Alice POV

I was woken up by a thud. Startled, I looked around the room, searching for the source of the unexpected noise. I saw a familiar figure standing in front of the window of my bedroom and immediately I relaxed, recognizing Caden. The calm I felt left me as soon as I took him in: even with only the nightlight on I could still see how tense he was. He was silently staring at me with a hard expression. The only movement he was making was to repeatedly clench his fingers into fists for the sole purpose of releasing them again.

“Caden?” I got off the bed and approached him cautiously. “What’s wrong?”

"Please don’t tell me you’re drugged again!" I begged in my mind, remembering the first time he’d invited himself into my room.

He didn’t respond. He just kept on watching me. Now that I was closer, I could see that his arms were shaking slightly.

“Caden…”

“Did you screw him?” He shot out.

My mouth fell open in shock and I just stared at him puzzled. What the hell? Was he really doped tonight?

“Caden, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I honestly admitted once I found my voice.

He took a few steps towards me. His eyes were blazing and his nostrils flaring. He looked absolutely pissed off and I had to admit: he was scaring me. I took a few defensive steps back until my escape route was cut off by one of the walls. My back hit it with a light thump. Caden came even closer and placed his hands on either sides of my body. He leaned down and narrowed his eyes.

“Keegan. Did you fuck him, Alice?” He asked quietly but I could hear anger coloring his words.

My own eyes narrowed as his demanding demeanor really ticked me off. I hated it when he used his threatening tone on me. And just who did he think he was, sneaking into my home in the middle of the night and treating me like that!

“None of your business!” My words came out as a growl when I answered in a low voice as well.

His eyes flashed dangerously at my reluctance to give him a straight answer. We both knew he wasn’t used to anyone talking back at him, left alone a nice and sweet girl like me. The emotion only lasted a few moments before his eyes returned to their usual size and he gave me a stiff nod.

“You’re right; it’s not!” Caden pushed himself off the wall and turned his back to me. “Why would it be?”

The moment he moved away I had the urge to pull him back. Even though he was trying to intimidate me with the position we were in a few moments ago and had pretty much succeeded, it was still better than facing his back.

“No, I didn’t.” My voice came out soft, all the frustration gone and replaced by a new fear; the fear that he’d leave me in a state of anger to go and do something headlong. I didn’t want that to happen which was why I decided to answer his question although a part of me still thought it had nothing to do with him.

He turned to face me at the sound of my voice.

“So Morgan lied when she said you and Keegan were making out?”

“Not exactly…”

He closed his eyes, tilting his head back and taking a deep breath. His fingers began to move again, once more clenching and unclenching into fists. I briefly wondered if he was even aware of the movement.

“I mean...” I went on, “… yes, Keegan kissed me.”

“Did you kiss him back?” He inquired without opening his eyes and still taking slow, deep breaths.

“No. Well, there was a moment when I responded but I didn’t mean to…” Why did I feel guilty telling him that? We weren’t together; it was not like I’d cheated on him or something. And yet the apologetic tone my words held was hard to miss. “And then I punched him.”

His eyes snapped open and he stared at mine. He was probably trying to deduce whether I was lying to him or not.

“You actually punched him?” He asked slowly, clearly enunciating each vocable. I nodded in response. “Good!”

I raised my eyebrows at him. Good? He was actually glad that I smacked his best friend? I spent a while studying his face, attempting to understand his last comment. He stood patiently, trying not to give any of his thoughts away, but I swear he was attempting to suppress a smile and actually looked happy by what I did to Keegan. We were quietly observing each other until the boy finally let out a sigh.

“Can I sleep here tonight?” Caden queried with his voice back to normal.

I was just about to reply with “Yeah, why not?” when I realized something: I was going mad.

This boy had broken into my house, threatened me, demanded to give him an explanation on a subject that was none of his concern, and now I was the one feeling guilty and worried about him being in a bad mood? I was actually considering, no, I was agreeing, to him staying over no questions asked?

