After that, Skylar begins to avoid everyone.
He doesn't see his dad anyway, so that's nothing new. However, every time he's around Jessie the guy just talks about how he's leaving. Skylar still hangs out with him sometimes, but not as often as before. Especially since he's constantly around Ashton, who Skylar seriously avoids like the plague in the coming weeks.
He also stays away from his friends, because they always talk him into the very thing that will get him kicked out of his fucking house. He stays away from the public generally, because he doesn't want to risk Crimson finding him again and doing even worse. Skylar does not have any fucking money, partially because he's been ditching work. Again, so that he doesn't have to see Ashton.
He starts to get lonely, but he just counteracts that with drugs. Unfortunately this only works so long. He has a pretty good stash, or he did at the beginning of the summer, but towards the end of June—essentially halfway through the summer, which again, he has spent avoiding everyone—he runs out. However, his addiction has gotten worse, so he only lasts a couple of days before he is making plans to go steal from Crimson again.
Fuck Ashton, Skylar healed pretty well without the aid of a doctor. Some movements still cause him pain, but not like it was before. He's basically good as new, especially since he's been staying out of trouble so well. Of course, the reason he's been staying out of trouble is purely because his life is blowing up in his face, but still. He chooses to pretend like he's purposely trying to improve himself. Or whatever.
So, Skylar finally drags himself out of bed on July 1st, a Saturday morning, and essentially plans on just driving directly to the building where Crimson keeps all his vehicles and shit. See, Crimson isn't just a drug dealer. He practically heads a drug empire. He's not the person to fuck with, which is part of why Skylar has been so careful about leaving the house and who he surrounds himself with.
When Skylar enters the main floor, heading to the kitchen to grab a snack before he embarks on his theft mission, he finds Jessie sitting at the breakfast bar. He's scrolling through his phone and eating what looks like a ham and cheese biscuit. He looks up at Skylar's entrance.
When Skylar begins avoiding people, he's really good at not making it obvious. He stays in touch with everyone just enough for it to not be obvious, so Jessie probably just thinks he's been lazy. Jessie would probably jump to the conclusion of Skylar avoiding Ashton before ever thinking of Skylar avoiding himself.
Honestly, almost even more than Crimson, Skylar really has been avoiding Ashton. That guy has been making him feel way too much. Skylar needed a break from him, but honestly, it doesn't seem like Ashton has been coming around much anyway. At least, Skylar hasn't heard him in the house or seen his truck parked in the driveway in quite a while.
"Where ya goin'?" Jessie asks him with a mouthful of biscuit. Skylar pauses, trying to think of a plausible lie.
"Lily's" he says, even though he's barely spoken to her since summer started. He definitely hasn't seen her since the last day of school, but she's probably got her own shit going on anyway.
Jessie nods, and Skylar grabs a granola bar. He tries to get himself to say bye and leave, to not ask the questions that have been plaguing him, but unfortunately he has always had a distinct lack of self control.
"Haven't seen Ashton in a while," Skylar remarks. Jessie nods, finishing the bite he'd taken of his biscuit before replying.
"Yeah, he's had school. I'm supposed to see him today, though."
School? In the summer? Well, Skylar supposes that kind of makes sense. He does take his school seriously, so it would track for him to take summer classes despite it not really being necessary.
"Okay, well, bye," Skylar says, now hoping that he gets in a car crash or something. Anything to put him out of his misery, because he can't believe he just fucking asked about Ashton. He never asks about Ashton, because he doesn't fucking care! Why would he?!
Skylar hastily leaves the house after that, cursing himself and not driving safely at all as he heads to the heart of downtown Bayton. He goes to Crimson's main place of operation, parking several blocks away so as to not raise suspicion. Crimson does not have much security for his cars, for some reason, though one would think that he'd have figured out Skylar's game by now. Oh well.
Skylar jumps the fence without being seen, upon arriving to the small car yard. It's a blind spot in the cameras, and not well secured, so he's not all that concerned with being caught. He's done this hundreds of times, but he still makes sure not to get sloppy. Crimson is smart when it comes to business, but not common sense.
