Sorry for the delay, I forgot my laptop when I went to the beach!

here is chapter 24!

Skylar's POV

"How are you?" I asked

"As good as one can get in this terrible world." Matthew said chuckling, "What about you sweetheart?"

"We are fine, have you met Oliver and Bree yet? They're our close friends from back home."

"Nice to meet you. Kaz, Skylar, and I go way back." Matthew said

"Yeah? Well I've known Kaz since third grade." Oliver said arrogantly.

"That's great! I've known him since I was two." Matthew said with a smirk on his face.

There was then a moment of silence as Matthew and Oliver stared each other down trying to each gain more control than the other.

I look over at Bree as she analyzed the situation and walks over to Oliver.

"So, we're going to leave you three to catch up for a bit." Bree said breaking the awkward silence.

"But…" Oliver started to say before Bree practically dragged him out by the ear. As I watched him walk away I wondering what the heck had gotten into him.

Oliver

It hurt like heck and Bree wouldn't stop moving until we were back in the bedroom.

"I don't like that guy, he just…. I don't know." I say while pacing around the room.

"I know, he is Skylar's ex and a real creep from what Skylar has said about him."

"What? What do you mean?" I asked getting concerned.

"He would always hang around her and text her all the time. And not in the cute way a couple would, it was like he would stalk her and then constantly harass her."

"You're just explaining this to me now? I need to be up there." I say walking towards the door to the roof when she pulled me back and told me to wait.

"I'm going up in 5 minutes unless something happens before then." I say wanting to rush up there as quick as possible.

After sitting on the closest bed for a minute, I hear someone yell out my name and stand up to look at Bree who nods for us to go as we raced up the stairs.

Skylar

"So, how did you meet that guy?" Matthew asked after Oliver closed the door behind him.

"He actually helped me out of a sticky situation a while ago. You know, like how FRIENDS are supposed to do." Kaz said.

"Aww! And now you have a special bond?" Matthew said laughing.

"What are you doing here Matt?" I asked frustrated.

"You mean I can't come to see my girlfriend and her brother?"

"I am not your girlfriend, we broke up five years ago. You need to move on and get over it."

"We only broke up because of your uncle." He said with a snarl.

"No, you broke up because you're a jerk and a creep, especially to her." Kaz said.

"So, it's that guy now huh? Is he the one you love?" He asked curiously taking a step towards me.

"No. I don't know… I…" I begin to mumble, becoming flustered.

"Well, you should…" Matthew pauses and then smiles, "Skylar you should come with me. We could get away from all of these people, leave everything behind, together."

As I feel my heart race and my fears begin to grow, I try to move away from him but he grabs my wrist, squeezing it hard, pulling me towards him. Kaz runs over to help me but Matthew turns and punches him in the gut, then knocks him over the head, hard. Kaz goes down and tries to get back up as I continue to try and get my hand free from Matthew.

Spinning me around, he wraps his arms around my waist and arms, still holding on to my wrist. I yell out Oliver's name, trying to hold back my tears, trying to be strong, continuing to struggle as he starts to back up to the stairs leading to the backyard.

Matthew moves his chin to the crook of my neck, breathes in, and whispers, "Guess what Skylar? We're going somewhere. Far away from here, away from your brother. Away from the guy you think will come for you when we both know he won't. I'm going to introduce you to some friends of mine who I think will absolutely love to see you. In fact, I think-"

He stops suddenly and we are knocked over. I hit my head as we go down and the wind gets knocked out of me as Matthew lands on top of me. My vision blurs as I feel him get up and hear grunting beside me. Tears roll down my cheeks as I wrap my arms around my sides as they start to hurt from him holding me so tightly. The noise stops next to me stops and someone leans down next to me. I flinch with fear as I feel a hand on my cheek and realize it's Oliver looking at me concerned, my vision clears up as he picks me up, cradling me in his arms, and moves over to the bench.

I look around to see Bree and Kaz walking towards us, Matthew had disappeared.

"He ran away." Oliver says as he realizes what I was looking for.

I stand up and start to cry more as Kaz pulls me into a hug repeatedly saying, "It will be okay."

"N…..no…..no, it won't. Yo….you and Oliver are going to be gone and then I…I…" Loosing concentration I start to cry harder, repeating the words Matthew said over and over again in my head as Bree rubs my back.

"I'm not leaving now." Oliver says.

"No… you have to…" I mumble out

Looking at my hands I realize there were bruises forming on my wrist and I quickly move it behind out of sight as Oliver gets up to pull me back in his arms while Kaz and Bree go back downstairs, giving us some time. He moves me back on the bench as I start to cry again still shaking from what happened.

