Chapter Thirty-Eight

Skylar's POV:

"What did Hanna say?" I asked Alex before throwing myself on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He tossed his school bag on his desk and sat down beside me, letting out a deep sigh.

"I didn't ask her out."

"What?" I passed him a confused frown. "Why? You both are good friends now. Do you need me to tell her that you're in love with her?"

He let out a groan and pulled up a pillow over his face. "I wanted to ask her but...I can't. What if—" He stopped, lost in thought. I glanced over at him and realized that he did seem a bit miserable with this whole situation. Stressed out on what, that's what I didn't know. He didn't have to fear rejection unlike me; he was pretty good when it came to girls.

"What if she freaks out?" He asked after a while.

"Well, talk to her." I stated out the obvious before standing up and walking over towards his desk. "Do something romantic. I made you watch hundreds of romantic movies just for this day, Alex."

He shook his head but didn't get up.

I wasn't surprised when I noticed his messed-up desk, with his books scattered everywhere. I could barely see his familiar pair of headphones between those books, an almost empty glass of water, and empty granola bar wrappers. "You're even messed up then I am." I gave him a disapproving look.

And my mom thought I was the messed-up kid.

He picked up his phone from the side table and switched it on, busying himself with it. It had certainly been a bit surprising when Alex had asked me to come over to his house right after school today. He was always so busy in his football practice these days; we barely even spent time together, other than in school.

"So," I stretched out the word and leaned back against his rolling desk chair, contemplating my options. "I need to tell you something."

He looked up from his phone and raised a questioning brow.

"I need a favor actually." I rephrased my sentence.

He raised both of his eyebrows this time, but before I could say anything else, he stood up from his bed. "Wait a sec." Was all he said before running out of his room.

I looked at the doorway where he was just a second ago and rolled my eyes. I'd wait, at least that's what I had been doing since yesterday—since mom had called.

The same call in which she told me about that locker, the same one in which she had told me about dad. It was bizarre that I hadn't opened the locker yet, even if I knew now where it actually is.

I had been too eager to know where it was –what it was about– before mom had called me. I had wanted to know what that locker was about. Mom hadn't told me what it was inside, even though I'm pretty sure she already knew. I just couldn't make myself to go upstairs to my attic. Part of my brain was just stuck over dad's condition. I wanted to see him. I was worried. He never had those migraines unless things were really stressful for him.

Was it because of me?

In the end, I had decided to tell Alex about this. Even if I knew that I should, I couldn't keep this all to myself. I didn't want to do this alone.

Opening one of his desk drawers, I randomly searched around for something to get busy with until he came back. There was nothing other than random journals, and wrappers, and a chewed gum stuck at the bottom.

Gross.

I stopped when I felt a hard, yet smooth structure beneath my palm. Slowly rummaging through his papers, I found a small metal disk in my hand.

Just like the one Jesse had found.

Furrowing my eyebrows, I pushed the papers aside even further and saw four identical disks underneath them.

Why did Alex have them?

At the exact moment, I heard his footsteps coming up towards his room. I quickly straightened the papers over those disks and closed his drawer, trying my best to act as casual as I could.

"Right." He came back inside with a water bottle in his hand. "So what favor were you talking about?"

My palms were starting to feel clammy with sweat and my heart seemed to pick up its speed.

"Wait—shit," I stood up immediately, picking up my school bag from the floor. "I kind of forgot to feed Chicken. I really need to head back quick."

I didn't even wait for his response before heading for the door. But before I could reach the doorway, he gripped my arm and stopped me from going any further. I stiffened in response.

"You want me to drop you off?"

I tried hiding my surprise, mentally screaming at myself to act normal, and slowly pulled away, trying my best not to display my internal state. "No. It's not that far, Alex. See you later."

And then I was out.

••••••

I tried. I really tried to come up with every possible reason as to why Alex had those familiar metal disks in his room, but every single time I came up to conclusions that made absolutely no sense.

Why did he have those? Was he the one—

"No." I murmured under my breath as I came across the familiar street leading up to my house. "No."

I decided that I knew nothing, and I couldn't just make up sudden conclusions—conclusions that seemed drastic in my head. I then found my mind drifting off to Caden, and even though I didn't want to think about him either, it was still better than thinking about Alex.

Caden hadn't come to school today either, just like yesterday. I had this strange urge to call him, but I knew he wouldn't answer. I had talked to Shane at some point in school today, and he and the others were still as clueless as before about Aden's whereabouts. He told me that Caden wasn't answering his calls, why would he answer mine?

