Chapter Forty-Six

Skylar's POV:

When I woke up, I realized almost instantly that I couldn't move. Literally.

I was beyond surprised to see myself completely pressed up against Caden, even though I perfectly remember falling asleep with a huge amount of distance between us. Caden had even promised me that he won't touch me—not that I made him promise. Like, I had no problem with him sleeping close to me.

Gee.

But this was totally different. One of his arms was tightly wrapped up around my waist, pulling my back flush against his chest. It was when I noticed that his face was nuzzled in the crook of my neck, that my heart started racing.

I rubbed my eyes slowly, letting out a small yawn. I was a bit embarrassed, yes—mainly because I had never slept with anyone before. Not as close as this anyway. And I knew he was still asleep, his way of breathing said so. Besides, he had told me himself how long it had been since he got proper sleep.

I just didn't know why.

I relaxed a bit against him, his warm breath fanning across my neck. I could feel heat rushing up to my cheeks, and a small smile formed on my lips. I liked this.

Another small yawn slipped past my lips when I heard the sound of the landline ringing. It was a noise that broke the entire peaceful silence around us, and for a whole wide minute I decided that I'd just ignore it. But then I realized that it mustn't been Mom or Dad, and if I didn't pick up, I'd hear a whole ass lecture about my sleeping schedule—because it was way past noon right now and my family was a big box of morning sunshine.

All expect me.

Cursing lightly under my breath, I carefully tried pulling away from him. The only problem was, he was holding onto me a bit too tightly. And when I tried prying his arm off my waist, he just ended up pulling me even closer.

I rubbed my face this time before trying yet once again, and finally managing to escape out of his grasp. I stood up from the bed and glanced back at him, trying to fix my bed head. He was frowning all right, his face now pressed up against my pillow, but still asleep. It took everything in me not to go back and curl up against him.

God, why did it feel so good?

Stifling the urge to grin widely, I ran downstairs and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Skylar, what took you so long to answer the phone?" Mom asked in a I-already-woke-up-hours-ago voice. "Were you still sleeping?"

"No, Mom." I grumbled. "I woke up hours ago, already did my breakfast too. What's up?" I was trying my very best to sound cheerful right now.

"Nothing really. Except I was calling in to check if you really are not considering to come at the after-wedding party?" She asked.

It wasn't just Cole, the whole idea of parties scared me. Especially mingling with those strangers who loved interfering in your personal business.

"Nope. I'm fine where I am." I said.

"You never really miss out any such parties, Sky." She pointed out.

The same reason why I wasn't going.

"Yeah, I don't really feel like coming to this one, Mom. I have this assignment to complete too." I said, which wasn't exactly a lie since I really had a Calculus assignment to finish, even if I wasn't planning to do it today.

"All right then." She said. "Take care." I was glad that she really didn't press on to it. When I turned around, I saw that Caden was already awake, coming downstairs.

"You're awake?"

"Yeah?" He asked, his eyes finding mine. His hair was tousled like crazy and that just made him look more hotter than usual.

This guy was really making me fall hard for him.

But why all of a sudden? I never liked Caden Miller when he used to carelessly run across the school hallways, colliding with me, and making me fall down on my butt.

"Great." I murmured before walking over towards Chicken, who was already roaming around the kitchen, looking for food.

"That was some sleep." I heard him murmur to himself.

I felt my face heating up at that. He really didn't have to say that. "I thought you promised that you would stay on your side of the bed." I wasn't surprised by my cranky attitude. I was always cranky in the morning.

Like I said, I was no morning Bird.

He looked at me in clear amusement. "I wasn't planning to break my promise, Anderson." I just rolled my eyes at that. His lips twitched at the corner as he spoke up, "It was you who made me break my promise. Do you know why?"

The way his eyes brightened up clearly told me that I wouldn't want to hear his next words.

"Because you almost hit me thrice in your sleep." He said. "I've never felt more threatened than I felt last night. You're really wild."

My eyes widened at that. "That's so not true."

"It is." He stated, clearly enjoying this. "I had to wrap my arms around you so you wouldn't physically violate me anymore. Not my fault."

My face heated up even more. "I do not remembering doing any such thing." I told him. "You're lying."

He raised his brow in response. "No, I'm not, Anderson." I turned around before he could’ve laughed on my face.

"How in the hell can you say you like me and embarrass me the next second?" I asked him accusingly before walking over towards Chicken.

"Consequences of kissing Caden Fernando Miller." He spoke as he sat down on the couch.

I rolled my eyes. "I thought your middle name was douche."

"Did I mention how hot you look when you're mad?" He asked, passing me a lazy grin as he rubbed his tired face.

I took the nearest cushion and threw it right at his face.

••••••

"You didn't tell me where B lake's house is." I pointed that out as he pulled on his shoes. He was leaving, even if I didn't want him to.

"Why do you need to know about that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

If I was to talk to Alex, I needed to know where he was living. But I had a feeling Caden wouldn't really tell me anything if I told him that.

"You're not going over to that guy." He said, clearly a statement. I had no idea if he was talking about Blake or Alex. He seemed to hate both of them equally.

"Which guy?"

"Both of them."

