Bitter Heart √

Thirty Eight

Opening one of his desk drawers, I randomly searched around for something to get busy with until he came back. There was nothing other than random journals and wrappers and chewed gum stuck at the bottom.

Gross.

I stopped when I felt a hard, yet smooth structure beneath my palm. Slowly rummaging through his papers, I found a small metal disk in my hand.

I stared at it in surprise. I'd seen it before.

Just like the one Jesse had found.

Furrowing my brows, I pushed the papers aside even further and saw four identical disks underneath them.

Why did Alex have them?

At that exact moment, I heard his footsteps coming up towards the room. I quickly straightened the papers over those disks and closed his drawer, trying my best to act as casual as I could've.

"Right." He came back inside with a water bottle in his hand. "So what favour were you talking about?"

My palms were starting to feel a little clammy and my heartbeat had already started thrumming loud against my chest.

"Wait--shit," I stood up immediately, picking up my school bag from the floor. "I kind of forgot to feed Chicken. I gotta head back quick."

I didn't even wait for his response before heading for the door. But before I could've reached the doorway, he gripped my arm and stopped me from going any further. I stiffened in response.

"You want me to drop you off?"

I tried hiding my surprise, mentally screaming at myself to act normal, and slowly pulled away, trying my best not to display my internal state. "No. It's not that far, Alex. See you later."

And then I was out.

•••••

I tried. I really tried to come up with every possible reason as to why Alex had those familiar metal disks in his drawer, but every single time I came up to conclusions that made absolutely no sense.

Why did he have those? Was he the one--

"No," I murmured under my breath as I came across the familiar street leading up to my house. "No."

I knew nothing and I couldn't just make up sudden conclusions--conclusions that seemed so drastic and hasty in my head. I don't know why I found my mind drifting off to Caden then, and even though I didn't want to think about him either, it was still better than thinking about Alex.

Caden wasn't there at school today either, just like yesterday. I had this strange urge to call him, but I knew he wouldn't answer. I'd even talked with Shane at some point at school today, and he and the others were still as clueless about Caden's whereabouts. He'd told me Caden wasn't answering his calls. Why would he answer mine?

He probably didn't even want to see me.

Once I reached in front of my house, I wasted no time unlocking the front door before going inside. A part of me was relieved that I'd made it back. Something about staying over at Alex's didn't seem so reassuring anymore.

I wasn't even inside the lounge when Chicken came running towards me, almost lunging at me in the process, letting out a loud meow.

"Whoa, calm down, Chicks. What happened?" I picked her up in both of my arms, stroking her fur before throwing down my backpack. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I was just a bit busy."

She meowed again and nudged her small nose against my chin. Something was definitely up with this cat--either that or she was just too hungry, even if I had fed her this morning.