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Skylar's POV

"What is this?" I placed the small white envelope on the booth table between us. The coffee shop was crowded with people, even when it was just past eight in the morning.

Alex looked at the envelope from over the rim of his cup before slowly reaching for it. I watched as he took the letter out and read the words printed across it.

Just one sentence. Words that had been bothering me (more than I'd like to admit) since the moment I read them outside my apartment door.

"Who's lying?" He asked, finally looking at me. He seemed confused.

I raised my hands in the air, just as clueless as him, and slumped back against the booth seat. "I don't know! I'm trying to find an explanation why anyone would mail this to me."

His eyebrows furrowed as he looked over it again.

"You never get letters." He pointed out. Mostly to himself.

"Yes." I clenched my jaw. Yes, I didn't. The only time I did get one mailed to me was sent by Blake.

"Did you show--tell Caden about this?"

"No." I shook my head. "Why should I? This isn't...I don't want this to be something big."

"Well, that's not up to you." He gulped down the rest of his coffee with a grimace. "How do you drink this shit on a daily basis?"

"Alex." I leaned forward worriedly. "Someone's been lying to me. This could be a threat."

I couldn't help but replay the words back in my head. He's lying. Who was he?

"Not me." Alex sighed. "I know I've lied about countless things in the past, but I sure as fuck am not lying about anything to you right now."

I stared at him, anxiously biting the inside of my cheek.

"Unless..." His eyes widened in a comical manner. "Someone's been trying to tell you that I might've accidentally fed Chicken some of those disgusting falafel I bought for myself."

I blinked. "You did what?"

"It's probably just a prank." He waved it off with a cheeky grin when I glared at him.

"Hey, you stay away from my cat." I wagged a finger at him. "No wonder she's been climbing walls these days."

Alex laughed and ran his hands through his tufts of morning bedhead.

"I mean it, Sky. It's probably just a prank. People love messing around, you know that." He told me. "Don't worry about it."

How could I not? How could I not worry about it when the timing of this letter had been so fucking perfect? Or was that just a coincidence? A brilliant one.

"I was talking to Caden on the phone when I saw this," I spoke up, anxiously looking around the busy cafe.

Alex raised his brows. "Um...you know what you're insinuating, right?"

I exhaled in frustration. "I'm not! Look, I'm just confused. Caden's been acting shady--"

"I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate you calling him that."

"I know." My voice fell to a whisper. "I don't know, Alex. The last time someone...someone sent me a mail, things went down. A lot of them. I don't want that happening again. I just want a little peace."

He leaned forward this time and held his hand out. I slid mine in his and he squeezed with the both of his.

"No one's taking anything from you, all right?" He asked. "You're fine. Everything's fine."

"But Blake's out," I whispered.

Alex didn't seem as unbothered as he did a couple of seconds ago. Not when his history with Blake was as fucked up as mine too.

"Why would Caden lie to you, though?" He asked after a beat of silence.

I don't know, I wanted to say. Maybe because I knew Caden, and he preferred keeping things inside rather than letting them out most of the time. He was so far away and I didn't know what was going around him. How could I possibly know when he rarely ever called me once in weeks?

"He could've just moved on. From those gangs. From all that." I looked down at the table and my untouched cup of black coffee. "He told me he never wanted to be involved with them in the first place. But he's still..." I glanced up at Alex. "Do you know why he's still around his gang?"

Alex was once again reading the letter. He sighed and stuffed it back in the envelope.

"Well, Caden and I don't really have the buddiest of friendships to be sharing secrets, remember?"

"But you can find out," I said.

"And how in hell am I supposed to do that?"

I shifted a little in my position. "You were in a gang too once. You must know ways."

Alex stared at me for a few seconds before raising his brows and gesturing at the waiter for a refill of his coffee.

"There's only one way, Sky." He pointed out. "And that's for you to talk it out with him. Face to face."

He was right. I knew that. Phone calls weren't working obviously. Caden dodged off every attempt of mine to ask him about things that mattered.

"I know," I murmured.

"Don't think too much over it, Sky. It's probably just nothing."

I pursed my lips and looked around the cafe again. Alex was right. Maybe I was overthinking about this too much.

"So I should just...pretend this is nothing." I nodded. "And wait for another letter to show up."

"You won't get another one."

"What if it really is Blake who sent me this?" Oh God, I was getting all anxious and worked up again. Just like the whole night last night. How would I concentrate on my classes?

