Forever Crimson

Chapter 8

"Yeah, Lindsey Donahue got the Juliet part," Scarlet cut in before her mother could gush over the Preppy who had gotten her attention. After a few days, her tongue betrayed her, and talks of Jake Miller fell right out and into the ears of the people around her. So much for trying to forget about him. "I don't know how I feel about that."

"How so?" Her mother tried to disguise her smirk with a bite of food.

"Well, on one hand, I'm going to have to deal with the vulture for the rest of the semester. But on the other hand, I get to see her die on stage." Scarlet motioned with her hands as if comparing the two points. "You win some, you lose some."

Her mother laughed. "You and that Lindsey girl have never been able to see each other eye to eye."

"I don't make friends with vultures," Scarlet pointed her fork at her.

"That isn't very nice, Scarlet," her mother said, but her chastising tone faltered. Everyone knew of the Donahue's in Hales Bay, and it was not a nice reputation to have. Gabriel Donahue, Lindsey's father, was a feared lawyer in the state of California, known for his ruthlessness and how he moved the pieces of the chessboard of life to do his own bidding. Some of his attitudes rubbed off on his daughter. "She can be a lovely girl, and you shouldn't bring other people down, especially women."

"I'm all for women empowerment, but I dislike shitty people."

Before her mother could say anything else, the doorbell rang. Scarlet shot up from her seat, sending a quizzical look to her mother, who only shrugged.

She opened the door to find Sierra on the other side, holding a small cake in her hands.

"Sie?" Scarlet moved to the side to let her best friend in. Her mother stood up, coming over to greet Sierra. "What's... up?"

Sierra laughed. "I saw the strawberry cake your mom likes on sale, and since I also know you need a break from everything, I decided to get it and come over."

Her mother reached over, taking the cake from Sierra's hands. "Oh, sweetie, you are too kind. Why don't you join us for dinner? We were just in the middle of it." She walked back to the kitchen, placing the box of cake on the island counter, already fetching Sierra a plate for her pasta without her saying yes. The yes was implied.

They sat back down at the table with their newest addition. Sierra thanked Scarlet's mother profusely, already eyeing the plate of pasta with excitement.

"It's always a pleasure, sweetie," her mother said, going back to her own plate.

"Scar, you had a meeting today, right?" Sierra asked after swallowing down a few bites of her food. Her murky green eyes glanced at her innocently. Scarlet bit down on her lip, knowing full well where things were getting at.

"Scarlet was just telling me of Lindsey Donahue getting the Juliet part," her mother cut in.

"Ew," Sierra said, scrunching her nose up at the news. "That sucks, I'm sorry."

Scarlet shrugged. Lindsey had a knack of getting what she wanted. She was going to play Juliet no matter what.

"What about Romeo?" Sierra asked. By the look on her face, Scarlet knew that she knew. She cursed Aura silently for blabbing. She must have put two and two together and went ballistic on her friends. She hadn't checked her phone since she got home, so she expected her screen to be full of notifications of them freaking out over the boy that would be playing Romeo.

"Jake got the part," Scarlet mumbled, playing around with her fettuccine noodles.

Her mother grinned, placing her chin on the palm of her hand. Sierra's breath caught, and she knew that her best friend was holding in an Aura-level squeal.