Chapter Forty-Nine

Skylar's POV:

"—it isn't bad here. I like this school." Brody said.

I wasn't exactly paying attention to whatever he had been saying, especially since I was tired as hell. I didn't get to have much sleep last night. Between those overwhelming thoughts and one specific nightmare about Alex, it was a bit hard to sleep. Every few minutes later I had to keep on reassuring myself that no one was breaking in my house, not when Mom and Dad were still here.

I just missed Alex.

"Hey," It was when Brody gently nudged my shoulder with his, that I looked at him. "Why do you seem so down today?"

I was counting by the seconds, waiting for this class to get over. Since the teacher wasn't present today, the substitute one had given us a free period. And that just gave the others to talk loudly, not letting me have even the slightest bit of peaceful silence.

I was glad, though, that Brody was here. Listening to him talk proved out to be a lot more comforting than sitting here alone and being enveloped in my own miserable thoughts, even if I really wasn't paying attention to what exactly he was saying. Brody had been a nice company ever since Alex had stopped coming to school, and I appreciated that.

"Nothing. I just feel tired." I told him and rubbed my entire face for further emphasis.

He slung his arm around my shoulders which I took as a friendly gesture. Alex did that to me all the time.

And now I missed him.

"Oh, I shouldn't bore you off with my stupid talk then." He said, giving me a cute, sheepish smile. I returned it back, though it mustn't come out more unreal.

"Anyway, for that biology project, we need to meet up after school." He pointed out. "Your place or the library?"

I didn't know why he didn't mention his place, and as if reading the silent question on my face, he added, "I kind of have my place booked up tonight. So mine isn't an option."

I wasn't so sure about my place either. Thankfully, the bell rang right on time.

"How about I tell you when the classes end?" I asked him, before getting up. He agreed to it with another one of his charming smiles.

However, I didn't get the time to catch up to him later when the classes ended. All because I got a detention from my Calculus professor, and that happened because I forgot to submit my assignment on time.

Was it my fault that I didn't have the energy to do anything after yesterday's event?

The truth was, there had been no Alex to help me out with it. Even though he wasn't any good in helping me out with my homework, he always helped me with Calculus. And remembering that just made me more sad—sadder than usual.

When I entered the detention classroom, I sat down at the far back of the class, near the window overlooking the empty parking lot. Everyone had already left the school grounds, excluding me and the other, few detention students.

I didn't remember ever getting detention before. My life was starting to get so messed up. I missed those days when I just cared about my sleep, or Netflix.

Blowing out a tired sigh, I placed my head on the desk.

"—who am I kidding? You'd always find her sleeping during free periods. Especially since Alex stopped coming to school." I heard a voice from somewhere in front of the class. "She arrived so late to class today, I wish you could’ve seen it all."

I tried ignoring the giggles. I shouldn't have been bothered by their remarks. After all, they did not even know half of what I was going through. A major case of trust issues, that's what.

First Alex. Then Caden. Why was this even happening with me?

I knew that I shouldn't have rushed it. I shouldn't have rushed it with Caden, or Alex even. I would've let them explain. But would that even change anything? Caden hadn't even wanted to explain it to me. He thought that I didn't deserve an explanation.

Did I not?

Were there more things that he wasn't telling me? Maybe that was the real reason why he wanted to keep this, whatever that was between us, private. Because this was complicated. And he didn't want to give me any explanations.

But why would he kill his own parents? Why didn't anybody know about this, about his parents?

I found myself remembering Alex's words then.

What if Caden hadn't been the good one here? What if I had mistaken him? What if his gang was the bad one?

I could feel the sudden rush of adrenaline pumping through me.

Whatever this was, he'd have to tell me why. He'd have to explain this to me. He couldn't just tell me that he liked me, kiss me, and still hide things from me. Either that, or he was just lying about his feelings for me.

I just really, really hoped that it wasn't the latter. Even thinking about that made me feel like a complete fool.

I'll talk to him.

"Don't even get me started, dude. Both Alex and Caden left the football team at almost the same time." I heard another voice. "And guess what? They were last seen with that girl."

I heard snickers this time.

"I don't even know what Caden saw in her. It's probably just a fake rumor anyway. We all know he rarely goes out with any girl, and with her—"

I tuned her out just as quick, squeezing my eyes shut and letting my mind drift off to something else. I really didn't want to hear whatever they were saying. Why was I suddenly the main talk in this room? Just because this was my first time in detention?

