Skylar's POV

When I woke up, I realized almost instantly that I couldn't move. Literally.

It took me a while to groggily open my eyes, glad that the curtains were closed and the sun wasn't being a bitch. Though when I tried rubbing the sleep off my eyes, I found my hands stuck under something heavy. A heavy arm draped over me--which, as I slowly grew more and more aware of my surroundings, belonged to Caden.

My back was pressed against his chest and I think my sleeping self didn't have any objections with him holding me so close. Because I'd just, I realised, woken up from a really nice sleep. Not that my morning self had any objections either.

I squirmed a little and turned around slowly, facing him and swallowing in surprise when I found him so close. I was still finding that a little hard. Having him close.

I vaguely remembered having a huge amount of distance between us, on the bed, when we both got in last night. Caden had even promised me that he won't touch me--not that I made him promise that. I had no problem with it. Geez.

Waking up to this was totally the opposite though. And, I found myself thinking as I stared, he looked so much at peace when he was asleep. He'd looked so tired last night. Exhausted. I hoped he'd gotten a little bit of decent sleep throughout the night.

Now that my hands were a little free, I rubbed my eyes and let out a small yawn. Almost unconsciously, his grip tightened a little around my waist, pulling me closer. I watched as his brows furrowed into a frown, still asleep.

Was he having a nightmare? I stilled on my spot, staring. Was this the reason why it'd been so long since he had any proper sleep?

He was the last person though, who I'd expect to have nightmares. Everyone feared Caden Miller. He wasn't one to be easily approached. What could it be that he feared?

I blinked before slowly brushing my fingers on the side of his face. There was so much that I still didn't know about him. So much hidden in a mystery.

It was when I heard the house phone ringing downstairs, that I broke out of my thoughts. For a whole wide minute, I almost ignored it. But then I realised it must've been Mom or Dad, and if I didn't pick up the phone, I'd most probably be hearing a whole ass lecture about my sleeping schedule. Because it was way past noon right now and my family was a big box of morning sunshine.

All except for me, of course.

Cursing softly under my breath, I carefully managed to pry his arm off my waist and roll over. I stood up from the bed and glanced back at him, trying to fix my bedhead. He was frowning all right, his face now pressed up against my pillow, but still asleep. It took everything in me not to go back and curl up against him.

God, why had it felt so good?

Stifling the urge to grin widely like a pathetic fool, I walked downstairs and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Skylar, what took you so long?" Mom asked in an I-already-woke-up-hours-ago voice. "Were you still sleeping?"

"No, Mom," I grumbled. "I woke up like, hours ago. Already did my breakfast too. What's up?" I was trying my very best to sound cheerful right now.

"Nothing really. Except I was calling in to check if you really are not considering coming to the after-wedding party?" She asked.

"Nope. I'm fine where I am."

"You never really missed out on such parties, Sky." She pointed out.

For the same reason why I wasn't going.

"Yeah, I don't feel like coming to this one, Mom. I have this assignment to complete too." I said, which wasn't exactly a lie since I really had a Calculus assignment to finish, even if I wasn't planning on doing it today.

"Okay then." She said. "Your Dad and I will see you soon. Take care."

I sighed when she ended the call, glad that she hadn't really pressed on the whole topic. It wasn't just Cole, now that I thought about it. It was the family party that freaked the crap out of me. A family gathering with all my aunts and uncles and scary cousins who wouldn't dare minding their own businesses? No thanks.

When I turned around, after placing the phone down, my eyes darted towards Caden--who was apparently awake now and coming downstairs.

"You're awake?" I questioned, realised it was pretty obvious, then corrected myself. "I mean, of course, you are."

Caden's eyes found my own, narrowing just a little bit. His hair was tousled like crazy and that just made him look a hundred times hotter than usual.

This guy was really making me fall hard for him.

Which was unusual because I don't think I liked Caden Miller when he used to carelessly run across the school hallways, colliding with me, and making me fall down on my butt.

"I just thought you'd sleep a little more." I shrugged, walking towards Chicken who was already up and roaming around the kitchen. "You looked exhausted last night."

"I was." He kept it short. Then almost added as an afterthought, "That was some sleep."

I took out some of Chicken's cat food. "Why?" I asked. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Why would I have a nightmare?"

I shrugged and turned around to face him. He was already staring at me, though I couldn't quite pinpoint if he was lying or telling the truth.

"Though you did quite hit me thrice in your sleep." He leaned back against the bannister, his lips tugging up at one corner. "I've never felt more threatened than I felt last night. You're a little wild in bed."

My eyes widened and my neck started heating up. "That's so not true."

"It is." He said. He was enjoying this. "I had to wrap my arms around you so you wouldn't unintentionally impale me with your pointy elbows."

My face heated up even more. "I do not remember doing any such thing," I told him. "You're lying."

He raised a brow in response. "No, I'm not, Anderson."

I glared at him before he could've started laughing right then.

"How in the hell can you say you like me and embarrass me the next second?" I pointed a finger at him, shaking my head and walking towards Chicken.

"Consequences of kissing Caden Fernando Miller." He spoke as he sat down on the couch.

"I thought your middle name was douchebag."

"Did I mention how hot you look when you're mad?" He asked, passing me a lazy grin as he rubbed his tired face.

I took the nearest cushion and threw it right at his face.

•••••

"You didn't really tell me where Blake's house is," I said as I watched Caden pulling on his shoes. He was leaving, even if I didn't want him to.

"I don't see a reason, Sky, why you need to know that."

