Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or it's characters, except from Scarlet and her family. I also don't own the song Little Toy Guns from Carrie Underwood.
"What are you doing here Michael?" She went straight to the point. She didn't wanted to stay more time than it was necessary with him in the same room. He intimidated her, he always did, and as much as she tried to stay strong and don't surrender to the unease that he provoked on her, it wasn't as easy as she thought it would.
"What? Not glad to see your big brother after so many time?" He stood up from the chair and turned around. His features finally clear while he stepped into the soft light that the lamp provided. He was just as beautiful and as similar to her as she remembered, his dark and strong face, his eyes that made her feel harassed, with only one look over her.
"Let's just say that I never thought I would see you again. I have a really vivid vision of you telling me that you never wanted to see me again. I don't knownif you remember about it? Umh.. I was in the hospital?" Se said sarcastically
"You're stronger, meaner, more an adult. I'm surprised, I thought you would never grow up" he smiled at her, a sharp cold going through her spine as he walked a little bit closer to her. She stepped back, keeping the distance between them "But you're still scared of me, good. You should."
"What are you doing here Michael?" She repeated the question. She seriously didn't want to be there, and she slapped herself mentally for not running away when she got the chance. For not telling Jesse to stay parked there, just in case things got out of hand. Because she knew that there was no way this meeting would end up well. In the never did with him.
"Believe me, I don't want to be here either. Seeing you makes me sick, but i was in town for business and well. You always hated this place so I never thought you would suddenly be living here"
"I didn't have anywhere else to go, considering you left me alone and I'm under eighteen, what else did you wanted me to do? Live in the street?"
"You deserved it" he said, coldly, like stabbing a knife in her heart with his bare hands, and he didn't even care about it.
"I was just a kid" she whispered, more to herself than for him. She needed to reassure herself in solid ground, or else she would lose this fight, she would succumb into the darkness of those ugly and horrible memories, and she wasn't so sure she could struggle out of there again.
"That doesn't make you less guilty" He looked at her deeply in her eyes. She couldn't see any emotions under those grey eyes, so similar to her own, that once showed her love, and compassion. Right now, under there, there was only hate, sadness, and something Scarlet couldn't quite understand, but that scared thet crap out her, something she has already seen before once, and that time it didn't end up well.
"I'm not guilty of anything" She responded sharply
"Oh yeah? You're not? You're not guilty of mom and dad's death?! Because I remember that night like the palm of my hand. You and your selfish acts with that little rat you called boyfriend. They warned you about him, but of course you never listen! You called them so they could pick you up, remember? Because you were too upset to drive"
Words stucked down her throat, the memories right back in her mind, hurting, making her want to die all over again.
"Stop it" she was able to mumble.
"They went to pick you up and when you were coming back, you started fighting with Dad because of him. Do you remember that? You remember how distracted he was because of it that he didn't see that car coming out of nowhere?!" His voice was raising by the second, and getting more close to her, so close she could feel his hot breath on her face. She closed her eyes, not being able to hold him the stare anymore.
"Stop it"
"It was all your fault! And you get to be here! With no scratches! While there are gone!
"I was your sister!" She screamed back, snapping, loosing all the control she was trying so hard to keep. She pushed him away, with all the strength she had, making him stumble "I was your sister! I lost my mom and my dad too! And you left me alone! You said horrible things to me! For God's sake, you fucking tried to kill me! Do you remember that?! How it felt to my my neck between your hands?! Do you remember that?! I am your sister and and you are fucking bastard!"
That was it. The last thing she felt was the heat in her cheek, and the rough cold floor in her arms. One of her hand touched softly the now hurting face. She looked at him in disbelief, the anger taking over the eyes that once were her safe place.
"You are not my sister. My sister died that night in the accident. This thing" he said, disgust showing in his voice "this is the thing that murdered my parents".
He stepped over her hand, the noice of her now broken fingers filling the room as she screamed in pain, and he walked out of the house, the door slammed after him. She stayed there lying in the floor, looking at the sealing, the emotional pain still stronger than the physical one. She didn't quite know how many minutes -or hours- passed after the door opened up again, a familiar face walking into the room, paralyzed when she saw Scarlet's body still on the floor, her body shivering from the cold and from the tears that fell almost automatically through her now really bruised cheek.
