Lost Heart √

Twenty Five

Skylar's POV

There were bouquets of roses and lilies and peonies outside the Marshall's Flower Patch, resting against the concrete wall just beside the closed shop doors.

I stood across the street, staring as people passed by and glanced at the glass doors. At the tiny framed picture of Mrs. Marshall that sat near those same bouquets. Condolences. So many of them.

I stuffed my hands inside the pockets of Caden's hoodie that I was wearing and hunched up my shoulders against the cool breeze.

They were having a memorial service for Mrs. Marshall tomorrow--or at least that's what I'd heard two random passersby saying as they'd looked at the closed shop doors with sympathetic gazes. I wondered for the fifth time if maybe I should've asked Caden for his phone and called Alex by now. My parents too. It was nearly afternoon and I still didn't know how the whole situation with the police was going.

"You're staring, Anderson." I heard a voice beside me and I turned almost instantly, feeling the stiff tension dissolving from my shoulders.

"I wasn't, Caden," I said and gently nudged my arm against his. "There's just a...a lot of flowers, you see."

An arm slid around my waist and I was grateful for the warmth that came along with his touch. "I brought you something." He said right as tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

It was exactly at that moment that I felt something rub against my unlaced boots and I would've yelped if I hadn't noticed the familiar brown cat.

"Chicken!" I exclaimed and scooped her up in my arms, grinning as I hugged her, and then turned towards Caden. "You brought me Chicken!"

A lady passing by gave me a quizzical look over her shoulder.

"Well, yes." A tiny furrow formed in between his brows before he slid his hand inside his pocket and took out an object. "But I meant this when I said I brought you something."

Refusing to let Chicken go from my arms (and the feeling seemed mutual since she was purring loudly against my hoodie now) I stepped near him and raised my brows at the phone in his hand. My phone.

"Is it dead?" I asked him, grimacing when I remembered what had happened to it just last night. "And why didn't you tell me you were going to my apartment?"

"Not to your apartment." He said. "I had to meet up with Adrian to hand him over the USB drive you gave me, and Alex was there too. With your cat."

My jaw went slack in surprise as I stared.

"Come on." Caden grabbed my elbow and steered me in the direction that led past the street. "Let's keep walking."

"What?" I widened my eyes. "What do you mean Alex was--Why was Alex there with Adrian? Wait a second. Was he mad that I forgot to phone him?"

"I didn't stay long enough to hear out his life story, Sky."

I opened my mouth to say something but Chicken decided to hop out of my arms right that very second and I got way too preoccupied to make sure she was walking alongside me before I managed to look at Caden again.

"Yes, but you must know what Alex was doing there." I pressed, shrugging his hold off only to link my arm through his. "I don't understand. He isn't friends with Adrian."