If only our apartment building had security cameras like a decent fucking building. Even the guard outside hadn't seen anyone showing up with the mail.

Alex narrowed his eyes this time. "He's on the run. Do you think he'd have the time to write you a letter when the police are constantly on his next move?"

"Blake is crazy." I made a face at him. "You know he'd love to freak me out like this."

"Perhaps." He shrugged. "But maybe you should just wait it out before you draw up any conclusions."

•••••

I paused the movie on the TV when I heard faint noises outside my apartment door. Noises that sounded strangely like a commotion. Chicken also perked up in my lap.

Seconds ticked by until I saw the doorknob turning. The only other person apart from me, who had a spare key to the apartment, was Nova. But it couldn't just be her. I could hear multiple voices.

I could even hear laughter.

Maybe it was just the paranoia (once again) growing on me, especially since the letter thing, that I stood up from the couch in alarm, looking around for anything to defend myself from.

I probably would've picked up the lone baseball bat Nova had lying around behind the coat rack if the door hadn't opened so abruptly.

I froze and my eyes widened as Nova herself barged in, still in the process of holding in her chuckles.

"Holy fuck." I whispered, pressing a hand to my racing heart. "Could you have made your entrance any more haunting?"

It wasn't just her though. There was someone else behind her too (hence the more than one voice I'd heard earlier). A boy, I realised, having almost the same identical eyes as Nova.

"Skylar!" Nova seemed surprised, but she smiled anyway. It was a bit weird to be on the receiving end of her smiles. Not when she was mostly playing the brooding roommate part.

She'd been laughing and apparently cracking up on jokes a few seconds ago, though. With that boy. Who looked so much like her.

"I thought you'd be asleep by now." She started taking off her coat. "Oh, this is Kyle, by the way. My brother."

Brother. Not like I hadn't figured that out already. They both had the same vibrant brown eyes. And he even had the whole Shawn Mendes windswept curls thing going on.

And I was checking him out. Like a pathetic fool.

I mean, he was hot.

"Hey." I finally found my voice before glancing back at Nova. "Nice to meet you, I guess."

He responded with a smile, which I think was more towards a smirk. A very cute one.

"He just came back from New York and we were thinking to watch a movie or something," Nova told me before going over and opening the fridge. Then she took out a water bottle and halfway chugged it down. "You should come and join us."

"You live in New York?" I asked her brother, Kyle, picking up Chicken who was roaming around my feet.

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his curls. "Thought to drop by and pay Dad and Nova a visit."

I nodded slowly. That was awfully nice of him. Most of the people I knew from back home didn't like visiting for some reason. Let alone call me once a week.

I tried not to dwell on that.

"How's your dad doing with that...criminal on loose?" I leaned against the back of the couch and looked back at Nova. "Have they caught him yet?"

"Nah, I don't think so." She sighed before pulling up her hair in a bun. "Dad's been a whole lot stressed about it for days now."

He should be. I was freaking the fuck out and I only found out a few days ago. About Blake, I mean.

My heart started beating a little loudly. They still had no idea where Blake was.

"Why?" She raised a brow at me. "Didn't know you were friends with him."

"With your dad?" I frowned.

"The criminal on the loose." She was giving me that look again. The one where she thought she knew everything about me. It was strangely nostalgic in a whole disgusting way, because Blake used to give me those looks. And I hated them. "You know him?"

My eyes widened a little. Thank God she knew nothing about said criminal's name or my history with him. That would've been a bit difficult to explain.

"No! I mean, what--why--"

Kyle was the one who came to my rescue. Which was weird since he looked an awful lot like his sister, and I was expecting him to be a bitch like his sister too.

"Wait, I know you." He cut me off, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets and giving me that smirk again. "You're Skylar Anderson, right?"

I blinked at him, then at Nova. "Yeah."

A grin broke across his lips. "I've heard quite a lot about you."

That meant nothing good.

"Really?" Nova and I spoke up in unison.

Nova then looked at me and rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you joining us for the movie?"

I shook my head.

"Okay then. See you later." She told me before picking up her keys again and a scarf this time. "Lock the door, yeah?"

I would, I thought. I'd probably barricade it with your baseball bat too.

I watched as Kyle started heading for the door too. Before he could've left though, he turned around and raked another hand through his hair, holding them back as his eyes found mine.

He wasn't smirking anymore but his eyes held the same energy.

"It was nice meeting you, Skylar." He said.

I smiled and hummed softly. Because, likewise. Or not, maybe.

"And say a hello to Caden from me, will you?"


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