“Wren’s cheating!” he shouts at Michelle, Xavier’s girlfriend, who is scoring this round. She just shares a grin with Wren before shrugging. Scarlett watches Miles carefully, probably trying to psych him out with her intense staring. When she catches me looking, she scowls at me too, and I laugh, shaking my head.
You look constipated, I mouth, doing hand gestures and everything.
Scarlett just flips me the bird before pointing at me and dragging a finger across her throat, making a motion of slitting it. I laugh even harder at that. She’s so competitive about everything that it’s getting a little adorable, especially after she beat me at arm-wrestling.
“I’m not cheating,” Wren argues. “You’re just a sore loser, baby.”
“You know that nickname is my weakness!”
I groan at their constant bickering, and all the girls laugh. Wren slowly shimmies off her cardigan, pouting at her boyfriend.
The tips of Miles’s ears turn pink. “Look at me like that one more time and I swear to God—”
“Just throw the damn ball, Davis,” I say, nudging him.
The split second before the ball leaves his hand, Wren winks at him and from that, I can tell the shot is going to be a miss. Still, I watch it play out in slow motion. The ball bounces on the table once. Then twice. Then again, losing its height beforeit rolls right off. The second it drops to the ground, the girls all jump in unison, cheering loudly.
I watch the sly smirk on Scarlett’s lips as she turns to me. She holds her hand up against her forehead in an ‘L’ shape, mouthing the word ‘loser’ over and over again as she makes her way to our side of the table.
Wren practically skips up to Miles, laughing hysterically in his face, and he takes it.
“Are you done?” he asks her. She shakes her head, still laughing, before he grabs her face and kisses her deeply, silencing her laughter.
“Very weird reaction for someone who just lost,” I mutter. Scarlett’s beside me now, leaning against the wall as she watches them make out, before diverting her eyes to the ground.
“I don’t think he could ever lose if it came to her. Losing a game against Wren is like winning to him,” she replies, a short laugh escaping her mouth.
“Doesn’t it get tiring?” I ask. She looks up at me, not understanding. “I mean, you’re around them all the time being all lovey-dovey and cute. Doesn’t it annoy you?”
She shrugs. “I mean, it can get annoying sometimes, but I don’t mind it. I’d much prefer whatever this is than pure silence.”
I grin. “You’d prefer anything over silence. That’s why you argue with me all the time.”
“That and a million other reasons.”
I hum. “Do you believe in that sort of stuff? Romance? Fate?”
She raises an eyebrow, eyeing me suspiciously, as if she can’t tell if I’m being serious or not. Still, she answers anyway. “Do I believe in the idea that my life is not really mine and it’s controlled by some mysterious third person? Not really. I like having control. I like my life the way it is because I’m the one pulling most of the strings.”
I bump my shoulder into hers. “You said ‘most of the strings.’ ” That just earns me another stare. I laugh. “You’re not really a cynic, are you?”
She doesn’t answer that. “What about you? Do you believe your one true love is out there waiting to find you?”
I answer her honestly. It’s not something I think about often, but it’s still something I believe in. I’ve not had the best of luck with relationships, but that’s never deterred me.
“I think there’s a person for everybody, so yes, I’d like to think there’s someone for me,” I tell her.
She twists her mouth to the side, trying not to laugh. “You mean someone willing to put up with you.”
“That too.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SCARLETT / EVAN
SCARLETT
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.
I don’t know when it turned into such a big thing in our family, since neither of my parents really celebrated it until they moved to the US, but every year it somehow gets better than the last. Even though sometimes it feels like our family is shrinking, with fewer people coming over, I like the quieter days when it’s just me, my parents, and my siblings.
