Skylar's POV

We ended up somewhere that looked like a rugged, old town. Mostly deserted and barren, I wanted to leave this place as soon as we could've. But when I saw a store nearby, I had to practically beg Caden to stop there.

My feet were killing me at this point.

The shopkeeper was kind enough to lend his phone charger for Caden's phone and I was more than thankful to find a chair to sit down on.

"Thank you for letting us stay." I directed a small, grateful smile towards the shopkeeper as Caden walked inside the shop.

The shopkeeper guy, who looked a tad bit older than me, raised his left brow.

"You just said that for the third time."

My smile turned a bit sheepish and I started fidgeting with a loose thread of my jacket. I couldn't have told him how awkward it felt to get lost in the middle of nowhere and crash at a shop which looked like something in between a bar and a pharmacy.

"You guys don't live in this town, do you?" He glanced at me before opening something that looked like an icebox.

"Um, no."

He nodded back as if he already knew. "How did you end up here then?"

I leaned back on the chair, eyeing him at the same time. "We were driving along the highway and got lost due to some...sinister reasons."

He narrowed his eyes at me as if that explanation wasn't valid enough. I anxiously glanced over at Caden and saw him talking to someone on the phone, his words coming out in hushed whispers.

"What kind of sinister reasons?" The guy asked.

He looked like one of those surfer dudes from the movies, with a perfect tan and a dirty-blond mess of hair. I've always wanted to see one in real life.

"Reasons that I don't know myself." I stated. "Hey, can I get some water?" He gave out a short shrug and threw me a water bottle. I thankfully caught it--some benefits of having an athletic best friend.

Talking about best friend.

"Do you also happen to have a spare phone or something?" I asked him in the politest way I could've.

His gaze trailed back towards me and I don't know why I held my breath.

"Why don't you help yourself with everything?" He smiled then, and it would've been cute if it weren't for the sarcasm.

I smiled back.

A hot surfer dude with a not so hot attitude. Just perfect.

But he did nudge his head towards a rusty, old telephone before walking inside the small shop. I dialled Alex's number first, which he didn't pick up. I dialled Hanna's number after that.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Oh, Hanna! It's me, Skylar. Have you seen Alex anywhere?" I asked her in a rush, knowing that I couldn't talk much longer.

I heard voices from the other end. "I have. Where are you, Sky? I saw you at the library and then you just disappeared?"

I hesitated for a second. "I'm just stuck up somewhere. Can you do me a favour?"

"Yes?"

"Are you still at school?"

"Yeah." She said. "The librarian needed some help with the books."

I nodded, even if she couldn't see me. "Okay. Well, I know Alex's got practice right now. Can you tell him to drop my bag and my phone at my house? And if Mom asks him where I am, tell him to make something up." I explained it to her.

"When will you come back?" She asked. "I'm sure he would want to know that too."

I was a bit surprised at that. Were they seeing each other already? What if they were seeing each other secretly? That would be too cute.

"Oh, I'll come back. Before...the next day starts." I said.

She was silent for a while. "Okay then."

I ended the call just as the surfer dude came back.

I hoped Alex saved me from my parents this one time too. It wasn't like I meant it when I said I'd probably go over to Alex's after school. I had been angry at Mom and Dad, but I hadn't intended for this to happen. I would love to say it was Caden's fault but all he did was save me. So I guess it wasn't anybody's fault.

My life's fault.

Or perhaps the locker's fault.

"You guys know a place to stay?" The surfer dude asked.

"I think so." I didn't, actually. I was basically just trusting Caden at this point.

"You should find one." He pulled up a carton from under the table. "Things kind of turn up messy here after it gets dark."

I looked at him with evident curiosity.

"Gangs and guys with no good intentions." He added with a patronizing smile. "Especially when it comes to girls like you."

I think I should've been a bit scared at the way he framed his words. But I was more surprised that I couldn't help but stare at him for the next few seconds, all until Caden came up beside me.

