Skylar's POV

Nobody was in the house except for Chicken and I.

I didn't know whether I should've felt relieved or the exact opposite when I came to terms with that--especially since there was that black tape still stuck over the sensor, reminding me of what might've happened here while I was at Alex's house.

Someone might've broken in. Maybe that someone was still here.

Even the alarm system was disabled and I was too paranoid to even make sure if I had done that or someone else. It was scary. I wanted to phone Mom or maybe even the police. But I didn't. Not when Mom had asked me not to. Not when Dad was still in the hospital.

I was still sitting against the glass windows, my knees pulled up to my chest, and my eyes kept darting from one corner of my house to the other. Chicken hadn't left my side either. I think we both were equally terrified.

We both perked up in alarm right as the doorbell rang. However, it was Chicken who was the first one to reach the door.

As if she even knew how to open it.

I didn't know why I had to think about it for a few seconds before standing up and walking towards the front door. I knew perfectly well who was behind it. But the last time I'd seen him, things hadn't gone well.

He's just here for the locker.

Just the locker.

Tucking back a few loose strands of my hair behind my ears, I cautiously opened the door, peeking out, while Chicken circled near my feet. Even though I knew it would be Caden, a small part of me still felt a bit surprised (and relieved) to find him standing there.

He was there, right there. His whole attire matching so well with the dark night sky outside, as he stood there with hands stuffed in his pockets. Everything about him seemed dark at that moment, or maybe it was just me and my paranoia.

I looked up into his eyes, the same green ones which were already staring at me. I didn't stare back though, even when a part of me wanted to. Instead, I gripped the door and tried not to think how badly my stomach clenched whenever I thought about our kiss.

He's just here for the locker.

"Hey," I spoke up, trying to ignore the tense silence around us as my eyes wandered behind him and out at the yard. "Come on in."

I didn't think twice before letting him in. I don't know why. Was I trusting him with this? Could I?

Caden got in and I glanced down at Chicken. She let out a small purr, almost as if she was just as unsure as me.

Inhaling a deep breath, I slid my hands beneath my crossed arms and leaned back against the closed front door. Caden wasn't really looking at me now and it made this all a bit less unnerving.

"So...the locker." I broke the silence.

His gaze wandered back to my face and I truly hated it now--the way my heart lurched every single time he did that. It wasn't just the fact that he was looking at me, but it was the look in those eyes too. Like he'd rather pay attention to me than anything else around me. Even if that was impossible to believe in.

"What happened yesterday?" He asked, and I couldn't help then but notice how his hair was tousled more than usual, messily falling over his forehead, like he'd just gotten out of bed. Except that there were dark shadows under his eyes. Exhausted, he looked tired. "At school?"

I found myself tongue-tied at that moment. I didn't know how to tell him about yesterday and not mention those metal disks. Not when I still had no clue why Alex had the same ones in his room. Jesse might tell him anyway, I thought.

"Nothing." I looked away and shifted a little on my feet. Unsure. "But...I know where the locker is."

I heard him exhaling before he dragged both of his hands down his face. "Where is it?"

"Upstairs." I stuffed my hand inside my back pocket and took out a small, silver key. "Here's the key." It wasn't hard to find it once Mom had told me where it was. The only thing that had stopped me from opening that locker was the fear of what was inside.

"Why didn't you open it?" He asked me with a small, curious tilt of his head, and I wish I could've switched off that urge to step closer--to keep staring. This wasn't right. I wasn't supposed to feel this way towards him.

He didn't like me. I wasn't supposed to like him either.

I blinked and looked away, my eyes lingering at the staircase. I didn't want to answer him, so I just shrugged in response.

"Come on," I told him before heading for the stairs, and shortly afterwards, I heard him following.

Once we reached the familiar storeroom, I opened the door and went inside, a bit too aware of Caden's mere presence right behind me. I flipped the switch and the moment a dimly lit bulb came to life, I stepped a bit away from him and willed myself to act normal.

Caden looked around the small room, seeming a little unfazed. I couldn't help but wonder then where he'd been this whole time. If he hadn't been staying over at that mansion-like house where his other friends were, where else was he staying?

"This key is supposed to open that door." I jerked my chin at the hidden door behind the tall, brown shelf. "And the locker is inside."

Never in my life had I ever gone past this door. I didn't even remember ever coming around this storeroom as a kid. This place has always creeped me out.