I leaned against the back of the couch, contemplating. If I was to talk to Alex, figure things out, I needed to know where he was living. But I had a feeling Caden wouldn't tell me anything if I told him that.

"You're not going over to see him." He stated. I had no idea if he was talking about Blake or Alex. He seemed to hate both of them equally.

"Him?"

"Both of them."

I let out a frustrated sigh. Before I could've said anything though, he cut me off, "Look, Skylar, don't dwell on things that you really shouldn't dwell onto." The way he said it made it sound quite threatening.

"But--"

"I mean it." He cut me off once again before walking towards the front door.

I couldn't just give up on him. On Alex. Even though it was stupid of me to think that way, I couldn't let go of it. Alex owed me answers. I couldn't just stop caring for him all of a sudden.

He was my best friend.

"Just because he's working with Blake," I started. "For Blake. It doesn't have to mean--"

"It means he's bad enough." Caden turned around and faced me. I had to take a step back to look up at him.

Before a frown could've formed on my face, he leaned closer and held my face in his hands. "It's complicated, Sky." He told me, his green eyes holding that soft look. "Everything is so fucked up. So much so that you'll believe in stuff you really shouldn't believe in."

His eyes were trying to tell me something. A desperate plea.

"Promise me you won't go over to him?" He asked.

"All right." I nodded, even though I wanted to ask him why. What stuff was he talking about? "Fine. I won't."

Satisfied with his clueless explanation and my promise, he pulled away. Instantly, I missed the warmth of his touch.

"It's not fair that you give me clueless explanations most of the time, you know." I pointed out quietly.

"That's all you can get for now."

"Great." I rolled my eyes.

He was almost out before he turned towards me again, almost making me fall back.

"On second thought." His eyes found mine. "I think I can give you a goodbye kiss."

I wasn't given a choice for that matter. Not that I needed one. It took him mere seconds to pull me back against him and kiss me.

And I kissed him back.

Because I liked this more than anything.

•••••

It was way past evening when someone rang the doorbell again. I knew clearly well it couldn't have been my parents since they were to arrive after midnight. And it couldn't have been Caden either since he'd just left a few hours ago.

Blowing out a sigh, I left my laptop and ran downstairs. To my surprise, when I peeked out from the tall glass windows, there was no one standing in front of the door.

After a lot of thinking, I slowly opened the back door and peeked outside. Still, I couldn't see anybody. That meant it could've been the neighbour kids doing a ringing-the-bell prank on me. Or--

In one fast second, a hand gripped my arm before yanking me inside. It took me several seconds to finally come back to my senses.

"Alex?" I whispered in horror. His hand was still gripping my arm as he glanced over at the back door, his features clouding up with alarm.

"What are you doing here?" I was horrified that it was this easy for him to enter my house. I made a mental note to tell my parents how much of a useless alarm system it really was. "Alex, you...you shouldn't be here."

I tried pulling out of his grasp, but then he took hold of both of my arms in a deathly grip and my eyes widened.

"Skylar, you've got to listen to me!" He hissed in anger.

"Are you serious?" He wasn't the only one angry here. "What is wrong with you? Let me go!"

God, Caden had just warned me to stay away from him.

"I can't stay here for long, okay?" The way he kept looking at the door kind of alerted me. For some reason, he looked scared.

"Sky, look, I'm sorry for what I did. For lying to you and for everything else." I couldn't believe this. "But I hadn't known..." He trailed off.

"Hadn't known what, Alex? I trusted you with everything--"

He cut me off, but thankfully let go of my arms. "I know!" His eyes pleaded with me. I hadn't noticed until now how pale he looked at that moment. "Sky, I didn't mean to. I didn't have a choice. I hadn't known what all this gang thing had been about."

I'd known Alex my whole life. He had been there for me through everything. A part of me was yelling at me to believe him, even if I didn't want to.

"You let Blake manipulate you." The words sounded sour on my tongue. "Why did you agree with helping him in the first place, Alex?"

I could hear Chicken mewling from upstairs. Once again, Alex glanced back at the door as if dreading something. Someone.

"Reasons, Sky. I trapped myself." His eyes were wide too; pleading. "But Blake lied to me. He didn't tell me all of it."

I wasn't interrupting him now.

"He...he's not safe, Sky." When he looked at me this time, I knew he wasn't lying. I just knew. "And neither is Caden."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Don't." I gritted my teeth. "Don't do that. You can't just barge inside my house and talk shit about Caden. I trust him, all right? I trusted you too but then you broke it."

I could not believe he had the guts to even say that.

"But that's the point, Skylar!" He dragged both of his hands through his hair, messing it up even further. "I never meant to hurt you, not willingly. And I know you think Caden won't either, but he will!"

"Leave, Alex." I shook my head again, at him. "I think you should leave."

He ignored what I'd just said. "It's not just Blake who'll hurt you, Sky. There's so much going on behind these gangs. They're looking for something--Kevin's looking for something. I told him I'm quitting his gang. And now he's after me."

I didn't know who he was talking about. Sudden dread edged in my stomach. I may have been angry at Alex but if something happened to him--

No, I thought. I didn't know what to think.

"I'm not telling you this because I want you to worry for me." He added in abruptly. "I just--I need to tell you something."

I still didn't say anything. I didn't even take a step back when he moved closer to me.

"Sky, I'm sure Caden never told you this." His desperate gaze searched mine. "But believe me, I know that he's a killer. He killed them."

He glanced back at the door again.

"He killed his parents."

_______

→ congrats y'all you've made it this ONLY 10 MORE CHAPTERS TO GO!

Make sure to click the ★ below ↓ if you liked this chapter.

Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