Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

Skylar's POV:

Turns out that Caden found out about my house address from Alex. Or at least that's what he told me, "So, how did you find out where my house is?" I asked him with evident curiosity.

"From that boyfriend of yours." He replied in that blank tone of his.

I frowned at him, surprised at the same time. "Alex's not my boyfriend."

"Whatever." He said, dismissing the topic.

No way in hell did I actually believe him, though. Why in the world would Alex tell him about it? As much as I knew, Alex hated him. He was ready to fight Caden just because he thought something was going on between us! Why would he be the one who told Caden where my house was?

Unless Caden had forced it out of Alex, maybe threatened him?

Caden hadn't looked like he was joking about it. But then again, why had Alex not told me anything about this?

I got the answer to that when I entered my house. I did freak out a bit when I found out that the front door wasn't locked, but when I cautiously entered my lounge and found Chicken curled up on the couch beside Alex, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

It wasn't a surprise that Alex was there, though. He had an extra key to my house, while I had an extra key to his; something that we did few years ago. That way, we slept over at each other's house whenever the need came up. For Alex, whenever he came back from any school party with his drunk ass, he slept over at my house.

As for me, well, if I ever felt too lonely in my house –which happened a lot after I watched any horror movie– I slept over his house.

"Hey." I spoke up once I saw him seated on the couch. Both Chicken and he perked up at my voice. I slid off my backpack from my shoulder and threw it down near the couch.

Alex eyed me with a narrowed gaze, his dirty blond hair messed up in every direction, almost as if he had been running his hands through it again and again. Judging from the look on his face, it was probably out of frustration.

"Finally, Sky." He rolled his eyes when I didn't say anything.

I gave him a sheepish smile in response and sat down on the other side of the couch, letting Chicken jump in my lap. "What's up?" I was dearly hoping he wouldn't ask me about anything.

But right then, his eyes trailed down to my hand and a frown formed on his forehead when he saw the cloth wrapped around my palm. "What happened to your hand?"

I licked my dry lips and opened my mouth, stroking Chicken's fur with the other hand. "Uh, well..."

When I trailed off, he surprisingly didn't press onto it. Instead, the frown deepened on his forehead and he turned towards me, leaning back against the armrest. "Who dropped you here?"

"Caden." I stated, thankful for the change of topic, although this topic wasn't going to be easy either.

"What?" He didn't sound happy. "I told you to stay away from him Sky. What part of you don't understand that?"

I rolled my eyes at him and hugged Chicken. I really needed to get out of these clothes, it felt really hot for some reason.

"Weren't you the one who told him my address?" I asked him with raised brows. I was kind of expecting him to go along with it. Hoping, actually.

Caden wouldn't lie, would he?

"Why the hell would I do that?" The frown left his face, transforming into a look of pure confusion. That's when I knew that this all was going to backfire at me.

I scrunched up my nose ever so slightly. "I don't know?"

He eyed me unbelievably. And deep down, I was really cursing Caden for this stupid stunt of his. What was wrong with him?

"I didn't tell him anything, Sky." Alex stated plainly.

Well, fuck.

••••••

Everything after that went downhill, as expected. Alex was obviously nowhere near happy about the whole Caden thing, and the whole afternoon turned out to be one of the biggest lectures for me. Sometimes, Alex really acted like the older, protective brother I never had.

On the other hand, I was really pissed off. Not at Alex, but at Caden. Why had he even lied to me? More importantly, why hadn't I known that he was lying? Why had I even believed him for a second? I really thought he was answering me truthfully, just like I had done.

What a shitty liar.

"Why do you hate him anyway?" I asked Alex before he could start saying anything else. "Did he—"

"He's into stuff he shouldn't be in, Sky." Alex cut me off with a shake of his head. He was still frowning and something told me that he was serious. "You don't need to mess around with him."

I wasn't messing around with him, for God's sake.

I didn't say that, though. And thankfully, Alex didn't ask anything further related to my injured hand either. I knew he was just worried, and I couldn't really blame him. Everyone stayed away from Caden. Everyone knew that Caden wasn't a nice person to be around with. There were a lot of glamours around him, glamours that were sometimes way too creepy.

But he had saved my life. He was the one who told me to use an ice pack when the back of my head was paining like shit. He was the one who took me to the nurse's office when the deep gash on my palm was bleeding so badly.

He did all of that.

"So," I leaned my back against Alex's arm, stretching out my legs in front of me on the couch and flipping through the TV channels. "What did I miss in Biology?"

That's one thing I really liked about our friendship. Even if he got really angry at me, we both sorted it out the next second.

"How would I know?" He asked, scrolling on his phone. I slumped against him and stopped at a black and white movie.

"You make me worry about your grades, Alex." I murmured, my gaze still fixated on the screen. Chicken, who had been roaming near the back door, came and curled up near the TV.

That cat loved those movies.

"You know who you sound like?" Alex looked up from his phone with a slight smirk on his face. I didn't need to ask him to know who he was talking about. "You sound like your mother."

I grinned at that. When we were kids, we used to go around mimicking my mom. And honestly, we both nailed it every time.

I stretched out my arms, almost hitting one on Alex's face, and stood up from the couch. "I'll go make popcorn and then we can watch a movie together."

"Sure." He replied, still focused on his phone. "I'll pick out the movie, though."

I hummed in response as I went over towards the kitchen. Almost near it, I stopped in front of the back door. It was locked, I had made sure of that, but I still couldn't help and shiver a bit. "Hey, Allie?"

Alex groaned at that name and I almost smiled.

"Why don't you stay here tonight?" I suggested casually, going inside the kitchen to make the popcorn. Once I was done, I held the bowl in my uninjured hand and plopped myself back on the couch.

"It's almost night anyways, and I really miss my best friend." I added a small pout in the end, looking at him pleadingly. It was the truth, we barely had any sleepovers these days.

Also, I really didn't want to be alone tonight.

He rolled his eyes and snatched the bowl of popcorn from me. "If only you promise not to eat a single popcorn from this bowl."

My eyes widened at those words before I snatched the bowl back. "That's never gonna happen, Alexander. You know it." I chose a comfortable spot on the couch as the movie played on the screen. "I don't understand how you could even think I'd give this to you."

He shook his head and shoved me away. "You're such a pig."

I huffed and linked my arm with his. "But you're still my best friend."

He shoved me once again and this time, to my horror, the bowl fell down from my lap, and all the popcorn littered the floor. Alex chuckled out loud while I looked down in shock. Even Chicken looked surprised at the mess, letting out a small mewl.

"You are so dead." I hissed, picking up the nearest thing and smacking him with it.

"Ouch! Stop it, you monster." He shouted as I kicked him down from the couch. Once he was sprawled on the floor between his fits of laughter, I crossed my arms and slumped back against the couch, totally not happy right now.

Someone was going to make another bowl of popcorn now, and no way in hell was it going to be me.