devotion

the party

When she first got home, Scarlett laid in her "bed" which was really just a mattress with no sheets on it and watching the clock tick by then, that seemed to get a little boring so, she moved onto unpacking a few boxes. Without even realizing It Scarlett had spent hours unpacking most of the boxes in her room and It was already 7:30. Shit. She thought.

She dropped the picture frames that were in her hand onto the dresser and quickly stripped off to jump in the shower. As the warm water started, Scarlett's mind went to a place she didn't like going to. She thought about that night and It was the one thing she did not want to replay over again in her mind but It was like she couldn't control It. She was released from her thoughts at the sound of Sammy's stomping feet as he ran up and down the hallway giggling. She could hear her mother laughing and saying "Im gonna get you mister!" And that felt right. It made her feel how she used to feel. It felt like family, maybe a completely new family but It was a family at least.

Scarlett steppes our of the shower and dried off as quick as she could. She blow dried her hair and tried to create nice light brown waves. She put on a layer of foundation, concealer, bronzer, nude lip gloss and some gold and black eye shadow. She stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror and thought It looks a little dark but I look decent maybe the girls will help me out. She continued on her outfit and put on a black glittery tank top, and her favorite pair of black leather pants. She threw on a bunch of layers necklaces and hoop earring, picked up the water bottle half full of vodka and grabbed her phone to head out the door.

Once she got to the front door she put on her black vans and gave Sammy a kiss on the head as he was laying on the couch ready for another night of sleep. She could hear her mothers shower running so, as quickly as possible, she pulled out a notebook from the box next to her and ripped a page out. "Made a couple friends at school, going to the movies and then probably having a sleepover after. I'll text you in the morning. Love you xo Scar", she wrote.

A week ago her mom would have given her an earful about leaving a note so casually and walking out of the house without permission. But, she was different now and she seemed numb to the whole parenting thing except with Sammy. Probably because Sammy was six and had a lot less to say about picking up our lives and moving to a whole new town. Probably cause when he asked a question Sammy could be distracted by just about anything while Scarlett had never had the same demeanor after that night and seemed to have no intention of changing that.

She made her way down her street as quick as possible and checked her phone which read 8:29pm and when she looked up ahead she could see her two new friends sitting on the curb in front of the stop sign.

"Hey!" Scarlett yelled as she ran up.
"Damn bitch you look so hot!" Jules said asking her to do a twirl.
"Thank you very much" she said with a curtsy "but you guys look way better."
Jules and Rue both laughed while thanking her and they all linked arms passing the water bottle back and forth the rest of their walk to the party.

By the time the girls had gotten to the party it was already packed full. Scarlet made a beeline to the kitchen to find more glasses and stumbled upon one shot glass that had the skyline of New York across it. She found a tequila bottle nearby and filled the shot glass to the brim, taking it with no chaser. Soon after she realized that it might have been smarter to take a break between the vodka and tequila and, when she looked around and didn't see Jules or Rue in sight, she decided to take a seat on the couch.

About an hour had passed and she had been laughing with some girls she had met in her tipsy haze. The blonde one, Cassie, wore a tight white corset crop top with a pleated pink mini skirt while the brunette, Maddy, wore a purple mini dress that seemed to barley cover her chest. The girls were funny and they reminded her of the type of girls she was friends with back home.

Maddy whispered in a low drunken voice "There's Nate. I'm gonna go talk to him, Cassie come for a back up." They told Scarlett they would see her around and scrambled toward the back yard.

Rue and Jules had texted Scarlett that they were dancing in the living room but she told them she would catch them later after she had a smoke. As she was taking the altoids box out of her purse she looked up to see someone sitting directly across from her on the love seat. It was the guy from the convenient store this morning. She hadn't noticed it before but he was kinda gorgeous, he looked like he was around her age, maybe a year or two older, and gave off the vibe that he didn't really want to be at this party at all. He wore an oversized red sweater and jeans and had a look on his face as to say you good?. Scarlett just smiled at him. After all, he was pretty damn cute, she thought, and continued with what she was doing. She grabbed the pre rolled joint from the box and started searching for her lighter. She quickly realized she must've lost it somehow and right when she was about to give up a blonde guy in a football jersey put his hand, with a lighter in it, out in front of her.

"Need a light?" He asked, his voice surprisingly low.
"Yeah thanks" he flicked the lighter on and moved it close to the joint as he sat down a little too close next to her. She didn't care right now though, she was just focused on the joint. The crackling noise it made as the lighter ignited it. The fiery feeling it had in her throat. Those were the things she had been longing for. But during her focus on all that, she didn't realize the placement of his hand on her knee. She didn't want to be awkward but she slowly tried to scoot away while taking another drag.

"Aw come on don't be like that." He said now rubbing his hand on her inner thigh. Scarlett now has alarms going off in her head, she had been in this situation before and it never really ended well for her so she tried to look forward while grabbing his wrist and moving his hand away then hit the joint again, longer this time. When she did so, she saw the convenient store guy scoot up in the love seat and send daggers towards the blonde guy.

"I want you to stop", she said sternly when his hand wouldn't budge. That must have provoked him though because now his hand was all the way up her thigh and she really started to panic.

Then suddenly, convenient store guy spoke, "Hey man, cut that shit out."

His voice was angry and low while his eyes pierced through the blonde next to her. They both stood, chests inches away from each other and as Scarlett tried to step between them she felt herself being pushed back. Hard. Before she knew it, her small body was pushed onto what she though may have been a coffee table and slammed her head on the corner of it, making her grunt and her eyes start to feel heavy. And before everything went black she heard the crack of someone being hit and then she slipped into unconsciousness.