Skylar's father, Vince Hall, is the Bayton City Mayor.

It's a somewhat decent sized city, well known with a population of 1.5 million. So, it's a full time job, hence being a workaholic. He's never home, because he's basically never off, which is part of the reason that Skylar is the way he is. He's never had to face much punishment.

Skylar's mom is a different story, though. She's scary. Thankfully she lives in another state, due to truck driving she constantly has to travel. Every once in a while she stops in, though, so Skylar has been checking her location religiously. He's been avoiding his dad as well.

He doesn't want to talk about his grades. Then again, he never has and never will.

So, he's been staying away from his house. This is why he is currently driving to the van-dumpster-jumping event that he and Wes planned yesterday. Doing stupid shit like this helps take his mind off of everything, including the dreams he had last night.

Skylar can't believe he's thinking about that night so much, to the point of it entering his dreams. God, he hates Ashton. He hates that guy with a burning passion in his soul. For... for a lot of things, but mostly for doing this to him. For making him feel this way.

Anyway, his bad decision of the week is taking place in an abandoned school parking lot. That's where they found the dumpster, and it was almost all Wes's idea. He runs a channel, which is at almost 100,000 subscribers. It's where he posts all his videos of this shit. Half their school is subscribed to it. Even graduated kids, including Jessie. Skylar has no clue why, though, since the guy just gets mad at him when Skylar is involved in anything crazy. No doubt Skylar will get an earful about this.

Skylar eventually arrives at the destination, finding Charlie and Wes, as well as a few others there. Lily's dirt bike is already set up on a van, and Skylar parks his corvette a good distance away, not wanting to risk damage if things go wrong.

Skylar and his brother drive the exact same car, just two different colors. Jessie's is silver, Skylar's black. Vince bought them both at the same time, when Skylar turned 16 and Jessie 19. It was Skylar's first car, a muscle car, and he has no idea why he was trusted with it. Still, he does his best to take care of it.

"Skylar!" Wes calls, motioning him over. Skylar obliges, and upon reaching the guy, he begins talking. Or, well, telling Skylar the plan.

"Okay, so, everything is basically set up, all I need is for you to do the jump."

Skylar shrugs. "Cool."

And that's that.

Wes gives Skylar his go pro, and Skylar walks over to the bike and hops on, driving it carefully over the vans so it's a good distance away. Wow, this is going to be a really big jump. They aren't turning on the lights, so that it doesn't blind the camera. Therefore, Skylar has to rely entirely on the street lamps to see everything.

Skylar has to be at work in one hour. It's seven o'clock, since Brandy's closes at eleven and he is a closer. He's pretty sure he's the only one scheduled to close, though, so that's going to suck.

Skylar's attention is drawn when Wes holds up three fingers. Then two, then one...

Skylar steps on the gas, and then he's moving. It becomes pretty obvious that they did not borrow enough vans for him to gain much momentum, but he still has hope. He presses the gas as hard as he can without his back tire going out from under him. This still isn't enough, and before he knows it, he's making the jump.

Skylar closes his eyes for a moment as he prays he makes it, but it's not like his prayers have ever been answered before. Nope, he makes it most of the way before the back tire catches on the edge and he's falling into the empty dumpster. There's a sharp edge inside that cuts his leg as he falls, and it feels pretty deep. There's also no telling how many bruises he will have after this.

"Skylar!"

Skylar hears many people shouting his name, so he grabs the side of the dumpster and pulls himself up until he can peek over the edge. Some people help him out, and he would have fallen if someone didn't assist him once he was out of the dumpster as well. Wes is looking at the footage on his phone, but Skylar feels kind of nauseous.

Charlie in the process of wrapping his leg up in a towel. The towel, which is getting bloodier by the minute. Skylar lets him, though, and suddenly Wes is in front of him.

"Holy shit, this looks so sick." The guy remarks, handing the phone to Skylar.

He presses play, a few people around him watching as well. Skylar must admit, even though he didn't make it, it does look really cool.

Wes immediately gets to work on the editing and posting aspect of it. His channel really is popular, he actually makes good money off of certain videos if they get popular enough. Skylar thinks this one has potential. He spends more time after that, watching the videos over and appreciating all the details of his amazing camera work. Eventually, though, it comes time for him to go to work.

It's then that he realizes the problem. He cannot work with an injured leg. There is way too much walking around. He can barely move it without feeling a stinging pain shoot through his entire body. He realizes that he can't work, much less close, like this.

Damn. His manager is going to be so pissed.

Skylar sighs, taking out his phone and dialing Brandy's. It only rings twice before there's an answer.

"Brandy's Bistro, how can I help you?" A female voice asks. Skylar notifies her that he needs to talk to a manager, and she puts him on a brief hold. Unfortunately, the person that answers is just about the last guy Skylar wants to be speaking to.

"Ashton speaking."

"You're not even a fucking manager," Skylar says, feeling pissed off. Crazy how just the sound of this man's voice can cause such a strong reaction.

"They're in a meeting," Ashton says. "What do you want?"

"I can't come in."

There's a silence, then a deep sigh. "What did you do."

Skylar frowns, feeling offended. Skylar didn't 'do' anything! Well, okay, technically he did. Still, he doesn't like the immediate negative assumption, especially since it's right.

"Nothing. I'm super sick."

"You sound fine."

"You sound like a douchebag."

"I need the real reason."

"No you don't." Skylar snaps. "You aren't a manager, I don't have to explain shit to you."

Skylar hears some moving around on the other line, and he frowns. He's currently walking to his car, thankful that he's in good enough condition to drive. He doesn't need people seeing him like this. He doesn't even say bye to anyone, but he figures they won't really notice he's gone. Wes knows he has work, anyway, so there's his excuse.

"If the managers are unavailable, responsibility falls to the bartender. That's how it's always been."

"I don't know a single manager named Ashton." Skylar states, finally reaching his car. Opening the door is a hassle, especially since he's on the phone. He winces when he has to put his seatbelt on, since bending his arm like that hurts. He eventually decides that he isn't using one. "What kind of name is that, anyway?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ashton asks. "Did you pull one of your stunts again? You sound delirious."

"I'm a doctor." Skylar states, ignoring almost everything this guy just said. "You can trust my medical expertence."

"It's expertise," Ashton says, "I wouldn't expect you to know that, though, since you learn it in school."

"I go to school." Skylar replies, glaring ahead at his steering wheel. He connects his phone to his car so he doesn't have to hold it anymore, and pulls out of the parking spot. Several other people are leaving as well. " I went to medical school. I'm actually so good at it."

"Right." Ashton says. "Are you done wasting my time?"

"No." Skylar says. "I'm a doctor. I don't have to do anything you say."

"You're not a fucking doctor," Ashton finally plays into the banter, causing a satisfaction Skylar doesn't expect.

"Yeah I am, actually." Skylar replies. "I'm probably gonna perform experiments on you."

"That's so scary." Ashton replies, monotone. Skylar realizes that this is treading dangerously into flirting territory. Shit, how do they always end up here? Is it all in his head?

"Anyway, bye." Skylar replies, starting to feel irritated with himself.

"Wait, you need to-"

Skylar hangs up, line going dead. He finds it so satisfying to hang up on people, it makes him feel like a villain. He's barely able to focus on driving the entire way home, though, and he blames the phone call for that as well.

Thankfully he makes it there without crashing, safe and sound. He sees his father's car here, so he walks around the side of the house and sneaks into his room through his window. The wound is still bleeding profusely, but he can't find it in himself to care.

Almost immediately after, probably from blood loss, Skylar passes out in his bed.