Chapter 8

"I know that you're a guy."

"Huh?" Skylar calmed himself down. "I don't know what you're talking about, Max," he said, acting completely oblivious. Max shook his head with a smirk.

"Drop the act. I did a whole background check on you before you came here."

"Goddammit."

"Listen," Max spoke up. "I'm not against my son being in a gay relationship, but I'm not comfortable with it yet. I just need some time to get used to it."

"And it would look good for the company," Max thought. "Then the buyers would think that we're all in for gay rights or we can still cover it up and say that Skylar is a girl." He smirked. 

Skylar's mind jumped to many conclusions when he saw that smug smirk. His fingers grazed the pocket knife that he hid in one of his stockings. "Why are you smirking?" Skylar asked. 

Max pressed his lips in a thin line as he saw his cold eyes staring him down. "It's nothing," Max smiled nervously. "Why are you even wearing a dress?"

"To keep it short, my mom wanted a girl and now I'm stuck with this," Skylar replied, motioning to the dress. "And I don't need your pity," he commented when he saw Max's face. 

Max cleared his throat and smiled. "Let's go back." They walked back to one of the dining rooms and Ashton looked concerned when he saw Skylar. Skylar just smiled to brush it off. He sat back down next to Ashton.

"What happened?" Ashton whispered.

"Your dad knows that I'm not a girl," he shrugged. Ashton slammed his hands in the table and abruptly stood up.

"REALLY? HOW?" Nina shushed him and Max rolled his eyes.

"Of course I know. What kind of question is that?" Ashton was still confused. "Background check? Ever heard of that?" 

Ashton's mouth turned into an 'O' and he sat back down, taking a bite of his cake. "Everything, for nothing," he mumbled. Skylar intertwined his small hand with Ashton's. Ashton frowned a little when he saw, but he smiled when he saw Skylar's shy smile.

An hour later

"It's still amazing how big your room is." Skylar ran to the bed and jumped on it. 

Ashton threw Skylar's bag next to him on the bed. "Do you want to shower first?" Ashton asked. Skylar raised his head. "So you can get rid of that." He motioned to the dress and makeup.

"Sure. Can you help me with the zipper?" Skylar stood up and turned around. He held his hair up as Ashton unzipped it.

"Your hair's getting long again," he said, playing with a few loose strands.

"I know," Skylar sighed. "I really wish that I could pull that stunt again, but my mom's looking for another good hairdresser. And I don't want her to get mad again." He cringed at the memory. He took off the dress and tossed it on the ground. 

"Curse that dress," he muttered, taking off his heels. "And those stupid, painful heels." Skylar furrowed his eyebrows and turned to Ashton who was still standing in the same spot. "What? Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing," he whispered and cleared his throat. "Go and shower if you're ready to." Skylar grabbed his bag and walked to the bathroom, forgetting that he was in his underwear and stockings.

15 minutes later

"Finally fucking done!" Skylar yelled dropping the bag. "Makeup really is a pain. You don't even have makeup wipes. But I understand like you don't even wear makeup, but still-" He stopped talking when he saw Ashton with makeup wipes.

"I knew that you'd bitch about it. My mom does it all the time," he said. Skylar thanked him and used them to wipe off the leftover eyeliner and mascara. He threw the wipes in the trashcan and joined Ashton. He got under the blanket and lay his head on Ashton's chest.

"Do you want to go to sleep already?" Ashton asked. Skylar nodded against his chest. "Okay then. Goodnight Cherry." He kissed Skylar on the top of his head. 

Skylar felt giddy. "Goodnight Ace." He yawned and fell asleep immediately.

Skylar looked around the room and spotted Parker and Miracle sitting together.

"Hey, Miracle. I've finally defeated the boss," Parker said proudly and showed her his switch. "Now where's my €5?"

Miracle sighed and gave him the money. "Man, I wish Skylar could see it."

Skylar frowned. "I'm right here, guys."

"Yeah, it's so lonely without him," Parker smiled sadly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Skylar slammed his hands on the table but they didn't turn to him.

Parker looked around. "Did Ashton stay home again?"

Miracle nodded. "He sent a message that he'll stay home again this week. I think that the news of Skylar being gone hit him too hard."

"Ace! I have to find him!" Skylar ran out of the classroom. When he went out the door, he was already in Ashton's room. In there, he saw Ashton on his bed looking at a picture of them. Skylar noticed that he got thinner and that he had dark bags under his eyes. In a split second, Ashton stood in front of him.

"Why did you leave me? Why did you go? It is so alone without you." Ashton looked him dead in the eye. "Why did you go?!"

Skylar's eyes widened and he tried to grab Ashton's hand. "Ace, I'm right here. I haven't left you."

Ashton slapped Skylar's hand away. "Tch. This must be another hallucination," he sighed and walked back to his bed.

"Ace? Ace!" Skylar yelled. "Don't ignore me! ASHTON!"

