Page 18 of Tainted Rose

Scarlett

Early Thursday morning, my alarm goes off, blaring music from the new Halsey album. I hurriedly roll over, grabbing blindly at my phone to silence it. Bleary-eyed, I try to focus on a message notification from my Instagram account. I hardly ever look for messages there. With a mental shrug, I click on it.

XanderG:I’m guessing you saw the photos of me and Aria …

XanderG:I don’t know how she got the one of us in bed.

I immediately fire back a response.

Me:Don’t be an asshole about it.

Why he feels the need to wedge a blunt knife into my heart, I have no idea. Another message comes through.

XanderG:Can I talk to you sometime?

Me:You’ve said more than enough.

I turn off my phone, unable to handle a continued conversation with him. Not if it’s going to go like this. What more could he possibly want to talk to me about?

Determined that I’ll make it through this week—just two more days—I shower and dress quickly, heading downstairs. I smell bacon and pancakes, which means Uncle David must be cooking. He’s an early riser, like me.

He eyes me carefully from where he’s standing at the cooktop flipping pancakes. “Good morning, Scarlett. Doing okay today?” When I don’t immediately answer, he shrugs. “You could stay home if you aren’t up to going today. If something’s going on at school, I mean. You know. Fu—” He jerks his head before he finishes swearing. “Sorry. I’m rambling. I mean, if some sort of shit is hitting the fan after everything with Xander, you could stay home.”

I feel terrible that they’re worried about me. With a tight smile, I say, “I’m okay. I have to be at school and at practice if I’m going to run in the meet this weekend. I also need to talk to Coach Lance, so I’ve got to get to school early.” I nod, determinedly. Nothing Xander says or does matters. Nope.

“Okay. If you’re sure. I didn’t want you to think you had to go if you weren’t feeling it today.” He blows out a breath. “Do you have time for a quick breakfast? Everything is ready.”

“I could eat.” I plaster a bigger smile on my face. It’s convincing. Fake as hell, but it has to be convincing. “Is Aunt Liz still asleep?”

He nods. “Yep. She’s like her sister was in that regard.”

Fond memories wash over me from when I was younger of me crawling into bed with Mom on the weekends and watching cartoons next to her while she slept. “Yeah. Mom loved a good sleep-in.” I accept a fork and the plated pancakes and bacon and sit down on a stool at the kitchen island to eat. I slather butter on each fluffy pancake, then drizzle syrup over the whole thing, thinking all the while about something that I’ve been considering since everything went down Friday night. As I dig in, I peer at Uncle David’s back, trying to decide whether or not I should even ask. I suck in a breath, then let the question spill. “You’d tell me if my being here is too hard for her, wouldn’t you? I know she worries.”

He turns around, gaze narrowed on me. “Why are you asking me this, Scarlett?”

I shrug, finishing a bite of pancake. “I just—if it’s too much, I could ask if there are rooms in the dorm open.” I chew carefully on a piece of bacon dipped in syrup. Rosehaven Academy has a small building on campus that houses students who don’t have parents in the area. I’m sure it’s expensive as hell to stay there, but … maybe we’d be better off. I don’t know where I’d get the money. I’m sure working at Teri & Terry’s Ice Cream won’t come close to covering the expense of room and board. Maybe it would be easier on my aunt and uncle, though. Maybe I could take on extra hours. Or apply for a second job. Lost in thought, I take another bite of my pancakes.

I startle when Uncle David speaks again. “Why would you think that? Did she say something to give you that impression?” He calmly sets the spatula down after removing the remainder of the pancakes off the griddle and shuts the cooktop off.

“Well, no, but—”

“But nothing, Scarlett. She loves you and wouldn’t dream of you staying anywhere or with anyone else. Do us both a favor and don’t breathe a word of that nonsense to her. It’ll only hurt her feelings to know you were thinking about it.”

I rake my teeth over my lower lip, trying to read the expression on his face. He’s fiercely protective of his wife. Actually, if he thought having me here was a problem, he’d have brought it up himself. I shrug. “It was just a thought.” I shovel the last hunk of pancakes into my mouth.

“Well, don’t think about it further. She lost her sister. Do you really think she wants to lose you, too?”

I shake my head, a certain amount of shame creeping up and tingeing my cheeks pink. “I hadn’t really thought of it like that. I don’t want to be a burden. Not to either of you.” I slide my gaze off to the side, unable to look him in the face. “After I came home in the state I was in the other night … I understand it had to be unnerving for both of you. I never meant to—” My shoulders sag, remembering how shocked and worried they’d been.

He sighs, squirting dish soap into the sink and running enough water to clean up the dishes. “I get it. Look, I often think about it as if we are learning via trial by fire with you. We didn’t get to go through the baby, toddler, or preteen stages with you. You landed on our doorstep practically an adult. That’s bound to be infinitely more difficult. Trust me when I say we want the best for you and hope you’ll let us take care of you as long as possible. It’s what your mom wanted.” He catches my eye, his voice gruff. “That means no way in hell are you moving into the dorm.”

“Got it.” I shoot him a tiny smirk.

He grimaces good-naturedly at me. “Any more boy trouble we should know about?” Under his breath he mutters, “Still not sure I shouldn’t have gone and roughed that boy up a bit.”

“No. I’m fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Nothing I want you to know about. Ugh.

“Well, if there is, you tell me. You don’t hide this kind of bullshit from us, you hear me?” He shakes his head with a chuckle.

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