𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘, 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐓

FOUR: BRUISES

hawthorne, california | year of 2009

"aight, y'all, i'm gonna head home. i'm watching lynda again," tyler says as he got up, dusting off his knees. taco nodded and jasper sucked his teeth, upset that his friend had to leave. earl was doing tricks with lionel and syd was singing and writing in her notebook.

scarlet - whom was hanging around more often - stood up as well. "who's lynda?" she asked with curiosity.

"my little fat ass sister," he growled. scarlet laughed at tyler's playful insult and waved at the dudes as he started to walk away.

"tyler, i'll walk with you," scarlet suggested and stood by his side. tyler had an internal smile. he didn't want to be soft in front of the boys.

he shrugged and had a small smirk on his face. "sure, i guess." he turned to dap up his boys and started making his way home with scarlet. "how you likin' cali so far?"

"it's pretty chill. good to have some friends around, too," she says with a grin on her face. the warm air wrapped around her exposed skin like a blanket. she took a deep breath as she walked.

tyler simply nodded. he looked at her, trailing behind just a bit and saw a bruise on the back of her neck. "i hate to ask, but ever since i met you, i noticed you had bruises and stuff..." his voice trailed off as he finished his sentence.

"i don't wanna talk about it," scarlet responded quickly. she looked away and there was obvious tension. they were silent for the rest of the walk.

as tyler neared his house he sighed. "that's it right there," he says while pointing. before scarlet could say anything, a white audi started to pull slowly behind them. "do you know who that is?" the windows were tinted so there was no way to see.

it came to a start and out came scarlet's boyfriend. tyler's eyes narrowed and he looked over at scarlet, who was biting her lip and shaking.

her boyfriend gave tyler a dirty look and then confronted scarlet. "what're doing?" his voice was low and deep. scarlet didn't answer. she looked down and gulped. he grabbed her wrist and yanked it. "let's go." he was adding pressure on an already-existing bruise scarlet winced in pain.

tyler just couldn't stand there and watch. "dude, there's no reason to put your hands on her." he followed as her boyfriend walked her away. the boyfriend pushed her into the passenger seat and shut the door, facing tyler.

"leave scarlet alone." that was all he said before he got into the driver's seat and put the car in drive. tyler clenched his jaw and saw tears falling down scarlet's face. it genuinely pained him to watch her like that. but it gave him his answer, he was abusing her. tyler was bummed as they drove off. he didn't know how he could help but he wanted to so badly.