Chapter Fifty-One

Skylar's POV:

I was embarrassed.

Highly embarrassed.

"Come on, bro! I thought somebody broke in." I saw Shane whining before he threw himself on the couch.

"But this sight was more...nice." Jesse smirked, glancing at Adrian with a knowing look.

I placed a hand over my burning face, trying to hide the mortification I felt at that moment. My entire face was heating up, so much so that I could even see red now. Caden tugged me closer by my waist, nuzzling into my neck, his dark black hair inches from my nose.

Did he even care that I was practically dying out of embarrassment right now?

"Bad timings." Caden muttered.

"She is the girl." Adrian whispered over to Jesse, which I'm sure wasn't meant as a whisper.

All I wanted to do at that moment was go back to my home, to my room, crawl under my blanket, and forget about the entire world for the next century.

"If I had known you two were making out, I wouldn't have sacrificed my sleep." Shane kept on whining in the pillow.

That just increased the level of embarrassment.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Caden turned around and looked at them. I was beyond glad to finally hide my face behind his back.

God, it was burning.

"You two don't look like you were sleeping." He narrowed his eyes, probably at Jesse and Adrian. They certainly looked like they might start jumping up and down any second.

Could they make it any worse?

"We were!" Jesse raised his brows before slinging an arm around Aden's shoulder. "Until we heard voices."

I didn't even realize that Adrian had crept up behind me until he wrapped his arm around my own shoulders. "Voices that sounded like-"

"Stop it, please." I blurted out with wide eyes, placing both of my palms against my burning cheeks. This seemed like a horrifying nightmare. "It's very much embarrassing already."

Both of them broke out laughing. Caden just rolled his eyes.

"Can we talk about all those details tomorrow?" Shane looked up from his pillow, trying his hardest to keep his eyes open. "I'm so darn tired."

I was relieved somebody was on my side.

"Me too." I looked at him, hoping that he'd be kind enough to get me out of this mess. He got up from the couch just as quick, "Follow me, lady. I'll show you the guestroom."

I shrugged off Adrian arm from my shoulders, relieved that I could be finally saved from this embarrassing situation.

"Here I thought she was sleeping in Aden's room." Jesse spoke up and Adrian let out a snicker. Before I could almost begged them to stop making this more embarrassing for me, Caden took hold of my arm, stopping me from following after Shane.

"I'll take her to the guestroom." He told Shane before looking back at Jesse and Adrian. "And you two, go back to sleep before I kick you out of this house."

Shane didn't think twice before going upstairs, probably to his room, while Caden started dragging me behind him. I could still hear the snickers behind me, but I guess there's a limit of getting embarrassed and I had most definitely reached the end point of it to not even feel it anymore.

When we reached upstairs, I was a bit surprised to see another long, dark hallway in front of me. It still surprised me every time how huge this house actually was. There were even another pair of stairs along the other end of the hallway, leading to God knows where.

Caden stopped in front of a door and opened it. He motioned at me to go inside while he went off towards the other direction, leaving me all alone.

I was embarrassed and nervous and so much more embarrassed. I still couldn't get off the feelings I had gotten when he had kissed me, or touched me. It had been so sudden. And I had equally loved it.

Going inside, I slowly let my eyes wander across the room. It was mostly empty, but something about the moonlight spreading across the entire room made me feel a bit relaxed. I sat down on the edge of the bed and a small sigh escaped my lips. The bed sheets were extremely soft beneath my fingers, inviting me to doze off as soon as possible.

But soon enough, I saw Caden entering the room and all my sleep, once again, drained away. I stood up and looked at the clothes in his hands.

"Thanks." I murmured, taking them from him and not meeting his eyes for some reason.

Before I could actually backed off, he stepped closer and without really touching me, I felt him place a soft kiss on my forehead. I nearly melted against him when I looked up into his warm, green eyes.

"Just so you know." He started with traces of a smirk. "I really love kissing you."

Love.

I blushed hard, all over again.

••••••

I woke up, somewhere in the middle of the night, from a very horrifying nightmare. It took me seconds to register the unfamiliar place around me as I clutched onto the sheets over me. The room was cold, yet my forehead was still beaded with sweat.

I took in deep breaths and tried adjusting my vision on the wall clock. I realized then that it was only three after midnight right now.

I had been so extremely tired when I had laid down on this bed, not even imagining waking up this early. But that dream had been unsettling. I only remembered bits of it; there was Alex, and blood, and fighting, and my parents.

I was glad that I didn't remember it all, though. I usually never got dreams, and if I did, it took me mere seconds to forget them.

