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Skylar's POV

"What happened?" I questioned the moment Alex got back on the line. "Is everything all right? Are you all right? Did someone get killed?"

Alex let out a huff which could've easily passed as a laugh.

"It was the lady next door. Apparently, a shoe sized spider appeared in her yard." He told me.

"Oh my God."

"I know, right. Crazy that she screamed so loud." He sounded nonchalant when I might've been hyperventilating at the thought alone.

"No, that isn't crazy," I exclaimed. "That's horrifying! How would you have reacted if a fucking lizard fell on your face?"

"Well," he stretched it out. "I might've had a panic attack."

"See?" I shook my head and laid down on the bed. "Is she all right, though? Did you kill the spider for her?"

"Um, no thanks." He said.

"Wait, how is there a lady next door to you anyway? You live in a boy's dormitory. Unless..." I trailed off. "You're at Hanna's!"

"No." He sighed. "I'm at my aunt's."

"What? Why?"

"She asked me over for dinner. Lives nearby, you know." He replied. "You know, I called you all evening, hoping you'd come along with me."

I could've almost imagined the sour look he must've been giving me right then.

"Thanks, but I'll pass." I shuddered. "I still get nightmares of her homemade curry."

Alex laughed, then groaned. "Sky, she made the same for dinner."

"Well, I'll pray for you."

"You're the worst."

Since we'd totally gone off-topic, I was almost about to end the call and tell Alex a hearty goodbye, when I remembered his words right before that horrifying scream in my ear.

"Wait, you were telling me something about Blake," I spoke up, holding my arm up for Chicken as she curled up on my side. "What happened?"

I thought Alex hadn't heard me when a moment of silence passed by.

"I don't understand why Caden didn't tell you." He sounded confused.

"Tell me what, Alex?"

"Blake broke out from police custody." He answered.

I frowned at that, surprised and confused and maybe a bit scared.  "What...do you mean?"

"He escaped the prison bars, Sky. And there are officers all around trying to find him." He said. "It was all over the news the whole past week."

Not on the news I watched. Perhaps I should start watching the ones that matter the most.

I sat up and started nibbling on my thumb. "And what about Kevin? Is he gone too?"

"No. Kevin's been moved to a more secure facility, especially since the thing with the trial, you know." He sighed. "And now that Blake's gone missing under their very eyes, I bet they're more alert not to let Kevin out of their sight."

I kept frowning, trying to comprehend any of this. Why hadn't Caden told me? How had Blake even escaped? More importantly, where was he now?

"So what you're saying is that Blake's out there. He could be anywhere right now." I didn't like the sound of it. At all.

"Well..." He trailed off as if letting me brace for something even worse. What could be any worse than this? "They found traces of him here."

"What?"

"In Philadelphia. More chances of finding him here."

No fucking way, I thought. Was that what Nova had been talking about? A criminal on loose.

She'd been talking about Blake.

"Oh God," I whispered under my breath. Why was this happening?

"Let's just hope they catch him." He muttered. "Before he does something bad."

I didn't even have to ask him to elaborate any further.

•••••

"This is it. It's perfect." Josh beamed at the line of retro photographs in front of him. "You're really good at this, Sky. Like, real good."

I smiled in response. "I only just arranged them for you. You were the one who took these."

"Still." He waved his hand at the desk where all the photographs were arranged. "You're a saviour."

I leaned against the back of the chair. "I mean, if you say so."

"All there's left to do is get them stacked on that film. I'll be done in a few." He dragged a hand through his neatly combed, dark brown hair.

Staying at college after classes wasn't really something I looked forward to. But I guess I could make a few exceptions once in a while.

"You don't have to say." He told me, glancing up at me with the same grateful smile, before continuing to stack all the photographs on top of each other in order. "I've made you waste enough of your time already."

He wasn't wrong about that. But my parents had wired enough decent manners into my head, ever since I was a kid, that I found it difficult to be rude even if I tried.

Which was a total lie--according to the last phone conversation I had with my mother. She'd called me a disappointment right to my face, just because I'd let lose some cuss words. Just because I cuss like a sailor, doesn't mean I was being necessarily rude.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks a ton, Sky."

Glad that I was done for the moment, I picked up my trench coat and shrugged it over my polo tee, letting my hair loose from the tight bun I had pulled them into.

"Let me know if you ever need more help with such stuff." I passed him a smile and picked up my bag. See? I could be decently nice.

My phone's screen was flashing as I took it out and headed for the exit. Once it stopped flashing, I noticed a handful of missed calls timed a few minutes ago.

Cursing softly under my breath, I redialed the number and held my phone over my ear, walking quietly out of the empty hallways.

It rang and rang and was finally answered.

"My phone was on silent. I did not see any of your calls." I spoke up first. "In case you were wondering."

There was a beat of silence.

"I was wondering, Anderson."

I tried not to smile. "Well--"

"And I've also been wondering what's the point of carrying your phone around when you don't even use it." He cut me off.

"I do use it!"

"Just to ignore my calls."

"That is so not true!" I whisper hissed. "I ignore everyone's calls. And not on purpose."

