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SCARLETT
“What happenedto you last night? One second you were there, then you were gone,” I ask Riley as she drops her books on the single desk beside me.
“It was really weird, actually. After Crew made me leave with him and Hannah, Melody found us, and he told us to all walk back to the dorms. A twenty-minute walk in the dark. It was miserable.”
If Crew stayed at the hot springs…where was he?
Suddenly, it clicks. It was him watching us. I knew I saw someone in the woods, but assumed it was an animal, or maybe Crew with the girls. It never occurred to me it was Crew alone. I’m not sure why he’d hang back and watch what I let Jagger do to me. Now it makes sense why he was so worked up in the showers. He was jealous.
The possibility excites me in a deranged, masochistic sort of way. I hope it really was pure torture for him.
“Speaking of Crew,” Riley begins. “Please tell me the rumors aren’t true.”
“Depends.” I waggle my eyebrows. “Which one did you hear?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She pulls out a chair. “Something that involves Crew being naked in the shower. The hushed words going around are that he tried to rape you. Tell me it’s not true.”
I laugh at the fallacy. “No, Crew didn’t try to rape me.”
“Good. Because he actually seemed sort of sweet lastnight when he said goodbye to us girls. There were no asshole tendencies. He was just…nice. Don't worry, I’m not into him anymore. Just saw him in a different light, I guess.”
“Crew is many things, but a nice guy is not one of them.”
“Maybe not. Then again, people change. Maybe there’s a girl out there who can make him a better person.”
I sputter, looking down at my open world history book. “If I had a nickel for every time I heard a girl say that about any of those three guys…”
She gives me this really strange look. All googly-eyed and crazy. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I dunno. I was just thinking that maybe a girl like you could—”
“Stop yourself right there.” I hold a hand up. “That will never happen. I don’t fall for assholes, and Crew is incapable of being a good person. Not anymore.”
“But he once was, is what you’re saying?”
My eyes stay on my book with a blank stare as I think back to a time when Crew was different.
“I don’t care what they say, Scar. This is what I want. I want you.”
“You mean that? You’d risk your friendships with Neo and Jagger just for us.”
Crew pulls me down until I’m straddling his lap. His emerald eyes boring into mine, deeply and passionately. I can see the truth in them, I see me. I see us. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’d risk it all for you. Ya know what?” He beams all too eagerly. “Fuck it. Let’s run away together. You and me. We can get the hell out of here and leave The Society behind.”
I chuckle because I know he’s joking. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
No. He really doesn’t. But I wish he were because then I wouldn’t consider the possibility. “Where would we go?”
“I dunno. New York City or the beaches of Nantucket. Fuck if I care. I’d go anywhere with you.”
“We’re only sixteen. We’d be crazy to run away together.”
“I am crazy. You make me crazy, Scar. If I’m not with you, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. You consume my every thought.”
“How about this?” I run my fingers through his messy sex-hair. “After you graduate from The Academy and I finish public school, if you still love me, we’ll go as far as you wanna go.”
“If? I’ll never stop loving you, Scar. You’re the reason I even go on in this fucked-up world.”
