Conveniently Inspired

Chapter Twenty One

At school on Monday, Skylar made a beeline towards Kaden's locker. After last night's revelation, she needed to talk with him about where they stood in terms of their relationship. She needed to know that she wasn't just imagining their chemistry. She needed to hear him say aloud that he liked her, and not just to put on a show for Summer and the public.

She spotted him right away at his locker. His back was turned to her, preoccupied with dialing his combination. She knew it was him because she recognized that gray hoodie he always wore with his lacrosse team's circled logo on the back, but the baseball cap he wore threw her off. Kaden never wore hats. A bad hair day could've made sense, except for the fact that Kaden Brooks never had bad hair days.

She walked over, and Kaden must've heard her footsteps because he whipped around immediately. The annoyance initially plastered onto his face quickly shifted to contentment. "Oh. Hey." He smiled down at her but kept his head tilted so his cap covered his face. He tugged a strand of hair behind her ear, and the subtle graze of his skin against hers made her shiver. "I missed you," he said quietly.

The act was something that Kaden would've done even if they were in private. But they weren't. They were in school, surrounded by hundreds of people who were watching them exude PDA, and because of that, Skylar had so many questions about their status. She couldn't tell if he was being genuine, or if he was still putting on a show.

Skylar swallowed. "I wanna talk to you about something."

Kaden slammed his locket shut with one palm. The retraction echoed throughout the hallway, causing some students to stare. "About something, huh? Okay. You're gonna have to be more specific though" he teased, shooting her a lopsided grin.

"It's just-" She cut herself short when she noticed something on his face. With lightning speed, she ripped the cap off his head. At the sight, she gasped aloud, and behind her, the bell rang. Students shuffled down the halls, a flurry of crowded conversation as people hurried to their first period. Skylar was frozen- all words caught in her throat. All previous thoughts and worries dissipated. The only thing on her mind now was the bruise on Kaden's eye, and the person responsible for it. There was faded purple around the edges, the one eyelid nearly swollen shut. Her voice fell to a whisper. "Kaden- what happened?"

He clenched his jaw and tugged the cap back on. He kept glancing left and right, as if afraid someone else had seen. In five minutes, they would start playing O'Canada, and his entire first period class would see his shiner once he took off his hat. "Don't worry about it. It was an accident. Lacrosse."

"Lacrosse? Do not lie to me, Kaden Brooks."

"Kaden, you can be honest with me. Please. I'm worried about you."

"Don't worry about me, Sky. I'm fine."

"Kaden-" She reached out to grab his arm, but he tensed under her touch before ripping his arm back with a startling intensity, something he'd never done before.

"I told you not to worry about it, didn't I? I have it under control" he snapped. She flinched, but he didn't notice because he had already blended in with the rest of the late passerbys, leaving Skylar in the dust behind.

In English class, Kaden had seemed to calm down. She ignored him the majority of the lecture, willfully keeping her gaze up at the front. It was hard, since Kaden kept trying to get her attention. At one point, he even tossed a note onto her desk, with boyish handwriting that read: "I'm sorry for yelling." Another time, Ms. Singh had to call Kaden's name in front of everyone to quote on quote, "Stare at Skylar as long as he wanted once class was over." This got a chuckle out of everybody. Everybody except Skylar, who was mortified.

When the class got into groups for their Romeo and Juliette readings, Skylar suspected that it wasn't a coincidence when Ms Singh paired her up with Hafsa instead of Kaden.

By the time the bell rang, Skylar was already packed and out in the hall. She heard frantic footsteps racing ahead before feeling Kaden's presence beside her. "Sky, wait up." He tugged on her backpack strap, gently cornering her into a secluded area to isolate them both from the stream of oncoming students. "I'm sorry, okay? You just caught me at a bad time. I didn't mean to take my anger out on you."

Skylar crossed her arms. "I forgive you." His face lit up and she interrupted him before he could go any further. "If you tell me what happened."

Kaden took a visible deep breath. "It's nothing serious."

"You have a black eye. That's serious to me, Kaden."

He adjusted his bag on his shoulders. He seemed to focus his gaze everywhere but her. A hard long ten seconds passed before he sighed and gave in. "That day I came home from your house, Paul was waiting for me. He had some beers to drink already. It was like I was in some interrogation room. He kept asking me question after question, not letting me leave until I gave an answer he was satisfied with. And then he said some crap about me wasting my life and sleeping around.... Neither of which is true, by the way. Anyway, I got fed up and shoved him. He snapped and then..." Kaden trailed off, letting the finger-point to his bruised eye explain the rest.

Skylar winced as if she was the one who got hurt. "Does your mother know?"

"No. I just told her I ran into someone during lacrosse." It was obvious that Kaden was embarrassed of the situation. Skylar didn't know why- if anything, he should be angry. And Paul, that bastard, should be behind bars. The thought of him putting his hands on Kaden again brought her blood boiling to dangerous temperatures. "I don't want to add another stressor in her life."

"Kaden, you need to tell someone about this. It's not okay."

Kaden twisted his face, scanning their surroundings. "Skylar, I mean it: this has to stay between us."

"But-"

"Please."

Skylar hesitated before sighing. "Alright. But if I see another bruise, I can't guarantee I'm keeping my mouth shut the second time."

The bell rang again. Kaden tugged his hat lower and said, "Come on, let's get going before we're marked late."

Skylar was always a woman true to her word. The entire week, she cruised by while keeping her lips sealed. Due to her mother's consistent surveillance, Skylar's next few days were spent going to school, coming home, working at the store, doing homework, editing her short story, rinse and repeat. Skylar was back to walking herself to and from school. Somehow, she knew that her mother had spiderman senses. If Skylar even carpooled with Kaden, Ms. Lin would know. So her interactions with Kaden were limited to the school premises. There was this awkward tension hanging in the air. The elephant in the room being the heavy secret that Skylar was forced to keep. Each time she walked by the guidance counsellor's office, she had to fight her gaze forward. Any lingering steps would lead her uncontrollably strolling to Ted Burner, the pot-bellied counsellor who always wore striped suspenders to school.

The good news was that Skylar finished her short story. After hitting "submit" on the entry website, she celebrated by herself with a bottle of sparkling apple juice from Costco & a box of frozen pizza defrosted incorrectly in the microwave. Since her mother didn't believe in paying for Netflix, Skylar spent all of Friday night binge-watching all three movies of Bridget Jones' Diary on an illegal site. She then spent all of Saturday night getting rid of the virus that developed on her computer from said illegal site.

But throughout that time, there wasn't a single second of her day where Kaden didn't occupy her mind. What was she going to do?