"Hey, I'm here, I won't let anyone hurt you..." Stopping mid-sentence as I realize he can see my

wrist. I stop crying, quickly stand up, head spinning, and move away as his face becomes stone.

"Skylar, let me see your wrist." He says fiercely. I stay where I am and flinched when he stood up quickly moving towards me, the same way Matthew had done minutes before.

"Stop." I whisper.

As he stops to look at me, his face softens as another few tears rolls down my cheek. Realizing he was scaring me, only making things worse, he moves to sit back down on the bench.

"Please." He says quietly.

I walk back over sitting next to him and move my wrist to where he could see the bruises that had grown darker. He lifts his finger and slightly touches the bruises causing me to flinch. He looks up at me then puts his arms around me, pulling me close as I lay my head on his chest, exhausted.

"Your hands are cold" He says.

"Ha-ha." I say half-hearted.

"I can stay."

"No, you said it yourself, you have to go with them to keep them safe." I say, my voice cracking.

"But will you be ok here?"

"I'll have Aunt Peggy and Kathrine. Don't worry about it." I say while my heart is screaming for him to stay and more tears began to pour, making me thankful he couldn't see my face. After a few moments of silence, I stop crying and beginning to realize how tired I really was, I yawned.

"Ok. We should go to bed." Oliver said softly, standing up and offering me his hand.

When we got down to the room, Kaz and Bree were fast asleep taking up two of the three beds.

"You take the bed, I'll sleep on the floor." He whispers, grabbing a pillow and laying down.

I nod and move to the empty bed, pulling the covers up, wrapping my arms around myself. Thinking about Matthew and what happened over and over, I begin to toss and turn trying to find a comfortable position. I feel silent tears fall freely as I try to forget the awful memories that kept popping up in my head. A couple minutes later I heard a voice.

"Can't sleep?" Oliver asked.

"No, but I know why. Why can't you?"

"The grounds hard, I'm worried about Z, and my back hurts. Do you want me to continue?" He asked chuckling a little bit.

"Why don't you take the bed for a while? I'll sleep on the floor." I offered.

"Now what kind of gentleman would I be if I did that?" He asked sounding like I hurt his pride.

"Then come up here. I'll move over and you can take half." I say as he becomes silent, "Well, if you don't then I will move to the ground till you do."

"No, you won't." Oliver said confidently.

"Okay." I say getting up to move onto the ground.

"Gosh you're stubborn." He says getting up with his pillow moving on the bed pulling me back down, covering me with the sheets. We just lay there for a few seconds before I lay my head on his chest and he moves one arm under me, pulling me closer calmly rubbing my back, trying to help me fall asleep. Feeling so safe and loved in his arms, I close my eyes and fell into a deep peaceful sleep.

When I woke up I see the sun peeking out from the open window, letting in a cool morning breeze and the sound of birds chirping. I look up to see Oliver looking down at me with his arms still holding me close. In that moment, I had almost forgotten about the world until Kaz hops over and yells 'GOOD MORNING SLEEPY HEAD!' With that I groaned as Oliver chuckled and got up to pack for the trip. I watch them with sad eyes still laying in the warm bed and wipe away a tear remembering the events from last night. Turning my head, I realize Oliver was watching me with a long face.

"We will be back in a couple days. Are you sure you want me to go?" Oliver asked innocently.

My mind was screaming no at me but my head shook itself to say yes. Darn thing.

As we were saying goodbye I looked over to see Kathrine standing there with a bag.

"Hey" Oliver said looking at Kathrine, following my eyes.

"I'm going with you." Kathrine says looking very determined to go. "No matter what you think or say, I'm going."

As she turns walking out to the truck. Realizing what was happening I begin to worry and look over to see Oliver had moved next to me, enveloping me in a hug. He seemed to have figured out the problem before I had.

"Skylar, do you want me to stay?" Oliver asked me.

"No, you need to go." I say regretfully.

"But what about Matthew?" He asks.

"We will be fine. I will be fine." I say keeping my voice confident knowing that I would be crying later, again.

"Are you sure?" he asked seriously putting his hands on my shoulders looking me in the eyes. I nod wishing he would stay no matter what I said or did.

"Ok, we will be back in a few days." Oliver says giving me one last hug.

"Ok, be safe. I'll miss you." I say.

"I'll miss you too." He says stepping away and heading towards the trucks and motorcycles.

Thanks for reading guys!

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See you next time!