Scarlett White (47 page)

She was getting ready to put her clothes back on when the door opened again. She was certain that it was Tristan, so when she turned around to yell at him, it was a complete shock to her to see Christian clumsily tripping over his own feet with an empty beer bottle in his hand. Christian looked up and noticed her, his glazed over eyes widening in curious surprise.

"Whaddya doin' in 'ere ah-la-lone?" he asked.

"Chris," Scarlett said worriedly as she wrapped the sheet from the bed around her naked body, "You're drunk out of your mind. You really need to cool it on the drinks."

"Imma fiiiiine. But my numbs are a little gum."

"Your what?"

"My numbs are gum!" Christian shouted as if he thought Scarlett had a hearing problem.

"Your gums are numb?"

"Yesh, yesh, my numbs are gum! Guesssh what!"

"You need to lie down," Scarlett said, grabbing Christian's hand and pulling him over to the bed.

"I sshaid, guessh what!"

"What?" Scarlett asked, trying to push him onto the bed.

"You look sssuper sexy," Christian said, finally plopping down onto the bed.

"What?"

"You're sexy tonight," Christian repeated.

Scarlett wasn't sure exactly what happened next. Later, she would like to think that she tripped on the edge of the sheet, but if she was to be truthful, she willingly fell on top of Christian when he intertwined his fingers among hers and tugged lightly. She straddled Christian's waist, her hands were on either side of his face as she supported herself above him. Her long, curly, red hair fell over her shoulders, framing her face. Suddenly, Christian's eyes zeroed in on her eyes. Scarlett's breath was coming in short, quick bursts. It felt extremely hot in the room now. Christian brought his hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

She knew this was wrong. She knew she had only just broken up with Tristan. Well, had they broken up? The words hadn't been spoken. They technically were still together, which made this whole situation even worse. But she was buzzed and horny and angry. She needed to release her anger in some way. Scarlett bent down lower, closer to Christian, and he met her halfway.

Their lips touched, softly at first, but then hormones kicked in, the beer settled in their systems, and the intensity of the moment caused Christian to wrap his arms around Scarlett's body and pull her closer, and Scarlett began undressing Christian as his hands roamed her body.

The sun slanted through the window, waking Christian up from his deep slumber. He rolled over and realized he was butt naked. He brought his palms up to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He groaned. His head was throbbing from the headache, a result of all the alcohol he had consumed last night.

He finally opened his eyes and looked around the room. He definitely wasn't in his own room. He thought back, trying to remember where he had gone last night. Chloe's house. He was at her party. And he had come into a room, thinking it was a bathroom. He had found Scarlett. Naked. Funny, at the time, he hadn't even realized how odd it was that she was alone in a room by herself completely and utterly nude.

He rubbed his eyes again. Why had he gotten so drunk? He remembered being groggy. He recalled talking to Scarlett, but he couldn't conjure up the memories of what she said. He groaned. That could have been his chance. If he had been sober, he could have charmed the pants right off her—granted she wasn't wearing any pants, but that was beside the point.

Just then he heard a murmur from beside him. He froze. Who was in the bed with him? Whom had he slept with? He removed his hands from his eyes and slowly turned his head to look at the girl who was lying beside him.

He jumped out of the bed. Fiery, tangled, scarlet hair was splayed across the pillow. It couldn't be. It wasn't. He hadn't slept with Scarlett. There was no way in hell that he had slept with her.

Just then the girl turned over, and her hair fell away from her face to reveal that it actually was Scarlett who was sleeping next to him. His heart raced inside of his chest. He had done it. He had slept with her. He had finally done what he had wanted to do from the very beginning. He was excited and filled with ecstasy that he had had sex with Scarlett. He almost couldn't believe what he was thinking.

What surprised him even more was that he had gotten her in bed even while he was drunk. What upset him was that he couldn't remember anything about what had happened last night. He was sure it had been great though. He was sure she had been great.

Scarlett's eyes fluttered open. They looked around the room lazily and then they landed on Christian.

"Oh, fuck."

Chapter Twenty-Three

Tristan had gone
straight to Christian's house after he left Scarlett alone in that room at Chloe's party. He hadn't felt like dancing or drinking or laughing or smiling or having any sort of fun whatsoever. He only felt like being alone. Well, actually he felt like being back with Scarlett. He wished he hadn't said all of those crude and mean things to her. He wished he could take all of them back. But he couldn't. And he knew that. He knew that Scarlett would probably never want to talk to him again. And he didn't blame her one bit. Hell, he wouldn't want to talk to him if he had said all of those scathing comments to himself. If that made any sense at all, which it didn't.

