Chapter 8: Chapter Eight

Skylar's POV:

Trying to act like everything was completely normal –the next day in school– felt a bit too hard, especially when I had one of my hands wrapped up in a bandage.

Every time I moved that hand even a bit, the constant reminder of last night flashed before my eyes along with the stinging harsh pain. The gash hadn't been that deep and it had stopped bleeding after a while, but it still hurt. And each time, it felt extremely hard not to wince out loud whenever the familiar jolt of pain ran up my arm.

I would've told Alex about it, but something inside me prevented me from doing so. I was still Creed out by the whole incident that had happened last night, way too paranoid for my own good. That guy in that ski mask was still lurking around in my head and I was too scared to call the police.

Maybe I would've. Called the police, I mean. Maybe I would've even called my parents. But I hadn't done any of that. I had been so scared, I was still terrified. What if this got worse after that? What if that guy in that black ski mask came after me just because I told the police?

Not telling Alex was the worse, though. He was always there for me, way before my own parents. It had always been like that; we always told each other everything. And now, it felt like I was keeping something really big from him, and I hated that.

Someone threw a paper ball at my back, which bounced over my shoulder and fell down on my desk, right in front of me. Knowing that it couldn't be anyone other than Alex himself, I picked up the crumbled paper and opened it up. This had always been our way of talking during class lectures.

I smoothed out the paper with my uninjured hand and tried to peek over the words written on it, a bit discreetly since I didn't want Mrs. Jackson to find out that I wasn't paying any attention to her words.

"You seem so distant today. Did something happen?"

I rolled my eyes with a heavy sigh, picked up my pencil, and wrote. It was good that the gash had been on my left hand, or else things would've been a little more difficult than this.

"Don't be foolish. Physics’ test is coming up and I'm too concentrated on it to give a shit to you."

I scrunched up the paper back into a ball and threw it over my shoulder, right where it came from. Thankfully, Mrs. Jackson was still not looking towards us. Biology was the only class Alex and I had together.

Few seconds later, I heard Alex snort loudly behind me. He kicked the back of my chair with his foot and I turned my head around, giving him a glare. We both got a few stares and Alex gave me a sheepish smile in return as I turned back around with a small, irritated huff.

For some unknown reason, Alex had been acting a bit too concerning towards me since the moment he picked me up from my house today. Or maybe it was just me being a bit too paranoid because of yesterday, thinking that he was being clingy.

On the other hand, Biology was the only class I always looked forward to, but today it felt like nothing made sense. I could barely register whatever Mrs. Jackson was saying, and maybe that had a lot to do with the lack of sleep from last night. How was I supposed to even sleep when somebody broke in my house, at night, and almost killed me?

My brain was begging me to close my eyes and doze off, right here, between the class. But I knew I couldn't do that. Mrs. Jackson was too sweet for it, but I still wasn't looking for detention.

I propped up my chin on my right hand, listening to whatever the teacher was saying even if that made no sense. I swear to God, I wasn't even kidding, Mrs. Jackson's voice felt like a perfect lullaby at that moment.

My eyes had almost closed shut when I realized what I was actually doing. I jerked up my head the next instant, hitting my injured hand at the corner of the table and almost yelping out loud in pain.

But I didn't do that. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to hold in the painful shriek. Thankfully, nobody noticed. I looked down at my throbbing hand and pulled up my Frey hoodie sleeve for a quick check. Everything would've been totally fine if the bandage that was wrapped around my palm hadn't started turning red.

Red with blood. My own freaking blood.

I pulled down the sleeve abruptly and felt my mouth going dry. Looking over at Mrs. Jackson, I raised up my other hand.

"Can I use the restroom?" I asked her in a rush, trying not to show the pain in my voice.

God, it hurt.

She mustn't noticed the blood draining from my face since she nodded almost immediately. I wasted no time in standing up and sprinting out of the classroom. It almost felt like my head was spinning as I ran in the hallway, looking for the restroom. I guess you really shouldn't run in the school hallways though, especially if you were counting down the last few seconds of your life with absolute lack of sleep. Because the next thing I knew, I slammed right into a wall.

Literally.

A small groan slipped out of my lips as I stumbled backwards. To my surprise, before I could fall down with the hit, someone behind me placed a hand on my back to steady me.

Rubbing my forehead, I turned around and saw Caden in front of me. He looked at me in surprise, his eyes clouding over with disbelief.

"Thank you." I whispered and took a step back in a rush, forgetting that there was still a wall behind me, and hitting my head on it again.

What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?

I closed my eyes shut and scrunched up my forehead in pain, rubbing the back of my head now. My head must hate me so much.

