"What did Hanna say?" I asked Alex before throwing myself on his bed and looking up at the ceiling. He tossed his school bag on his desk and sat down beside me, letting out a deep sigh.

"I didn't ask her out."

"What?" I passed him a confused frown. "Why? You both are good friends now. Do you need me to tell her that you're in love with her?"

He let out a groan and pulled up a pillow over his face. "I wanted to ask her but...I can't. What if--" He stopped, lost in thought. I glanced over at him and realized that he did seem a bit miserable with this whole situation. Stressed out for what, that's what I didn't know. He didn't have to fear rejection--unlike me. He was pretty good when it came to girls.

"What if she freaks out?" He asked after a while.

"She might." I passed him a look. "But not as much as you are right now."

Alex groaned again.

"Talk to her, Alex," I stretched out the obvious before standing up and walking over towards his desk. "Do something romantic. I made you watch all those cheesy romance tv shows just for this day right here."

He shook his head but didn't get up.

I wasn't surprised when I noticed his messed up desk, his books scattered everywhere. I could barely see his familiar pair of headphones between those books, an almost empty glass of water, and opened granola bar wrappers. "You're even messed up than I am." I gave him a disapproving look.

And my mom thought I was the messed up kid.

He picked up his phone from the side table and switched it on, busying himself with it. It had certainly been a bit surprising when Alex asked me to come over to his house right after school today. He seemed so busy with his football practice these days; we barely spent time together, aside from the moments in school.

"So," I stretched out the word and leaned back against his rolling desk chair, contemplating my options. "I need to tell you something."

He looked up from his phone and raised a questioning brow.

"I need a favour actually." I rephrased my sentence.

He raised both of his eyebrows this time, but before I could've said anything else, he stood up from his bed. "Wait a sec." Was all he said before running out of his room.

I looked at the doorway where he was just a second ago and rolled my eyes. I guess I could wait a little more. At least that's what I had been doing since yesterday--since Mom had called. Since Mom had told me about that locker. Since Mom had told me about Dad. It was bizarre that I hadn't opened the locker yet, even if I now knew where it actually was.

I had been so eager to know where it was just a day ago, to know what it was about before I got locked in the school's gymnasium. I'd wanted to know what that locker was about. So badly for nearly weeks now. But now that I knew, I couldn't. I just couldn't make myself go upstairs to the attic. I wanted Mom and Dad to be here and I wanted to find out all about that locker from them. Part of me was just stuck over Dad's condition. I was worried. I wanted to see him so bad. He never had those migraines unless things were really stressful for him.

Was it because of me?

In the end, I had decided to tell Alex about this. Even if I knew that I should, I couldn't keep this all to myself. I didn't want to do this alone.

Opening one of his desk drawers, I randomly searched around for something to get busy with until he came back. There was nothing other than random journals and wrappers and chewed gum stuck at the bottom.

Gross.

I stopped when I felt a hard, yet smooth structure beneath my palm. Slowly rummaging through his papers, I found a small metal disk in my hand.

I stared at it in surprise. I'd seen it before.

Just like the one Jesse had found.

Furrowing my brows, I pushed the papers aside even further and saw four identical disks underneath them.

Why did Alex have them?

At that exact moment, I heard his footsteps coming up towards the room. I quickly straightened the papers over those disks and closed his drawer, trying my best to act as casual as I could've.

"Right." He came back inside with a water bottle in his hand. "So what favour were you talking about?"

My palms were starting to feel a little clammy and my heartbeat had already started thrumming loud against my chest.

"Wait--shit," I stood up immediately, picking up my school bag from the floor. "I kind of forgot to feed Chicken. I gotta head back quick."

I didn't even wait for his response before heading for the door. But before I could've reached the doorway, he gripped my arm and stopped me from going any further. I stiffened in response.

"You want me to drop you off?"

I tried hiding my surprise, mentally screaming at myself to act normal, and slowly pulled away, trying my best not to display my internal state. "No. It's not that far, Alex. See you later."

And then I was out.

•••••

I tried. I really tried to come up with every possible reason as to why Alex had those familiar metal disks in his drawer, but every single time I came up to conclusions that made absolutely no sense.

Why did he have those? Was he the one--

"No," I murmured under my breath as I came across the familiar street leading up to my house. "No."

I knew nothing and I couldn't just make up sudden conclusions--conclusions that seemed so drastic and hasty in my head. I don't know why I found my mind drifting off to Caden then, and even though I didn't want to think about him either, it was still better than thinking about Alex.

Caden wasn't there at school today either, just like yesterday. I had this strange urge to call him, but I knew he wouldn't answer. I'd even talked with Shane at some point at school today, and he and the others were still as clueless about Caden's whereabouts. He'd told me Caden wasn't answering his calls. Why would he answer mine?