"Oh my God Scarlet!" Cat sat on the floor next to her, one of her hand slightly caressing her cheek, she groaned in pain "I knew I shouldn't have left the house with him here. I should have been here, I'm sorry" Scarlet looked into her eyes, she could see the pain, the regret, the guilt.
"It's okey Cat... Really I'm just... I'm just really tired."
"I'll take you to the hospital, we need to get that hand checked" Cat grabbed Scarlet by the waist, her niece's sane hand over her shoulders. The ride to the hospital was quickly and silent, no one daring to break the clear tension that surrounded them.
They entered the big building, a bunch of doctors running to them as soon as the two girls stepped into the emergency room. One of them, who seemed to be the one leading the place sat next to her and analyzed her, without baring to touch her.
"What happened to you?" He ask, focusing on the big black bruise on her cheek.
"Her bro-"
"I was mugged" Scarlet cut her quickly "A friend took me home, it was late, and someone intercepted me in the way from the car to the house. I didn't seen his face, it was too dark"
The doctor nodded, believing the lie Scarlet just spit out of her mouth. She didn't wanted to get stuck with all this problem again, and that's exactly what was going to happened if she'd told them about Michael. She just wanted, needed to move on.
"Well that bruise is going to disappear in a few weeks, and for that hand... we are going to patch it up, and you'll need to come back in a month, so we can see how those fingers healed"
Scarlet nodded to the doctor "How long are we going to stay here? Because I have to get to school and it's already 3:30 AM"
The doctor looked at the clock in his wrist "Well, we need to run some test in that hand before actually patching it, so... at least three hours? Maybe a bit more?"
Scarlet looked at Cat "I'll go pick your stuff home, I'll drive you off straight from here" she added. Scarlet offered her a thankful look before watching her leave the room. Scarlet fell on the uncomfortable emergency bed, her eyes shutting close without even realizing. She was so tired. She just wanted to sleep, sleep and never wake up again, just stay there in the fairytale of a pretty dream. But it wasn't that easy for her. She knew she didn't get to give up like that. She needed to fight, fight for her parents, for her friends, but specially for Michael. She didn't know how, but she was going to show him that she was strong, and that he didn't get to treat her like that and leave unpunished. She was better than him, and she wasn't going to let him forget that.
Three hours and a half later, Scarlet entered the crowded hallways of McKinley, her being the center of attention again, this time because of the bad physical state she was carrying. She walked to her locker ignoring all the stares and whispers. A buzz in her bag distracted her of the books she needed to grab. She looked for her phone and opened it to see that she had a text form Kurt.
Glee club emergency meeting AZAP!Scarlet looked at it confused. What could have happened that needed an emergency meeting right before first period started? She was curious clearly, so she stashed her bag in her locker and grabbed the books she needed and quickly walked down the hallways. Five minutes later she entered the choir room, Rachel was standing in the middle, her shoulders tensed and her arms crossed over her chest. Mercedes, Kurt, Tina and Artie were standing in front of her, angry and serious faces in their features. They were so focused in the conversation that they didn't realized she entered the room until she opened her mouth.
"What's going on here?" All looks on her, there eyes wide open when they saw the big bruise and the patched-up hand.
"What happened to you girl?!" Mercedes asked, concern in her voice.
"I got mugged yesterday... It doesn't matter really" She stepped into the room and stood next to Rachel "What is so important that we need an emergency meeting right before first period?"
"Rachel is a tr-tr-traitor. She's dating the e-e-enemy" Tina said, angry tone in her voice.
"Since when is Finn the enemy?" Scarlet was confused, she founded this situation quite bizarre.
"I'm not dating Finn, not anymore. I found someone that equal to me in talent: Jesse St James, leader of Vocal Adrenaline"
Scarlet head snapped and looked at Rachel shocked
"What?!"
This is a dream, it has to be.
Look Rachel, we are not saying that he's..."