"Go ahead." Caden broke the silence.

I gave him a quick glance before pushing the key inside the lock. For some reason, Chicken hadn't followed me upstairs and I wished that she had. The lock opened with a small click and I pushed open the door.

It was dark. Just darkness ahead.

"No way in hell am I going in there," I whispered in horror, my eyes still trying to make out anything within the darkness in front of me. When Caden came forward and stepped right beside me, our arms touched a little, and my heart raced.

Caden, without waiting for me, went inside. He probably figured I wasn't really planning on going in, at least not when it was so dark in there. Were there stairs? What if I fell down in there somewhere? I watched the seconds passing by until I heard his voice,

"Are you just going to stand there?" And it sounded faint, almost a little too far away from me.

I forced myself to move then, cautiously stepping past the threshold. There weren't any stairs, thankfully. And when I said it was dark, I hadn't really known it would be that dark, not until I kept on walking and walking down the narrow hallway. The air around me felt stale and musty. And I probably would've slammed right into a wall at the very end only if Caden hadn't gripped my arm right then, pulling me to an abrupt stop.

Once he switched on his phone's flashlight, I pulled away from him in an instant, glad that he couldn't see my face heating up. This wasn't normal. I was acting absurd.

It was short and narrow, the room we were in. If there had been rocks in here, I would've most definitely thought it a cave. It even smelled like mud in here.

"There." He pointed the flashlight to one far corner.

I squinted and noticed a small metal box there. It wasn't locked, not with any alarm or code system. Stepping closer towards it, I ran my eyes across its glistening structure, knowing that I could just push it open and see what was inside.

Caden didn't say anything. I looked back at him and realised he was waiting for me.

So I pushed it open and let Caden shine the flashlight inside. I don't know what exactly I was expecting to find in there. Maybe something dangerous, yes. Or anything, I guess, that might've left me surprised.

What I wasn't really expecting was a small, brown wooden box inside. I picked it up warily and turned it around in my hands. Still no code or lock guarding it. But it didn't have an opening either. It was shut. It looked something like a--

"Puzzle." I heard Caden murmur beside me.

I didn't even try to mask the confusion on my face. "Why would my parents hide this?"

I had seen puzzle boxes like this one before. But I had never really had one in my hands. And if I didn't know the trick, it'd never open. What was the fucking point?

"Maybe your parents haven't opened this either." He suggested before taking the box in his hand when I passed it to him, looking at it closely. And maybe he was right. Why hadn't Mom mentioned that?

I jumped a little when out of nowhere, a creak resounded somewhere around us. Caden, however, hadn't seemed to notice it.

"Can we get out of here?" I whispered, looking over my shoulder cautiously. The only thing behind me was a wall, but that doesn't mean I wasn't still creeped out.

Caden looked up at me, stared, a bit too long before speaking up. "Yeah."

•••••

When we went downstairs, it just took a single minute before all the lights went out.

"This can't be happening," I whispered out loud, stopping at the foot of the stairs and looking around the dark lounge.

Placing the wooden box on the couch, which Caden had handed me earlier, I went inside the kitchen and started searching around for a candle to light up. Somewhere below, I heard Chicken purring around my feet. I picked her up in my arms, knowing how much she hated when it went dark.

Once I had somehow managed to light up a candle, I placed it down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch where Caden was.

"So." I stretched out the word, placing Chicken on my lap and noticed the amount of distance I had placed in between us both. Or maybe Caden had. I don't know. "Do you think you can get this opened?"

I didn't even know why I asked him that. People--gangs--were looking for this box. Gangs that Caden was involved in. If I trusted Caden with this, I might just be making a big mistake. But how was I supposed to know? It felt like I could trust him, but what if I was wrong? He was Blake's brother. They were more alike, in many ways, than they were different.

How do you know when to trust someone and when to not?

Caden shrugged in response. "I don't know. Maybe."

Maybe.

"Why does Blake want this?" I asked him.

"I never said Blake wanted this."

I blinked in surprise. "Well, the guy who broke into my house, you said he was from the East gang. Blake sent him."

Caden seemed to be contemplating now. "Yeah. It's complicated, Anderson."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he said, "it's complicated. Blake might not be the only one who wants this. Blake doesn't even care about half of the shit he's after."

I frowned and picked up the wooden box. Chicken pawed at it.

