Skylar's POV

I mean it, Sky.

I woke up with a start, and I could swear for a second I heard those strange words ringing faintly in my ears. Like someone was saying them. Except that there was no one here on my bed but me.

And then someone knocked on the bedroom door. Very loudly.

"Skylar, wake up!"

A small groan escaped my lips as I tried ignoring the bright sun which seemed to be plastered to my face. It took me a moment but I soon realised where it was coming from. The opened window.

My room. I was in my room and the window was open.

And then everything came crashing down on me.

"Geez." I groaned again, gripping my forehead. I couldn't even explain how bad my head ached at that moment. My throat had gone dry throughout the night and my brain felt like it might explode any second.

"Skylar." Another knock resounded and I'm sure it wasn't that loud, but to me, it felt like somebody was drilling holes into my skull.

"Who is it?" I snapped out loud.

The knocking stopped.

"Your mother, Skylar." Mom said. And she sounded pissed.

Oh shit.

"Fuc--I'll be out in a second!" I shouted and winced at my own loud voice. Hearing her footsteps retreat, I looked up at the wall clock. It was way before my classes even started. Normally, I didn't think I would ever wake up this early.

But I was awake now. Thanks to my mother. Who was here at the house now, for some reason.

Racking my head for clues, I tried coming up with an explanation as to why my head was being such a bitch right now. I remembered going to Alex's match. There had been Blake at some point.

Had Blake drugged me?

Chicken came out of nowhere and let out a loud meow, keeping her petty distance from me. I passed her a frown. That's when I remembered the real reason. I had gone off to that after-match party with Alex and had ended up getting drunk.

Oh Lord.

And my mom was home. If she found out I was drunk the whole night, I was so done.

So grounded. So dead.

I got up in a rush and quickly picked out some clothes before dashing in for a long, nice shower. I reeked of alcohol, yes, but Mom didn't have to know that. I'd dress up nice, play nice, be the nice daughter, and no one will know that I was out to some after-match douche party getting high off my ass last night.

Soon enough, fixing my bed a little (since I had the time), I exited my room with my tangled, brown hair down my shoulders and an extremely throbbing head.

"What," Mom spoke up the moment she saw me, "are you wearing?"

I looked down at my clothes and swished my dark orange skirt a little against my ankles. "You're making it sound like I'm wearing something highly immodest."

Compared to the chic blazer my mom was wearing, yeah, I could see how improper I looked. No one could look at us and say I was her daughter.

"It's a nice orange." Dad looked up from the newspaper in his hands.

I tried passing him a smile but it really was too early for me to be doing that. Also, the hangover, remember?

"I don't care if you hate how I look, Mom." I shrugged. "You're gonna hate me anyway, with or without this skirt."

Okay, I did not know why I said that.

I suppose Mom wasn't expecting it either since her brows rose a plenty amount. "Of course, I don't hate you, Skylar. I wasn't even talking about that skirt. I bought it for you myself."

Right, I thought. How had I forgotten that?

"Well then, what do you hate so much about my outfit, mother?" I crossed my arms and faced her.

Morning me plus a hangover was not the nicest way to have an argument with my mom.

Mom sighed and shook her head at me, before continuing to fold her black coat. "There's a tear at the edge."

She was, I realised as I glanced down, a hundred per cent right. My skirt was torn a little from the side, just above my ankle, which was probably all Chicken's doing. That also meant I had no point left to argue with anymore.

Dad huffed a laugh when he must've seen me going all red in the face, probably done with the number of arguments both Mom and I had every time we were around each other, and placed his newspaper down.

I got to the point.

"So you guys are here."

"About that," Dad glanced up at me. "Do you want to tell us something about last night?"

Holy fuckity fuck, I thought. They know. How did they know that I had gone partying last night?

"Um, what about last night?" I cleared my throat and leaned back against the kitchen counter.

Mom spoke up this time. "The alarm system went up. Someone other than you got in and I'm assuming they didn't know the code for about half a minute before it got punched in and the alarms shut down."

I stared at her, then at Dad.

"It was me." I lied, then laughed nervously. "Obviously."

It wasn't me. I didn't even remember half of the things that happened last night.

It must've been Alex. He'd been there with me at the party. He was the only ride I had.

"What were you doing outside at midnight?" Dad asked.

"There's no one ever in the house to set me a curfew, Dad. Come on."

"We thought you were being safe, Sky." Mom shook her head again and walked towards the couch before sitting down beside Dad. "We thought we'd made sure to you that safety is important."

I couldn't believe this.

"Yeah." I scoffed. "'Course it is. My safety is so important to you guys that you don't even care if someone breaks in twice and literally tries to kill me."

"Twice?" Dad frowned.

I gritted my teeth and straightened up. I needed aspirin and some coffee. I didn't think I had it in me to go through this day without some.

