Starlet Scarlett

Chapter 6 - 'I could buy the school if I wanted.'

"Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose."

-C.S. Lewis



When I wake up, I'm intensely close to having a mental breakdown.

My eyes open first and my mind quickly recalls the night previous. I'm in Cameron's house.

In fact, scratch that, I'm in Cameron's bed. And when I sit up I realize my pillow for last night was Cameron's chest. How he allowed this to happen, I have no idea, but this is not good. I dart off the bed as quietly as possible and collect my possessions from the apartment. I find that Cameron dried my clothes for me, so I dive into the bathroom and strip out of his t-shirt and pants and slide back into my dress and jacket. I pull my heels onto my feet, even though they're still a little damp.

I rake my hand through my hair desperately and check my phone in my other hand. There's a message from my mom in which she says she'll see me in the morning, which means today. I guess she just assumed that I stayed over at my 'friends' house. When I notice the time I see that it's only seven thirty, so school hasn't started yet. Quickly, I dial Charlie's number. I would phone Jess, but she's away this week on a student placement in Arizona, so she's no help.

"Scarlett, what's up?" she asks casually.

"Chai, I'm freaking out," I hiss into my phone.

"Woah, calm down, what's happened?" she asks.

"I'm at Cameron's house," I say quietly.

"So?"

"So, I slept over," I press and she gasps.

"No freaking way," she says with a laugh. "Okay, what's the address, I'm picking you up and we're going for breakfast."

"School?"

"Fuck it, I could buy the school if I wanted," she scoffs. "I'll be ten minutes."

"I'll text you the address." A while later, Charlie picks me up from Cameron's apartment. I checked his room once more before I left and he was still sleeping, his sandy hair flicking over his forehead as he slept. I managed to leave without waking him, which was a plus. Getting into Charlie's car, however, opens a whole other can of worms.

Cameron and I are dating now, or at least, that's what other people have to believe. So my story of why I'm freaking out has to be changed slightly. I can't tell her why I'm really freaked. I can't tell her that I just slept in the same bed, in fact on top of, a boy who actually has a girlfriend. A girl he literally poured his heart out over to me an hour earlier. A girl he's trying to win back. And I honestly don't know why it... bothers me so much?

"The story can wait until we get to IHOP," Charlie says, lifting her hand before I can speak as I take my seat next to her. She points to the small bag in the middle console. "Makeup's in there, I'll try and not go over any bumps. There's also gum and perfume. And in the backseat there's a skirt and tank top if you want to change."

I love my best friend.

"You're amazing, thanks," I sigh gratefully, lifting the bag and getting started on my makeup.

"Also, I saw this and figured you'd want to see it," she says, picking up a magazine from the floor beneath her and swinging it over to me. Smack bang on the middle of the front cover is a shot of Cameron and I running inside his father's apartment building last night.

"How do they print these so quickly?" I cry out, dropping the tabloid on to my lap. "I swear to god they're vultures."

"Just get your makeup done, then we'll talk," Charlie laughs. She's not being mean, just to clarify. It's just a well known fact to us that the paparazzi get paid extra for shots of celebrities not wearing makeup - stupid, I know, but I'm not going to give them an opportunity to get extra cash. It doesn't take me long and thankfully the roads here are pretty flawless, so the makeup's not a mess all over my face. We park outside IHOP and I grab the clothes from the backseat, diving into the bathroom to get changed. I stuff my dirty dress and jacket into my bag and return to the restaurant, sitting opposite Charlie in our booth.