He probably didn't even want to see me.

Once I reached in front of my house, I wasted no time unlocking the front door before going inside. A part of me was relieved that I'd made it back. Something about staying over at Alex's didn't seem so reassuring anymore.

I wasn't even inside the lounge when Chicken came running towards me, almost lunging at me in the process, letting out a loud meow.

"Whoa, calm down, Chicks. What happened?" I picked her up in both of my arms, stroking her fur before throwing down my backpack. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I was just a bit busy."

She meowed again and nudged her small nose against my chin. Something was definitely up with this cat--either that or she was just too hungry, even if I had fed her this morning.

"Okay, calm down--hey, wait! Chicks, not my bag!" She jumped out of my grasp and lunged at my backpack. I had to peel her away from it before taking out my phone. "You need to stop, Chicken."

She nudged me once again before walking away towards the glass windows. I narrowed my gaze at her, almost about to roll my eyes at her antics when I noticed something.

Frowning, I stood up immediately before running towards the wall right next to those windows. Up there, where a tiny motion sensor above the alarm pad was situated, I noticed a small black tape over it.

Holy crap.

Just like in the gymnasium at school.

I looked down at Chicken and she was already staring back at me. I didn't know what this meant. I hadn't taped that motion sensor. The doors and windows were locked when I had left. Nobody could've come in here.

Rubbing my temple, I let out a small aggravated sigh and leaned back against those same windows. I looked down at my phone and opened up my contacts. I wanted to call Alex, but I couldn't. There was the locker, and this whole tape thing, and Alex himself. I couldn't call him.

Caden.

I knew he wouldn't pick up, I knew that for a fact. But I still pressed onto his name and watched it dial. And just like I had expected, he didn't pick up. The call went on ringing and ringing until I had to end it myself.

I felt sick. Hollow in my stomach. Placing my phone away, I licked the dryness off my lips and looked around the lounge. It was quiet and empty like always. Nothing seemed unusual.

What if someone had broken in while I was gone?

How else had that black tape appeared out of nowhere? But that couldn't be possible. Looking back at the windows behind me, I saw that they were locked. I had everything locked.

I slid down on the floor and kept sitting there. There was just too much going on in my head at that moment. I wanted to go up to my room and change out of my school clothes. I wanted to take a long, cold shower and just forget about this all for a few hours. But I couldn't.

It was wrong. Everything was so wrong. I felt tired and sick of this paranoia crawling up my gut and snaking its way around my throat.

Chicken curled up against my side before pawing at my phone. I hadn't noticed what she was doing until I saw my phone's screen flashing. Picking it up, I saw a missed call from Caden.

He had called?

He did, just a minute ago. I frowned down at the phone and the uneasy feeling grew more and more inside me. My finger was hovering above the screen when his name flashed on it once again. He was calling again.

Answering it within the next second, I placed it over my ear.

"Caden!" My voice sounded rushed and surprised even to my own ears, and I willed myself not to cringe at that. "Where...where are you?"

Chicken, who was just getting used to the silence, perked up.

"What?" He asked, and it was a bit strange to hear his voice this close. He sounded strange.

"Don't ask questions from me," I whispered, my gaze once again trailing across the dark corners of my house.

He went silent at that.

"Everyone is worried," I added when the silence become a bit too uncomfortable. "Jesse came by at school yesterday to find you. And...Shane's also worried."

"Yeah?" He didn't sound surprised at all, which I guess I had expected. "Is that why you called?"

I blinked and pulled up my knees against my chest. "I was worried too."

"Don't be." He still didn't sound surprised. "What would even happen to me?"

I really didn't like the way he said that.

"Okay," I murmured. I didn't know what to say next. Why had I even called him? What was I supposed to say?

"What else?" He asked.

How did he know there was something else?

"The locker." I blurted out, closing my eyes shut just after that.

"What about it?"

"I...I know where it is." I hesitated.

He was silent for a while. "You're telling me that you found out what's inside it?"

"No," I said. "I mean, I didn't open it."

"Open it."

"I--there's someone. I think someone came into my house." And when I said it out loud, everything started feeling a whole lot real. Scary. Dreadful. "I mean, I'm not sure, but yesterday at school, stuff happened. The cameras...I-I think someone broke in."

I wasn't making any sense. I didn't know why I was even telling him any of this. There was just silence on his end, making me think that he might've just given up too, not wanting to deal with me at the moment. I glanced down at Chicken anxiously, almost about to pull my phone away, when he spoke up,

"I'll come by your place in five."

________

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,

Crystal 🌿