POV: Scarlet

“Scar, Scar get up or you’ll be late.”

“Emm, five more minutes.” I roll over.

“You said that thirty minutes ago.”

Thirty minutes! Shit!

“Rey what the hell!” I shot out of bed.

“What? you looked too cute.” She smirked at me.

“Asshole!” I run into my closet.

“Don’t blame me, you are the one who ignored your alarm.” She chuckles.

“You are the one who kept me up all night!” I call back.

“I didn’t hear you complaining.” She teases.

“You are so getting detention.” I come out with an outfit.

“Fine by me so long as you are there.”

“Stop flirting, can’t you see I’m panicking here! Get dressed!”

“I was gonna skip.”

“Oh no you don’t, you better get your cute ass dressed, if I have to go so do you. Besides I am sure your parents are worried sick, you should really check in.”

“Trust me, no one is looking for me.”

I eye her.

“Fine, god you are such a narc sometimes.” She complains.

“It’s for your own good. Now, which top? Blue or black?”

“Black, you look hot in black.” She smirks.

I roll my eyes and grab the black quickly slipping it on and buttoning it up. Reyna digs through her suitcase for an outfit and slips it on. She still hasn’t been home since we’ve been back. I wonder what her home life is like. Seems to me she really hates it.

I quickly wash up but with no time to do up my hair and makeup I just pull up my hair into a sloppy bun. I slip into some heels and grab my work bag, shoving my laptop inside.

“I’ll see you at school.” Rey calls.

“K,” I say not looking at her as I look for the key to my classroom.

“Hey.” She says to get my attention.

“What!” I turn to her.

She smirks at me and wiggles my key.

“Oh thank god.”

“You’re welcome.” She pushes up on her toes and kisses me.

I deepen the kiss.

“Now, take a breath before you have a heart attack, you old woman. I’ll see you in class.”

“You are never going to let that go are you.” I shake my head.

“Nope.” She smiles.

“I’ll get you.” I pinch her butt.

She yelps and giggles before grabbing her backpack and her car keys and walking out.

You get winded by one round of ice skating and suddenly you are an old woman. It didn’t help that the old lady next to me was breathing just as hard as I was. Just wait, I’ll get something on her too.

I do a quick check to make sure I have everything before quickly walking out the door. I move to lock the door but drop my keys. Damn it I am going to be late! I bend down to pick them up when my eyes catch something else. I pick it up and look at it.

The promise ring Maddison gave me.

How long has this been here? Was it here when I got back? I never noticed. Has it been here all break? Or did she drop it off yesterday? Wait she didn’t even knock, maybe she came while I was at the store. Why did she leave it here? Gah! I don’t have time for this!

I quickly grab my keys and lock the door. I look at the ring. What do I do with it? Fuck, I shove it in my bag and run down the stairs. I get to the school with only five minutes to spare. I quickly run in and towards my class. Rey was waiting for me.

“Took you long enough.”

“Shut it, I would have been on time if someone woke me up when I asked!” I whispered.

“Couldn’t help myself, watching you sleep naked next to me, or go to school, hmm you pick.” She moves her hands as if she is weighing her options.

I roll my eyes and unlock the door.

She walks in and takes her seat. I set my stuff down on my desk.

“Can I come back over after school?” she asks.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I eye her.

She needs to go home.

“Forget it.” she averts her eyes,

“Rey, why don’t you want to go home?” I ask.

“Because it’s a shit show. Just forget it, I get it, we aren’t there yet.” She rolls her eyes.

I sigh.

I open my mouth to say something but the morning bell stops the words from coming out. The class goes by mostly uneventful; I only notice that Dinah is not here in the second period. I was too distracted by Rey first period. I wonder where she is?

During lunch, I go out to get something to eat, that when I see her.

My heart stops at the sight of her. She sits at a lunch table with her friends. Her dark brown curly locks are tied back into a ponytail. She has on a long sleeve black sweater and blue jeans as well as fur boots. Even from here I can see the sparkle from her emerald eyes. Everything hurts just looking at her.