"And why does that concern you?" He asked the surfer guy.

I glanced over at Caden when I noticed the rude edge in his voice. Why was he being rude to the person who just let him use his freaking phone charger?

"I was just warning her." The surfer dude shrugged nonchalantly.

Warning me? I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop the nervous laughter threatening to escape me.

"I think she has me to warn her." Caden replied with something that looked like a glare to me.

I was more than just surprised now, so much so that I contemplated sitting back on the chair to see the scene unfold before me. Caden never acted like this. So unusual. But I did no such thing, mainly because the surfer guy had been kind to us, and letting this go any further could've been bad for him.

I mean, we were talking about gangs here. Not to forget the actual gang leader.

"I think we should go." I interrupted just when I saw surfer dude opening his mouth, probably to retort back at Caden--who was still glaring holes into the surfer guy's face.

"Thank you for letting us use your things," I added, passing a small smile to the surfer man. "And the warnings."

Caden frowned at me as if he couldn't understand what even caused me to thank him.

"No problem." He said before getting back behind the counter.

Caden somehow got the clue and I was glad that I didn't have to drag him out of the shop (I wasn't sure how that would've gone). We both left the sweet, warm shop to go back to the cold, deserted streets once again.

"Why did you thank him?" Caden asked me and there it was--the disbelief in his voice, like he really thought I shouldn't have thanked the guy who had been kind enough to help us.

I kept on walking beside him. "You have to say thank you when someone helps you, Caden," I spoke out patiently, and his frown seemed to grow even more confused at that. He really had no manners. "Do you not know that?"

"He was starting to piss me off," Caden muttered. "That's what I know."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, you need to start working on your manners."

"I don't say thank you to someone who's pissing me off." He glared at me and I was a bit surprised, like every other time, to see how quickly he riled up.

"Also, your anger issues." I stepped a little away from him when his glare seemed to get a bit too intense. "You need to work on that too."

••••••

"So, do you, or do you not like the colour blue?" I asked him after our very long discussion, which was mostly just me talking as we walked across the strangely empty streets. The sun had almost set and it wasn't that hot out here anymore.

Caden passed me a look, bordering past anger and more towards an exhausted one. "You need to shut up, Anderson."

"Blue is a nice colour." I continued talking anyway. I needed to. Because every time I stopped talking and every time I let the silence settle in around me, I'd find myself thinking how in the living heck had I ended up here. It'd make me panic. I didn't want to panic. "I like blue. I think you like blue too, don't you?"

The only few things I got him to confess about within the past half-hour was that,

a) he liked the colour black. And blue, I think.

b) he hated saying thank-yous to people who pissed him off.

c) he had really bad anger issues. I think he mentioned killing a guy on the spot when he hadn't stopped blabbering--which was probably just a lie. He was trying to get me to shut up.

d) he knew some sketchy stuff regarding the Principal's son--something he often used to make his way out of trouble whenever he got into a fight within the school grounds. I was stunned when he told me this.

e) his favourite ice cream flavour was not chocolate. I don't know how or when we even came on this one, but whatever.

I could've spent the past few minutes asking him about much more important stuff. For instance, I could've asked him about Blake, or the reason why he hated Blake so much. I could've even asked him about yesterday, about the actual reason why he had asked me to come to that party last night.

But I hadn't. Because this was Caden and Caden hated answering any of my questions.

After some time of continuous walking, we finally found another place to crash in. Which didn't look like a shop, thankfully. It was more like a mansion. An abandoned mansion.

"What if somebody is in there?" I voiced out my question in a small, scared whisper as I eyed the tall black structure in front of me.

I felt Caden staring at me.

"Don't tell me you're scared of breaking into a house." He asked, and I'm sure I heard some kind of tease in his voice.

"A house that looks like a vampire's mansion? Uh, yes." I answered. And I wasn't even exaggerating this time. I wouldn't even be surprised if the furniture inside turned out to be all black and red. You know, like in those typical vampire movies.