Wiping my forehead, I pushed the sheets away from me and stood up from the bed. I hoped I could easily make my way downstairs and get some water.

However, when I walked downstairs, I realized that I mightn't taken the wrong stairs. Mainly because where I was right now, it certainly looked like the basement to me.

There wasn't a single source of light in here. I patted my pockets only to realize that these were obviously not my own clothes, and my phone couldn't be in them. I turned around, ready to go upstairs, and slammed against a wall.

"Dammit!" I muttered under my breath, rubbing the tip of my nose. After a bit of reaching around, I finally managed to come across a switchboard and opened the lights.

It took me by sudden surprise when I looked across the empty room, the basement. There were huge screens along one corner, all black and switched off, and an electrical control panel situated to its right. I noticed a long, glass table in the middle of the room and there were a lot of small, sharp knives dumped on it-as if that was supposed to be normal.

However, that wasn't what caught my eye. It was the huge bulletin board on the opposite wall that made me frown. I stepped closer towards it and saw several, no, hundreds of things pinned on it. Photographs, sticky notes, newspaper articles, and so much more.

My eyes darted across them, stopping at a familiar name scribbled boldly on one small piece of paper.

Kevin Francis.

I couldn't help but read the next few words scribbled below it, Blake will do anything that he says.

Keep an eye on his men.

It was the faint sound of someone's footsteps that made me stumble back from that large board.

I really shouldn't be here.

That's exactly why I quickly closed off the lights, running upstairs and back in the same hallway that I saw when I left the guestroom. This time, I made sure to walk down the correct flight of stairs and found myself in the familiar lounge.

Just like that basement, the entire lounge was enveloped in darkness. Except that there were windows here, the moonlight shining right through them.

Cautiously, I walked towards the kitchen, glancing at my reflection in the glass windows. I almost cringed at the loose-fitted clothes I was wearing. I was pretty sure Caden had purposefully chosen the biggest of his clothes for me. But I wasn't complaining; both the hoodie and trousers felt extremely soft against my skin.

I started looking around for the fridge when I noticed that one of the back doors was opened, giving me the glance of the backyard outside.

A small frown formed on my face and I didn't dare move even a bit. When I peeked outside, I saw a silhouette of someone sitting on the wooden bench.

It was definitely the curiosity that made me walk towards it. And when I was near enough to make out the familiar red curls, I relaxed a bit.

He turned around, as if sensing the presence behind him, and looked at me in surprise. It was that nerdy boy-who wasn't wearing his glasses for some reason.

I realized that he was still looking at me with his big, blue eyes.

"Hey-I'm sorry. I thought somebody left the door open." I spoke up with a small, sheepish smile.

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly before letting out a short shrug.

"No problem. You can join in...if you can't sleep either." He mumbled in response.

I hesitated a little, looking across the eerily dark backyard. I still couldn't understand why this house was in between those tall bunch of trees. It was creepy, especially at night.

Still, I made my way outside towards him, glad to have some company right now-a company who hadn't witnessed the embarrassing moment between Caden and me.

"You're Seth, right?" I asked him before sitting down beside him. It had already stopped raining, but the air still smelled like storm.

He hummed in response.

"Why can't you sleep?" I glanced at him curiously. He looked younger than the rest of them, and he probably was.

"Not really a heavy sleeper." He replied slowly. "When Jesse and Adrian started talking loudly outside my room, I woke up." I didn't even need to ask him what Jesse and Adrian mustn't been talking about.

"Talking about Caden and some girl making out." He added, leaning back against the bench. "They're very loud when they want to be."

I looked away from him, trying my best not to let my face heat up all over again. I would've just stayed inside. I would've stayed upstairs. I would've just kept sleeping.

"Oh." I heard him say, before he broke out into a soft chuckle.

I forced a smile on my face, refraining myself from glaring up at the sky.

"You can't blame us." He still sounded like he was trying his best not to laugh. "We've never actually seen Caden...that serious with a girl."

That actually warmed my heart.

"He must really love you." He pointed out.

"He likes me." I corrected him on instinct.

I got an eye roll in response.

"What's the difference between that? Like or love, that's almost the same." He said. And to be honest, I had never really thought of it that way.

I just shrugged in response.

"You all seem really close." I looked at him. "Especially with Caden."

He let out another small hum.

"We are. Aden's like an older brother to me." He sounded like he really meant it and I believed him. Everyone knew that Caden was never the type to hang out with almost anyone, especially in school. But here, he was more of himself around them.

And that made me happy.

