by Chloe Smith
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am not."
"Shut up and just agree with me."
"Fine. I agree. But won't Tristan get hurt?"
"Don't you hate him? Ever since, like, eighth grade?" Ginny stopped and looked at her straight in the eyes.
"I...Yes, I do. Good point. Thanks for the reminder. I'm sitting with Francis. Tell Kate and Meghan I'm sorry."
"Will do."
Scarlett headed off to the table with Francis, and he wrapped his arm around Scarlett's waist as she sat down. Scarlett's heart beat wildly. She hadn't sat with this group of people since...the incident. She doubted the 'populars' even remembered her sitting with them...
"Hey, Starlet, right?" Libby asked.
Scarlett gawked at her, but recovered before anyone realized, "Um...not exactly. It's Scarlett. You don't remember?"
"Remember what?" Libby looked slightly concerned as she picked up a small pea from her plate and placed it lightly on her tongue. Scarlett momentarily wondered why she was eating pea by pea, but then she noticed Libby's thinning arms and baggy clothes. The yellowing of her eyes was a big giveaway as well. Libby was becoming anorexic. Scarlett closed her eyes briefly and remembered the happy, chocolate-loving Libby she knew from middle school. Well, Scarlett thought, I guess that Libby's gone now.
"Never mind." Scarlett spoke quietly after her sad realization.
"Hey, that's a cute shirt," Katherine complimented.
"Thanks."
"Green is your color. You should wear it more often."
"Yeah, it makes my eyes pop."
"It sure does," Kyle said, looking at her in an odd way. Scarlett squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze, and Francis tightened his grip on her waist protectively.
There was a small cough, and then Katherine murmured in a sing-song voice, "Awkward."
The entire table busted out laughing, even Kyle, and the table began getting back into rhythm again. Scarlett noted how about every other second it seemed like someone was dissing someone else with verbal jokes or physical punches from the guys. Scarlett vaguely remembered when she was completely comfortable and absolutely fit in with this crowd. But after so many years had passed, she realized how much she had grown apart from them. She had matured in some ways whereas they hadn't. But then again, she had experienced a lot more than they had ever thought about. One: her half-brother was transferred to a mental hospital. Two: she had lost her father and stepmother. Three: she had to live with her alcoholic, drug addicted mother who cared about shit. Four: she had to deal with the humiliation of being a loser in high school.
Then her eyes caught a hold of Francis's, and she thought that maybe the tables were turning in her favor. She had a handsome, popular boyfriend who seemed to genuinely care about her and protected her from perverts, like Kyle. That was a plus. Another plus was that she was actually sitting with the most desired people of Watson High School, even if she was a little bit more mature than these kids. She could deal with it.
But then she felt the burning of someone's stare on the back of her neck. She slowly cupped her neck with the palm of her hand and inconspicuously turned her head slightly to the right to take a quick peek at Tristan, who just happened to be looking right at her at that exact moment. Their eyes locked, and she felt her heart flutter in her chest for just one minute as their intense stare down continued to stay heated. As her eyes searched his face, his expression seemed to become softer. His forceful eyes formed into those of kindness. It confused Scarlett more than anything, and she seriously wanted to know why he kept looking at her that way. Just as his lips began to form a sweet smile, Francis noticed that he had lost Scarlett's attention and pulled her back into their conversation by gently stroking her arm with the tips of his fingers.
Scarlett felt a shiver run down her spine and turned her head back around to smile up at Francis before he unexpectedly planted a tender kiss on her lips. The entire table 'Oooohed' and 'Awwwwed' as Francis's lips moved easily against Scarlett's. Thank God she had applied lip gloss today of all days.
For the rest of the lunch period, Scarlett barely paid any attention to what the people at her current table were saying. Her attention was alerted to behind her where Ginny, Kate, Meghan, and Tristan sat. How was it that in one day Tristan and Scarlett had traded spots? Not that Tristan was forced to sit there. He had done it willingly...for Scarlett, which just made her feel that much worse.
Stop it; he ruined you. He ruined your life. Don't you dare pity him. He's worthless, selfish, conceited, stupid, annoying, and every other negative adjective one can think up.
"Are you okay?" Francis whispered into Scarlett's ear.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, there's just something on my mind. Believe me, it's stupid," Scarlett added when she noticed Francis beginning to ask what it was.
"God," Libby gushed. "I just love your hair. How do you get it this curly?" She grabbed a lock of Scarlett's red curls.
"Really? I hate it. It's so hard to keep up with," Scarlett replied as Libby continued to stroke her hair.
"Well, it looks like you're doing a great job. What do you have to use? Condition, mousse, hairspray?"
"Um…actually, I don't use anything. I just let it air dry."
"You're kidding? And it looks this great just like that? I so hate you."
"Guess I'm just lucky," Scarlett giggled jokingly.
