Revamped!
[All the positive reviews from the last chapter made me so happy.
And now, the final arc of season one of Once Upon a Selfie belongs to Scarlet Benoit. This arc will end with a transition point to season two.]
The Scarlet Letter: Part One
On this fine day, the girls stand in their local drug store, congregated in the middle of an aisle they rarely have to venture down unless necessary which it is. The boys were left in the food court since this topic is foreign to them because they didn't have sisters and their mothers had no reason to talk to them about it. They learned about it in school but it's one thing to have a vague idea on than truly understanding it. So, the boys weren't completely in the dark but they also weren't in the light either.
And to the girls' surprise, synchronization does equal sisterhood.
"Pads or tampons?" Cinder questions oddly cheerfully, holding a box of each in her hands.
Winter and Cress take their pick as does Cinder and they throw them into their joint shopping cart. The three look at Scarlet, waiting for her to choose something but she just stands there. She seems to have drifted off into space, staring blankly at the shopping cart while one of her arms is bent across her chest holding her other elbow.
"Scarlet?" Cinder calls.
Scarlet finally looks up and Cinder holds out a box of pads and tampons for her to choose from. Scarlet's mouth opens a little to say something but then she goes bug-eyed the longer she looks at them.
"Do you need any?" Cinder asks, starting to become concerned.
"No," Scarlet responds quickly, shoving her hands in her pocket.
"Lucky you have some at home," Cress mutters to herself.
Scarlet becomes shaking as she finds the need to hug herself. She takes a breath because she knows that this is her sisterhood and she can tell them more than anyone about what's rattling her.
"Actually…" Scarlet murmurs. "I'm about five days late."
Scarlet's surprised when she sees Cinder, Cress, and Winter shrug off her statement. Here she is, currently scared for her life, and they're taking it so casually. If only she could do the same.
"We're all virgins here," Winter states. "It's no biggie to be a little late. Maybe you're irregular or stressed."
Winter looks at Scarlet to nod and smile, but all Scarlet does is tilt her head a little with a slight shrug and slim well … smirk. Those small actions speak loudly as if they were screaming, and Cress does scream a little before Scarlet has to shush her not to draw attention to them. Winter gives Scarlet a deadpan expression with a smile and Cinder is grinning excitedly.
"You and Wolf actually did it?" Cress questions, already knowing the answer is yes but needing a verbal confirmation.
"It was one time!" Scarlet tells them and the girls start cheering. As if Cress's scream wasn't embarrassing enough, now they're a squealing sisterhood. "It was stupid of us but we did it anyways."
"A lot of people are stupid but they still live productive lives," Cinder says with reaffirmation. Scarlet isn't relieved with those words.
"How was it?" Winter asks curiously, gripping onto Scarlet's arm.
"Fine," Scarlet responds blandly.
Winter shoves her a little. "Aces, Scarlet… I doubt Wolf Kesley was just fine. He's a hot sculpted man who came straight from the stars themselves."
Scarlet raises an eyebrow. "Then, allow me to paint you a picture of our fine time together."
"No!" Cinder and Cress exclaim in sync.
Scarlet smirks a little. "Okay, fine, it was great. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing that happened after I got my tattoo because with whatever is going on in my life, I just wanted to escape it and go somewhere else. I was worried I couldn't pull it off since I've never had anything so outwardly sexy before but I loved it so much and he loved it so much and it just happened."
"Were you talking about the tattoo for that last part or the lovemaking?" Cinder questions.
Scarlet glares at her before starting to wonder herself. It could work for both. She suddenly isn't sure what she intentionally meant.
"Wow, Scarlet, I don't know what to say," the hopeless romantic side of Cress says.
"Probably because there's nothing to say," Scarlet grumbles. "Now, I'm in this mess."
Cinder drops the pads and tampons on a nearby shelf and instead throws Scarlet a box of pregnancy tests into the cart. Scarlet stares at them for a few seconds before starting to break down on the spot.
"I'm not even sure if I'm pregnant," Scarlet weeps. "I hope I'm not because I already have a lot on my plate to stress about."
"And now a possible bun in your oven," Cinder adds with her voice drifting off.
Cress pulls a tissue box from the shelves next to them and Scarlet tears it open to take some out. When she has enough, she drops it in the cart to pay for on the way out.
"I don't think what you're saying is true," Winter says honestly to Scarlet.
"That doesn't matter because it feels true," Scarlet responds.
Winter puts a hand on her shoulder. "Well, if it's true then you and Wolf will have a beautiful baby."
