My parents always told me never to answer calls or open texts from unknown numbers. I've always obeyed.

But when I received one, a text from an unknown number, during my Chemistry class, I got way too paranoid to not open it.

Mr Nicholas was pacing in front of his desk, his hands waving around as he tried explaining what and what not buffer solutions could do if we ever tried ingesting them. Or something along those lines.

Point was, I wasn't really paying attention to it. Unlike Hanna sitting beside me, I wasn't even taking any notes. One way or another, my mind would wander to something entirely else. Like why the kid in front of me was tapping his foot repeatedly. Or why Mr Nicholas's hair was standing up at the back of his head.

That's exactly when I felt my phone vibrate.

I knew we were practically forbidden to use mobile phones during lectures, especially Chemistry lectures. But I had this sudden urge to check my phone, and so I slowly took it out and unlocked the screen.

There it was. An unknown number.

Mr Nicholas wasn't looking at me and neither was anyone else. I quickly opened the text and read it.

-

I found myself typing a reply just as quick. I was so crazy.

Him calling me silly was so not welcomed. I frowned and glanced up at Mr Nicholas. He was still not looking my way.

Was this guy for real? Did he have a thing where he loved to piss people off?

I found myself staring at the screen. How did Blake get my phone number? I suppose if Caden could get it without even asking me, Blake could too. Creeps.

He was shitting with me. I wish there was an option to whack someone across their face through your phone screen alone.

I frowned once again and inhaled slowly. This was Blake I was talking to. I had to remind myself that he was a creep and would want something in return. No way in hell was he going to spill all his secrets just over a cup of coffee.

A few seconds passed by.

I sighed.

I switched off my phone and slid it back inside my pocket. Thankfully, Mr Nicholas hadn't noticed anything and was still talking about chemical equations. I hadn't even noticed that Hanna was looking at me until I let out a shaky sigh.

"What happened?" She asked, her pen hovering over her notebook as she looked at me.

I returned her gaze and forced a smile onto my face. "Nothing."

However, I'm sure it wasn't nothing. It couldn't be nothing that Blake had just texted me. It couldn't be nothing that he was asking me to meet him somewhere behind my house, promising that he won't kill me.

This wasn't just nothing.

••••••

"I asked Hanna what she thinks of you," I told Alex as we both stood in the hallway side by side.

He was shuffling around in his locker, looking for something in particular. I never offered to help him when it came to his locker. There was an average teenager's untidy bedroom, and then there was Alex's locker. That thing made me want to heave whenever I looked at it.

"What?" He stopped his search abruptly and pulled away, looking at me in horror.

I smiled at him, raising my brows.

"Sky!" He complained, almost about to shove me away by the half-eaten rotten sandwich that had been sitting in his locker for probably ages now, but I stepped away in time. "Why would you do that?"

"Hey now." I gave him a pointed look. "No human assault in school hallways. Throw it away." And when he did throw that gross sandwich away, I added, "You've done a lot for me and well, I thought I should do something for you too."

He narrowed his eyes at me before closing his locker with a loud thud. "You always repay my favours in the nicest ways possible."

I grinned and nodded, totally agreeing, as we both started walking away from the rows of lockers. "Well, you weren't making a move. And you haven't given me a valid enough reason either why you haven't asked her to be your girlfriend yet."

"Not yet, Sky." He groaned, raking a hand through his hair. It was growing a little shaggy.

"Right. You think you can't be in a relationship at this moment."

He seemed to take his time to say anything, a small crease forming between his brows. We both stepped out of the hallway to the school grounds knowing that there were still minutes left before the bell rang for the next class.

"Look, the football match is coming up. And this one's really important for my college scholarship. Besides, I need to work a bit on my grades."

I gave him a funny look at that. Alex didn't care about his grades. But perhaps he really was taking the college thing seriously. Everyone was. Except for me, apparently. My parents were enough for that. Thinking about college, for some reason, made me want to puke my guts out. Alex didn't know that though. No one did. Mom would throw a fit if I ever tell her.

"Everyone knows you'll do great at that match. You're the best player after all."

"Besides Caden." He added.

"Besides Caden," I repeated much slowly. Caden who didn't seem to care about his grades or the rate at which he skipped classes or football practices either.

I wonder if he got detention every day.

"Wait, I think I forgot my phone back in my locker." Alex frowned, patting his jacket pockets. When he didn't find it, he turned around towards the hallway. "Coming?"

"I'll just wait here." I shook my head.

He shrugged and ran back inside while I raised my brows, looking around. It was a windy day today, and my hair was a mess when I had pulled it up in a bun.

I was about to stroll around as I waited for Alex when I spotted someone--Caden--across the grounds, scowling in my direction. He did not look happy. A little furious, actually, as he started walking my way.

