Page 54 of The Confidant
“That’s what I wanted people to think,” she said. “But yeah, I had to make it look like I didn’t have time for friends because it made it seem like a personal choice, rather than the fact that no one wanted to be friends with the super strict, religious girl.”
“What made you decide to come back?” I asked. “Were you just forced by your parents? Or was there something that changed your decision?”
“It was actually you who changed my mind.” She stopped in front of the bakery next to the church and looked up at me with her big brown eyes. “You made me think I could come back.”
“Me?” I put a hand to my chest, surprised by her answer. “How? We weren’t friends until sophomore year.”
She nodded. “Do you remember the church social that summer? The one right before school started where they rented the bouncy houses and had a big potluck dinner in the courtyard?” She pointed toward the path that led to a private courtyard within the church grounds—the spot where members enjoyed sipping their coffee and chatting after church when the weather was nice.
“Is that the social where Brother West tried to convince everyone he had a vision that he was supposed to be the High Priest and bring back more of the traditions they had in the early church?” I asked, remembering the quirky man who I’d thought was just a really crazy dude…until this past fall when I realized he had probably just been researching church history and saw the ways The Fold had changed to blend in a little better with the mainstream religions and wanted to go back to the “true order” of things. “Didn’t he start his own break-off sect after that?”
“He did,” she said. “Apparently, there was a lot of drama that my dad had to deal with because of it, too.” She shook her head and sighed. “Anyway, Mr. West aside, it was at that party where I got the little bit of hope I needed in order to come back to school.”
“And you say it had something to do with me?” I asked, trying to remember what I might have said or done that night to convince her to return.
“You probably don’t even remember it.” She started walking down the sidewalk again, letting her glove-covered fingers drag against the pickets in the wrought-iron fence. “But we were paired up to run the fishing booth for the little kids. While we were back there putting the prizes on the ends of all the little kids’ fishing poles, we started talking about school.” She looked up at me again. “Do you remember that?”
“A little,” I said. An image of a blue tarp with laminated fish and seaweed duct taped to it so it resembled the ocean came to mind. “I think I remember asking Mrs. Jones to assign me to that particular booth because I saw you were there. I was hoping it would give me an excuse to talk to you.”
“Really?” She gasped, her eyes lighting up. “You asked to be put there?”
I nodded, feeling my cheeks warm up. “I might have had the tiniest crush on you back then, but was too afraid to talk to you.”
“You liked me back then?” Her voice went higher and her eyes widened, like she had no idea how long I’d had a crush on her.
“I told you this, didn’t I?” I asked, sure I’d said something about it last year.
But she just shook her head. “I thought for sure you saw me as this super nerdy girl. Which was why I was so excited when hot, athletic Hunter Blackwell was actually talking to me instead of ignoring me behind that tarp.”
I laughed. “Glad you thought I was hot, even back then.”
“I’ve always had extremely good taste,” she said with a big smile.
“Same.” I winked. And for a few heart-pounding seconds, we just looked at each other with goofy smiles on our faces.
Man, I’d missed this.
Missed being open and able to tell Scarlett about all the moments that had made me fall for her.
We started walking again. When we were about twenty feet from the gates where I would be leaving her for the night, I asked, “So was it something that I said that night? Or did you just decide to come back to school because I was cute?”
“Probably a little of both.” She grinned and looped her arm through mine. “But basically, you were just talking about how excited you were to get back to school and see your friends again and…I don’t know, you made it sound fun—so much different from how my freshman year had gone.” She leaned her head against my shoulder. “And I guess it gave me hope that if I tried to be more normal and tried to find the things I had in common with everyone instead of always seeing the things that made us different, that maybe it could be okay.”
“Well, I’m glad you decided to give Eden Falls Academy another try.”
“Me too.”
We made it to the stone arch that the church gates were attached to. As she unlocked the gate and swung it open, I found myself wishing we’d walked slower on our way here just so I’d have a few more minutes with her.
Because even though we spent so much of our days together, I could never get enough.
Scarlett was the bright sun among the indistinguishable clouds. The one person whose company I never grew tired of.
If I could stay next to her all day and all night, I would.
“Well,” Scarlett said, turning back to me. “Thank you for a wonderful evening.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I had a really great time.”
“Thank you for coming.” I took a slight step closer to her beneath the arch. “We’ll have to find a way to do this again.”
