Chapter 23

"Hey Skylar, did you miss me?" Skylar's hands began shaking as he began breathing heavily. "Aren't you going to greet me? The last time that I saw you were a few months ago. And I miss your beautiful face."

"Lex? B-but how?" Skylar stuttered.

"Hey Sky, Do you want more eclairs that I-" Roy's smile faded away when he saw the state that Skylar was in. "Who're you talking to?"

"Lex," Skylar mouthed. Roy frowned and snatched the phone out of Skylar's hand.  He put it on speaker.

Lex chuckled. "I almost died after you hit me with that vase on my head. Luckily, someone got me as fast as possible at the hospital. I was in a coma for a few days. And when I woke up, I swore to myself that I'll take you by force. I don't care what you think. You're mine and that's it. I'm not telling you when you'll see me. It could be today or tomorrow. Maybe even over a few months. And when I see you, we'll finish off where we started that day. Goodbye for now, sweetheart." Both Skylar and Roy were staring at the phone screen as Lex hung up. 

Roy felt his blood boil. He stuck his hand out. "I'm taking your phone for a while. Use your spare for now on." Roy glanced at Skylar who was hugging himself. "Skylar? Are you alright?" Roy asked as he put his hand on Skylar's head.

Skylar flinched and fixed his eyes on the ground. "I'm fine, dad." Without looking at Roy, he went upstairs to grab his spare phone. 

Roy stared at his phone. "How is he still alive?"

1 hour later

"What the fuck is this?" Miracle demanded as she shoved her phone into Skylar's face. They all had a free period due to the teacher being sick and were sitting in the cafeteria. "Why haven't we heard about this?"

"I told you already that I didn't have a choice! I was forced to do it!" Skylar exclaimed and pointed at Ashton. "It's his fault that I did it!"

Ashton held his hands up. "I only asked you. You could've said no."

Skylar raised his eyebrow. "You begged me to do it. You even tried to offer me ridiculous things!"

"That wasn't true," Ashton mumbled. "They weren't that pricey."

"Never mind him, but why didn't you tell the rest of us?" Parker cried. "I know that Jumin wouldn't care what you did with your life, but Miracle, Yukine and I do!"

"The pictures came out nice," Yukine complimented.

"I wanted to be there to take my own personal pics!" Miracle shouted. Yukine tried to calm her down. She glared at Ashton. "You better tell me next time. If not..." She slid her index finger horizontally against her neck.

Ashton shuddered and hid behind Skylar. "O-okay." Skylar sighed deeply as he shook his head. They all were quiet.

"What will you do after this?" Jumin asked. "Are you planning on continuing or are you sticking with your job?"

Skylar shrugged. "I don't know."

"Isn't it a bad idea to let your face get plastered around the world?" Jumin questioned. "Imagine if someone recognized you and plans to hunt you down." 

"Too fucking late for that," Skylar thought.

"Then I'll kill them. And I always use different face masks when I work. So the witnesses don't know how I look like. Only the dead people know." Skylar yawned. "But that's my problem," he smiled. His smile immediately disappeared after he said that and he looked around.

"Did something like that happen?" Ashton asked worriedly. "You seem paranoid."

"Should I tell them? But that'll worry them. Only Ashton and Miracle really knew what really happened a few months back. But I don't want to worry them." Skylar shook his head. "It's nothing."

Ashton didn't buy his act. "If something did happen, you can tell me. Okay?"

"I know," Skylar muttered. 

Ashton's phone rang and he picked it up. "Yes, mom?" Skylar heard Nina talking rapidly to him. "What does a director want with Skylar?" Ashton paused to hear. "Acting skills?"

Skylar nudged him. "Put the phone on speaker." Ashton did it and everyone listened to her attentively.

"There's a new film that they want to shoot and the director is a good friend of mine. When she saw Skylar in that dress, she immediately called me and asked if Skylar could act. And I said yes of course," she ranted. "So can you ask Skylar if he's down to do it? Because I actually said that he'd do it," he added with a nervous chuckle.

"Mom. He can hear you," Ashton said.

The other side of the line was quiet. "Well shit," she mumbled. "Please do it, Skylar! There is a big chance that you'll get a minor role, so you wouldn't be on camera a lot."

"But what's the movie about?" Skylar asked.

"I don't really know. She said something about a romcom. There's definitely zero chance that you'll get the role of the love interest of the main character. No offense."

"None taken," Skylar replied.

"But there is a very small chance that she'll make you crossdress. But that depends on your acting skills," she added. "So, will you do it?"

Skylar looked at the others and they were all nodding yes. "Fine. I'll do it."

"Yes!" Nina cheered. "You'll have an audition in two weeks. I'll send you the script."

"Okay, but as who did you tell her that I'd like to audition?" Skylar asked.

"No one important," she muttered. "Okay, bye!" She hung up and Skylar looked at Ashton.

"What now?"

2 and a half months later

The months passed by quietly. Skylar hasn't heard anything from Lex yet and did his audition. They loved him but didn't think that he was worthy to get the lead. So they decided to give him the role of one of the friends. Skylar didn't really care and was still happy that he could take a part of the film.

They all were at Ashton's house. Miracle and Yukine were in the kitchen and they were baking together with Alexis. Parker and Jumin were in the game room that they got access to. And Skylar and Ashton were in the private gym where Skylar was practicing with Adrian as Ashton watched them.