"But he knows about this," I murmured. There was something in here, something dangerous.

Had Blake known about this just because my parents knew the Matthews? He knew. He knew so much more than he let on.

And maybe I could somehow get him to tell me about this box. Not directly, of course. Blake hadn't seemed the least bit harmful when he'd been helping me with Physics. Maybe if I--

"You're not asking him anything." It was when Caden spoke up that I realized he was staring at me, his head tipped back against the couch just like mine.

"Well." I swallowed. "He might know."

"He'd also know how to get this from you." He replied, glancing down at the wooden box in my hands.

He might, I thought.

"But he wouldn't," I murmured.

Caden raised a brow, but didn't really look at me this time. "Is that why you're so much into him?"

"What?" My voice fell to a surprised whisper. "Why would I be into him?" Why would I be into Blake when I had willingly kissed Caden?

"Why else would you invite him into your house?" He asked. And my heart thumped. He was trying not to smile.

I wished I could kill Jenna.

"He was helping me study for a test," I stated, feeling the blood rushing up my neck. "You do hear Mr Frank badmouthing my awful grades in front of the whole class, don't you?"

"'Course, I do."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, I needed help."

A soft breath of a laugh left his lips, and my chest seemed to tug at the sound. I wanted to hear it again. It felt like I needed to or I won't ever be fine. "It's a relief you're coming to terms with that, Anderson."

I blinked, and it took me a while to register his words--because Caden was right here, beside me, and his laugh was so soft and nice and I wanted to hear more of it. I didn't know what was wrong with me. But I loved it. And that hurt.

I looked away from him and rolled my eyes, despite the small smile on my own lips. "And you're still as rude as ever." I hugged Chicken. "Even my cat's way better than you, Caden."

"Just because she lets you touch her?" He asked.

My eyes widened. "Of course not." I blurted out. Was he doing this on purpose?

"Where were you anyway?" I ducked my head and willed my cheeks to stop heating up.

Caden took his time to reply. "Somewhere."

"Like?" I asked, hoping he'd elaborate.

"A place."

The answer couldn't have been any more clueless than that. His lack of enthusiasm clearly told me that he didn't want me to know.

"Nobody knows about that place?" I asked. "Not even your friends?"

He just shook his head. That must be the reason why Jesse had been worried. Shane too.

I placed Chicken beside me and pulled up my knees to my chest. A beat of silence passed by and I realised that I didn't mind it. The silence, I mean. It was dark and silent and I think I didn't even care about the power breakdown. It didn't happen often, but whenever it did, I used to stay over at Alex's.

Alex, I thought. What was going on with Alex?

I glanced over at Caden and his presence alone was comforting enough. It shouldn't have been. But it was. And I was scared because I knew it wouldn't last long. "Will you be leaving?" I asked him.

He blinked twice, breaking out of whatever that he had been thinking about, before looking over at me. His eyes carried a kind of exhaustion that made me bristle a little. I had this strange urge to inch closer towards him, at least a bit, ask him what was wrong. Because something was.

But it wasn't like he would tell me.

"You want me to?" He asked.

I shook my head almost immediately, watching Chicken as she hopped down from the couch and curled up around the foot of the armchair.

"I'll stay then."

I pulled my knees closer and propped my chin over them, humming in agreement. Not long after, the silence fell around us once again. We didn't say anything more. And the silence was nice.

It was way past midnight when I looked over at the clock. Chicken had already fallen asleep the next time I checked on her.

At one point, I stood up and draped a small blanket over her, especially since it was a bit too cold tonight. Then I went ahead and locked the doors and all the windows, and when I came back to the couch, I saw that Caden was already asleep too.

So I sat back down on the couch, quietly, and looked over at the wooden box. And I don't know how long I kept looking at it until my eyelids finally drooped out of exhaustion.

I pulled up my knees again and leaned my head back against the couch, just like Caden. When I glanced over at him and his sleeping form, I couldn't help but stare. Days ago and yet I could still feel the softness of his hair beneath my fingertips, the gentle touch of his lips against my own.

It had been so beautiful. And I needed to forget it.

I looked over at the moon from the glass windows, exhaling a deep sigh. Once I had inched a little closer towards Caden, the warmth of his presence a gentle comfort, I placed my head softly against his shoulder.

And then I drifted off to a night of deep sleep.

______

Crystal 🌿