"Anderson," He sounded pitiful. "What the hell?"

I opened my eyes and tried not looking into his judgmental ones, still rubbing my head. I hadn't even noticed that I was rubbing my head with my injured hand until Aden's gaze slipped away from my face towards it.

I stopped right then and pulled my hand away. Three tense seconds passed by as I saw a small frown forming on his face. I felt my own face heating up in embarrassment before I sidestepped him and took few steps backwards.

His eyes came back at my face and he opened his mouth to say something. I didn't hear it though, because my hand was throbbing so badly and my face felt too hot. Instead, I turned around and ran for the girl's restroom.

Once I reached the nearest cubicle, I went inside and closed the door shut behind me. Fortunately, there was no one else in the restroom besides me. And unfortunately, I was about to start crying any second now.

Especially when I pulled up my sleeve from my right hand and looked down at the bandage. I was hundred percent sure it had been white when I had wrapped it this morning. Right now, however, it was just fully red.

A small shudder went through me and I gritted my teeth in pain, leaning back against the stall door as I started to unwrap the bandage.

The gash was bleeding badly, and it looked really ugly right now.

Why hadn't I gone to see a doctor? Why had I even waited for so long?

I blinked rapidly when my vision started blurring with tears. I felt like I could really throw up right now.

How was I even supposed to stop the bleeding?

It was hurting so bad and I didn't know how long I couldn't stay here without Alex or Mrs. Jackson noticing my absence.

Sniffing loudly, I bit onto my lower lip as I furrowed my brows and threw the bandage in the bin. I stifled the sob that was right about to leave my throat. It wasn't just the pain, it was everything.

Everything that had happened yesterday.

Just as I heard the restroom door opening up, I froze in my spot and my eyes widened, few tears rolling down my cheeks. "What the hell is going on, Anderson?"

I didn't know what I was more surprised for: Caden coming inside the girl's restroom, or him calling me by my last name in such kind of situation.

I sealed my mouth shut, though. For some reason, I didn't want to tell him that I was here. Actually, I knew the reason. I didn't want him to say something offensive right when he'd see my miserable state. He already considered me as a total fool, and I most definitely did not want him to laugh at my face once he saw me crying my eyes out.

"I know you're in here." I heard his voice just outside my stall door.

I couldn't have said anything to get him out of here without breaking down. My throat felt too tight with the tears that were brimming up in my eyes. I managed to wipe them from my other sleeve and waited for a whole minute. When I didn't hear the sound of his footsteps retreating, I finally opened the door.

His green eyes found mine almost instantly. I cringed a little when they traveled down to my hand, which felt strangely numb. I think I was officially fucked up now.

"What–"

"Don't. It's nothing." I clenched my jaw, my eyes wide with panic and dread. It wasn't fine. My freaking hand wasn't fine. Anyone could see that.

"How did that happen?" He asked that with a frown, looking back at my hand and stepping towards me.

I wiped off the wetness from my cheeks with my other hand and almost winced when the cool air hit the exposed gash. It definitely didn't feel that numb, especially now that I could feel the sharp pain. It almost felt like someone was cutting up my palm all over again.

I wanted to scream out loud. But I stuck with letting out a small whimper, "It hurts."

I sounded like a child, now that I think about it. And really, that was another reason why I was expecting Caden to make a snark remark and leave just like that. Maybe that's what I wanted, for him to leave.

When I looked back at him though, I swear that I saw his cold gaze softening a bit. But then again, it might just be my teary vision.

He made a move to take my hand and for some reason, I pulled away, my eyes still wide with fear. He looked back at me and narrowed his eyes, before taking hold of my wrist this time, even though it was totally gentle.

"It needs stitches. Why the hell did you even wrap it in a bandage?" The frown came back.

The answer was way too obvious: I had wanted to hide it from everyone. That's why I didn't say anything in response, just eyed him with surprise and fear, a bit of both.

"You need to go to the nurse's office." He muttered under his breath, his gaze still locked on my hand.

My eyes widened once again and I shook my head. "No! Not the nurse's office. You know she'll tell my parents—"

"I wasn't asking you, Anderson." He cut me off with a glare in my direction, something that made me shut up almost instantly. He pulled out some tissues then and placed them under my injured hand. "And after we go there, you're going to tell me how the hell this happened."

I didn't even get the chance to mentally curse at myself, or think of any excuse, before his piercing gaze rooted me to my spot once again, his green eyes looking darker than usual.

"I mean it, Skylar." He said.

I eyed him speechlessly. Not because of how he found out that I was trying to make up some sort of excuse.

But because this was the first time he had ever said my actual name.