If I can get just one more favorite we'll be in double digits! (which seems like a lot to me, lol) I seriously hope that there are more than 9 people who like this story. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks, as always, to the ever-supportive xXPokePotterIslandXx.
A small wave here and there. A brush of fingers when they both reached for the same book in the library. A private smile in the hallway as if they were the only two people in the world who knew a certain secret. They had real conversations now, not the awkward, stilted interactions of a few months ago. Scarlet and Wolf were friends.
And boy, did she need friends at the moment. She wasn't sure what was going on with them, but something was off. Scarlet could tell that Cinder noticed the way her eyes lingered on crowds, looking for Wolf, but Cinder didn't say anything about it. Well, Cinder didn't say anything these days. Winter was just...distant. The glow of having friends had worn off of all of them. Scarlet knew that she should do something, but she was putting off the awkwardness. Just like with Wolf, she never wanted to engage in the deep talks. She wasn't the kind of person to confide her feelings and get all mushy.
Only Cress was still somewhat there. But even though Scarlet felt their relationship hadn't changed one bit, Cress had changed. She didn't seem like the bubbly romantic she had been before, always believing the best of people. Something had rocked her foundations, forced her to change her mindset. Whether that was good or bad, she couldn't tell yet.
"I don't know," she replied when Scarlet asked her what had happened, not really expecting an honest answer but receiving one all the same. Some things about Cress never changed. "It's just...it was the look in Jannali Blackburn's eyes when she stared at me. It's the big kids in the hallway who push me. It's everyone who acts like I'm invisible. It's the people who didn't clap for me at the awards ceremony last year. It's the people who forget my name and think I'm ugly and shrimpy and pretend to help me because they want something from me..." Voice trailing off, her fists clenched and she got that look in her blue eyes that reminded Scarlet of a Chihuahua pretending to be cute and tiny before it bit you.
"Is this about Thorne?" she prompted gently. She hadn't managed to shake the story out of Cress yet, but when she did she was going to hunt down that double-crossing nincompoop and punch him all the way to outer space. "What did he do to you?"
Cress shrugged. "It doesn't matter." Smirking, she admitted, "More like what did I do to him. I caught him doing something and sort of yelled at him."
Scarlet laughed. "Serves him right. But seriously, you are okay? I know you..." she trailed off, thinking that Cress wouldn't react too kindly if she mentioned her megacrush on Thorne.
"Honestly? I'm glad it happened," Cress said matter-of-factly. "It helped me learn that not everyone is as amazing on the inside as they seem on the outside." She made it clear the matter was closed.
"You are," Scarlet grinned, trying to preserve their light mood. "It's honestly not fair. You get that gorgeous thick long hair and a pretty face and a kinder heart than anyone I've ever met. And you're a genius."
Laughing, Cress punched her on the arm. "Says the girl with those beautiful red curls and a perfect body. And you have a boy who actually likes you back. I have to admit, I don't trust him, but if he's good enough for you..."
"That is so not true," snorted Scarlet. "And hey...you said like me back? When did I ever say I like Wolf?" The notion seemed ridiculous. She barely knew Wolf, after all. And yet...why did that thought feel so out of place, and yet so right at the same time?
What did it even mean to 'like' someone? Was it the happiness she felt whenever she saw Wolf? The way the room blazed brighter when he was in it? The way his eyes held her and kept her captive?
Oh dear.
"I can tell," Cress told her superiorly. "I've given up dreaming of a relationship for myself, but I am still a hopeless romantic."
Thorne was in a funk.
A not-talking-to-anyone, ignoring-his-highly-annoying-girlfriend-that-he-only-kept-around-for-kissing, skipping-homework kind of funk.
He had seriously contemplated sneaking out at midnight to go to a bar or a strip club - supposedly off-limits, but of course, that didn't stop him. That was what his friends did all the time when they were bored or in a bad mood.
But he knew, no matter how hot of a partner he picked up, no matter how good certain activities felt, he would only be able to see one thing in his head.
Cress's face. Eyes welling up with tears. Screaming at him about how despicable he was.
Thorne had barely managed to boost his grades in order to stay in the play; he had gone to his teachers one day and practically begged for tutoring. His parents were pleased enough, but Thorne felt miserable. For the first time in his life, he was...embarrassed.
It wasn't embarrassing when his best friend in middle school shoved him into a rosebush in his elderly neighbor's backyard, naked, after a particularly rough game of Truth or Dare. It wasn't embarrassing when a teacher in eighth grade forced him to stand at the whiteboard in front of the whole class and write I will try harder over and over again. It wasn't embarrassing when the entire cast of the musical laughed at him for a squeaky voice crack in the middle of his solo.
