Five

Skylar's

POV

When I woke up, Mom and Dad were gone like always. Which was actually better since they wouldn't have appreciated my disastrous morning state.

Not the usual drowsy morning look, it was way worse than that. My hair had developed itself into a nest over the few hours I actually got to sleep. I hadn't even realized that I was still wearing my mud-smeared sneakers, flopped face-first onto my bed. There were small cuts and scrapes on my arms from jumping down and climbing up my window. Also, my head was aching really badly.

All in all, I looked like a sleep deprived zombie, so much so that I was left shaken for a few seconds when I looked in the mirror. My hair were tangled into a frizzy mess, my brown eyes casted with exhaustion, and my skin almost looking pale.

Once again, I was extremely grateful that my parents were gone to their little trip by now. Mom really wouldn't have reacted properly if she had seen me like this.

Even though I felt like laying back down on my bed, I forced myself to take a quick shower and did as much as I could've to fix myself up. Judging by the time, I literally had few minutes before Alex came by to pick me up, and I really didn't feel like explaining the entire last night to him.

The only thing I got out of yesterday night was a cold, a painful bump at the back of my head, and a little damage to my pride. Going outside at midnight and not catching a bad cold was kind of impossible when you lived in Crestmont Hill.

I stepped into the hot shower, thinking it might be helpful for my cold, but ended up hissing in pain as it made its way down my head.

Life's not fair.

I slowly touched the back of my head with my fingertips. I was kind of surprised that I didn't end up with a concussion, especially since the hit had been pretty bad against that ground.

My nose was being all red and runny the time I got out of the bathroom, dressed in one of my usual hoodies. I barely got to have any breakfast when I heard Alex's car honking outside in my driveway.

"Morning." I greeted him with a small sniff, closing the door as I sat inside his car.

Alex regarded me with a small, worried frown. "Did you catch a cold? You sound kinda sick." He said. "You didn't have it when you talked to me on the phone last night."

It was a bit usual of him to get worried over me for absolutely no reason, and sometimes it warmed my heart.

"I ate a lot of ice cream last night. I think that's why I caught a cold." I lied, placing my bag on my lap and avoiding his gaze.

He started the car and pulled out of the driveway, the frown still on his face.

"You could end up with a brain freeze or something." He shook his head slightly. "How much did you eat anyway? Three tubs? Five?"

I scrunched up my nose in disbelief. Did he really think I ate that much?

What was up with boys and their bold assumptions these days?

"Seven." I muttered.

However, he failed to hear the sarcasm in my voice, and looked at me as if I was from some entirely different planet. I rolled my eyes and he didn't ask anything anymore.

Classes went the same that day, except for Physics. Mr Frank's lecture was extremely boring today, and amid the sightly throbbing ache at the back of my head and my runny nose, it was really hard to concentrate.

Then it was finally lunchtime.

The time I made it to the cafeteria, Alex was nowhere to be seen. He was probably with the Coach, even though he hadn't exactly messaged me about it—something he did if he was ever missing lunch.

I took my lunch tray and went over to our usual, empty table before sitting down with a heavy sigh. Alex never sat with his football friends, only because he knew how much out-of-place I felt at that overly crowded table.

Rubbing the sore spot at the back of my head, I opened my water bottle.

"Hi, Skylar." Hanna spoke in a small voice.

I jerked up my head in surprise, almost wincing a little in pain. I didn't have any difficulty recognizing that voice and anybody else in my shoes would've been surprised too. Hanna barely talked to anyone, and right now she was here in front of me.

"Oh, hey!" I replied in an enthusiastic voice.

Her hair were combed into a single long braid, almost matching her charcoal-black eyes.

"Hey, why don't you sit here today?" I asked her, jerking my chin towards the empty table.

She hesitated for a moment but sat down anyways, and I was happy that she did.

"You aren't sitting...with that friend of yours?" She asked.

I knew that Hanna wasn't the one who ever got bullied. She just tried to stay clear from everyone's path, and I don't know why she did that.

"No. He's probably with the Coach or something." I shrugged, taking few more sips of my water.

Hanna nodded at that and eyed her lunch tray. "You look a bit tired today."

That was sweet, coming from her. I even smiled a bit at that. Hanna and I never had conversations other than usual greetings.

"Slept late last night." I answered, totally different from what I had told Alex. It wasn't exactly a lie, but still a lie.

"So," I directed the conversation towards her. "How come you finally decided to eat lunch here? I mean, I've never actually seen you here in the cafeteria."

It kind of sounded like I was personally attacking her, and I almost told her that I didn't mean it like that, but she responded first.

"I saw you sitting alone and I thought that I should finally come out of my..." She trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Shell?" I suggested with an understanding smile.

She smiled back and nodded.

"Well, that is great. I could do a lot with a girl friend." I gave out a short laugh. Really, I only had boy friend and sometimes, it crept down to an extremely irritating level.

"I heard you got an A in that Physics test." I spoke up after a while, remembering when Mr Frank had announced the grades while passing out the papers to everyone—which, to be honest, was no fun. Especially when others snickered at you just because you got three C's in a row.

Hanna smiled again and nodded.

"How did you manage to do that?" I asked, hearing my voice drop down in a pleading way.

A small laugh escaped her lips and it felt nice knowing that she was feeling a bit of herself with me now.

"I didn't do much. But I've got some notes and–" She stopped abruptly.

That's when I realized that not only her, but almost all the tables surrounding ours had gone a bit silent as well. I looked back at Hanna to see her looking at something behind me, almost looking surprised.

