Bitter Heart √

Twenty

Skylar's POV

I glanced down at the folded paper in my hand once again. Without caring if anybody noticed me, I slipped the note inside Caden's locker. I had no idea if he would even see it.

I just hoped that he would.

The last time I'd seen him was almost a week ago--the time I fell asleep in class and he hadn't bothered waking me up. If he was avoiding me, he wasn't going to be doing that very long. He couldn't just order me to act along with Blake and then disappear.

That's exactly what I had written in the note.

We need to talk.
-Skylar.

If he'll ignore that like the douchebag he is, then I'd have no choice but to ignore him too. Him and all of this stuff. But ignoring it won't make it go away now, would it? Pretending that Blake hadn't stepped inside my house that night won't make it true. Pretending Blake had no bad intentions would also not make any of it true.

How was I supposed to just ignore this?

I rode back home with Alex that day after school. The whole drive was in total silence just like it had been for the past two days. Alex had been acting strangely for days now. At first, I thought it was just the fact that he knew I was hiding something from him. But it wasn't just that. Something else was bothering him, making him look so exhausted most of the days. Maybe it was just the football practice. Coach was going hard on the whole team, as far as I knew.

Still, Alex and I didn't say anything about it. I didn't ask him what was wrong. He didn't ask me that either. Which wasn't usual.

Things were drifting away from the usual.

And I wished I could tell him, all of the stuff Caden had told me, but I couldn't do that either. I didn't want another break-in at my house. I didn't want any more threats to be thrown at me. Mostly, I didn't want to involve Alex in this if this was really so dangerous.

I wasn't supposed to involve myself with this either.

"Can we catch up for a cup of coffee?" I offered, breaking the silence between us.

Alex looked at me as if he couldn't believe I had the nerve to break the silence. Then he just shrugged. "Sure."

A much better response than the silent treatment we were giving each other for the past few days.

When we were seated at one of the tables in the nearest café, I busied myself imagining shapes in the creamy foam of my coffee. When Alex didn't say a word, I looked up at him irritatedly.

"Stop it, Alex. You can't act like that."

He looked at me, narrowing his eyes. "Act? I'm not acting, Skylar."

"Don't."

"I would."

"Why?"

"Because you are being a bitch." He said.

I gave him a look of disbelief and he blew out a long frustrated sigh. There were faint dark circles under his eyes, I noticed. He looked tired and like he wanted to say a lot of things. But he said nothing at all.

"I'm trying not to be a bitch here, Alex. I'll tell you everything, I promise. But give me some time. Just a little." I pleaded.

His eyes found mine and for a brief moment, there was nothing there. Just clear impassiveness--something that I was so used to seeing on Caden's face.