"L A B E L S"

Episode 114

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"Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Jake apologizes with a shy grin, his heart beating just as fast as Scarlett's for completely different reasons.

“What are you doing here?”

“I just drove Taylor and Andrew back here.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out her car keys. “I guess you will probably be needing these at some point.” He takes a step forward and she takes a step back, immediately causing Jake’s pulsating heart to sink into his stomach.

“How long have you been in town?”

“A few days. I wasn’t sure if you would want to know so I told the others not to say anything.” Silence falls for a moment before Jake speaks up once more, this time with a question. “Do you want to know?”

“I kind of already knew.”

He cocks his head to the side in confusion. “How?”

“I heard Mia and Taylor talking last night. I just figured you were avoiding me.”

“Why would I avoid you?”

“I gave you every right to hate me.”

Jake’s eyes widen in stunned disbelief. “Hate you? Why the hell would I hate you?”

“Jake, I was terrible to you. I blamed you for everything when all you did was protect my brother from someone who had been abusive to us our whole lives. I was so ignorant and blind by my own confusion that I didn’t do what I should have done all along.”

“What’s that?”

She smiles and takes a few steps forward to wrap her arms tightly around his neck. “Thank you,” she whispers into his ear sincerely as he smiles in relief. Their sincere moment is cut short by the sound of a woman clearing her throat behind them. They both take a step back and turn to face the woman with a small smile across her face. She had long brown hair and wore a pair of skinny jeans with a low cut top that showed a little more than it was probably designed to. She had soft features but something stung Scarlett deep inside when she saw the woman and she instantly put her guard up.

“Hi, are you Scarlett?” She smiles and folds her hands in front of her body timidly as if she was worried she was interrupting.

Scarlett nods with a small forced smile. “Yes.”

“Sorry to interrupt. I was just looking for Nick. My name’s Kendra.” The woman holds out her hand to Scarlett but Jake’s the one that jumps forward to shake her hand. His teeth were putting the sun to shame as he smiles as wide as his mouth would allow.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jake. Jake Cameron.”

She laughs politely and nods. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Kendra?” They all focus their attention on the voice as the bottom of the drive and watch to see as Nick and Logan step closer, a confused expression across Nick’s face. “What are you doing here?”

She smiles and it’s obvious she’s even more uncomfortable than before. “Hey, I was just going to see if you wanted to hang out but you’re obviously busy so I’m just going to leave.” She starts walking back down the drive but Scarlett stops her.

“You should come inside.” Every pair of eyes is wide and shocked and solely focused on Scarlett as she continues to internally calm her defenses. “Someone got punched and there’s rum in the fridge so it should be pretty entertaining.”