Caden tsked. "I called you yesterday." He pointed out. "Three times."

"You should've probably called me six times." I smiled cheekily. "Sixth's the charm, like they say."

I stepped outside the college premises and the cold air hit me from every direction.

"Yes, Anderson." I could hear the smile in his voice too. It made me wish, so dearly, that he was here so that I could see it with my own eyes. "You're as stupid as ever."

"Hey, now. You're being rude."

"Are you outside?" He asked me, totally off-topic.

There was a car honking right beside me and the streets were as busy as ever. Always a bit busier than it was at Crestmont Hill. It made me miss home a little less.

"Mhm."

"I thought your classes ended earlier?"

I was touched that he remembered such a small detail. "They did," I told him. "I got stuck with helping a friend."

Fortunately, my apartment wasn't that far away from college. But unfortunately so, that was the same reason why my parents still hadn't given me a goddamn car yet.

"A friend?"

I gripped the strap of my bag. "Yeah. He needed someone to help him with his photography project."

"And you were nice enough to volunteer." I almost didn't hear the sarcasm lacing his tone. I didn't know whether to roll my eyes or grin stupidly. Was it pathetic that I even missed his usual sarcasm?

Probably was.

"I am kind, Caden," I said defensively.

"I never said you weren't, Sky."

I shook my head at no one in particular. "So...how are things back there in New York?"

We didn't usually talk about that--anything about back home. We rarely ever talked on the phone these days, like I had said, and if I started talking about home, it made me miss him a whole lot more. Caden didn't have to be towns away. But he was. Even though I wished he wasn't.

"Normal." He replied after a while. "The way they usually are."

I was expecting, hoping, he'd tell me all about Blake and what Alex had told me earlier. Wasn't that why he'd called me thrice yesterday?

Surprisingly enough, Caden mentioned no such thing.

"Nothing out of the blue happened?" I asked him curiously.

"I don't think so."

Why wasn't he telling me about Blake?

Could it be that he wasn't as bothered as me that Blake had escaped from the police's custody? Why wouldn't he be, though? Caden hated Blake even more so than I did.

"I heard about Blake," I spoke softly, carefully. I could see my apartment building nearing; its light brown walls were a little too hard not to notice.

"What about him?" The mere fact that he wasn't surprised by my words made me confused.

"I heard he escaped prison."

Caden was silent for a while. Did he not know?

"He did." He finally said with a deep exhale. "What about it?"

"You didn't tell me that because?"

"Because I didn't see a reason to tell you." He replied in a voice that was as nonchalant as it shouldn't have been. I couldn't help and roll my eyes then. That was just so him.

"Why in the world--"

"I miss you, Sky." He cut me off. So bloody swiftly.

I stepped past the building doors and headed for the stairs. Mine and Nova's was on the second floor. Perhaps the most decent and the least noisy one. Nova hated noise, even if that was me raising the television's volume just a bit higher.

"Caden," I said, "You did not just dodge our whole line of conversation."

"I think I did, babe." He replied in a voice that made me a little hot in the face. "What a shame."

"Okay." A small laugh left my lips. "You're getting a whole lot annoying with each passing phone call of ours."

"I know." He said. "And I really want to kiss you."

Even though those were just words and he wasn't even there in front of me, my heart still skipped a beat. And I really, really wanted to kiss him too. So fucking long since I last saw him. This was easily bordering on plain torturous.

"Caden," I whispered, stopping in front of my apartment door. "Why can't you just come here? You know, just for a short visit? I really miss you. It's been days since--"

"It'll be hard going back, Sky." He interrupted me, his voice soft and slow and maybe a bit unsure. I wished he was here so that I could see it all in those green eyes of his.

I sighed, since he was pretty much right, and was about to take out my keys when I saw a stack of mail beneath the door. Pulling them out, I flipped through them. Mostly bills and mails for Nova.

"What've you been up to then? The whole...gang stuff, I mean. Are you back to killing and threatening poor innocent souls?" I asked him. That's how casual conversations went if your boyfriend also happened to be into dangerous gangs. "I hope not, Caden."

"No blood on my hands." He was smiling again. "If that's what you were asking."

"Ugh." I made a face and looked at the rest of the envelopes. One of them at the very end was much smaller than the others. "Nothing special going on then?"

I was hoping he'd tell me a little more. What, I wasn't quite sure of. I just had a feeling there was a whole lot more that he wasn't really opening up about. Like why the hell he was back to square one, dealing with all those dangerous gang affairs when that was already done with. Blake and Kevin were behind bars now (or at least Kevin was). There was no point of a gang anymore.

I remembered Caden telling me that he never wanted to be involved with these gangs in the first place. Why was he going back to his old ways then?

"No." He replied. "Like I said, everything's the same."

I opened the envelope and pulled out a folded paper from inside. When I opened it up, I was a little baffled when I found most of it empty. All except for a few bold words printed right in the middle.

For a whole wide second, I forgot that Caden was on the other end.

I read the words and then I read them again.

"He's lying, sweet Skylar."


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