"Vampires won't lurk anywhere near you." He murmured before walking over to the fence.

"Was that supposed to be offensive?" I asked out loud as I followed him. "We're past saying offensive things to each other Caden. Don't you even try--"

He glanced back at me and I faltered. I couldn't help but notice how well his black attire seemed to go along with the dark mansion behind him. Even his green eyes had this mysterious glint into them, something that made me a bit uneasy.

"What? You have a thing for vampires?"

I scrunched up my nose and walked past him.

"Excuse me, but they are hot." I pointed out before pushing open the fence. It made a creaking sound which again, I wasn't quite surprised by. As I walked ahead, dead fallen leaves crunched beneath my boots. This legitimately felt like a scene right out of a horror movie.

"And fast," I added before looking up at the dark windows. "And romantic." Even the front door had an ancient vibe. "And wild."

"Anderson," Caden sounded humoured enough. "Never say that again."

I rolled my eyes and stopped near the porch. This was stupid, I realised. I might get into a lot of trouble alongside Caden--even if he thought he knew what he was doing. Mom would probably have a heart attack if she found out that I was breaking into a mansion.

"Go ahead, open the door." Caden urged me from behind.

I backed off a step, surprised that the front door wasn't even locked in the first place. "Oh no, you go ahead."

"Weren't you just excited to see those fast, romantic and wild creatures?" He asked but nonetheless, opened the door.

"What if there's a dead body in there?" I stepped a bit closer towards him just as that question left my lips. I hated this. Caden really had a terrible influence.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." He walked inside and I followed him into a hall, which led us to a very old fashioned lounge. A very huge one.

"Don't say that." I hissed. "That's gross."

"Says the one who has a thing for wild vampires." He spoke back.

I suppose that was fair. I had a big mouth after all. And now he was going to mock me over it every chance he got.

I walked towards the farthest wall. This place smelled like old people and obnoxiously sweet fragrances. There was dust almost everywhere. I was surprised when I didn't see any red or black furniture, but still, most of the stuff looked pretty old fashioned. There were grey velvet drapes near every window, a brick fireplace with old ashes inside, a marble kitchen counter on one end, and a huge white staircase on the other.

The lounge looked pretty cosy actually. It didn't look much scary from the inside. Aside from the big grandfather clock, that is--which told me it was a little past evening right now.

I hoped Hanna had conveyed my message to Alex.

"How will we get back?" I asked Caden, running my fingers along the soft velvety curtains. There was a layer of dust on it and I scrunched up my nose when I noticed that.

I found myself wondering why this place was even abandoned. Someone used to live here but had left, and there was almost nothing trashed in here except for the dust and cobwebs. That was spooky.

"My car." I turned around towards Caden when I heard him speak. He was busy tapping something on his phone. "Which needs to get back."

I don't really know why I found myself thinking about last night once again. I had been totally weirded out when Alex told me he wasn't the one who'd dropped me back home. And even if he had been extremely concerned and apologetic for that, I was still weirded out.

Then I'd seen Caden and he'd told me that he was the one who had dropped me back home. That was the thing that didn't settle well with me, especially because I couldn't even remember our chat from last night.

We had talked, I know we had, but the words and the faces were blurry. There were faint voices when I tried remembering, faint visions of Caden's face, his bright green eyes. It was like one of those dreams that I remembered just after waking up, but as the hours passed by, the details started vanishing.

He could've obviously left me there at that party, drunk and wasted. Caden didn't seem like the type of person who cared much. He told me he didn't want me near him. It must've been the pity. He must've pitied my drunk ass.

I didn't realize I was staring quite intently at him until he looked up from his phone, his eyes instantly finding mine. And they seemed to widen a bit in surprise.

I looked away then and I felt my entire face burning up. "How will your car get back?" I asked him, almost in a rush to fill in the silence.

He didn't reply for a while.

"Some help."

That's all he gave me for an answer.

_______

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Crystal 🌿