Skylar ducks down as he makes his way through the rows of cars. Eventually he spots the one he usually steals from, the only one out here that ever has anything in it. Skylar has gotten really good at breaking into cars, so he's able to do so within a minute. Once he pops open the driver 's side door without any alarms going off, he slips inside. He then starts climbing over the seats until finally reaching the trunk.
He falls to the floor of the trunk gracelessly, scrambling to get himself seated and honestly making kind of a racket with all the glass vials and pills and empty syringes and shit back here. There's also the racket of pills shaking around in their bottles as he tries to get himself situated, and if he wasn't so sure he wouldn't be caught, he'd probably be kind of stressed about the noise. There's also the fact that there's a floorboard separating him from them, so it's probably not as loud as it feels.
However, he's probably done this hundreds of times throughout the years, no exaggeration. He knows exactly when and where to strike, quite literally knows the specific vehicle's license plates where Crimson likes to keep his extra supplies in.
Skylar feels around the edge of the floor covering, before finding a groove that serves as a handle. He supports all his weight against the seat as he lifts it up, reaching his arm underneath it and feeling around—
Then, he falls once again, barely containing a shout of pain as his arm is smushed under his weight, beneath the board. The reason for this fall is the car shaking as a door opens, and he's barely able to muster the strength to pull his arm out from under it—though the wood holding the board up still scrapes him pretty bad—before people begin entering the vehicle.
Okay, maybe Skylar shouldn't have been getting so cocky. There is no way for him to escape this car without them noticing, it would just be too loud. Also, it would give away where he's been stealing from, and they'd probably move their shit around. He can't lose his access to his addiction. He will risk death before doing that.
Then again, even if he could somehow find a way to open the trunk from the inside, he doubts he'd make it far before getting caught. There's no way he could scale the fence in time.
So, Skylar lays on the floor of the trunk, which has a few duffel bags of god knows what and a brief case, and prays that he makes it out of this alive.
"Did you not lock the doors, Ricky?"
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. That's Crimson's voice. Note to Skylar if he makes it through this: lock the doors during the theft, in case this bullshit happens again.
"I thought I did. Sorry, Boss."
"Whatever."
Whew, okay, that was a close one. Skylar's heart is beating out of his chest, he can hear it in his ears and in his panic he finds himself momentarily scared that they can hear it too.
Someone starts the car up, and Skylar wonders how it didn't cross his mind that there's usually only one reason people get in their cars. How on earth did he not figure out the fact that they're probably fucking going somewhere?
He feels the vehicle moving backwards a moment later, before it turns and the guy presses on the gas, having effectively finished backing them out of the space. Then, they're on their way to god knows where. At this point, Skylar is actually contemplating if he should start texting his friends and family how much he loves them and will miss them when he dies.
He doesn't think that's too outlandish of a thing to do. When they pull out onto the main road and speed up, effectively taking him far away from his car and any hope of escape, his chances of survival get narrower and narrower.
If Crimson sees him, he's done. He's seen what this guy can do, especially to the people who fuck him over. The only reason he's probably had this much patience for Skylar is because his father's so important. Well, and also because he's usually able to pay Crimson back eventually. However, that patience only goes so far, and at this point Skylar is in hundreds of dollars of debt.
Skylar tries to regulate his breathing and be as quiet as possible. It doesn't help when the guys don't even turn on any music. Who doesn't listen to music in the car? Skylar doesn't understand. At least, he doesn't understand until they begin speaking.
"I still don't see why he needs to meet with us. What could he have to say that couldn't be sent in an email?" The guy that's not Crimson—Ricky, probably—remarks. Skylar wonders who they're talking about. Probably some other criminal.
"Paper trail, stop questioning. These are the accorders we're talking about. We could use the money, at least until I get my hands on the punk that keeps stealing from us."
"Yeah, I don't think he's been very active lately. We'll catch him."
Okay, they're definitely talking about Skylar. There's basically only one person on the planet who is stupid enough to steal from people of this caliber. Then again, he does have a sort of pride about it. Crimson is feared, yet Skylar has still gotten away with pushing his luck this long.
Then again... it's likely they're about to get their wish.