Scarlet knows that Winter could be a model: flawless dark skin and long lashes that aren't store-bought, and yet she was the one telling her that she and her "hot sculpted" potential baby daddy would have the beautiful baby. Scarlet finds the wonderful thing about her best friends is that they can tell when she doesn't want to talk and don't push her. They support her with whatever they have. That's what squealing synchronized sisterhoods were for.
"Call us when you know," Cinder says, "we'll drive right over."
-o-
Meanwhile, in the food court, Wolf, Kai, and Thorne were chilling amongst themselves as they wait for their girls to come back. They could've accompanied them on the shopping spree like good boyfriends would, but a true boyfriend would admit that he had no interest in standing around wishing the day would end and would rather sit with his bros; which is what they said. That, and the girls kept on talking about a synchronized sisterhood involving blood and the boys wanted no part in their creepy sounding cult.
"I don't care what a girl wears as long as she doesn't wear too much of it," Thorne says, finishing his point.
Wolf and Kai stare at Thorne for a bit. A few small thoughts later and they're nodding in agreement. Whether Thorne was talking about makeup or clothes didn't make a difference. Then, Cinder, Cress, and Winter walk in, having heard what Thorne said and are revolted because their minds automatically go to him talking about clothes.
"I don't even want to know what you've been talking about," Cinder says.
Thorne leans on her since she stands behind him. "Would you f me, Cinder?"
"If f means forget, then absolutely."
Cinder pushes him over in the booth and climbs over the seat so she could sit next to Kai. She looks at the table in front of her and sees a warm coffee cup with her name on it.
"Kai, you got me a coffee?" Cinder asks as she takes it.
"It's black, like your heart," Kai replies sweetly.
"Size?"
"Large, like your secrets."
"Sugar?"
"None, like your emotions."
Cinder smiles as she takes a sip and Kai kisses the side of her head. Thorne stretches over and grabs Cress by the waist to place her in his lap. She throws her head back with a smile as Thorne holds her close to him. Winter sits across the table, stretching her arm across the table with her cell phone out, recording these precious moments and putting them on her story. When she retracts her arm back, she smirks to herself as she replays them, tagging her friends, and happily captioning it before posting it.
"Where's Scarlet?" Wolf asks.
The girls' smiles suddenly falter. They each wait for another one of them to answer but none of them do.
"Yeah, where is she?" Thorne adds, shaking Cress a little. "Is she buying us food?"
"She went home," Cress replies.
"Why?" Wolf asks.
"Her winged eyeliner just veered off course," Winter responds.
The guys, and even Cinder and Cress look at her confused. Winter plays it off as a normal answer since it made sense in her head. Wolf gets up from his seat and excuses himself to check on Scarlet since there was something more to her absence than a makeup error (he didn't even know that Scarlet wore eyeliner).
-o-
Scarlet went back home to take the pregnancy test. She didn't feel comfortable with doing it in public. In the case that she was pregnant, the last place she would want to find out was the bathroom at the mall.
Now she rests the test on the bathroom counter, waiting for her results. She can't find herself to look at it so instead, her eyes look slightly upwards, right at her reflection in the mirror.
Scarlet finds herself kind of funny looking. Her face is hard to ignore due to all the freckles (which made the acne phase of puberty unbearable) and she hasn't even thought of her hair yet. Then again, she's comfortable with herself. She loves her loud curls, curves, legs, and has a great bust and butt for her body. The longer Scarlet gazes at her face in the mirror. Genes she'd gotten from her father and mother - not that she had any recollection of what she looked like - created this face. She can try not to let any emotions show, keep her eyes from revealing anything but there's not much she can do about her looks. She's stuck with her father's thick brows and mother's red hair and freckles (so she's been told). She could erase both her parents from her memory but there's no way to erase the DNA passed down to her. She could change her hair, eyebrows, and lipstick each day but DNA is permanent.
If she was pregnant, she hopes the baby looks more like Wolf than the mess she is. What is she even saying?
Scarlet snaps back to reality when she hears knocking on her door. Her gut instinct is to look for her phone and it isn't on her. She must've thrown it somewhere when she got back home. Instead, she grabs the pregnancy test and shoves it in her back pocket so she wouldn't leave it lying around.
She opens the door and is almost paralyzed when she sees him. Despite loving him, he was the last person she wanted to see the moment. She fears that his current look of distress and worry will soon turn into anger and distaste.
"Are you okay?" Wolf asks her. Clearly, her face says that she's far from it. "You left suddenly and the girls weren't saying anything. You didn't answer my calls."
Sometimes, when life felt too good to be true, fear starts to creep up on her. She had suffered too much in her life at such a young age but lately, the happier she got, the more scared she got to lose that too.
"Here," Scarlet says, reaching into her back pocket and handing him the pregnancy test.