Scarlett White (8 page)

But Tristan never got a chance to do it on Monday because he couldn't find Scarlett between classes to confront her, and at lunch, she had been gone from her usual table—even Alice was gone during lunch period—and even during lab, the entire class had to listen to a long, boring lecture about the proper way to complete the project. And then when Tristan had tried to get to Scarlett before school was officially over, she was gone. It was as if she was avoiding him. Well, that only made Tristan even more determined. And he was going to find out what her problem was with him. And tomorrow was another day.

Tristan got out of bed early Tuesday morning. It was only five thirty, and he was in the kitchen, eating breakfast and waiting for the day to start. He didn't know what had made him get out of bed early; he had just woken up at five a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So, after thirty minutes of urging his body to relax and fall back to sleep, he gave up and began getting ready for the school day.

But something was different about today. He actually wanted to go to school. Though he received decent grades, he still normally wished the school would be hit by some miracle of a tornado, but such luck would never come. But not today. Today he wanted to go to school to talk to Scarlett and find out the mystery of what had happened years ago.

Wasn't it just typical for the hours to go by slowly when you desperately wanted something to come? But Tristan wasn't sure what that something was because he couldn't be this excited to talk to Scarlett; that just didn't add up. It must have been that he had football practice, right?

"What aaaaare you doing uuuppp so early?" Mary yawned as she walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes, still in her pajamas.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm eating breakfast. It's what you do in the morning."

"Yeah, but youuuuu never get up thisssss eeeearly."

"Well, I do today."

"What are you so excited about then?" Mary asked, waking up a bit. "Is it that girl? Is she still on your mind twenty-four, seven?"

"Well, I wasn't even thinking about her until you mentioned it, so thanks."

"No problem, what are little sisters for?"

In truth, Tristan was already thinking about Scarlett before Mary had brought her up. At first, he was only thinking about when they were going to start that project, though none of the other students had even begun to think about starting it. And then, the mystery he had yet to discover came to mind. Where did Scarlett have to go that was so important that she would blow off the most popular guy at school? She must have some dark secret that she didn't want anyone to know.

Algebra II class had just let out, and it was lunchtime now. But Tristan headed off to the front door of the gymnasium; instead of to his usual spot in the cafeteria. After the students in gym class had showered and put their regular clothes on, they began filing out of the gymnasium one by one.

And then he spotted her. Damn, he had remembered her name a couple of nights ago, but it had been so long, and he had gotten such a bad hangover—thank you, Alice—since then. He just couldn't remember her name.

Tristan stopped the small, black-haired girl he had spotted out of all of the other girls in her tracks. "Umm...Penny, right?"

"No, it's Ginny. Umm...Christian, right?" Ginny asked mockingly.

"Shut up; anyways, you know Scarlett White, right?"

"Maybe, and you know Parker Miller, right?" Ginny asked in the same mocking tone.

"Please, cooperate with me," Tristan begged the girl. "I need to know something about Scarlett White."

"Okay, here is what you need to know about her: she has no interest in you. I know that may be a shock to you because you are 'Mister Popular', but she doesn't give a shit about that. She pretty much thinks you are a selfish jerk along with a couple of other vulgar adjectives. There is nothing more to say than that. Oh, well maybe that you have made her cry in the past three years more than Jim Carey has made America laugh. Now, tootles."

And Ginny was off to the lunchroom. Tristan stood in the middle of the hallway dumbstruck.

She pretty much thinks you are a selfish jerk... There is nothing more to say than that. Oh, well maybe that you have made her cry in the past three years...
Those three sentences repeated themselves in Tristan's ears for about the rest of the school day.

What the hell had he done? He knew it must have been something terribly awful because Scarlett didn't look like the type to cry about tiny things.

Tristan didn't remember what his teacher talked about in English Lit. He wasn't even sure if they had homework in that class. He would have to call Ian tonight and find out. The entire time through lunch and Spanish III, all Tristan thought about was Scarlett and what he must have done to her. He had to find the reason she hated him so much.

The day seemed to go by in a slow drag of boring bliss until lab started.

In between each class, the students had five minutes to switch books and get prepared before the professor started lecturing. In a new personal record time, Tristan got to his next class in fifty-four seconds and prepared all of his papers in six seconds. He had exactly four minutes to find out what had happened between Scarlett and him and make amends.

First he had to wait for Scarlett to get to class before he could harass her. She walked in with three minutes and fifty seconds to spare. Hopefully Tristan could pull the information he needed out of her in that amount of time.

When she entered the doorway, Tristan had planned to walk right up to her and begin talking, like he would do with any other girl. But he was glued to the spot. She was so beautiful. He had never realized it before. Today she was wearing her usual ponytail that traveled down her back. She had on a pair of regular jeans and a 'Plain White T's' shirt that hugged her curves slightly. Though the outfit was simple, it made Tristan do a double take. How had he never really seen her before? Maybe because he had never really seen her body until the trip to the grocery store last Saturday morning.

Finally after ten seconds of gawking at her, Tristan made his way to her desk where she was hurriedly unpacking her books and placing her elegantly written essays on her desk.