"She must be doing some sort of black magic." A girl whispered.

I scowled at that. What was I now? A freaking witch? I couldn't believe how lame this talk was heading off to. Why wasn't the teacher asking them to shut their mouths?

"Oh, I forgot. She's more into her sleep." More snickers.

A small groan slipped past my lips and I had to stifle the urge to look up and tell them to shut up. Because if I did that, I might just end up getting more hours of detention. I just decided to mute them all out.

Taking out my phone, I opened the browser. If the teacher was sleepy enough to not notice the bullshit coming out of their mouths, then he might not notice me using my phone either.

Opening the browser, I typed in Fernando Miller on the search bar. I wasn't really expecting anything to pop up when it started loading. But I was a lot surprised when I saw few pictures.

Pictures of a house, from the inside actually. It had black, scorch marks almost everywhere on the walls. Another picture showed the outside of the same house and many firefighter trucks surrounding it. All in all, I was left a bit shaken.

I tried looking for any sort of article, but found absolutely none. Not even a single thing related to those pictures. As if somebody had made sure they weren't out there for the public eye.

The same moment, I heard the bell ring. I've never been that grateful to leave a classroom.

All the school halls were empty when I exited the classroom. To make matters worse, it was raining heavily outside, and I had no ride back home since I clearly missed the bus. So I had to walk and get all wet in the rain.

I wouldn't have complained if it weren't for the cold breeze along with the rain. Winter was kind of near, and I was no fan of walking around in rain-drenched clothes, shivering all the while.

I hadn't even taken two steps out of the school parking lot and I was fully drenched in rainwater. My hair was clinging onto my shoulders and I had my arms wrapped around myself. Clutching my bag to my chest, I really hoped it won't get all watery once I got back home. If I had known it was going to rain, I would've taken an umbrella with me.

Everything went completely normal after that. I was trying my best to not step into any puddles, walking along the street. It was when I felt a strange presence behind me that I grew a bit alert. I waved off that feeling at first, thinking that it was just in my head.

But when I glanced over at the glass doors of a shop right beside me and saw the reflection of a figure, I kind of started panicking a bit. Mainly because that guy was dressed in a long black raincoat, the hood over his face, the basic definition of a creepy stalker. But I willed myself not to panic any further. There were other people besides me on this street. Even if that guy was stalking me, the chances of harm were very less.

I started walking faster towards my house.

When I peeked at the closed window of a car beside me, the guy was still behind me. That's when I realized that I was sure as heck being followed. Although I had changed directions more than twice, he was still behind me.

I licked my lips anxiously and hugged my bag closer to my chest. I shouldn't go to my house. What if this guy wanted me to take him there, so that he could corner me? What if he was from B lake's gang and wanted to corner me just to get that USB drive?

The drive that would now be in some trashcan, after being officially crushed in that blender.

I was broken off from my thoughts when I felt the rain stopping abruptly. Or rather someone placing an umbrella over me.

"Caden?" I whispered.

He wrapped his hand around mine and for a tiny second, I felt a different kind of feeling within me. I felt warm and I felt safe.

"Someone's following you." He glanced at me. I hadn't stopped walking and he was walking beside me.

Why was he always the one who came up to save me from creepy hooded stalkers?

"I know." I looked away from him when I realized that I had been staring at him all along. He tightened his hold on my hand before changing the route and taking me along with him, to an empty alleyway.

I heard footsteps behind us.

I peeked behind my shoulder to see the guy still following us.

"He's still following." My voice came out a bit breathy. Looking ahead, I saw that the alley ended just few feet ahead of us; the concrete wall nearing closer. We had nowhere to go. As if hearing my thoughts, he looked at me, his eyes darting across my face.

"Hold this." He passed me the umbrella. I took it from him and realized that I was trembling, probably because of the cold.

Everything happened a bit too fast after that. I saw that hooded guy reaching out for me. The exact instant, Caden stepped in the way, a pure look of fury settling over his face. I wasn't really surprised when he grasped the front of the guy's coat, swinging a punch on his face—which mustn't hurt. However, it wasn't why I gasped in shock.

It was when that guy stumbled backwards and his hood fell off from his face, that I gasped.

It was Brody.

That was the exact moment when I realized how fucked up my life actually was. Brody, on the other hand, didn't even have the decency to spare me a glance. As if he hadn't been going all charming on me, with all those smiles.

Stupid smiles.