Hours alone turned into days alone. And days alone turned into weeks alone. He only had a few more days before his flight back to Florida. And among those few, short days was Rosa's wedding. He wasn't sure if he should go. For all he knew, he was considered uninvited by Scarlett. Would Rosa think him rude if he didn't show? Would she think him rude if he did show? He just wasn't sure what he should do in this situation. All he knew was that he was sorry for thinking and saying all of those mean retorts. If only he could reverse time.

It was the Friday before he had to leave to go back to Florida when his phone buzzed for the first time in days. His heart leapt. Could it be? Would she forgive him? But he was disappointed to read the caller ID.

"Hey, Chris," he said gloomily into the phone.

"Uh, hey. Just wondering if you could do me a major favor." Christian seemed to be out of breath.

"What's that?"

"So I kind of…um…my keys got locked in my car."

"Okay," Tristan replied slowly.

"I was wondering if you could come down here and help me."

"And what exactly am I supposed to do about your keys being locked in your car?"

"There's a spare hanging on a hook in the kitchen. If you could drive my mom's car to the school, I would be forever grateful."

"Yeah, sure. I can do that."

Tristan slid his phone into his pocket and made his way to the kitchen. Walking outside was a shock. He hadn't left the house for about a week and a half, and the cool, brisk air was refreshing. But it still didn't cheer him up. He still felt as if his heart was made of rock and his head was made of concrete.

It didn't take him long to get down to the high school, and sure enough, Christian was waiting by his car with a meek expression of humility on his face.

"Thanks, man."

"Sure, no problem," Tristan said, handing over the spare keys. "So, uh…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Have you seen Scarlett around school lately?" It was a dumb question, but that wasn't what he was thinking about. He realized that simply saying her name made his throat burn and his heart race.

Christian froze for a minute, before he fumbled with his keys. "Yeah, why? Did you two get into a fight or something?" Another dumb question. It must be hereditary. Of course, everyone knew that Scarlett and Christian's mysteriously good look-a-like were fighting. It was always big news when someone who was even mildly popular was in a fight with his or her significant other.

"Yeah. I said some pretty fucked up things to her the other night at Chloe's party, and we haven't spoken since."

"She's been a little dazed lately. I mean, her grades have been slipping. In history, I saw that she got a seventy-one on her test. And she's never gotten below a ninety-six on anything in that class," Christian commented.

Way to lay it thick. Tristan was already moping about, now he had Scarlett's impeccable academics to blame on himself as well. "I don't know how to make it up to her."

Again, Christian froze, but not from surprise or shock, instead he seemed to be thinking hard. "I don't think she's as angry anymore. I think she'll forgive you easily if you would just talk to her."

"I was too much of a jerk to her."

"Ignoring her isn't going to solve your problems. If you really do…love her, as you say you do, you need to man up and show her that you really care about her."

Tristan was shocked. He had never heard his cousin say anything remotely as smart as that.

"Then I guess that settles it," Tristan said.

"Settles what?"

"I'm going to Rosa's wedding."

"I'm glad for you, bro. Oh, and hey, if you ever do anything nearly as stupid as you did at Chloe's party, I'm going to serve your head on a platter, okay?" Christian said with a joking smile.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Well, I better be off. Coach has been getting on my case about being late to practice, and we've be practicing all the way at the new gymnasium about twenty minutes from here."

"See you when you get home."

As Christian left, Tristan saw someone who looked slightly familiar. At first, he thought it was someone who had gone to his school, but then he remembered the girl's face from one of Scarlett's new friends. He couldn't quite remember her name though. He never had been good with names. It started with an M. Mandy? Melissa? Malory?

"Hey, Chris—Oh, shit, sorry, Tristan. You really do look like your cousin; it's hard to tell you two apart," Melanie said. No, that wasn't right.

"Yeah, our parents used to joke that we were actually brothers when we were younger," Tristan said, racking his brain for her name. "Wait a second, are you okay?"

Minnie's eyes widened. "Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes are red. Have you been crying?" Millie! That was her name.

"Oh, that. No, I just…contacts."

Tristan cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you trying out for the drama club?"

"No."

"Good, because you need to work on your lying."

Millie bit her lip. "Okay, so I was crying. It doesn't have anything to do with you."

"Well, I would hope not," Tristan said. "What happened?"

"I can't tell you."

"Sure, you can. It's not like it's going to get around school. I don't even go to your school," Tristan persuaded her with a half smile, looking at her from underneath his eyelashes.

"Damn, you look like Christian," Millie whispered.

"What's wrong, Millie?" Tristan said seriously, not being distracted by her comment as she had intended.

She took a deep breath. "It involves Christian. You can't tell him, no matter what. Promise?"

"Yeah, sure. What did he do?"

She took a long time to answer. "I went to CVS this morning."