Chapter 4 : Company

The crew arrived that night to accompany Skyler and Xavier. When Rudy showed up, Skyler began feeling irritated. 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. 

"No, just leave me be. You can go on ahead with your boy toy." 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. 

"Get up." Xavier demanded, quiet rage seeping into his tone. 

"Xavier I'm sure she-" Aarna tried to intervene, but Xavier held a hand up telling her not to interfere. This was between them.

Skyler had never feared for her life as much as at that moment, her brain processors also appeared to be failing her. When she made no indication of moving, Xavier took her by the arm and firmly pulled her up from her seat before dragging her out of sight and hearing range from the crew and his visibly hurt boyfriend. 

"Sky.. you're going through a lot right now, I understand that. BUT! What you just said was highly disrespectful and has hurt ME as well as MY partner deeply? ESPECIALLY coming from someone who's supposed to be close with US!" Xavier exclaimed as he tried to calm himself lest he did something he regretted. 

She looked down at her feet guilty of what she said.

"I didn't mean it. I'm sor-" 

"NO! I don't want that. You've been this way since that dance rehearsal. Tell me what's wrong. You're not like this even if you are going through a hard time; I know you too well for this Sky." His tall frame easily towered over hers, trapping her against the wall, his arms blocking both sides. 

She shivered from the lack of space between them, panic began to set in.

"Xavier, stop!" Skyler exclaimed with a hand on his chest trying to hold him away. 

"Not until you tell me what's going on." He told her and held one of her hands to prevent her from pushing him away.

"Stop! I mean it." Skyler exclaimed as she struggled harder, her breathing quickened. 

What was going on in that head of hers? Years of friendship and yet this is what she does. Xavier sighed deeply. He felt hurt, disappointed and most of all, frustrated that she would not confide in him. He pushed off the wall he had Skyler trapped against and looked down at her as she was a head shorter than him. 

"You know where to reach me when you're ready to talk. I'm going overseas with my family for a week to visit my grandparents, we already planned this a while back so I can't change it. Take charge of the crew while I'm gone." Xavier told her albeit angry and disappointed with her. 

Skyler was left standing with her back against the wall. Wide brown eyes followed the blonde's figure as he left the venue, Rudy trailing after him with their things clutched in his arms 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? 

Her breathing quickened, was this hyperventilating? It was getting harder to breathe and panic was making her cold. Skyler did not know how long she stayed there trying to calm herself. It was the first time this had happened to her. 

A shadow fell over her before it stooped down in front of her. A warm hand was placed on her arm and another reached out to hold her cold hands. 

"Breathe in and out slowly." The shadow guided in a familiar voice. It was Jose. 

He had approached her after seeing her state. A convenience store bag of what seemed like snacks had been placed down beside him as he looked at her in a way that was neither overly caring nor was he in a rush. As if he had all the time in the world. 

Despite Xavier's apparent dislike of Jose, Skyler wanted the company of someone who was neither Xavier nor the dance crew to talk to at that moment. So after Jose helped her through her anxiety attack, the two spent the rest of the night casually talking and just letting time roll by in each other's presence. 

~~~~

Jose left in the wee hours of the funeral's last day. Once it did end, Skyler wrapped things up and headed back to her apartment. She was mentally drained and just wanted time to be by herself to collect her thoughts and find a normal daily routine again. It took her a couple of days to recover, staying in bed all day, busying herself with cleaning the apartment, doing 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 foster home. So her options were to live with a complete stranger or live with a stranger whom her dad knew. 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 once she was of age. She would have to look into her father's savings later to see how long it could last her. Would they last until she made it to the age of a normal working adult? Would she be able to pay for University fees if she made it? The feeling of an onset anxiety attack made her stop. 

'One step at a time Skyler. One step at a time.' She told herself. 

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 should stay alone for a week more before moving in with her new guardian. She did not want to keep Drew 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, just let me know when you are ready for the place to be packed up so we can rent it out for you. Also are you available tomorrow? I would like to pass you something of your father's.' 

She replied 'Ok' and suggested a café she often patronized 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 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 who specialized in psychiatry 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, depression. 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 less than half of her meal, the whole meal was not a big portion at all. This concerned him and so he got the counter staff to pack up the remainder so she could take it home with her. 

Once they were both done with their meals, they left the cafe where he offered to drive her to her apartment block as the stuff he wanted to pass to her was quite heavy. She agreed and so they arrived at her block shortly. He got out of the car and went round to his car boot to retrieve a neatly packed A4 sized black box. 

"Inside are your father's personal belongings from his office. Thought you might want to have them." He told her

Skyler simply nodded and muttered out a thanks as she took it from him, not too much in the mood to say anything else.

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.