Bitter Heart √

Forty

Skylar's POV

When I woke up, Caden wasn't there.

Everything was right where I had left it last night. Even Chicken was still asleep. The only change around me was his absence. For a second there, it seemed like Caden wasn't even here last night.

As I looked around the empty house, trying to rub off the sleep from my face, I saw the wooden box was right where I had left it. In front of me at the coffee table.

I slumped back on the couch and rubbed my eyes this time.

Caden could've taken that box with him, I thought. Why hadn't he?

The piercing sun rays coming through the glass windows made me break out of my thoughts. At least the lights were back. Mornings already made everything seem a whole less creepy.

I had a bit of time left to kill before I needed to leave for school. So I used it to get everything together. When it came to the wooden box though, I didn't keep it back in the storeroom. I wasn't exactly planning on stepping anywhere near that door ever again, even if it was technically within this house.

Instead, I stuffed it inside my closet--somewhere deep behind my messed up pile of clothes. It wasn't the best place to keep something hidden, but I couldn't have thought of any other place at that moment, and my closet was way too messed up for anyone to come near it.

Later when I reached school, I was secretly hoping I'd see Caden there, especially since things between us seemed a little fine now (or maybe that's what I wanted to believe). But he wasn't there. He'd skipped school again.

"Hey, what's going on?" I heard Alex's voice not long after I opened my locker, stuffing my books inside.

When I glanced over at him, I tried not to think about those metal disks that I'd seen in his drawer.

"What do you mean?" I was surprised to hear myself sound so unbothered, even when I really wasn't.

He frowned at me before leaning sideways against the locker beside mine. I noticed that he hadn't even cared to tame his bedhead today; his blond hair were ruffled in almost every direction.

"Why did you ditch the ride?" He asked.

The ride. I had taken the bus to school today. Perhaps it was just the nagging at the very back of my head that had made me skip a ride from Alex. There wasn't anything wrong, I kept telling myself. But why did Alex have those metal disks then?

I just shrugged in response.

"Is everything all right?" He sounded concerned and that made me doubt my own thoughts.

Once I had closed my locker, I turned towards him and eyed his hair. "You need to take care of this." Leaning closer, I ruffled his hair a little more, but a whole lot decently. "You won't be making any moves on Hanna if you keep it this way."

He scrunched up his nose at me and leaned away from my touch. I wasn't surprised. Alex hated when I touched his hair.

"I woke up late actually," I added, answering his question. "And Mom offered to drive me here herself."

I was lying to my best friend.

His frown faded away then. "Your parents are back?" I was grateful then that I hadn't told him about Dad being at the hospital. But at the same time, I felt like a terrible person, making up lies just because of my messed up thoughts.