Chapter 4
The crew arrived that night to accompany Skyler and Xavier. When Rudy showed up, Skyler began feeling irritated again. Rudy's presence was a constant reminder that Xavier was taken and she was to be all alone with her father now gone. She almost wished that her father had taken her with him.
Xavier asked Skyler to go with him and Rudy to eat while the Crew watched over the site for her. For some reason, that made Skyler snap.
"Go play with your boy toy, Xavier." Skyler remarked without thinking and promptly froze.
The whole crew froze the moment the words left Skyler's mouth. The platinum blonde male covered the distance between Skyler and himself within a second and pulled her roughly along with him out of sight and hearing range from the crew and his visibly hurt boyfriend.
"Skyler.. I understand you're going through a lot right now, but you can't say that!" Xavier scolded her as he tried to calm himself lest he did something he regretted.
She looked down at her feet guilty of what she said.
"I'm sorry." She finally said.
"No! I don't want an apology. You've been this way since that dance rehearsal. Tell me what's wrong. You're not usually like this; I know you too well." His tall frame easily towered over hers, trapping her against the wall with his arms blocking both sides.
She shivered from the lack of space between them and started panicking.
"Xavier, stop!" Skyler exclaimed with a hand on his chest trying to push him away.
Years of friendship and yet she did not want to tell him what was on her mind. Xavier sighed in disappointment.
"You know where to reach me when you're ready to talk. I'm going overseas with my family for a week. Take charge of the crew while I'm gone." Xavier told her, albeit annoyed.
Skyler was left standing with her back against the wall. Wide brown eyes followed the blonde's figure as he left the venue, Rudy chasing after him as he glanced back at Skyler with hurt in his eyes. The crew, knowing she was not in a good mood, decided to leave as well so she could have some time to herself.
'It's fine.' Skyler told herself. There's always next time. She could always text him if anything... right?
"Is it a bad time?" Jose approached her with a convenience store bag of what seemed like snacks in hand. He had seen their scuffle while he was passing by, ready to return home.
Despite Xavier's dislike of Jose, Skyler needed someone who was not Xavier nor her crew to talk to at that moment. So she assured him she was fine, and the two spent the rest of the night casually talking and spending time together.
~~~~
After the funeral ended, Skyler headed back to her apartment alone. She was mentally drained and needed time to be by herself. It took her a couple of days to recover by staying in bed all day, busying herself with cleaning the apartment, laundry, and experimental cooking just to get her mind off things. Once she was tired of doing those, she would sit at her PC and try to find a game to play, but within thirty minutes, she would give up and lay back down on her bed.
Having done those same things repetitively for a few days was enough to bore her. The apartment was also getting a tad too dreary for the teen, and so she decided to go to school for dance practice earlier than she usually would. Upon reaching the studio, Skyler took the opportunity to warm up by herself and practice a few of her solo parts before the crew trickled in one by one.
They all gave her a warm, sincere hug each as they entered the studio and saw her. Afterward, they would deposit their bags at their usual spots in the back of the dance studio and start their own set of warm-ups.
As Xavier instructed her, she supervised the crew's dance practice session. It was easy for her to switch to professional mode, having done it many times for performances. The crew also helped in making things easy for her, listening to her when she corrected them. She noticed this, and though she did not say a thing, they could tell that she was grateful for it by her actions.
Night came quickly, quicker than she would have liked it to. The four of them had a casual dinner together at a nearby mall before splitting ways.
On her way home, Skyler inevitably pondered her living conditions. If she continued to stay by herself, would there be any real issues? Maybe she could evade the government for a year? What would be the consequences? She searched it up on the net and saw that with no relatives, she would be sent to a caregiver's home. So her options were to live with a complete stranger or live with a somewhat stranger who had worked with her dad. Either way, they were both strangers. If she somehow managed to evade the government, could she afford the living expenses? The apartment had already been fully paid for, so it was undoubtedly hers. She would have to look into her father's savings later to see how long it would last her.
She really loathed the idea of depending on strangers, yet the thought of living alone... the more she thought about it, the more it scared her. The once cozy apartment started to feel suffocating even with the windows thrown wide open.
Skyler quickly arrived at the decision that she would stay alone for a week more and make her final decision after that. She did not want to keep them waiting on her for too long. She dug out Drew's card from her bag, the same one she had brought to the funeral, and keyed in his number before texting him of her decision.
To Skyler's surprise, he replied almost immediately. 'That's fine. Are you available tomorrow? I would like to pass you something of your father's.'
She replied 'Ok' and suggested a café nearby her apartment as she walked home from the train station. Looking up at the stars and enjoying the cool evening breeze, she was instantly reminded about the many walks she would take with her father on that very same path.
She walked faster, pushing the memories away. She soon found herself home where more memories slowly filtered into her mind. She busied herself, cleaning the apartment, working on her assignments and projects until late, all while pushing away memories before she got ready for bed. When she was finally in bed she tossed and turned but sleep would not come to her.
She got up and sat at her PC once again, watching dance videos. She got a ping from online friends and decided to join them playing games on her PC, but wasn't really feeling it so she left after joining them for one round of the game.
Skyler ended up not sleeping that night.
A dizzying headache slowly formed as she went about her day. Before she knew it, the appointed time for her to meet Drew for lunch came. Drew was already seated inside the cafe when she arrived.
"Hi, sorry I'm late." She told him as she sat down.
Drew brushed it off and took a good look at her. She was looking a little pale.
"Are you alright?" He asked instead. The point of the meet up was mainly so he could check on her. Being a doctor made him worry what a grieving teen would do living alone as he had met many cases where it did not end well. Grief could cause people to get sick or worse depressed. More so in cases of sudden deaths, especially for a close family member.
"I'm fine, have you eaten?" She asked instead, trying to change the subject.
The older man noticed this but obliged her.
They ordered brunch and had a casual chat about their favorite kinds of food. Drew noted how Skyler ate only half of her meal, which was not much, and had to get the counter staff to pack up the remainder.
Once they were both done with their meals, he brought up an A4 sized box and handed it over to her.
"Inside are your father's personal belongings from his office. Thought you might want to have them."
Skyler simply nodded and muttered out a thanks as she took it from him, not too much in the mood to say anything.
Soon after that, they bid each other farewell and parted ways with the agreement that Drew would be able to visit her at her house should he not be able to reach her or suspected anything amiss as he was now her acting guardian since his mother was no longer in the country.
Good thing they did what they did.