I blinked and frowned a little. I could've just turned my head around to see the cause of this all but honestly, it felt a bit scary, especially since the cause was right behind me.

I bit anxiously on my lower lip and tried catching Hanna's eye, just so she'd tell me what was happening. But when she didn't, I gulped and slowly looked behind my shoulder.

It was Caden walking towards our table—which was kind of scary, if you ask me.

Finding Caden in the cafeteria was as unusual as watching Hanna talk to someone. Within all my years of highschool, I had never seen Caden coming in here, and walking towards a specific table. If he had been going towards the football table, that would've been a bit understandable. But the mere fact that he was walking towards my table, that was surely not expected at all.

Why in the hell was he even coming here?

I looked back at Hanna who seemed a bit panicked now.

Maybe it wasn't me he was coming towards, maybe it was just Hanna.

Who was I kidding though?

"Nice to see you again, Anderson." I heard his familiar voice behind me.

He did not.

I scrunched up my forehead and turned my head back towards him.

"Who the hell are you calling Anderson?" I did not even care that I was glaring at Caden Miller. I really hated a lot of things and one of them was to be called by my last time.

It made me sound like an old man, for God's sake.

I could feel many stares directed at me and I wasn't surprised. Almost half of the cafeteria had gone silent. They knew things that revolved around Caden, and they were probably looking for some drama.

"You, of course." Caden replied in a tone that told me he was enjoying this all.

I still remembered how he had insulted me yesterday, that harsh attitude of his, and I wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon. The look on his face told me that forgiveness was the last thing he came here to ask for.

My eyes trailed away from him and I realized that few people were even caring to record this all, almost as if this all was way better than their lives.

"What do you want, Caden?" I stood up and faced him, lowering down my voice just so that no one would hear me except him. I didn't want to make a scene unlike him.

A flash of amusement flickered over his features, before the impassive look came again.

"The letter. I want that letter." He said.

I blinked at him as few seconds passed by in total silence, except for the low chatter of the people who weren't at all interested in this.

"Are you for real?" I asked him in disbelief. "All of a sudden, you believe me now?"

Wow.

I was thankful to notice few of the stares breaking away from my face, probably not understanding what we both were even talking about.

"Save the speech for later, Anderson. I want the letter." He narrowed his eyes at me, not looking happy at all.

"Too late, I threw it in the trash. God only knows where it would be right now." I lied.

He thought he was just going to ask me for it and I'd give it to him that easily? 

"Well then, I'm not so sure your parents would be happy when they find out where their daughter was last night."

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets, highly taken aback by his words. "You wouldn't do that." I whispered.

He wouldn't do that.

A smirk curved across his lips and my eyes widened a bit more. He leaned closer towards me and whispered, "I certainly would."

I didn't know what my heart was beating so wildly for; the fact that he was going to tell my parents where I was last night, or just because Caden's face was very much close to mine. My eyes trailed away from his beautiful green eyes, down to his defined cheekbones, and that jawline, and his lips–

Suddenly, I was pulled away from Caden.

My initial guess was Hanna, which was actually a bit stupid. Why would Hanna suddenly feel the need to pull me away from Caden? And really, it wasn't her.

It was just my sweet, old best friend. Alex pulled me behind him, glaring at Caden as if he didn't care about his life.

It almost warmed my heart.

"You stay away from her, do you understand?" Alex gritted his teeth in what I assume was anger.

If not before, people were really staring at us now. I looked helplessly at Hanna who looked a bit pale now.

"Why don't you stay away from this, Carter?" Caden suggested with a murderous glare, giving Alex's shoulder a hard shove. It seemed even more threatening since Caden was few inches taller than him.

Everyone knew that getting on Caden's bad side was literally the worst thing you could do. Few people who managed to do that ended up with bruises real quick, especially on the face. But judging by the way Alex was glaring at Caden, it didn't seem like he cared about that.

Right before it could've been transformed into a full-on fight, I stepped in between both of them, hoping to stop this before it got worse. I really didn't want Alex to get hurt because of me.

Caden, on the other hand, looked like he might push me away from between them any second now.

"Stop it, Caden!" I hissed at him, only to find his glare on me.

My head was starting to pound now, almost feverishly. "I'll give it to you!" I added. "Just don't do this."

"What? You won't give anything to him, Skylar!" Alex said from behind me.

Caden looked like he might punch him any second, and he would've even done it. I didn't understand why no one was coming here and helping me with this.

"Stop it, for God's sake! I'll give you that letter, I promise!" I said out loud, directing that towards Caden. "Don't make me change my mind."

I wasn't really expecting him to drop it, Caden never did that; he never took orders. But he didn't punch or grab Alex either. Instead, he just gave me one final death glare and left the cafeteria.

"What the hell were you doing?" I turned towards Alex once Caden was out of sight.

The cafeteria was starting to fill with hushed whispers now and I felt a bit sick to my stomach.

"Me? What the hell were you doing? What does he want from you?" He asked back, his fists still clenched tightly.

This was going to get much worse, I just knew that. I didn't even want to think of what gossip I'll be turned into tomorrow.

"It's not what you think, all right? Just stay out of it, please." I lowered my voice.

Alex eyed me unbelievably. "Skylar–"

"Can you just drop it for now?" I cut him off, sounding a lot frustrated. "I'd really appreciate that."

I knew I was being mean to Alex, even though he had stepped in between us just because he didn't trust Caden. Still, I didn't think twice before turning around and leaving the cafeteria, not waiting for his response.

Just like Caden.