Also, what the fuck is an accorder? Or... the accorders? It sounds like it's a person, or at least a group of people. They must be pretty powerful if Crimson wants to be financially involved with them this badly. Are they another organization? A gang? A rival drug empire? Skylar finds himself curious, wondering if he's about to meet a new set of people to steal from.
"How would we benefit financially from an arms dealer, anyway?" Ricky asks after a moment, which clears that up. So the accorders are arms dealers. They sell weapons. Interesting. Well, there goes Skylar's hope of having new people to steal from.
"He'll help us expand our clientele." Crimson replies. "We've been discussing this for months. He distributes, too, and we can use the partnership."
Alright, that's good. He distributes too. That's sick, that means that Skylar might in fact have someone new to steal from after all. That would be great, because Crimson is seriously fed up with him.
They ride mostly in silence after that, though Ricky makes conversation every once in a while. They seem to move on from talking about the person they're meeting, although Skylar can tell that Crimson is kind of nervous. The way he talks, his voice is kind of unsteady, and he can't seem to focus on one topic of conversation. Skylar finds himself even more curious about this person. He's never seen someone faze Crimson.
It's not long before Ricky says something, and the car is now making a lot of turns, which makes Skylar wonder if they're close to the destination. "You alright, boss?"
This seems to piss Crimson off, if his defensive tone of voice when he replies is anything to go off of. "Fuck off. We're meeting a twenty year old kid, not some sort of kingpin."
"Well, yeah, but he's an accor-"
"His ties don't intimidate me. I'd suggest you shut your fucking mouth before you end up like Quin."
His tone really suggests otherwise. Skylar is quite familiar with this guy when he's confident and has the upper hand. He's never heard him like this. Skylar wonders what on earth happened to Quin, as well as what they're talking about with the whole ties thing. Then, Skylar realizes he should probably be focusing more on escape than their chat about shit he does not and will not ever understand.
Ricky does as told, and it's only a moment later that the car is slowing to a stop.
"Shit. There he is." Ricky mumbles. Crimson tells him to shut up again, and then they're finally exiting the vehicle. Skylar breathes out a sigh of relief when he hears the doors shut, finally peeking over the seat to find them rounding the front of the car, walking towards a large, seemingly muscular guy. It's hard to tell with his coat and hood, though. He's also wearing jeans and boots, and something about the boots is familiar. Skylar feels like he's seen them before.
Eh, whatever, he's not in his right mind right now with all the paranoia and withdrawal so he's probably seeing things. Skylar just grabs his bag and lifts up the floor again, reaching underneath and grabbing as much cytozine as comfortably possible. Just enough for them not to notice, which is easy since they always have a fuck ton and he can typically get away with taking a pretty good amount. They notice a shortage in inventory, but not in individual storage.
Skylar shoves some in his bag before zipping it up and throwing it over the seat. He follows suit, climbing and landing as gracefully as possible. He peeks through the windows to make sure he wasn't seen, but Crimson and Ricky seem pretty distracted. So, as quietly as possible, he opens the door. He continuously checks to make sure he's not seen as he does so, but when he closes the car door upon exit it's louder than intended.
"What was that?"
Shit! Shit, fuck, Skylar should not have gotten his hopes up. He should've known this would all blow up in his face.
"Stop interrupting, Ricky. We talked about this."
Oh. Alright, well it seems like the universe finally decided to throw Skylar a bone. He smiles, clenching his fist to celebrate his small victory. However, he's not in the clear yet, so he ducks low and starts to take in his surroundings. He finds a car a good twenty feet away that he could hide behind, but it would be risky to just run to it. He'll have to wait.
So, Skylar decides to just watch them and wait until their attention is elsewhere for a while. He crouches beside the vehicle and peeks through the windows, only now deciding to listen.
"If you want my money, you need to convince me you're worth my time." Someone says, and holy shit that voice is familiar. It's not Crimson or Ricky either, and Skylar is intrigued. He subtly draws closer as he attempts to make out the guy's—the accorder's—face. He almost trips once, but thankfully doesn't. He shouldn't let his curiosity get the best of him, but something about that voice...
When Skylar does finally catch sight of the person's face, however, he wonders if it would've been less mentally strenuous to just have gone to fucking rehab.
Ashton.
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