I let out a frustrated sigh. Before I could say anything, though, he cut me off, "Look, Skylar, don't dwell into things that you really shouldn't dwell into." The way he said it made it sound quite threatening.

"But—"

"I mean it." He cut me off once again before walking off towards the front door.

I knew clearly well how dumb I sounded, but something inside me still wanted to think Alex wasn't bad. Of course, I knew what he had done, I knew he was the one who had locked me back in my school gym. He did hurt me. But he was still the same person who had been there for me all the time. My only best friend.

You can't just stop caring for someone all of a sudden.

"How do you know Alex's bad?" I asked, following him. "Just because he's working with Blake—"

"That does mean he's bad." He turned around facing me. I had to take a step back to look up at him.

Before a frown could form on my face, he leaned closer and held my face in his hands. "It's complicated, Sky." He told me, his green eyes holding that soft look. "Everything is so fucked up. So much so that you'll believe in stuff you really shouldn't believe in."

At first, I thought that I had somehow mistaken it, but clearly, I hadn't mistaken the desperation in his voice. "Promise me you won't go over to him?" He asked.

"All right." I nodded, even though I wanted to ask him why. What stuff was he talking about? What did he seem so...scared about?

Satisfied with his clueless explanation and my promise, he pulled away. Instantly, I missed his warmth against me.

"That's not fair that you give me clueless explanations all of the time, you know." I pointed out quietly.

"That's all you can get for now." He said.

"Great."

He was almost out before he turned towards me again, almost making me fall back.

"On the other hand, I think I can give you a goodbye kiss." His eyes twinkled down at me.

I think I wasn't given a choice for that matter. Because it took him mere seconds to pull me back against him, and kiss me. I kissed him back.

Because I liked this more than anything.

••••••

It was past evening when somebody rang the doorbell again. I knew clearly well that it couldn't have been my parents since they were to come at night. And it couldn't have been Caden either since he just left few hours ago.

Blowing out a sigh, I left my laptop and ran down the stairs. To my surprise, when I peeked out from the tall glass windows, there was no one standing in front of the door.

After a lot of thinking, I slowly opened the back door and peeked outside. Still, I couldn't see anybody. That meant it could’ve been the neighbor kids doing ringing-the-bell prank on me. Or—

In one fast second, I felt a hand gripping my arm before that person dragged me inside. It took several seconds for me to finally come back to my senses.

"Alex?" I whispered in horror. His hand was still gripping my arm as he glanced over at the back door, his features clouding up with alarm.

"What are you doing here?" I was clearly horrified by the fact that it was this easy for him to enter my house. Even the alarm system was gone now, since it hadn't been of much use anyway. "Oh my God, you shouldn't be here."

I was trying my best to get away from him. Instead, he took hold of both of my arms to stop me from fidgeting.

"Skylar, you've got to listen to me!" He hissed in anger.

My eyes widened at that.

"Are you serious?" He wasn't the only one who was angry here. "What is wrong with you? Let me go!"

God, Caden had just warned me to stay away from him.

"I'm not here to give you any explanation, Sky!" The way he kept looking at the door kind of alerted me. For some reason, he looked scared.

"Sky, look, I'm sorry for what I did. For lying to you and every other thing." I could not believe he was saying that. "But I hadn't known..." He trailed off.

"Hadn't known what, Alex? I trusted you with everything—"

He cut me off, but thankfully let go of my arms. "I know!" His eyes pleaded with me. I hadn't noticed until now how pale he looked at this moment. "Sky, I didn't know it was this dangerous. I didn't know what this gang was all about."

I'd known Alex my entire life. A part of me was yelling at me to believe him, even if I didn't want to.

"Why did you join it then?" I demanded.

I could hear Chicken mewling from upstairs. Once again, Alex glanced back at the door as if he was dreading something, or someone.

"Reasons, Sky. I trapped myself." He looked back at me. "But Blake lied to me. He didn't tell me all of it."

I wasn't interrupting him now.

"He...he's not safe, Sky." When he looked at me this time, I knew he wasn't lying. I just knew. "And neither is Caden."

"You can't come inside my house and talk shit about Caden, Alex!" I shouted at him. "I trust him, all right? But I don't trust you!"

I could not believe he had the guts to even say that.

"But that's the point, Skylar!" He dragged both of his hands through his hair, messing it up even further. "I never meant to hurt you, not willingly. And I know you think Caden won't either, but he would!"

"Leave, Alex." I shook my head at him. "I think you should leave."

He shook his head, ignoring what I just said. "It's not just Blake who's bad, Sky. There's so much going on behind his gang. They're looking for something—Kevin's looking for something." I blinked, totally confused by his words. "I told him I'm quitting his gang, Sky. And now he's searching for me."

I didn't know who he was talking about. Sudden dread edged in my stomach. I may have been angry at Alex but if something happened to him—

He was still my best friend.

"I'm not telling you that because I want you to worry for me." He cut off my thoughts. "I just—I wanted to tell you something."

I still didn't say anything. I didn't even take a step back when he moved closer towards me.

"Sky, I'm sure Caden never told you this." His desperate gaze searched mine. "But believe me, I know that he's a killer. He killed them."

He glanced back again at the door.

"He killed his parents."