Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve

Skylar's POV:

"I've always loved you."

I looked in front of me in utter shock. How the hell did I not see this coming? The popcorn in my hand stopped midway in the air before it could reach my mouth.

"What the hell?" I whispered, still taken by the sudden surprise.

Chicken decided to mewl loudly the exact instant, breaking me out of the daze. "Shut up, Chicks. I just got the worst shock ever." I muttered, lightly ruffling her fur.

How would you feel if your worst enemy just said those words to you who also happened to be extremely hot and was almost dead?

Fortunately, none of that was happening with me. It was just the movie I had picked for the big night. The night when everybody else was enjoying the homecoming, while I was here at my house.

It wasn't like it was the prom anyway.

I stuffed my mouth with some more popcorn as I watched the hot guy falling down on the ground, dead. Why was it only the hot guys who died at the end? Why not the female counterpart?

"How could he just die? Isn't this supposed to be a happy movie?" I whined at myself. "God, I would've watched Harry Potter all over again."

Leaning my head back against the couch, I frowned at the screen as the credits rolled up. Just as I was about to pick up another movie, a happy one, my phone started ringing.

With a huff out of my extreme laziness, I rolled over to the other side of the couch and picked up my phone from the coffee table.

"Hello?" I answered without looking at who it was.

The other end was silent except for the sound of loud music and cheers in the background.

"Kyle!" I heard a voice at last.

Oh no.

Only one person in this world had the guts to call me by that sneakily disgusting name. "What the hell, Alex? I thought we agreed to not use such names for me."

When I had started calling him Allie, he had made one name for me too. And sadly, it made me sound like a boy.

"Stop whining, Kyle. You're bursting my ears." He shouted more than he would've. I didn't even know why he was shouting in the first place, I could hear him just fine.

And the mere fact that he was calling me by that name, in a party filled with numerous people, was not welcomed at all.

I rolled my eyes at that and paused the movie on the TV screen. "Why did you call? Aren't you enjoying the homecoming?"

Just like I had expected, Alex had asked out a girl to the dance way before I even got to know about the whole homecoming situation. Those were the benefits of him being in the football team.

"I called you to tell you that I'm finally doing it." He replied, and I didn't fail to notice how the last of his words slurred a bit.

"Doing what, Alex?" I scrunched up my nose in response. If he was going to say something disgusting, I'd have to end the call. I really didn't want him to tell me everything about his hookup conquests.

What he said was totally different though. "I'm confessing my feelings to her." He said with a muffled chuckle.

Okay, he was definitely drunk.

I was kind of surprised that he got to drink at a school party. But then again, it shouldn't be a surprise. The rest of his football buddies always diluted alcohol in drinks at such parties, luckily without the staff knowing. As much as I wanted to leave him there with his drunk ass, since he was obviously having more fun than me, I still knew that wasn't right.

Because if Alex was really drunk, he'd do whatever he was planning to do, and then he'd regret it the next morning. I'd be a horrible friend if I let him do that, especially when he just called me.

"Alex," I sighed, straightening up from my sprawled position on the couch. "You're drunk, all right? Don't do whatever disgusting thing you're trying to do."

He didn't get my warning though. All I heard was some muffled, incoherent response before he ended the call.

Cursing out loud, I stood up with a groan and grabbed my hoodie from the couch, shrugging it over my pajamas. I hated the thought of leaving my house right now. Why now when I was in between my movie marathon, all copied up on the couch?

With a grumble under my breath, I slipped on my sneakers and trudged over towards the front door. If Alex confessed his feelings to the girl he mentioned, it could end him up in a mess.

A big mess.

Glancing at Chicken who was already asleep on the couch, I exited my house, locking the front door behind me.

••••••

The last thing I wanted to do was end up at the homecoming of Crescent High in a freaking hoodie. Not to forget the pajamas I was wearing inside it. Thankfully, nobody seemed to give me a second glance.

The whole school was flooded with music and lights. All of the sound appeared to be coming from the gymnasium and the hallways were almost clear.

I was taken a little by surprise when no one stopped me from entering, to check whether I had the homecoming ticket or not. I was absolutely sure I had seen those long lines in the hallways the entire week, everyone impatient to buy those same tickets.

However, I was more surprised when I noticed the school gymnasium. It was completely changed. All I'd ever imagined our school gym to be was a place full of boring gym equipment. Also, the Coach. But it looked amazing right now. Even my handmade disco balls were hung at some places.

If it wasn't for the random girl who nudged me out of the way, I would still have been left looking around the gymnasium in awe. Maybe I had been wrong not coming to this one homecoming. It looked like everyone was having fun. A lot of fun.

Inhaling deeply, I stepped along one corner and started to look around for Alex among the crowd. That's what I was here for, To find Alex.

It felt odd being the only person who was wearing pajamas, especially in between girls and guys who wore formal dresses and suits. It felt really awkward.

I started squeezing my way through the crowd, praying at the same time that I wouldn't slam into someone from one of my classes. That was one embarrassment I didn't want to face.

After what felt like ages, I finally spotted someone. Not Alex, but one of his closest football friends. I walked over towards the group of guys and yelled his name above the noise, "Hey, Sean!"