"Bitch," Libby cursed with a smile on her lips.
"Jealous hoe," Scarlett tried this whole dissing thing, and it seemed to work, judging by the big smile on Katherine's and Libby's faces.
"Did you see the game last night?" Kyle asked Tom.
"Dude, the Eagles seriously crushed the Starlings." Tom jumped animatedly as he hit the table with his fist. "I was certain the Starlings were going to rape, but, of course, they just had to get creamed by the not-so-beast Eagles."
"How can the Eagles not be beast when they killed the Starlings?" Kyle asked.
"And they are talking about…?" Scarlett inquired.
Katherine giggled, "Some football teams. We usually let them banter about who they like for a few minutes before the girls override their conversation with talk about the newest Twilight movie." She winked at Scarlett.
Scarlett cocked an eyebrow, "Edward or Jacob?"
"Jacob, of course."
"Edward, definitely."
"Screw them, Team Emmett, up in here!" Katherine raised her palm for a high five, and another girl complied.
"Do you think it's weird that I thought Jasper was kinda hot in the third one?" Scarlett asked.
"Um, definitely not. Did you see his side smile or hear his southern twang?" Taylor smiled at Scarlett.
"You guys are all crazy. Riley was definitely way sexier than any of those ugly vamps."
"How did the subject turn from football to Twilight?" Max asked the guys.
"Dude, check out that Snookie poof," Jill whispered behind her hand as a brunette walked obliviously by with largely teased hair.
"Can you spell 'desperate'?" Libby asked with a giggle.
"D-E-S-P…um…" Jill started.
"E-R-A-T-E," Scarlett finished automatically.
"How the hell do you do it?" Katherine blurted out.
Scarlett looked up, wondering whom the question was directed to, before she realized that Katherine was asking her. "Do what?"
"How are you so damn smart?"
Scarlett blushed. She was on icy territory. Her grades were part of the reason that she was at the shunned table. "I'm really not all that smart."
Francis scoffed, "Don't you have, like, a six point O GPA?"
"Not exactly. I only have a five point eight."
"Only!" Libby screeched, "Are you kidding me? I'm barely passing Econ with a seventy one."
"I could tutor you if you want," Scarlett suggested.
"Really? My mom would really appreciate it."
"No prob. Eh, my, God," She was startled that she said it like that, but nobody noti
ced her small hesitation before she continued, "Did you hear that Bill gave Willow a promise ring?"
"Wait…like, for marriage?"
"Exactly. Apparently, he's promised to stay true to her if she stays true to him. I give her about one week before she breaks the promise, slut," Scarlett replied.
"I bet he won't last five days. Have you seen him go googly-eyes over Ana every time she walks into the room? It's like there's a spot light, and it's only on her," Jill added in.
"Bet time!" Katherine, Jill, Libby, and Taylor all yelled in synchronization.
"Twenty," Jill called out.
"Twenty-five," Libby said.
"Thirty-seven," Katherine yelled.
"Forty-five," Taylor added in.
And then everyone looked at Scarlett. She scoffed and shook her head, "I don't have that much money to squander."
"Squander?" Libby asked.
"Waste," Scarlett explained.
"Oh, it's not real money. It's just pretend."
"Oh, isn't that a little—?"
"Stupid? Yeah. We know. We've been doing it ever since, like, the end of eighth grade."
The last two words brought a flush of memories back to Scarlett, but she pushed them all back and said, "Ninety-five."
"You're that sure?"
"I'm positive."
"All right, what are your bets?" Libby asked, nibbling her second pea.
"Twenty that Bill will cheat on Willow with Ana in exactly five days," Jill said.
"Twenty-five that Willow will ditch the whole promise ring thing in two weeks," Libby added.
"Thirty-seven that both of them will cheat in a matter of one month," Katherine said.
"Damn, you've got a lot of trust in those two," Scarlett smiled.
"I'm optimistic," Katherine shrugged.
"Forty-five that they'll stay together forever," Taylor said with a wistful smile.
"And I'm the optimistic one?" Katherine murmured.
"I love happy endings," Taylor replied.
"Scarlett, what do you bet?" Libby asked.
"Willow is a slut; she'll cheat on Bill within seven days," Scarlett said.
All of the girls placed their hands in the middle of the table and secured the bet as official. Just then the bell rang, and Francis grabbed Scarlett's hand to lead her to her fifth period class. When they reached the opened door of Scarlett's classroom, Scarlett turned around and leaned against the wall next to the door. She looked up into Francis's eyes and finally asked the question that had been tugging at the back of her mind for a while now.
"Why did you ask me out?" she whispered.
"I've always thought you were cute and definitely smart, which was a plus, but I honestly didn't have the courage to go out of my…"
"Coterie," Scarlett said, but after realizing that he didn't understand the word, she added, "Clique."
