Page 52 of For Three Seconds

I sat in my car and watched him disappear into the night with tears in my eyes. I drove him crazy, and he made me feel sane. I knew how it felt like to have a war inside your head, and Gavin, he didn’t need that from me.

Eighteen

How canone person bring beauty in their path to destruction? Because Scarlett was an expert at it. I couldn’t sleep after I left her the other night. Part of me was shocked, the other ashamed once I replayed my words. The one woman that had always meant more to me than she should, and I’d treated her like a whore.

I hadn’t lied to her either when I’d told her she was the best I’d ever had. From innocent kisses to the feel of her body—all of her was enough for me to be content. If she were mine, I would never need anyone else, but she wasn’t.

She drove me fucking crazy, but mostly it was because I couldn’t call her mine. She was like water drowning me in emotions that were foreign because I could never fully explore them, but I knew if we let it, she could be just what I needed to feel cleansed.

When I saw her at the library, I’d moved to a place where I could watch her. God, was she beautiful. She was oblivious to anyone around her as she worked, but that was Scarlett. She never cared about what people thought of her. She carried herself with a confidence that I always found sexy. She would chew on her pencil, and more than once I found myself smiling like a creep because I remembered her at twelve doing the same thing.

At moments she would get a pensive look, and I wondered if she thought about me in those moments. She was a closed book, one I didn’t want to know all of, but I just wanted to know enough to read her.

I was still angry, but I pulled out my phone anyway because I was weak where Scarlett Davis was concerned.

“Hello?” My “little brother” sounded groggy.

“I need you to get a medium pizza and take it to the address I’m about to text you. Make sure your friend gets it.” I hung up before Isaac could say anything back.

Drew owed me a favor, and all I asked was to make Isaac my little because he was friendly with Scar. I wasn’t jealous, but I knew I could use it to my advantage. Once in my car, I knew one thing was clear—I wasn’t backing down.

* * *

The days passed,and I hadn’t seen Scarlett. It at least gave me time to think of a game plan. Every great play had to be thoroughly thought out, and that was what I was doing with Scarlett. I wanted more of her time and more of her body, but mostly I was after her heart.

After my anger faded and the fact that Isaac told me she had been crying, it put things in perspective. If she didn’t care about me, why would she cry? Why would she kiss me like she was suffocating and needed me to breathe? Give her body so freely to me when she was far from those kinds of girls?

Scarlett had always kept to herself. She wasn’t very outgoing and didn’t have many friends unless they came to her. So I shouldn’t expect her to come for me to make a move and tell me she wanted me, because she would never do that.

There had to be a reason we kept going back to each other. I mean, fate wasn’t that cruel, right? It wouldn’t make the stars align for you just to take it all away at a moment’s notice.

So even if my pride was shit where Scar was concerned, I had one last shot at making it count. The first thing in my grand game plan was to get her used to my presence like before. Hell, the only time I was Gigi’s dream boyfriend was when her best friend was around because it gave me more time with her.

When you’re a football celebrity, people like to please you, so getting her schedule wasn’t hard. It was wrong, but I needed every advantage if I wanted her walls down.

I was making my way downstairs, ready to go to my classes, when I felt a chick hug me. I looked down and saw Gigi’s head. I’d had enough of her shit. It was always the same stuff. She was feeling down, and because it was my fault, I had to be there for her, and I was so sick of it.

“It’s been such a hard day today, Gav,” she whispered against my shirt.

I looked at her and saw traces of the girl I’d gone out with, except any affection I might have had for her slowly died, no matter how much I wanted to feel sorry for her—for us.

A few other girls from the cheer team were there, and I let out a relieved breath when Delia nor Kenia were amongst them. Reaching behind my back, I pulled Gigi’s arms from my waist, brought them to her sides, and took a step back, holding her at a distance.

Her eyes went wide with panic, and they should, because I was done feeling sorry for circumstances and denying myself what I wanted the most.

“Remember when I said I was moving away in sixth grade because my parents were divorcing?” I asked.

She didn’t answer me. Maybe she didn’t remember—it was probably insignificant—but to me that day was monumental.

“You said it was a shame I was moving away before we could date.”

Gigi rolled her eyes. “I was a stupid little girl, Gav. I didn’t know how to react, but one clear thing is that I’ve always loved you.”

I laughed. “You want to know what Scarlett said to me?”

I saw the hate flash in her eyes by my question, and for the first time, I came to realize that maybe it wasn’t all on me that Gigi was always jealous of her ex-best friend. Maybe it was because she wasn’t blind to the way I stared at her best friend and not at her.

“She sat next to me while I cried, and she hugged me. She told me nothing she could say would make it better, but that things would get better for me because I deserved happiness.”

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