Bitter Heart √

Forty Three

Skylar's POV

"Don't shout."

"What?" I whispered when I felt the strange grip loosening around my wrist. "Caden?"

I thought I had somehow been mistaken until a dimly lit bulb--the only source of light in this small room--got switched on. The faint glow of it was enough for me to make out his face.

"Do you enjoy scaring the living daylights out of me?" I exclaimed in utter disbelief. My heart was still hammering so loud, scared that it could've been anyone instead of Caden. Why couldn't he have tried being a bit normal and not dragged me inside the fucking janitor's closet?

A small smirk showed on his lips. "I thought you might like the surprise."

He was finally at school after so many days. I couldn't help but stare.

"Are you back for good?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. Something about the look in his eyes, an unusual glint, made me feel a bit cautious.

And it took me so much by surprise when his fingers, which were encircled around my wrist, went lower and took hold of my hand. Soft and slow and so sure. I tried so hard to ignore the way my face was heating up.

"If I was back," He spoke up, "I wouldn't have pulled you in here."

I blinked twice before humming shortly in response, my eyes traitorously falling down to our hands.

"Did you..." I trailed off before looking up at him. "Did you find anything about Alex?"

His green eyes darkened. "No."

I pressed my back against the door behind me.

"He came by my house." It came out a bit impassively, and I hated that. I could've felt Caden staring at me. "He dropped by before I came back from school."

"Was there anyone at your house?"

"My parents were there," I replied. "He left me a note, saying that he really wants to explain everything to me."

Caden was silent for a while. And I swallowed heavily when I saw his eyes raking over my face.

"Would you?" He asked. "Let him explain?"

I didn't know what to say to that. Would I? Would his explanation change anything?

"Maybe," I whispered, then clenched my jaw. "I don't know. I still can't wrap my head around it. Maybe I just...I just need a little time."

We both fell silent after that. A silence that wasn't comfortable at all. Caden was still holding my hand. And even though I couldn't imagine pulling away first, it still left me a little confused and a little scared.

He wasn't helping by doing stuff like this. Like that night after he had taken me away from Alex's house. I almost had a burnout thinking about the way he'd held me under the lonely, night sky. Caden had done that. How was I supposed to not pathetically fall over for him if he started doing stuff like that?

I could hear a few voices from the hallway outside--people walking towards the cafeteria; the sound of their footsteps gradually growing faint.

"I saw you back there." He spoke up all of a sudden. I realized then that this room was actually very small and the distance between us was just too little.

"Yeah?" What if he stepped closer? "Where?"

"The library. With that redhead."

I broke into a smile. He sure had a way of changing the topic, and the mood too. "The redhead's got a name. It's Brody."