She laughs at something one of her friends said and playfully pushes Layla who is laughing along with her. God damn it. Why does it have to hurt so bad? I’ve never felt this awful after a breakup, it usually only takes me a couple of days to move on if even that. I mean look how fast I got over E.J. and we were dating for three months. But damn she cut me deep.

One her friend notices me and says something, Maddison whips her head in my direction. I take that as my cue to get the hell out of there. Fuck it hurts. Fucking hell. Fuck.

I have to take a second to gain my bearing in the car, then I go and get something to eat.

When I get back to the school I take a long way around to avoid seeing Maddison again. Not that it will matter being as I will have her sitting in front of me in just about a couple hours. I have to think of a plan. I need to act natural. Just pretend nothing ever happened between us. No matter how painful that will be.

Maybe I should try assigned seats again.

Or should I just not look at her.

Is that even possible?

Fuck.

Before I know it the last class had rolled around. As I predicted Maddison is the first one in. I don’t have to look up from my work to know it’s her. She walks in and sits in her usual desk. I ignore her. She clears her throat. I cringe and continue to ignore her. I wish someone would hurry the hell up and walk in.

She clears her throat again, this time even louder. Lucky for me another student walks in. I take a big sigh of relief. Soon all the usual students are filing in.

I stand up and start to pass out the books. I sat Maddison’s on her desk without looking at her and move to the next line of desks.

“Hey Ms. A. Long time no see.” Another student says.

“I know, feels like forever since I’ve seen you guys. How was your break?” I ask as I continue to pass out the books.

“Great! I went camping, I saw a bear!”

“Ooo sounds fun. I went to California. Went ice skating and what not.”

“I’ve been to California once, I heard there are a lot of great parties there on new years.” Another student says.

“You could say that.” I force a laugh.

“Oh Ms. A did you get down over the break.” Someone jokes.

“Would you look at that, time to start class.”

The class giggles.

“Alright everyone glad you are all back from hopefully a refreshing break. But as you can see we are moving right along to the next thing. We are going to be reading pride and prejudice, I read it on my flight over the break, okay I listened to the audiobook, but that still counts.”

Everyone giggles.

“There are a lot of things we are going to be focusing on as we read along in the book, I expect you all to keep up. You read it, I tell you what it all means. That’s how this works, right?”

They all groaned.

“Right! So, obviously most of you guys haven’t read this book before. So let me set the foundation for you and tell you the background information.”

I continued on with the lecture and surprisingly enough I was able to go all class without looking at Maddison. I felt proud of myself.

“Okay, for tomorrow read the first two chapters! I mean it!” I say just as the bell rings.

Everyone grabbed their stuff and booked it for the exit.

I walked over to my desk and quickly gathered my things. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Maddison taking her time, per usual. I quickly shoved everything in my bag in hopes of getting out before she could corner me.

I quickly walked around my desk to leave but my phone vibrating caught me off guard and I stumbled forward and dropped my bag, everything falling out. Damn it.

With a sigh I look at my phone, it’s Rey calling.

“Seriously?” I answer the call.

“What? I was just wondering if I really can’t back over. You know I still have to get my stuff.”

“Fine, but you better tell me about why you are avoiding your parents when I get there. Just give me a second. You made me drop my bag.” I grumble.

“Hurry up, I’m hungry.” She complains.

I roll my eyes before hanging up. What a freeloader.

I bend down to pick up my stuff by this time Maddison and I are alone. She bends down in front of me to help me.

“I can do it.” I snap.

She ignores me and helps anyways.

I reach for my pen and she does too. Our hands touch. My heart flips around and my insides knot together. Only then do I look up at her. She meets my eyes and forces a smile. Fuck. Why does she have to be so, ugh! Damn it.

“Hey.” She finally says.

I sigh and go back to picking up my stuff. I shove my laptop in my bag and grab all the fallen papers. That’s when the promise ring rolls out and right in front of Maddison. She almost seems surprised to see it. She picks it up.

I stand up and move to leave.

“You dropped this.” She tries to hand it to me.

“I don’t want it.” I try to step around her.