The guy with perfectly styled blond hair, a shade way lighter than Alex's, turned towards me. And I tried not to cringe when he noticed my attire, giving me a funny look.

"Have you seen Alex?" I asked him, trying my best to ignore the stares I was getting from his other guy friends. I was sure some were snickering.

Guess they had never seen a girl in pajamas, at a party before.

"He left the gym an hour ago." He shrugged. "Don't know where he'd be now."

I frowned at that, looking around the crowd once again.

"He left for the restroom though. Maybe you should check there." He added, pointing towards the other exit of the gymnasium.

I thanked him quickly and followed the direction he had pointed towards. Once again, I found myself in an empty hallway. There was no staff or anyone else there. Hoping that Alex hadn't done what he had been telling me over the phone, I ran towards the boy's restroom.

But he wasn't there.

Frowning, I started to leave the hallway when I heard a shuffling sound from outside the girl's restroom. Pressing my lips together, I went closer and saw him sitting down on the floor, leaning back against the restroom wall.

"Alex!" I hissed and rushed towards him.

He looked up at me and blinked twice, his blond hair falling over his eyes. Judging by his state, he looked highly wasted. If any staff found him here, in front of the girl's restroom and drunk, he was definitely going to get kicked out. And if they saw me with him, I might get kicked out too.

"Alex, what the fuck?" I grabbed his arm and tried pulling him up. Unfortunately, that guy was made up of too much muscle with all the football practices he attended, and I was one weakling.

To my relief, he was still sober enough to stand up once my attempt to pull him up failed. "Kyle, you came?"

I gripped his arm again and gave him a glare. "Not here, Alex. Don't call me that here, okay?"

He blinked again and chuckled lightly. "I thought you wouldn't come. I was about to...that girl—"

"Alex, start walking before I kick you somewhere where it'll definitely hurt." I cut him off with another glare.

His expression sobered up at that and he started walking with me towards the end of the hallway, leaning on my side a little as I gripped his arm to keep him steady.

"Give me your car keys."

He shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Kyle. I didn't mean to—"

"God, give me the keys, will you?" I said exasperatedly.

As we exited the hallway to the grounds outside, I made him lean back against one school wall as he fumbled in his pant pockets for his keys.

"You shouldn't have gotten this wasted, Alex." I shook my head with a frown. "If any teacher saw you before I did—"

"Just don't hate me, all right Kyle?" He asked me, pushing his keys into my hand.

"Why would I hate you?" I looked at him in disbelief. Drunk Alex was someone I hated to be around, but I didn't tell him that.

He seemed to think about that for a while. "I told you to come here...just because I was about to hook up with a girl, right?"

I took the keys and groaned out loud. There was absolutely no one there in the ground besides us, and I was glad.

"A school dance, Alex. Try to control your hormonal instincts." I told him. He didn't listen though. Instead, he leaned his head back against the wall and his eyes fluttered close. Since he looked way too drunk right now, I'd have to drive instead of him, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to that.

I was about to start dragging him again, to his car this time, when I heard sudden voices. Voices that seemed to be coming from the other end of the school ground. I glanced back at Alex and he didn't look like he cared about anything at the moment.

When I heard the voices once again, I couldn't help but notice the familiarity of them. Stepping away from Alex, I slowly walked adjacent to the wall and came to halt when I saw two silhouettes standing near the school gates, their faces hidden by the shadows.

I Creed a little closer and stopped behind the wall when I could hear the voices more clearly.

"Either you tell me, or I'll have to rip his head off if he doesn't." One of those two voices spoke up, and the threat underlying the voice was clearly unmistakable.

I frowned a little at the harshness of it. It didn't seem like they were enjoying the homecoming.

I pressed myself against the wall and peeked at them once again. Now that I was closer, I noticed that it was a boy and a girl. The boy had his back towards me but the girl didn't, instead she was facing him. Looking at her unfamiliar face, I realized that I had never seen her at our school before.

"You know that's just bullshit." The girl spoke up at the same time, and even though I couldn't see it, I heard the smirk in her voice. "You can't even get near him."

She looked like one of those badass girls in her complete black attire, the ones who somehow loved to smoke and fight almost everyone. Her voice came out much braver than it would've, even if that other boy sounded like he might kill her any second now.

I hadn't really thought over it too much, until he pulled out something from his pocket. And once I saw the hard surface of the object shining wickedly under the moonlight, I stiffened in response.

It was a gun.

I wasn't the only one with that reaction though. When I looked over at the girl, I didn't fail to notice the little hint of fear clouding over her features, even though she masked it quickly.

"Bullshit is what I deal with. He knows better." I heard his voice before he loaded the gun, the clicking sound echoing in the darkness.

At that moment, I could only hear my heart beating wildly in my ears. I just couldn't believe I was actually witnessing this all with my own eyes, inside my high school.

Holy crap.

The girl took a step back but the boy was faster. Within a mere second, he swept one of his legs around and behind her ankles before pushing her down on the ground. Next thing I knew, he was pointing the gun at her forehead.

I took a step back in horror, only to hear something snap beneath my shoes, loud enough to grab both of their attention.

Holy fucking crap.

However, that wasn't what made my eyes widen up in shock. It was the familiar face of the boy looking at me that made me freeze at my spot.

Caden.