My lips parted in surprise as I looked over my shoulder. He wasn't coming towards me, was he?

His long strides were catching up to me pretty fast. And as he neared, he looked plenty murderous.

"On second thought, I think I'll come with you, Alex." I murmured lightly, slowly turning around to follow Alex.

Holy fuck, I thought in a panic. Had I done something to piss him off?

Before I could've taken a single step though, warm fingers grasped my elbow and turned me around in an instant.

"What?" I exclaimed, my eyes widening as I looked up at Caden and his incredibly dark green eyes. "No need to be so dramatic, geez."

"You seemed to be running away." He glared at me. My eyes flitted across his face. Not a nice time to appreciate how beautiful he was. Never a right time.

"Well, you seemed murderous." I didn't know why I wasn't trying to pull away. "And it'll be a surprise to you, Caden, but people freak the fuck out sometimes when you give them your undivided attention."

He blinked, furrowed his brows in confusion, before pressing his lips together. My eyes involuntarily darted to the dimple on his cheek.

"You're telling me that you freak the fuck out when I give you my undivided attention."

"Did anyone ever tell you your eyes are like really extremely green?" I blurted out, then blinked at what I had just said.

Caden narrowed his eyes at me.

He was doing things to me that he usually did to almost all the swooning girls in this town. Oh God, I thought. Shit. I was in deep shit.

Right when he was about to reply, I butted in because it was already so embarrassing and one could only take so much before combusting completely.

"Look, your anger's never anyone's favourite thing," I told him before cautiously placing my hand over his fingers, which were still gripping my arm, and pushed them away as gently as I could've. To my surprise, he let go this time. "Why are you even angry? You look like you might kill someone."

He blinked and the anger came back. I took a small step back as he took out his phone and switched it on, shoving the screen right into my face. I forced my gaze away from him and looked down at his phone.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at a text conversation. And then my breath got stuck in my throat when I realized that it was the same conversation I just had with Blake.

My eyes widened. "What in the fucking hell."

"I should be the one asking you that."

"You." I jabbed a finger to his chest. "Hacked into my phone. This is unbelievable! Are you fucking kidding me? God, Caden, why are you so creepy?"

No one could've guessed that I had been swooning over his face just seconds ago when I was practically livid right now.

I had every right to be.

I saw a girl passing by, giving both of us a weird look. I think I knew her from my Calculus class.

"Does it look like I care about that?" He leaned closer and gave me a threatening look. "What the hell does this conversation mean?"

Did he really think hacking into someone's phone, without their permission, was normal?

I glared back at him and crossed my arms. "Blake asked me to meet him somewhere. I'm sure you can see that for yourself."

The look of anger on his face seemed to cloud over with frustration this time. "And you agreed to it without even telling me?"

"I believed you when you said he wouldn't kill me." I rose my hands in the air exasperatedly. Why couldn't there be a single time when we didn't argue and talked like normal fucking teenagers? "When you said you'd make sure I don't get killed, remember?"

"I can't keep you from getting killed when I don't even know you're throwing yourself into fire." He spoke through gritted teeth.

Closing my eyes, I rubbed my face with both of my hands and let out a sigh. "Fine. Whatever. Next time I'll pull you along before throwing myself into fire."

The look he gave me then could've almost passed as a wounded one, which made me panic and add in hastily, "He just asked me to meet him somewhere behind my house, Caden. I'll be fine."

"You don't know that. You can't fucking trust him." The frown came back and my eyes lingered at his clenched jaw.

I inhaled deeply, trying to calm down my nerves. It was clear that winning an argument with him was impossible. And I didn't want Alex to come back only to see me having a heated discussion with Caden, where we both were almost shouting at each other.

"I'm not trusting him, okay?" I looked into his eyes and he didn't break away from the gaze. "I said I'll think about it and I'm not even sure if I'd go there to meet him anyway. I don't trust him. I'm just trying to make things easier for both of us. If he's willing to answer my questions, that's good. It might help you too."

Caden responded with a small, confused frown like he didn't hear a word I'd just said.

"I'll be fine. I'll keep your number on speed dial." I told him when he still didn't say anything. "If anything happens, I'll call you."

It wasn't like he cared anyway. Sure, I made him promise to keep me safe in between all this mess. But I didn't think he cared enough to want it. He cares about Blake's intentions. That and his gang. I wasn't expecting anything else.

Caden was still staring by the time I thought of some more gibberish to add in. But then the frown left his face and he tipped his head backwards and looked up at the sky. I watched the movement of his throat as he swallowed.

"Okay." He said, nodded, then looked back at me.

I nodded too and took a step back, my cheeks heating up a little.

"I'll see you later then."

________

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