Conveniently Inspired

Chapter Fifteen

Skylar didn't have social media. It was the devil, the wretch, the bastard to humanity's happiness. But the craving to know more about Kaden Brooks was scratching at her skull, that she locked herself in the bathroom, phone in hand, and created her first Instagram account. She put it under the name SJohnson_19, because if her mother knew that she now had her own profile, she'd kill her. Luckily, Kaden's account was already public. Scrolling through his feed, she saw the surface level of his life. The highlights: him posing with his lacrosse team, him shirtless at the beach, him at numerous parties, him posed at the top of some mountain shooting a casual peace sign to the camera, professional close ups of him happy-yelling after scoring a winning goal. All photos he had with Summer were long gone.

And then she looked up Summer Marshall. Hers was private, but she accepted the follow request within five minutes. She was 100% sure that she would've blocked her account had Skylar used her real name.

Summer's feed was similar: as expected, there was Summer in a line with her fellow cheerleaders, several selfies, many, many bikini pics, and at the very bottom, there were still some old photos from the 2014 era, where snapchat filters dominated all selfies. There was only one photo still up that had Kaden in it, and it was the same photo that Kaden had in his room: where he was giving her a piggyback on the sand. Their smiles lit up the entire beach.

Summer said she was in love with Kaden. Was. So, past tense, as in, not anymore. But the way she looked at him said the opposite. And she claimed that Kaden hadn't treated her very well. Yet Kaden had treated Skylar with pure respect, through and through. It was all too contradicting.

Then again, Thomas had claimed the same about Kaden, warning her to break up with him first to avoid a broken heart. So that was two allegations against Kaden now. Her brain was telling her to listen to them, but her heart told her to let Kaden tell his side.

Skylar came back to the bathroom with her laptop this time. Sitting on the closed toilet seat lid, she stared at the blinking cursor. She opened up a new page, prepared to write the next scene in her short story. It was an intriguing character arc. She may as well use Kaden to her advantage: the main love interest in her story could be someone two-faced. Someone with opposing personalities- the friends claimed they were sweet and innocent, while the family claimed they were the devil's sinner. Her fingers typed away, long into the darkness, until Ms. Lin pounded on the door at 2 AM, insisting she had to pee for the third time that night.

It wasn't until Skylar lied awake in bed, thinking about this unique character she created, that she realized what she had to do. Tomorrow at school, she'd let him talk. And if she didn't like his answer, if he really was the asshole Summer described, then she'd end it all before he could hurt her too.

* * *

Skylar had promised Kaden that she'd watch his lacrosse practice the next morning though, so as iffy as she felt about him in the moment, she still had to follow through with her word. At 8 am, the sun reflected off the dewy grass. Skylar found a shady spot underneath a tree so that she could sit down while staying dry, just a little farther away from the other girlfriends watching practice. Normally she'd bring her notebook, but ever since Summer's monologue in the library the other day, she was having writer's block. It's like her perception of Kaden had changed, which changed how she thought about her fictional love interest in her short story too.

The boys were doing their regular warm up routine. They jogged around the track, and Skylar found herself unable to stray her eyes away from Kaden. He wore a black hoodie and grey shorts, easily outrunning the other guys on the team. But then, when their coach was busy answering a phone call, Kaden side tracked and ran off the field. Straight to her. "Hey, Lin." He gave her a boyish grin before stripping off his hoodie, revealing a t-shirt underneath. He dropped his sweatshirt on the grass and sat down, laying on his side to face her.