“But I want you to have it.” she steps in the way.

“Then just throw it in the trash,” I say.

She physically recoils at this. I feel like a piece of shit. She clutches it tightly in her hands and holds it to her chest. Only then do I see her wearing my key around her neck. I should really get around to changing the locks.

I try and step around her again, but again she moves in the way.

“Just let me go!” I shout.

“No!” she shouts back with equal intensity.

“Damn it, Maddison! Just leave me alone. You’ve caused more than enough damage. Just let me move on in peace.”

“No,” she says quieter. “I still care about you. I still love you. I don’t want you to move on.”

Fuck I’m going to start crying. Fuck! Pull it together. Don’t let her see.

“I know I screwed up, but please. Even if you don’t want to get back with me, maybe we can take it slow, we can just start off as friends. Please.” She grabs my hand and puts the ring in it.

“I can’t.” I shove the ring back into her hands.

“Scarlet, just try.”

“I can’t! Seeing you… You don’t know how it makes me feel. I can’t be just your friend. I don’t want to be anything with you anymore. You don’t love me, you’re just fucking with me. I know you are.” I force a laugh.

“I’m not!”

“I don’t believe you, I saw you earlier. I saw how happy you were. You don’t need me. You’re just yanking me around. Well, screw you okay. I just want to move on and forget about this whole thing.”

“I’m miserable! I can hardly eat anything. You’re all I can think about.” She cries.

“Yeah well, I can’t sleep! Because when I do, I see your face and it breaks my heart all over again! I can’t do this! I’m tired of holding on to this. I want to be free of this pain. Just leave me alone. I don’t want you in my life anymore. So just leave me alone.” I push past her.

She grabs my arms and stops me from leaving.

“I’m not going to give up. I’ll never stop. I love you.”

I can’t stop the tears from falling. God, it hurts. I just want to hold her, to love her, to kiss her. To be near her is all I need. It hurts, it hurts so bad. Why does it hurt so bad? No one has ever made me feel like this. Fucking hell.

She wraps herself around me from behind. I can hear her crying into me. I can’t move, I can’t run away. I just feel stuck. Stuck between what I want, and what I know I should do. It hurts.

“I’m sorry, I’ll say it a million times. A trillion. I know this is my fault.” She cries.

Then why does it feel like my fault? Why do I feel like the piece of shit? Why am I the one that can’t let go?

“Let go.” I force out.

“No.” she holds me tighter.

“Let me go.” I whimper.

“No.” she sobs into me.

I drop my bag and turn in her arms and wrap her into my arms. I hold her tightly. She stops crying. I breathe her in, her scent calms me down. Her warmth penetrates to my core.

Fuck.

I still love her.

For a moment we just hold each other in silence.

She starts to pull away, but I held her close, refusing to let her go. Finally after a minute when I am fully calm I pull away. She looks into my eyes. God, I love her emerald eyes. Her beautiful face. Her perfectly pouty lips.

She grabs my hand and places the ring back into it.

“It’s yours, it will always be yours. Do whatever you want with it, just please don’t throw it away.” She says.

I glance down at my key around her neck.

She steps closer to me. I step back but I trip over my bag and fall on my butt. She gets on top of me and straddles me. Now I can’t escape. Her lips are so close. She leans in her lips grazing mine. I find myself leaning in too but before we can kiss my phone starts to vibrate again. I jerk back.

She frowns at my phone. I push her off before standing up and grabbing my bag.

“Goodbye Maddison,” I say.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, and every day after that until you realize how much I love you.”

“Please don’t. please.” I beg before walking out.

I get in my car and only then do I realize I’ve been gripping the ring tightly in my hand. I open my palm to examine it. The sun reflects off the metal and it glints in the light. With a shaky breath, I shove the ring back into my bag. I have to move on. I have to.

I wipe my tears and pull out of the parking lot.

The rest of this year is going to be hell. I can just tell. Maybe I should quit my job, run away to California. Fucking hell. I hate my life. I am a piece of shit. Why does she have this effect on me?

Why can’t I just move on?