Tristan fake coughed to get her attention, but Scarlett didn't even look up to glance at him; she just continued with her work. Tristan fake coughed again...louder.

Finally she looked up, "What?" she asked in a clearly irritated tone.

"Look, Scarlett, please, just listen to me. I don't know what I did in the past—"

"Oh, I know," Scarlett interrupted him. "Because all you give a crap about is yourself and your popularity. You lie to friends to stay popular and keep your social status uptight. And you better be glad that I don't go off and blab your secrets to them, granted they probably won't even listen to me if I tried, so I won't waste my precious time. And do you know why they won't listen to me? Because I am smart and proud of it. I would rather be intelligent and show it, than be smart and hide it." Scarlett's speech was brilliant and very argumentative and it left Tristan speechless.

"I know, and I am ashamed of it," Tristan started. Scarlett faux laughed in mock amazement, but didn't interrupt. "But would you just—?" The warning bell rang and cut Tristan off.

"Look, I don't care what you have to say about the past. All I care about is the future. And right now my future is about to be corrupted because I am going to fail this project. We need to get started on it. So, whenever you have free time in your precious, little social life, do tell me. Thanks," Scarlett hissed, turning back around to face her desk.

"Scarlett, listen to me!" Tristan was beginning to get frantic; they had less than forty-five seconds to talk. "I need to know about what happened—"

"About what happened in the past? It's pointless to even bring it up. I probably won't ever forgive you for it, but I will tell you this," Scarlett whipped back around to face Tristan. And her eyes were filled witch such coldness that Tristan took a cautious step back,
"You ruined everything for me."
The last five words were spoken with the utmost loathing that Hades, himself, would have shaken in fright.

"Okay, class, take your seats, so we may begin," Mr. Ortega said, clapping his hands just after the late bell rang.

"Scarlett—" Tristan began. Scarlett was still staring at him with the all the hatred of the world bottled up in those green eyes.

"Mr. Cox, take your seat, please," Mr. Ortega interrupted him.

Tristan didn't break the stare; he longed for Scarlett to understand and forgive him for whatever he had done in the last few seconds he could get, and she glared at him with such negative passion he knew there would be no way to earn her forgiveness any time soon. But soon Mr. Ortega cleared is throat, and Scarlett tore her eyes away from Tristan's to look at him.

"Is there something you two would like to share with the rest of the class?" he asked.

"No, Cox was actually going to his seat," Scarlett turned her glare back at Tristan. "Right now," she added.

Tristan, reluctant to go, left Scarlett's desk and made his way back to his own.

During the rest of the class, Tristan could vaguely hear whispers such as:

"Why was Tristan talking to Scarlett?"

"Well, they are lab partners..."

"But don't you think he should think about his social status?"

"He can do whatever the hell he likes. And a stupid status shouldn't get in his way."

But Tristan didn't pay any attention to this quiet gossip; his full attention was on the redhead sitting two seats in front of him.

And what made his chest hurt with an odd pain was when Scarlett brought her hand up and wiped away a silent tear. Made his chest hurt? Why did his chest ache so much for this simple, unpopular, unimportant, unnoticeable, smart, creative, beautiful, broken girl? Broken because of him. And he was going to fix that.

Oh, my God, I'm obsessed with her...

That was the only reason she was always in his mind and the only reason his chest hurt. It had to be the only reason because he couldn't think of any other possibility other than that. He was obsessed. But not with her; he was obsessed with finding out the truth. And he was still determined to get it from her.

When class ended, Scarlett was out of the door first, and Tristan couldn't get to her in time before he was bombarded by his football team.

"Hey, Tris," Kyle said, completely blocking his way. "Ready for practice?"

"Yeah, sure," Tristan answered distractedly.

"Dude, you smell like sex."

"What? Oh, yeah," Tristan glared at Kyle. "You just had to already be so drunk last night that you couldn't help me stay away from Alice." He didn't know why he was blaming his faultless friend, but he wanted to rant it out, and Kyle was the perfect person to rant it out to.

"Sorry, man—wait, she did it? She spiked your drink? And you fucked Alice?"

"Shhh. Shut the hell up," Tristan hushed, but it was too late. He could already hear whispers from other students as they heard this new piece of gossip.

"I can't believe she actually did it. So, are you two dating yet?" Kyle asked.

"Not a chance. Now, c'mon, let's get to practice."

Chapter Five

Lab finished as
slowly as possible for Scarlett, and the entire time all Scarlett could feel was Tristan's stare on her.
Why did he want to apologize
now
about the past?
Even though Scarlett still held a grudge against the jerk, she didn't want his apology for the past. She didn't even want to think too much about the past because it hurt too much. Damn, she didn't realize she had been crying until she saw a tear fall onto the notebook paper on her desk. She quickly brought her hand up to wipe the tears from her face. The day that he had ruined her life had been the exact same day that she had found out her father and beloved stepmother were dead. Not only where they dead, but they had been murdered…by her half brother. Her life had been so completely perfect before that fateful day. Everything had turned into ash around her as she realized the two people whom she loved were gone forever. And then her brother had been sent to that horrid hospital only a few days afterwards, and Scarlett had been stuck with her unloving mother. Her life had become miserable.