"Are you guys finally ready to talk about that locker?" I asked instead. "I gave you plenty of time, didn't I?"

Mom looked away. Dad didn't say anything.

"I need to know what it's about." My voice came out much firmer than I felt on the inside.

"Skylar." Dad looked at me and I knew what he was asking me. To not ask about the locker. "We should talk about this when you get back from school."

I stared at him in disbelief. "What is this about? Do you think I'm stupid enough to go around spilling your secrets? Is that why both of you are hiding stuff from me? I won't...I won't tell, Dad."

Mom pursed her lips but she still wasn't looking at me. I frowned at her.

Dad got up and sighed, stretching a little before walking inside the kitchen. I could hear him pouring some coffee as I stared at Mom.

"You need some coffee, kiddo?" Dad asked.

I clenched my jaw. "I can't believe you both sometimes."

"Skylar." Mom finally looked at me. "We're trying, okay? Cut your father and I some slack."

I didn't say anything. Because Mom was disappointed and she was hiding something.

"If we're not telling you something, it's for your own good." She added.

I bit my lower lip and looked down. I really hated the orange of my skirt now.

"And we will tell you." She said. "Just let us make sure it wouldn't cause any more harm than it already has."

I nodded, then started walking towards the couch and picked up my denim jacket.

"Of course, Mom," I said. "I'll give you both your peace. I've been doing that my whole life anyway. Listening to your orders and doing exactly what's asked of me."

Mom looked hurt. Maybe that should've surprised me. But I was hurt too. Didn't they ever see that?

"You know what, actually?" I turned around and faced both Dad and Mom this time. "Don't bother cutting your tight schedules for me. I'll go over to Alex's after school. You guys can fly over to your next busy client for all I care. I'll be all right."

"Skylar." Dad started. He was frowning at me. Dad rarely ever frowned at me.

"I needed you both when that guy broke in, Dad." My voice lowered to a whisper. "I was scared."

The silence that followed could've easily been torturous.

But I sighed then and picked up my bag. "Doesn't matter," I muttered, waiting a silent second to pass by, before passing them one last glance. "I should get going."

Mom didn't stop me. Dad didn't either.

So I left.

•••••

Caden's POV:

Slamming my locker shut, I took out my phone and answered the buzzing call before it got to the very end of my fucking nerves.

"What is it?" I asked, shouldering my backpack and striding across the school hallway, towards the parking lot. It was Connor, and God only knew why this was his sixth call in just these past few minutes.

I knew how difficult it was to actually corner someone from the East gang, but I hadn't asked that fool to fucking babysit him.

"I found him." Connor was breathing heavily on the other end.

"And?"

"And what? What do I do with him?"

I frowned. Good for him he wasn't here in front of me right now. I wasn't really in the mood, not since last night, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time somebody used that tone on me and left without being beaten the crap out of.

"I told you what you are supposed to do." I gritted out, hoping he'd get that I was not in the mood to go through his antics.

I heard more rushed breathing on the other end. Was he bloody running away?

"What, I spend the whole day here then? Waste my time and wait for this dude to speak up?" He exclaimed.

"Listen here, Connor," I spoke as patiently as I could've. "Do the fucking job if you don't want me to show up there. Because if I show up there, I'll kill you. That's a bloody promise."

I hung up before I could've said something more. Because really, his voice alone was starting to piss me off more than usual, and I've been told things never work out properly when my threats start exceeding a certain limit. Not like it was my fucking fault. 

Last night. As I neared the school grounds, ready to get the hell out of here, I found myself thinking about last night. Too hectic. I didn't get any sleep. Because every time I tried closing my eyes, there it was. Hints of the nightmare left behind.

And then there was Skylar.

"Caden!"

I stopped and sucked in an impatient breath. Turning around, I wasn't even surprised to see the crazy itself, running towards me. She was running in the hallways even if that could get her in a lot of trouble.

She didn't care.

That's what I liked about her.

No. I did not.

"Wait!" Skylar stopped right in front of me, her eyes wide and panicked as she placed her hands on her knees and took in deep breaths.

And so I waited.

"Why do you always run in the hallways just to stop me?" I asked her out of mere curiosity.

She straightened up and looked at me. "I do not."

I raised a challenging brow. Somehow, she realized I was the right one here and her eyes widened once again. I could almost make out her cheeks reddening under the sun. I looked away then, willing myself not to smile at the sight in front of me.

"You know, Anderson," I spoke up just for the sake of this abrupt attempt at a conversation, as my eyes raked down her form. "You might just be competing with the sun this time. And I don't mean it in a nice way."

"Hey, now." She crossed her arms. "What has this skirt ever done to you?"

"Blind me with its grotesque choice of colour?"