Skylar woke up with a headache. He covered his eyes and groaned. 

Ashton's eyes opened a little when he heard Skylar moaning. Ashton panicked. "What is it, baby?" He asked worriedly. 

Skylar dropped his hands and squinted his eyes. "I have a headache." Skylar closed his eyes again. "And a weird dream." Ashton went to the bathroom and grabbed two ibropufen pills and the bottle of water he keeps beside his bed. He poked Skylar's cheek and he opened one eye. He handed him the stuff. "Thanks." Skylar swallowed the pills and downed them with water.

"What was it about?" 

Skylar thought deeply. He felt a sharp pain in his head and winced. He touched it with his fingers. "I don't remember," Skylar lied and turned to Ashton. 

"Okay," he replied. He tried to kiss Skylar, but Skylar curved him.

"Don't even." Ashton looked hurt. "Morning breath is a real thing. It may be nonexistent in books, but this is real life." Ashton picked him up and carried him bridal style to the bathroom. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You have to brush your teeth too." He put him down in front of the sink and they brushed their teeth. After 2 minutes, they were done.

"Do you want to eat in here?" Ashton asked.

"Can I? Really?"

"Anything for you. I'll grab something downstairs. You can do whatever you want." 

Ashton got out of the room and Skylar stared at the wall for a while."What the hell can I even do?" He looked at the TV, PlayStation, and library. Skylar got an idea.

"Of course!" He rummaged through his books and closet. "Guys like him must have a pervy side!" He checked under his bed and grabbed the first magazine that he found. "YES!" He saw that it was a business magazine. "FUCK!" He moved the business magazines and saw a big box. He got curious and pulled the box from under the bed. He opened it. The box was full of weird things, some that he didn't even know.

"What the hell?" He grabbed the rope out of it and put it next to him. After that, he grabbed the fluffy handcuffs. He stared at a chain that had two clamps at the end. "What do you use this for?" He saw something that was pink, big and egg-shaped with a matching pink remote. He pressed the on button and Skylar startled when it started vibrating. He pressed the off button and put it somewhere else. Then he grabbed something that had a ball. The door opened and Skylar jumped up.

"Hey baby I'm ba-" Ashton saw Skylar, saw the stuff that was on the ground and put their breakfast on his desk. His face was emotionless when he went back out of his room. Skylar's eyes widened when he heard Ashton screaming outside. He shut up and opened the door again. "So it was real," Ashton mumbled, rubbing his eyes again. "I have your food." 

Skylar scurried to him and sat down at the desk. Ashton grabbed another chair and sat next to him. "What is all of that?" Skylar asked as he ate from his waffle.

"Sex toys." Skylar choked on his waffle as Ashton was picking at his skin. "My friend thought that it was funny to give them as a gift for my 15th birthday."

"Why?" Skylar asked. "What kind of friends do you have?"

Ashton shrugged. "We went to a sex shop when we were 15 and I think that one of them made a bet with another guy to buy them. Of course, he bought them and to get rid of them, he gave it to me as a gift. So that's why I hid them under my bed. At least he didn't buy the crazy ones though." 

Skylar nibbled on his last piece. "What do you count as crazy?" He asked, still not understanding everything.

Ashton looked down at his food. "I rather not say," he replied. "I don't want to ruin that innocence of you yet," he mumbled. 

Skylar didn't hear the last part that he said. "You know, Miracle said once that you can get private lessons so she can teach you how it do 'it'," he said nonchalantly. "Maybe you can go and see what she says. I can go too if you like." 

Ashton kissed him and smiled. "I'll think about it. I mean, how bad can it be?" Ashton and Skylar shivered. "But it could become pretty bad."

Meanwhile at Miracle's

Miracle shot up. "I feel like someone's mentioning me!" 

Scott rolled his eyes. "You're imaging it," he scoffed, drinking tea. 

Miracle sat back down. "Now it feels like someone's doubting me. I'll show them!"

A few hours later, somewhere in the city

Someone knocked on the door. "Come in." The door opened and a man stood there, watching the busy city.

"Sir, we couldn't find more data on him. We have everything that we could've found," he said, holding the stack of papers.

"Fine, put it on my desk." 

The man did what he was ordered to. He put his hands behind his back. "Anything else sir?"

"No. You can go home. We'll kidnap him in a month." The man got out of the room and closed the door. 

He slowly walked to the desk and grabbed the files. He checked all the pages. "Skylar Kennedy hm? He really does look like his mother," he chuckled. "And he's almost 18! What a beauty." He took a sip of his whiskey. "See you soon, my future wife."

Skylar got very anxious all of a sudden and became more alert of his surroundings. Roy stopped talking and glanced at Skylar who was glaring at everything he saw.

"What's up? Is there someone spying on us?" He asked. 

Skylar sighed. "I feel like something bad is going to happen."