"Why do you even want to do kickboxing? Do you have someone you like at school? Is it a boy or a girl? Or are you getting bullied?" Ashton questioned.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" 

Skylar landed a soft kick on Adrian. "Adrian. Focus." Skylar glared at Ashton. "And leave your brother alone."

"Sorry," they both mumbled with their heads down.

Skylar rolled his eyes and took his gloves off. "I think that this is enough for today. You've had a massive growth in these past months."

Adrian scratched the back of his neck as he smiled shyly. "Ashton gives me pointers when we work out. But he's not into kickboxing like you."

"See? I'm not that useless!" Ashton laughed.

Skylar looked at the clock on the wall. "When am I suppose to be at the location?" He asked Ashton.

He opened his phone. "In two hours."

"You have a shoot at 9 pm?" Adrian questioned. "Why so late?"

"The part that they're filming is when the main character is drunk and I have to help her get home as she tells me how much she likes a guy," he explained as he put the gloves away. "And that was it."

"Is Ashton going with you? And if he is, can I go too?"

"No one is going with me," Skylar replied. "And I'm not changing my mind."

"I already tried to persuade him with skittles. He said no," Ashton whispered to Adrian. "It was so easy back then. But I still gave him a bag of skittles."

"So what are you going to do now?" He asked Skylar.

"I'm going to shower and prepare myself. Don't try to join in Ashton," he warned.

"Wasn't planning to," he muttered and stood up from the ground. "I'm gonna check on the others, starting by Parker and Kyung."

"Okay. Call me if anything happens." They parted ways. Ashton walked to the game room.

"Give me the fucking controller back!" He heard Jumin yell as Parker laughed nonstop. Ashton opened the door and saw Jumin on top of Parker, trying to get the controller out of his hand. They both turned to Ashton and Jumin looked at the position that they were in. He jumped off of Parker.

"It's not what it looks like! I swear!"

Ashton glanced at both of them. "Don't forget to use protection." He closed the door.

"Do you want to fucking die?!" Jumin screamed and Ashton made a run for it to the kitchen. When he got inside the kitchen, he closed the door and looked at the others.

"What's up?" Ashton grinned sheepishly.

"What did you do?" Miracle asked. Ashton went up to her and whispered what he saw in her ear. She gasped and they both nodded.

"It smells good in here. Are you guys making a cake?" He asked.

"Were making cupcakes," Alexis corrected as she was spreading icing on it. She showed it to him. "Do you like them?"

Ashton nodded. "They're pretty. Did you design them?" Alexis nodded enthusiastically. "You did a great job." He turned to Miracle and Yukine. "Are you guys staying over tonight?" Miracle nodded, but Yukine shook her head.

"My mom said that I can't," she said with a small frown. "Sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Ashton smiled. "Maybe next time. Is your mom picking you up?" She nodded. "Does she know the address?"

"Yes. I sent her my location." They heard the door slam open and saw Jumin breathing heavy. Parker stood behind him.

"Now tell me. What the fuck did you say? Do you want to fucking die?!" Jumin screamed and Miracle covered Alexis' ears.

"Not in front of the child," she scolded.

"I don't give a flying fuck about her," Jumin snarled as he approached Ashton. 

Parker grabbed Jumin's arm. "Calm down, Kyung. He was just joking," Parker assured. "I hope."

"He wasn't," Miracle thought as Ashton thought the same thing.

Jumin looked at Parker who was smiling brightly. He clicked his tongue. "Fine. Is there something to eat?" He grabbed one of the cupcakes and took a bit out of it. He chewed it slowly. "Who made this?"

"I did," Yukine replied.

"Phew. I would be dead by now if Miracle did. They're great." Miracle glared at him.

Skylar joined them. "Ashton, we have to go." Ashton turned to him. "See you guys later."

"Bye," they all said as Ashton and Skylar went out of the kitchen.

At the location

"Everyone take 5!" Someone shouted. Skylar grabbed his phone out of his bag and saw that he got a text from Ashton. He walked to the bathroom.

Ace: so how is it?

Skylar: it isn't that bad, almost the same as when I have to fool people

Ace: that's good right? Roy called me and said that you have to call him

Skylar: okay

Skylar dialed Roy as he looked at himself in the mirror. "Yes, dad?"

"You're doing a good job! I'm so proud!" He smiled.

Skylar looked around. "Where are you hiding?"

"Not telling!" He grinned. "I have to keep a close eye on you. We haven't found Lex yet and we don't know when he'll kidnap you again."

Skylar walked out of the bathroom. "That's reasonable. So when do you-" His sentence was cut short when he heard people screaming outside. He ran to the sound. "Dad, what is happening out there?"

"I don't know! Some men took the actors as hostage!" Skylar stopped running and saw Lex pointing a gun at the director's head. "Skylar? SKYLAR I'M COMING!"

"Well, well," Lex chuckled. "How are you, sweetheart? I came to pick you up."

"Leave her alone," Skylar ordered as his voice shook a little. Lex let go of her and pushed her to the other hostages.

Lex held his hand out. "Are you ready to go with me? If not, your boyfriend will die."

Skylar slapped his hand away. "Fight me! I want a one on one! Right here, right now!" He demanded.

Lex chuckled. "So stubborn. Alright, but somewhere else."