"Yeah, exactly. It was only now, since I'm a senior and pretty much invincible, that I gathered the courage to ask you out. Even if you aren't—I mean, weren't—popular, I wanted to give it a try."
Everything he said sounded so sincere that she couldn't resist the urge to kiss him. Scarlett went up on her tip toes and connected her lips with his. He moaned into her mouth as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Their bodies were so close together, and she liked the way she felt almost protected in the embrace of his arms…but something was off, she just couldn't put her finger on it. But she didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to ruin this moment with stupid thoughts like that.
It wasn't until a few minutes later, when Scarlett caught a glance of Tristan's back walking in the opposite direction from her, shoulders slumped, that she had an inkling of what had been off.
Chapter Nine
Lunch had been a disaster. Tristan's attempt at getting Scarlett to tell him about their past had been ruined by Francis. Damn that kid. And then he had caught them making out in the middle of the hallway in clear view of everyone. Get a room. He didn't need to see them chewing each other's faces off. What was with that kid? He hadn't showed the slightest interest in her until just recently, until Tristan had started beginning to have the smallest interest in her. Bam, it clicked. Was that why he had asked her out? Because Tristan liked her? No, that couldn't be it. That was stupid. Another thing that was stupid was the way Tristan was feeling whenever he recalled the images of Scarlett and Francis holding hands or kissing or riding on the back of his big ass bike. Tristan could describe the feeling as…jealousy? But that couldn't be right. He must be mistaken. Maybe he was confusing this new feeling with another emotion. Maybe he was just nervous. Nervous for what though? It must be that really important game where all of those college coaches would be coming to watch. That's what he was nervous about. Or was he?
English Lit went by in a blur for Tristan. All he could think about today was lab class. He was going to confront Scarlett and demand that she tell him everything about their past during lab. He had a right to know anyways; it was also his past. But how could he have forgotten? If someone held a grudge against someone, the second someone just doesn't forget about what he did to the first someone. But whatever—he was determined to get the information he wanted from her. Even though the last time he had tried unsuccessfully to pull the past out of her, he wasn't about to just give up. He was resolved in finding out what had happened between the two of them. He still couldn't believe that he wasn't able to recall what had occurred, but he honestly couldn't remember for the life of him ever talking to Scarlett in middle school. He remembered being the new kid in eighth grade that everyone had a crush on and that was about it. He also remembered that Scarlett had been slightly popular back in middle school. But what did that have to do with him?
Finally the bell that signaled the end of English Lit rang. Only a few minutes until lab; only a few minutes until Tristan got the truth out of Scarlett about their forgotten past together. Tristan was uncharacteristically the first student out of the door and to his locker to switch books.
"Hey, Tris—"
"No time, Kyle; I gotta go." Tristan rushed passed in a hurry without letting Kyle start up some pointless conversation about football. He was getting quite tired of Kyle's predictability. But instead of heading to lab class just yet, he headed for Scarlett's locker.
"Hey, girl. So how was lunch?" Kate popped up behind Scarlett.
"Eh, it was all right," Scarlett said with a sly, little smile playing around the corners of her lips.
"'All right'? What is wrong with you, child? You were sitting at the popular table. You were sitting next to Francis, Kyle, and Tom." Kate's eyes went into their usual dreamy state when Tom's name was mentioned. She had had a crush on him ever since seventh grade when he had accidentally spilt his milk all over her. Scarlett was still bemused as to why that incident had opened Kate's eyes to Tom's obvious cuteness. If it had happened to her—especially back in seventh grade when Scarlett had been the Queen Bee—she would have flipped out and demanded Tom pay for her designer outfit that her dad would have bought for her.
"I was just kidding. It was actually pretty awesome—"
"Scarlett?"
Scarlett turned around to see Tristan standing behind her and Kate. She said nothing because she knew exactly what was coming. Damn, the day had gone by way too fast. She hadn't expected for this conversation to pop up out of the blue so quickly; she had expected a little more time. But she had been preparing herself for it all day. "I'm guessing you're here for the truth?" she finally asked.
Tristan merely nodded, his eyes slipping to Kate before landing back on Scarlett.
Kate turned her back on Tristan and looked at Scarlett, her eyes wide with disbelief. Her small mouth formed a little 'o' as her eyebrows scrunched together in complete and utter confusion. She made sure to hold Scarlett's gaze for a long time.
"I owe him the truth, I guess," Scarlett mumbled the last part, as if she were still unsure of this herself.
Kate chuckled, "Have fun." And she was off to the lab classroom where she would surely wait, anticipating what Scarlett was about to tell Tristan and how the results went. Scarlett had no doubt in her mind that Kate would want a fully detailed description as to what was about to happen.
Scarlett took a deep breath. "This might take a while," she said.