Thorne had spent his life polishing the surface. If people saw something good on the outside, it didn't matter what was on the inside. He had always thought that people got too caught up in feelings and emotions and mushy-gushy stuff. If something bad or embarrassing happened, he could laugh it off. It didn't matter what he really felt like. He could always bury it deep down, where nobody would ever see it.
But something about Cress had changed him. Thorne felt a sting of guilt every time he manipulated a girl or tricked someone into giving him money. She was right. Kate Fallow had been right. His teachers and parents were right. He was nothing more than a liar. He was fake.
Maybe the nerds and outcasts are the best people, he thought. They're the only ones who see everyone for who they truly are.
His phone beeped yet again. Kai. Thorne allowed himself a second of pleasure that at least someone still cared about him, before sinking back down into his self-pity and hatred, leaving his friend on read. The bright sunlight didn't penetrate through his dark curtains, closed even though it was the middle of the day, behind which he was sitting in the shadows. He hadn't showered or changed in days and probably smelled terrible. He felt like a shadow of his former self, the boy who had painstakingly paid attention to his hair and outfit and smell.
Glancing at the screen of his phone, he checked the date. December 1. Only two weeks until the SnowBall. He had been feigning sickness for the past week, which he couldn't recount as anything but a haze of numbness and exhaustion. He groaned at the thought of getting dressed up and putting his mask on again, an evening of fakeness and lies with friends that he thought were shallow and boring.
I'll get out of bed tomorrow, Thorne decided. He couldn't go on like this forever, could he? But I can't face them...especially not Cress. Maybe the day after that? Or the day after that...or the day after that...
"Come on! It's a free period! Endless possibilities! We could sneak into the city, play pranks on the popular kids..." Wolf protested, hitting her on the shoulder lightly. "We can't waste it."
"Exactly, that's why we're going to study," Scarlet insisted, smiling all the same. It was impossible to stay strict and commanding when Wolf was pleading with her. "Aren't you the one who's trying to bring your grades up so that you can get into college?"
Wolf sighed. They were outside of the gym in one of the small courtyards that branched out from the hallway, boughs of plants dead and cold at the moment. Everyone else was huddled inside to conserve warmth, but they had left the minute Ms. Hedges announced that it was a free period in the absence of Ms. Blackburn. The cold gusts were sharp and tingly on Scarlet's face and neck, but when she positioned herself in the shadow of Wolf his bulk protected her from the worst of the winds. As an added bonus, his wild, almost animalistic smell, like he ran through forests and climbed mountains every day, filled the air when she huddled close. Others would've found it repulsive, but it reminded Scarlet of the farm.
"I know, but I've been studying so hard lately. Can't I take a break?" he curled his lips and widened his eyes in what he probably thought was puppy dog eyes, but to Scarlet it made him look like a demented baby wolf cub. Still, she found herself softening. It was true, he really seemed to want to make a better life for himself. As far as her knowledge went, he hadn't been taking part in the usual antics of the Wolf Pack, and at school he was working much harder.
"All right, fine," she relented, "but we're not doing any of the crazy stuff I know you have in mind."
So that was how they ended up strolling through the school, talking and laughing and darting out of sight and giggling like maniacs when a teacher walked by. Talking to Wolf just felt so...easy. With everyone else, even her best friends, Scarlet was constantly filtering herself, cutting herself off, not wanting to say something that would embarrass her. But with him, it felt like she could say anything.
Tucked into a quiet corner behind a planter, Wolf told her about his life growing up. His mother, Maha Kesley, who tried her hardest to make a better life for Wolf and his brother. His childhood in poor schools and playing football on cracked streets. The way he talked, his tone getting less rough and more wistful like he was reminiscing about better times, made Scarlet's heart squeeze. She had also had a hard childhood, but at least she had Grand-mere now.
"Where was it?" she asked. "I mean, where did you grow up?"
"A little town called Sector," he responded. "Just an hour's drive from here."
Starting in surprise, Scarlet told him, "That's where my grandmother is now. She said she was visiting an old friend."
She might have been imagining it, but it looked like a shadow passed over his face. "What?" she asked.
He rearranged his features, but Scarlet detected a tinge of worry darkening his eyes. "Just...it can be dangerous there." She wanted to ask what that dramatic proclamation meant, but decided to drop the subject. Wolf was staring into the distance, body tensed like he was getting ready to attack."
