I stood up abruptly and tried to snatch the candlestand a few feet away from me right as he lunged at me, gripping both of my arms in a deadly grip and pinning me against the wall behind me.

I let out a terrified scream which got muffled when his face loomed dangerously close towards mine. I didn't have to actually see the expression behind that black ski mask to know the underlying threat. His gloved hands tightened their grip around my wrists in a painful way as I struggled. I could not believe this was happening all over again, and it was horrifying. Beyond horrifying.

"The locker. Tell me where it is." He hissed the words in my face.

I momentarily stopped struggling in dread when he somehow managed to pick up a broken piece of the shattered vase, bringing it near my neck. My terrified eyes flickered over to Caden who was about to advance towards him from behind. But almost as if the guy with the black hood knew, he turned around instantly, pulling me in front of him with the glass shard on my neck as a clear warning. Caden stopped when he noticed it and I saw his eyes widening in alarm.

And then I felt the nausea rolling in.

I was going to throw up and be dead in no time.

"Tell me where's the locker." The hooded guy leaned dangerously close towards my ear, whispering out the words with the obvious threat in his raspy voice.

The locker, I thought. My parents knew where it was. I didn't.

The feel of that shard against my throat felt surreal. I was going to die for not answering--not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't. I couldn't let down my mom. I couldn't when I didn't even know where the locker was.

Perhaps that was why I didn't even care about the consequences before slamming my elbow in his gut. He let out a painful grunt and the grip on me loosened just a little for me to shove him away. The shard managed to graze near my collarbone before falling to the ground.

I winced and stumbled away and saw Caden fisting his hand in the black hood of the intruder before shoving him back against the wall, the latter grunting in response. He threw one more punch on his black-clothed face before gripping the side of his head and slamming it against the wall again, and again.

I watched the blood in horror. I hadn't ever seen Caden fight--being this angry--and I was glad I hadn't. Because this was bad; too gruesome for my own liking.

After what felt like a whole painful eternity, the hooded guy finally managed to shove Caden away from him before scrambling and running out from the open backdoor. To my surprise, Caden managed to get a hold on him before dragging him out of the house, leaving me all alone. I wasn't sure what would happen if any of my neighbours saw it, and honestly, I couldn't even make myself care about it at that moment.

Not when I heaved, clamping my mouth shut as I swallowed. I leaned back against the wall and let out a shudder. I couldn't help but look around at the mess. The whole house looked like a mess. I was a mess.

At least the locker was safe. Wherever that was.

After a while, Caden came back inside, closing the door behind him. I looked up at him, my eyes searching his for something, anything.

"Who was it?" I asked him, my voice wobbling a little. "Did you see who it was?"

He looked back at me before raking a hand through his tousled black locks. My gaze flickered across his bruised knuckles and I had to force myself not to look away.

"I didn't." He said. "But he was probably from the other gang."

East gang.

Blake had sent him. The same Blake I had visited last night. The same person who I had been sitting beside on top of an abandoned building. It felt even more nauseating now. I pushed myself away from the wall I was leaning against and looked down at the broken glass shards of the vase.

"Are you all right?" It was Caden's voice that broke me out of my miserable thoughts. I looked up at him and saw the way he was frowning at me.

I'm sure I did not look all right. I was stuck in between this overwhelming sense of horror and anger. Horror at whatever had happened in just those last few minutes, and anger at Blake.

I needed to call the police. I needed to call my parents. I needed them here.

"Of course," I spoke up but my voice fell to a strained whisper.

This might happen again. What if it happens again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and Caden's not here to save me?

I needed to clean this mess. I needed to because I couldn't stand looking at this broken mess any longer. I wanted to lock all the doors and the windows and just shut myself in my bedroom. I wanted to sleep.

As I walked towards the couch, I was nearly there when my legs started shaking. And my knees buckled the moment I saw Caden stepping towards me, grabbing me gently around the waist. I found myself not wanting to lean against him, but I think I did.

"Skylar," He started, and my breath hitched when he leaned closer, his dark green eyes looking intense with curiosity and something else that I couldn't quite figure out at that moment. "What locker was he talking about?"