The rest of the conversation got lost in Scarlet's ears. It couldn't be the same guy, right? It couldn't be the same handsome, good guy that helped her when she was falling apart, that cared about her, it couldn't be. But again, how many Jesse st. James could there be in Carmel High, in Vocal Adrenaline? But how could it be? Where the hell did they met? It was before or after she bumped into her? Nothing made sense in her mind, but she knew she needed to talk to him. She didn't know how but she would talk to him.
"Scarlet! Are you listening to what we are saying? What do you think we-" Kurt's voice dragged her out of her thoughts.
"I have to go" it was the only thing she could mumble, before walking out of the room, all of her teammates screaming her name, but she didn't listen to them. She only had one target in her mind: Carmel High.
She stormed out of McKinley High and got into her car, thanking Cat's great idea to use her Rover to get here instead of her aunt's one. She knew she was skipping school before first period in her second day of school. She needed to talk to him now, or she wouldn't be able to pay attention to anything.
The enormous building that carried the name Carmel High appeared in her sight twenty minutes later. She walked through the empty halls, when two little details crossed her mind, paralyzing her in her spot. Where would she find him? And most important of all, what would she tell him? They were absolutely nothing, they saw each other once. Yes, they had an undeniable connection but, they were to strangers, she wasn't in the place to reclaim anything to him, specially not dating another girl.
The bell rang, taking Scarlet out of her thoughts. She was screwed.
"Shit" was the only thing she was able to mumble when a classroom door opened to her right. All the students stood there, looking at the beated up strangers, not recognizing her from their school "Hi" she smiled awkwardly.
"Why is everyone standing here?" A familiar voice echoing through the hallways, pushing people away and trying to get to the front "I need to get to-" He stopped talking when he say those hypnotizing grey eyes he remembered so well. He wasn't supposed to see her again and definitely he didn't expect to see her in his school and in that state. The big bruise decorating her beautiful feature and the cast arround her right hand, anger floating through him, wanting to kill whoever did that to her "Scar? What are you doing here?" He stepped closer, one hand touching her face slightly where the big purple stain was located. She moved her face away from him, groaning weakly in pain "What happened to you?"
"That doesn't matter" she said quickly, dismissing the topic "I need to talk to you" she looked to the sea of students that gathered around them "in private."
Jesse looked at her and nodded slowly grabbing her arm and guiding her through the halls, all eyes on them. They entered the auditorium and Scarlet stopped to stare every detail of it.
"It's bigger than I expected it to be" it was the first thing that came out of her mouth after the unexpected encounter. Looking to stage, Jesse couldn't watch her eyes, but he could see the tension in Scarlet's shoulders. She was uncomfortable there with him, and he didn't wanted that.
"Why are you-"
"Rachel told me you guys are dating" she spit without thinking. She shaked her head and turned around, finally her eyes meeting his "I don't know what I'm doing here. I just... I was impulsive, you can do whatever you want. I'm sorry" She started walking out of there but Jesse grabbed her arm firmly turning her to him, inches separating their bodies.
"Why are you here Scar?" This time he asked softly, almost like a whisper, and she was only able to hear it because of the close distance between them. Her eyes went from his green eyes to his lips, and back up again. His warm breath in her face taking her all her abilities to think straight.
"I... Umh... I heard about and... I needed to hear it from you" she swallowed loudly, not daring to move away from him. Carefully he grabbed a lock of her light brown hair and put it behind her ear, his hand staying there.
"It's not as easy as it seems Scarlet"
"So it is true?" She whispered
"It's... complicated"
Scarlet stepped away, and in that moment Jesse realized how at ease he felt with the petite in his arms.
"Then explain it to me Jesse, please. Because you go around grabbing me and keeping close to you, but then you go out and date one of my best friends!"
"I can't tell you, ok? Believe me when I say to you that this is not what I wanted. I need you to trust me."
"I just met you! Trust is earned, it's not something that you give away"
"Please Scar-" Jesse walked closer and grabbed her hand, but she stepped away.
"Don't" she replied, as coldy as she could "Just... don't hurt her, ok?" She stepped even more away from him, his heart aching a little bit more everytime she got further from him, until she left. The door of the auditorium closing shut after her, and Jesse was left alone in the darkness of the big room, the warm of her body feelinf distant by the second.
What was the thing that this woman do to him?