He probably didn't even want to see me.

Once I had reached in front of my house, I wasted no time in unlocking the front door before going inside. A part of me was relieved that I made it back. Something about staying over at Alex's didn't seem so reassuring anymore.

I wasn't even inside the lounge when Chicken came running towards me, almost lunging at me in process, letting out a loud mewl.

"Whoa, calm down, Chicks. What happened?" I picked her up, gently stroking her furry back before throwing down my backpack. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I was just a bit busy."

She meowed again and nudged her small nose against my chin. Something was definitely up with this cat—either that or she was just too hungry, even if I had fed her this morning.

"Okay, calm down—hey, wait! Chicks, not my bag!" She jumped out of my grasp and lunged at my backpack. I had to peel her away from it before taking out my phone. "You need to stop, Chicken."

She nudged me once again before walking away towards the glass windows. I narrowed my gaze at her, almost about to roll my eyes at her antics when I noticed something.

Frowning, I stood up immediately before running towards the wall right next to those windows. Up there, where the camera was situated, I noticed a small black tape over the camera lens.

Holy crap.

Just like in the boy's locker room.

I looked down at Chicken and she was already staring back at me. I didn't know what this meant. I hadn't taped any of the camera lenses. The doors and windows were locked when I had left, nobody could come in here.

Rubbing my temple, I let out a small, aggravated sigh and leaned back against those same windows. I looked down at my phone and opened up my contacts. I wanted to call Alex, but I couldn't. There was the locker, and this whole camera thing, and Alex himself. I couldn't call him.

Caden.

I knew he wouldn't pick up, I knew that for a fact. But I still pressed onto his name and watched it dial. And just like I had expected, he didn't pick up. The call went on ringing until I had to end it myself.

I couldn't help but acknowledge the slight hollow feeling in my stomach then. Placing my phone away, I licked my dry lips and looked around the lounge. It was quiet and empty like always, but it seemed strange today.

What if someone had broken in when I was gone?

How else had that black tape appeared out of nowhere? But then again, that couldn't be possible. Looking back at the windows behind me, I saw that they were locked. I had everything locked.

I slid down on the floor and kept sitting there. There was just too much going on in my head at that moment. I wanted to go up to my room and change out of my school clothes. I wanted to take a long, cold shower and just forget about this all for few hours. But I couldn't have.

Chicken curled up against my side before pawing at my phone. I hadn't noticed what she was doing until I saw my phone's screen flashing. Picking it up, I saw a missed call from Caden.

He called?

He did, just a minute ago. I frowned down at the phone and the uneasy feeling grew more and more inside me. My finger was hovering above the screen when his name flashed on it once again. He was calling again.

Answering it within the next second, I placed it on my ear.

"Caden!" My voice sounded rushed and surprised even to my own ears, and I willed myself not to cringe at that. "Where...are you?" Chicken, who was just getting used to the silence, perked up.

"What?" He asked, and it was a bit strange to hear his voice this close. He sounded strange.

"Don't ask questions from me." I whispered, my gaze once again trailing across the dark corners of my house.

He went silent at that.

"Everyone is worried." I added when the silence become a bit too uncomfortable. 'Jesse came at school yesterday to find you. And...Shane's also worried."

"Really?" He didn't sound surprised at all, which I had expected actually. "Why did you call?"

I blinked and pulled up my knees against my chest. "I was worried too."

"Don't be." He still didn't sound surprised. "What would even happen to me?"

I really didn't like the way he said that.

"Okay." I murmured. I didn't know what to say next. Why had I even called him? What was I supposed to say?

"What else?" He asked.

How did he know there was something else?

"The locker." I blurted out, closing my eyes shut just after that.

"What about it?"

"I...I know where it is." I hesitated.

He was silent for a while. "You're telling me that you found out what's inside it?"

"No." I said. "I mean, I didn't open it."

"Open it."

"I—there's someone. I think someone came in my house." And when I said it out loud, I realized how unusual that sounded. Why was my brain complicating things? "I mean, I'm not sure but yesterday, at school, stuff happened. The cameras...I-I think someone came in here."

I wasn't making any sense. I didn't know why I was even telling him any of this. And there was just silence on his end, making me think that he had given up and had actually ended the call, not wanting to deal with me at the moment. I glanced down at Chicken anxiously, almost about to pull my phone away, when he spoke up, "I'll come by your place in five."