Alissa Clover Green you’ve finally gone completely bonkers!

Then another thought occurred to me: if I wanted to know why Caden had acted the way he did, I had to actually talk to him. Maybe I could use him staying over to my advantage; the boy was definitely not the sharing type, but I’d noticed that he was more likely to open up to me when we woke up together. I mean, it had worked in the past, so why not now?

“Sure.” I smiled once I formed the decision in my head. “But I have to warn you: Chess might decide to join us at some point.”

“Where’s he now?” The boy looked around and nodded to himself as he saw the kitten sleeping soundly in the pet bed next to my desk.

I went to take an extra pillow from the dower-chest and after that Caden followed me to my bed. He lay on it first, positioning himself so he could face me. But as I lowered myself next to him, I turned the other way. I didn’t want to look at him right now. I felt overwhelmed and confused and was sure I wouldn’t be able to hide my uneasiness. I didn’t want him to see it; I didn’t want him to know that he affected me to such extent. So I did the only think I could think of to hide my emotions and turned my back to him.

“Alice…” He started hesitantly.

“Yeah?” I asked without shifting my position. But when he didn’t respond I just had to turn around. My face contorted in surprise and confusion when I saw the position Caden was in: his body was still turned in my direction but his hand was slightly raised and stood frozen in the air as if he had wanted to touch me but had changed his mind in the middle of the motion. His face was hesitant and a glimpse of worry was present in his eyes. He pulled his hand back and put it in the small space between my body and his.

“I’m sorry”, he said quietly, concern lacing each of his words. “I’m sorry that I frightened you tonight, Alice. I really don’t want you to be scared of me.”

Scared? I was closer to terrified! At least until he got me angry that was, but that feeling was fleeting.

But why did I feel frighten in the first place? I knew Caden wouldn’t hit me; I was sure that he would never do that.

So what was it about him that made me afraid?

Was it his dominating presence? He always had this powerful aura around him but tonight when he was angry it was even more prominent than usual. So even though I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, he had still managed to make me tremble in fear.

“It’s okay,” I responded, swallowing the lump of emotions I had not even realized had formed in my throat. “You didn’t…”

“Don’t lie to me, Alice!” He commanded, but his tone sounded more apologetic than demanding. “I had no right to do this; I shouldn’t have treated you this way!” His left hand moved to my face to gently stroke my cheek, making me close my eyes briefly. I opened them as I heard him go on: “I’m used to getting my way by scaring people, Alice; I’m really good at that.” Caden laughed a little although the tone was anything but merry; it was bitter, remorseful and a note of self-disgust manifested itself in the sound he produced. The boy’s eyes hardened for a moment as he lost himself in thought. His fingers were still absentmindedly brushing my face and I covered them with my own palm in what I hoped was a soothing gesture. He blinked a few times, surprised by the sudden touch and his gaze softened considerably as it fell on me.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, Alice. I’m not going to try to make up excuses for my actions, but I swear, scaring you is the last thing I want. I can’t promise you that it will never happen again; all I can promise is that I’ll do my best to avoid such a situation. You mean too much to me to push you away.”

I smiled weakly, knowing that he wasn’t lying; I could tell that by the determination shining brightly in his bluish-grey eyes. A yawn escaped my lips and I moved my hand away from his in order to cover my mouth.

“Time to sleep?” He suggested in a more peaceful tone than he had used before.

“I think so,” I replied tiredly, my head swarming with questions I had no answers to.

I wondered what exactly had happened tonight. Why had Morgan told Caden about Keegan and me?

Why had Keegan told her about us in the first place?

And what bothered me most was why had Caden gotten so upset over it all?

I sighed, realizing the only way to get my answers was to ask the very boy currently lying next to me with his left arm casually draped around my waist. The only problem was I wasn’t sure he’d answer.

*****

A/N: Multimedia to the side by rayofdarkness_ :)