"Anyways..." Anything to keep him talking. She wanted to preserve this quiet moment between them for as long as possible. Pulling out her phone, she turned it on and went to the Photos app. "That's me and my grandmother." Scarlet held it up to show him. She hadn't looked at these photos in ages and only now did she see how cringy she had been as a nine-year-old. She was grinning at the photographer, showcasing several gaps in her teeth, and sticking bunny ears behind her grandmother's head.
"You were so cute," Wolf teased, looking back and forth from her to the picture as if trying to compare them.
Scarlet grimaced. The two scrolled through all of her photos, dozens more of little Scarlet. They changed, some at the farm, others in the city, some by herself, others beside Grand-mere. But no matter where she was, she was always beaming.
"I was happier back then, I think," she confided in Wolf. "As you grow up, you have more responsibilities, more complicated choices...when you're little, all you want is to grow up, but now I realize that it's not so fabulous."
"I get what you mean," Wolf sighed. "If I could go back in time, I would tell Wolf Junior not to be so desperate to be grown-up and cool. I wish I could take it all back. The drugs, the gang fights, everything..." Scarlet stayed quiet, knowing that he wouldn't want pity or reassurance. They thought in silence for a few minutes.
Scarlet broke the serious mood. She held up her camera. "Can I take a picture of you?" she asked. The pale light from the weak sun and the shadows from the topiary falling on his face highlighted the angles and lines of it. His olive skin looked darker, making the sharp white scars on his neck and jaw stand out. He wasn't handsome in the way that boys like Kai and Thorne and Jacin were, almost too perfect to be real. Wolf looked like the kind of person you would find out in the sun, leaning on a fence he had just built. She could almost imagine that the muscles in his arms and the scars on his face were from the farm work, not street fighting.
"Absolutely not." His reply startled her. She looked at him, confused and a little hurt. "I don't do pictures," Wolf was growling. "No one wants to look at me for longer than necessary, much less keep a picture of me."
"That's not true," she whispered. Why would he think that? He was beautiful.
He held out his hands. "I'm huge," he said. "I'm too muscular. I'm scarred. My face looks like a wolf. Everything is off. I - I look like a monster." His voice broke on the last word. Suddenly, Scarlet understood Wolf better than ever. He hadn't joined the Wolf Pack just because he wanted to be cool and do drugs. He joined because it was the only place where people would accept him.
"Not to me," Scarlet insisted. "Wolf...you're not a monster." The words sounded even lamer out loud than they had in her head. How could she put what she thought about him into words? How do you describe a relationship that goes deeper than the surface?
He held her gaze. "Not everyone thinks so. I can tell your friends don't trust me." Scarlet flushed. That was true.
"But, Wolf..." she tried one last time. "Does it really matter? I think you're a good person. Forget about everyone else." On a whim, she took his hand. "Just focus on me," Scarlet whispered.
His eyes focused on her, studying her, examining her like he was deciding whether to trust her or lash out again. Once again, she felt her heart twist for him. Wolf was so, so much more than a troubled, poor boy. He was something more...everything he had been through just made him more special.
"I'll try to," he finally said softly. They sat for a moment, Scarlet furiously trying to think of something to say that would break the tension.
"Want a tomato?" she eventually asked. This morning, she had picked some fresh off the vine.
Wolf looked at her like she had just asked if he wanted a genetically modified fruit grown on the moon. "A...tomato?"
Was it possible to feel any stupider? "Yeah," she mumbled. "I remembered that you like them - " And then they were laughing harder than ever, practically cracking their ribs. It was a wonder that no teachers came outside to reprimand them. Scarlet managed to calm herself, but Wolf was still grinning.
"See?" she said, reaching up to touch his face. "That's the smile I've been looking for." Her fingers brushed his lips, then trailed over one of the scars on his jaw. He tensed, and Scarlet jumped back, worried that she had crossed a line. She looked up tentatively, bracing herself for shock or disgust in his face.
He was standing stock-still like she had paralyzed him with her touch. Wolf gaped at her, mouth open to reveal unusually sharp canine teeth.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. If there was anything she didn't want to do, it was breaking his trust just when she had gotten him to open up to her. "I don't know - "
"Stop apologizing." Now his eyes were scrunched up, hiding their vibrancy, as if he was fighting an internal battle. "I just - I need to tell you - "
Abandoned on the ground, Scarlet's phone rang. The moment shattered as both of them flinched in surprise.
The second she saw the caller I.D., she knew something was very, very wrong.
I love writing Wolflet, they're so cute. Hope you enjoyed that! I promise I'll have the next chapter out as soon as possible!