She frowned and it was a little surprising that I almost took back my words. "It's not ugly. It's beautiful."

You are, I thought.

"What's it that you stopped me for?" I asked, carefully changing the topic. The sun, I changed my focus back on it. Bright and hot and irritating. That was better.

She took her time to reply, which almost made me tell her that I did not want to stay here any more than I already had. But I couldn't tell her. Her numerous questions would take no time before attacking me and I didn't know what might be worse: answering them or dodging them off.

"Did you drop me back home last night?" She asked and I noticed the way she lowered her voice.

I blinked before letting myself smirk. "Why are you so quiet about it?"

She gave me one of those glares that made her look nowhere near scary. But she still tried, and I was impressed by the determination. "I've got a reputation, Caden. Unlike you." She retorted. "I don't do parties or drunken nights I remember nothing about. Last night was a big fucking mistake and no one needs to know about it."

"A big fucking mistake, huh?"

"Yeah?" Now she sounded a little unsure. "Why? Why do you say it like that? I don't remember anything about last night. Look, Caden, I may or may not have already freaked out a little about last night in the girl's bathroom. So if you know anything, do speak up, please."

I didn't let anyone talk to me like that. Demanding and so not demanding at the same time. With Skylar though, I always ended up being surprised. And that left me confused.

"What makes you think that?" I asked her instead. "That I was the one who took you home?"

"Well," She glanced around. I could see it practically. Her nerves were bouncing off of her. It was depressing, really. "I don't know. But we did see each other last night at the party, didn't we? I think we talked. I don't remember. Alex told me he saw you with me."

My phone buzzed once again and I had this sudden urge to groan out loud in frustration.

Not Connor again.

"If it wasn't you, did you see me going off with anybody else?" Skylar asked. Now she sounded scared.

Why had she even gotten drunk in the first place when she knew what that could've led her into? "It was me," I muttered, pulling out my phone and looking at the text.

Connor: He's saying Blake hired someone to keep an eye on her. He mentioned something about Kevin too but I can't understand it with the other shit he's speaking.

"You dropped me back home?" The sudden surprise in her voice made me look up from my phone and into her eyes--a startling amber shade under the sunlight. She really shouldn't be standing under the fucking sun. Something about Skylar's expression told me that she didn't quite believe me.

How would she react if I told her that I hadn't just dropped her at her house, but kissed her before as well?

"Yes." I typed a reply.

Me: Who are we talking about here?

"Oh." She responded, shifting a little on her feet. "How did you...um get the alarms to shut off? What if it woke up the neighbours?"

I looked back at her and narrowed my eyes. "Yes, Anderson, that would've been a nice heads up. But since you are even more imbecilic than usual when you're shit-drunk, I didn't expect you to."

"I would've told you about the alarms if your sudden act of kindness hadn't left me stunned."

I stared at her. "It wasn't an act out of kindness."

Her lips parted in surprise and somehow, I don't fucking know why, my gaze flickered down to her lips and stayed there for a brief moment. A part of me couldn't forget how soft they had felt against my own. I wanted to forget it. I needed to. But there were some things that always stuck, that I couldn't ever forget, and I knew this would be one of them.

"Did something else happen last night?" She asked a little too quickly.

"Why would anything else happen?"

"I-I don't know."

I kept looking at her. I was sure she didn't remember it and I was more than fine by that. If she'd remembered, things would've gotten a lot more complicated. I didn't need any more complicated. Not even after how fucked up I felt with just a single kiss. 

It was a mistake.

I made a mistake. I should've controlled that stupid urge. Because now I wanted to make hundreds of more of those mistakes, and that was one more thing Blake could hold against me. No, not could, I knew he would. Blake would do so much more than just hold it against me. 

"Are you sure nothing happened?" Skylar asked once more, with a lot more hesitation in her expression this time. She wasn't supposed to look at me like that.

Why did it feel so hard to lie all of a sudden?

"You're wasting my time here, Anderson," I said.

She furrowed her brows a little, then ended up rolling her eyes, pushing a soft, dark strand of her hair behind her ear. "Okay then. Thanks for...dropping me back home." She looked at me with a small smile and took a few steps backwards. I kept staring until she turned around to leave, the burnt orange of her skirt swaying against the soft curve of her hips.

Then I looked down at my phone.

Connor: That Anderson girl. Some guy was sent to stalk her out at school. So if you see her, better make sure you--

I didn't wait to read the whole fucking paragraph he had typed for me. Looking up from my phone, I searched around the school grounds cautiously and out of instinct. There weren't many people out here. Most hadn't left their classes yet.

Sceptically, I looked back at my phone.

Connor: He isn't telling me why they're keeping tabs on her. Am I supposed to kill this one right here? He's bleeding real bad.

I looked up at Skylar's retreating form. She was almost across the parking