Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 4 Chapter 5a

tw: heavy sexual content, drunk annoying boys (aka Zach)

Valentine's Day.

She had gone most of her life as a single girl on Valentine's Day. Thirteen years of it until high school. But she never felt lonely being single. Not until today.

Ophelia had put on a modest blue dress, which Estella then made her change into a red one. Estella then curled her hair in the bathroom, forcing Ophelia to dress up a bit more with a red bow to match her dress.

"Can you curl my hair now?" Estella asked her, a pleading voice.

Ophelia laughed. "Yeah, go ahead and take a seat."

They had brought up one of Tony's dining room chairs into the bathroom.

"Do you want a bow too?" Ophelia asked with a laugh.

Estella thought about it. "Yeah. I'll take the pastel pink one."

Ophelia felt like they were in elementary school. She had never worn a bow to school except for freshmen year.

"We'll be matching," Estella giggled. Both girls ended with curled hair and a low half up half down style held by the bows. Ophelia put on the necklace of her name that Zach had gotten her for Christmas, matching with a gold pair of earrings.

Tony was gone already. He'd left earlier to have breakfast with Caleb before school.

The girls headed to school, Ophelia spotting the giant 'Love is Love' dance sign hung out in the front of it from the parking lot.

She could see Estella looking at her from the corner of her eye.

Ophelia agreed to go to the Valentine's Day dance with Estella and Marisa. But she could still feel that Estella wanted her to go with someone else.

It had been almost two weeks since the football game, and Ophelia hadn't spoken to Scott since.

She hadn't talked to Diego since either. Scott was easier to avoid. After all, he wasn't supposed to be seen talking with her either. But it seemed Diego had been trying to find her, and she had to dodge him at times.

It was February. School ended in June. She only had five more months in this school. If she was careful, if she kept to herself, she may be able to graduate without anything else major happening. Her heart couldn't take much more anyway.

She briefly imagined what it would be like if she never spoke to Scott again, ever. It made her want to cry. But at the same time, thinking of going up to him, and having to confess that she was not only pregnant, but that it had been conceived by an evil act by his best friend, seemed like her own personal hell. And that's what she would have to do if they were to ever actually be together.

She had waited too long, Ophelia realized. She should have told Scott what had happened back when he first asked her about it, back at Montgomery's funeral.

Now, it felt like it was too late to tell him. He could have been able to process it and get over it by now. She ruined things.

Ophelia truly had believed that maybe her and Scott would be together one day. In the future, once she was ready to risk her heart again, she would gladly risk it on him. But she knew now that she was too invested in Scott already, and he was too invested in her. Once he learned what Ophelia had been hiding, it would hit him like a betrayal. She understood that things wouldn't progress for them after that. So why try with him at all?

It would be hard. But she had to try to get over him. If not, both of them would just end up getting hurt even more.

Estella and Ophelia walked towards the school together, being stopped before they even made it in.