"How did you guys get together then, in this gang, if you weren't related?" I asked, looking over at the trees when I heard the distinct sound of crickets.

"Well, Jesse and Adrian were best friends way before we all met up. They were always into street fights. As much as I know, Caden met them both in one of those underground fights." He told me. "While I am kind of related to Caden."

"You are?"

He nodded.

"I lived in one of those foster homes back then. Until Aden's Aunt adopted me." He continued. "I never actually liked Blake either. And when the...incident happened-"

I took that he was referring to when Aden's parents died.

"--I got along with Caden, and the others too. I'd help him willingly against Blake. That guy is a bit fucked up here." He said, pointing over to his head.

And I agreed to that. Blake was fully fucked up in my opinion.

"Shane, on the other hand, has been his best friend since they were kids. He always stuck by his side from the start."

That reminded me of Alex.

"Alex and I were the same." I found myself saying, almost a slow murmur. "He was my only best friend."

"I heard about him." Seth murmured back, glancing at me. "He's in the...East gang."

We both fell into silence after that. I really didn't want to dwell into things I had lost. It just hurt more.

"I trusted him to never hurt me." I whispered, still looking ahead into the never-ending darkness.

"Aden's gonna keep you safe. You know that, don't you?" He asked.

I smiled slightly. "I know."

After that, it was just the silence around us, and it was comforting for some reason. It was probably the comforting aura around him, or maybe just his eyes.

"All right, I think I'll finally be able to sleep." I said before getting up. He looked up at me but kept sitting there. "You really won't sleep?"

A grin broke across his lips. "I'm used to it."

When I was back inside and had successfully drank some water, I went back upstairs. Hoping that I didn't have any nightmares this time.

••••••

I woke up the second time when I felt somebody nudging me. With a frown on my face and my eyes still closed, I pulled the sheets over me. I was almost about to fall back into the beautiful world of sleeping unicorns when I felt another shake on my shoulder. A very annoying one, may I add.

"Go away." I groaned.

"I cannot believe how much you actually sleep." My half-conscious mind was conscious enough to know that it was Caden. Since he was the only one here who had a knack for insulting my sleep quite efficiently.

"Go away, Caden." I pulled the sheets further over my face.

Instead of leaving, I felt his hands gripping my arms before easily pulling me up in a sitting position. I blinked my eyes groggily, registering his face, which was very much close to mine.

Oh dear lord.

"Finally." He made an exaggeration by rolling his eyes, failing to hide the amusement from them-like he was enjoying this as much as I wasn't.

"I need to sleep." I complained, pulling the hoodie sleeves over my fists and rubbing my eyes. I had just fallen asleep, and now he was here ruining it.

"You don't."

"I do."

"Sky-"

I muted him out by throwing my arms around him and burying my face against his shoulder. My eyelids shut close and it took me just seconds to doze off. Especially since he was really warm and smelled so good.

Oh, it was such a comforting sleep.

Until he shook me again by my shoulders.

"Caden!" I whined against him. I heard a small chuckle escape his lips and my stomach fluttered giddily.

"You've got to wake up." He said, shaking me out of the stupid daze.

Why was he enjoying this?

"Get the fuck out of this room." I grumbled against his shirt.

"I can't really." He pointed out. "You're clinging onto me like a sloth."

I rolled my eyes, even though they were closed, before unconsciously rubbing the tip of my nose against his shoulder. He leaned closer and wrapped an arm securely around me.

"It's past noon already." He whispered in my ear, and I heard the smile in his voice.

If only he could just shut up.

"I'd say I love you if you just let me sleep." I murmured. Surprisingly, he didn't say anything after that. That's when I realized what I had actually said.

Oh fuck.

As if my sleep drained away on cue, I pulled away from him with somewhat wide eyes as he looked back at me with his green ones, shining in pure amusement.

"I...didn't mean that." I blurted out with a small, nervous laugh. I didn't even know why I said that. I mean, of course I like him, but I've never said it out loud.

Traces of a smile edged on his lips as he leaned closer, eyeing me all the while. "You didn't mean that." He repeated.

I found myself choked up on answers. Or words.

"Need to...change." I whispered. He rolled his eyes, the smile not leaving his lips. And for once, I really wished he wasn't smiling. Because that just made me want to keep on staring at him and his goddamn beautiful face, and that in turn made me want to tell him that I did fucking love this.

God, I did not need this so early in the morning.

"All right." He got up, probably satisfied that I was wide awake now. "I'll let you change. And we'll talk about this later."

Oh fuck, indeed.