I swallowed and leaned back a little just because it felt like I couldn't breathe. He was so insanely close, and I couldn't look away from the beautiful gold flecks in between the green--something I hadn't even noticed until now.

I tried opening my mouth but it seemed like it was glued shut. I really wanted to say something but it felt impossible.

I felt the slow, silent seconds ticking by, counted them in my head, and a small shiver ran up my spine when I felt his thumb trailing just above my collarbone, right where that glass shard had grazed.

"I-I don't know." He was looking at me again like he knew how much of a bad liar I really was.

"You're lying."

He tugged me closer by the grip around my waist and my eyes widened. I had no idea what he was doing. For a moment, my mind went blank as I tried searching his eyes for an answer. But they held emotions that I just couldn't decipher--strange and secretive.

If this was his way of getting the truth out of me, I wasn't sure what was about to happen.

"Why weren't you there at school today?" He asked me, his eyes not leaving mine even for a second. Once again, I found it hard to breathe when he looked at me like that.

I knew what he was trying to do. Was he trying to see me lie again?

"I...was sick," I whispered.

Caden leaned even closer and heat crept up my neck. "You're lying again."

It was strange that I felt all of the energy leaving my body. I couldn't exactly feel my knees, or my body, or my brain. Everything felt like a gooey mush and that was weird. I had never felt like this before.

"I was trying not to face you." I blurted out, and it was surprising how the closeness alone could make me confess anything.

His eyes widened a little but he didn't say anything, a small crease forming in between his brows. I had this sudden urge to place my finger in between them, to erase that frown, and I wanted to feel the softness of his hair against my fingertips too.

It felt like I was going insane.

"Caden?" I murmured. "I don't know if I can trust you."

I wanted to. Was it wrong to want to fully trust someone even if you didn't know them? I wanted to, but in the end, I didn't want to know that I had been wrong to trust him. Anything but that.

I saw the way his eyes clouded over with a strange darkness. "Why can't you?" He asked, tipping his head towards me, inching closer until the tips of our noses were nearly touching.

My hand fisted around his jacket when I felt the sudden tension building up inside me. I didn't know how to breathe. I couldn't make myself utter a single word either. I couldn't when he was this close.

What was he doing to me?

"Do you want to trust me?" He asked in a low, raspy voice.

I blinked in hesitation before nodding ever so slightly. His hand on my waist trailed lower, pulling me flush against him. Heat curled down my spine.

"Then trust me." He whispered.

I closed my eyes shut when his warm breath fanned against my lips, and something clenched inside of me. The feeling was so strange, it felt like I might pass out any second. He was everywhere even when I had my eyes closed. I could only feel him, I could only see him, I could only sense him. It was just him.

Caden.

I found myself clutching his jacket in an even tighter grip than before. I'd like to say it didn't faze me even in the slightest when I felt him leaning closer, but it did. So much. I was left stunned when I opened my eyes once again, watched his gaze lingering on my lips and staying there.

He wouldn't kiss me. He couldn't.

But what if he did? He was barely inches away from me. What if I kissed him? And when the realization hit me that I did indeed want to kiss him, it left me shaking.

This can't be happening.

Caden was staring at me as if he knew what he was doing. As if for a moment he didn't care of what might happen next. As if he didn't want to care at that moment. He wanted it. Or maybe I wanted it.

Everything, however, came to an abrupt halt when he dipped his head and his lips brushed against mine.

My thoughts, the surroundings, all my senses. Everything stopped.

It was just a soft feather touch but enough to send my heart racing. No, not just that. It was so much more. The need inside me to kiss him just seemed to increase. He didn't give me any more though. And God, I wanted to kiss him so bad. I wanted to know what it felt like, what he tasted like. I wanted him.

It couldn't be real. This couldn't be real.

And when I was sure that he would really kiss me, someone knocked on the backdoor. And Caden pulled away.

The sudden loss of warmth told me that he had pulled away and I opened my eyes with a small gasp. He was walking towards the door then, away from me, like he hadn't been about to kiss me just now.

Like he didn't even care.

_____

Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