I couldn't even think straight with the anger surfacing inside of me. Was he with Blake? Of course, this was B lake's doing! After all, why would anyone want to be my friend all of a sudden?

What was with trust these days?

Before Caden could punched him again, I came in between them, facing Brody.

"Why the hell were you following me?" I sounded even angrier than I felt. God, I wanted to punch him so bad.

His lip was bleeding badly. But when he looked at me, he wasn't the same, smiling Brody that I remembered.

"Where's that locker?" He glared at me threateningly. I could not believe what I was hearing. Was that the reason why he was so willing to meet up at my house for that freaking biology project?

"Oh, for God's sake! Why do you guys keep playing with my fucking feelings?" I yelled right at his face. I didn't even realize that I had cornered him against the wall, pointing accusingly at his chest.

"I need the locker!" He growled.

"Sky—" I heard Caden behind me. Turning around abruptly towards him, I passed him a glare. "What?"

He seemed highly surprised at that. But nonetheless, he gently gripped my arm and tried to pull me away. "Don't step in between." He muttered.

"I'm not stepping in between!" I yelled at him, jerking back my arm from his grip. Pointing back at Brody, who looked kind of stunned, I said, "I thought he was my friend!"

That line kind of seemed old by now. How many times have I actually said that?

"I will be your friend if you tell me where that locker is." Brody hissed at me.

I kind of lost it at that point. Curling up my fingers into a fist, I clenched them tightly before slamming the same fist in his face. He staggered back at the impact and I could feel the tingling sensation on my knuckles, yet I still didn't back off. I was so fucking angry.

"You're a jerk to work with him, Brody! Do you even—" Before I could literally try to strangle him, I felt an arm snaking around my waist, trying to pull me away once again.

"Leave me the fuck alone, Caden!"

"I'm not letting you—" He successfully pushed me behind him, a bit frustrating, though I could see the slight glint in his eyes. "—hurt yourself, Sky!"

It took both of us by surprise when Brody shoved Caden away, punching him somewhere near his abdomen. I stepped back in horror, something twisting painfully in my stomach.

Oh God.

I didn't step in between them again. I just felt horrible, because of every single thing. Caden didn't stop himself from injuring Brody even more, and even though I didn't really care what happened to Brody, I just wished that he would stop.

Instead, I found myself cornering back against the opposite concrete wall, and sliding down against it. I pulled up my knees against my chest, hearing the clouds rumbling up in the sky and my heart beating a bit too wildly inside my chest.

Blake was trying his best to ruin me emotionally. He was winning. Why was he doing that?

First he took Alex from me. And even if Brody wasn't ever the best of my friends, he still had been my friend. Blake took him away too. Then telling me stuff about Caden which I really shouldn't have known. He was trying to leave me stranded. Alone.

I thought Blake was—

I placed my hands over my face, my fingers gripping onto my hair. Every part inside me wanted to scream out loud. Scream in anger. Scream in frustration.

I saw my bag thrown across one corner, the umbrella too. I saw Brody running away at some point. I even saw Caden coming up towards me, holding out his hand, to help me get up.

I let few cold, silent seconds pass by. I didn't take his hand, though. Instead, I got up myself, my eyes instantly searching for his.

"Caden," I spoke up, and it took everything in me to not let my voice break. "Please—" I stopped, not sure what to say. My throat felt too tight. He just kept on staring at me, waiting.

I finally found back my voice, "I-I can't really think straight right now. Not even for a single second. My mind feels...fucked up. And I just want you to—" I stopped, gazing back into his green eyes, the same unreadable ones.

"Please tell me why." I said. "Please tell me you weren't—"

"I wasn't playing, Sky." He finished my sentence, except that he was answering this time. He stepped closer towards me and I saw his eyes softening up, lingering on my face. "And I was wrong. I do owe you an explanation."

I blinked at him, relief clouding up my insides.

He slowly ran a hand through his drenched black hair, pushing them away from his forehead. He opened his mouth to say something else, but ended up looking away from me. "I'll tell you everything."

When I didn't say anything, his eyes found mine once again and they held such a warm look, that for a second it left me speechless.

He wasn't playing with my feelings.

"I really am nor–" I cut him off by smashing my face against his chest and wrapping my arms around him.

I really needed him.

I gulped the lump in my throat and closed my eyes. He slowly wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me even closer.

"You'll tell me why." I said, feeling the wetness drifting down to my cheeks. "I won't let you dodge it, Caden. I swear."

I felt him place a small kiss on my forehead.

"I won't."