devotion

the past

disclaimer for this chapter: this chapter specifically heavily mentions ab*se (primarily domestic ab*se). I know that this is triggering for some people and I just wanted to give a warning in case anyone needed to skip this chapter. There will be mentions of it in this story again but not in such a heavy way content wise. If anyone reading this story or coming across this chapter feels the need to get help based on these topics i found a resource for you guys to contact: the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233. I appreciate everyone who reads my book and I hope you guys enjoy.

When they got back to Fez's apartment Scarlett's hand had yet to stop bleeding. Fez hoisted her up onto the bathroom counter and began inspecting her hand. "Open and close it" he told her. When she did so Scarlett began to really feel the pain of her injury and breathed in through gritted teeth. He poured peroxide on the wound and wrapped it the best he could without causing her too much pain. They walked to the kitchen so Fez could get her an Advil and some water and Scarlett continued to spin on the bar stools he had against the island. "Listen babe I don't like it when your in these dangerous situations it has me all worried and shit ion know." Scarlett stopped spinning in her chair and looked at him. "Did you just call me babe?" She asked with a big smile on her face. He walked around the island and handed her the water. "Shit Scar that's the only thing you got from that?" He asked. She put the water down on the counter and wrapped both her arms around the back of his neck. "Mhm" She hummed leaning in towards him. Fez leaned in too until their lips met and they stayed like that, lightly kissing, for a while. "I like it when you call me that." She told him. He patted her leg, "maybe I'll say it more often then." They decided to go to bed and Scarlett took the two Advil and drank a large glass of water before taking off her shirt and skirt and climbing into bed. Fez followed suit and stripped off his sweater and jeans before snuggling up to Scarlett. She laid there a while listening to Fez lightly snore behind her. She snuggled into his arm that was slung across her and held it tight. Laying like this in Fez's arms was where she felt safest and she couldn't remember a time where life felt more peaceful then it did lying in that bed.
They woke up to the sound of Scarlett's phone ringing, groaning at the high pitch noise. It was her mom which Scarlett thought was weird since they had shared all about 10 sentences between the two of them since they had moved to this town. "Hello?" Scarlett said groggily. "Scarlett. Where the hell are you?" Her mom asked loudly. "Um I slept over at a friends house. Why? What's up?" She responded. "Well I'm your mother I'm allowed to ask where you are." Scarlett hummed in response to this fully not awake yet. "I need you to get over here in the next 15 minutes. I'm leaving the house and there's no one else to take care of Sammy." Her mother said sounding exasperated. "Yeah okay. Can I bring my friend over?" Scarlett asked. "Whatever. Scarlett just get here." Her mother said quickly hanging up the phone. Scarlett just rolled her eyes looking over at Fez who had managed to fall asleep. She got back over the warm covers and moved her fingers closer and closer to his sides. As quick as she could she started tickling Fez singing "wake up baaaaabe". Fez frowned squirming until he woke up again. "Mornin" he said not reacting to the tickles just rolling over so he was facing her. "My mom just called and I have to go home to take care of Sammy. Wanna come hang out there for a little?" Fez just nodded in response as he stretched and let out a big yawn. "Alright sleepy head get up" Scarlett laughed. She slipped on one of Fez's hoodies and grabbed a pair of black biker shorts she had left there a couple days before that Fez had washed and put into an empty drawer in his dresser. After Fez got dressed they jumped in his car and drove to Scarlett's house. When they got there they walked straight in past her mom who was sitting on the couch although Fez had thrown her a wave which was not returned and went to her bedroom. "Um Scarlett can I see you for a minute." Her mom asked from the other room. "Give me one second" she told Fez walking into the hallway leaving her bedroom door open.
Scarlett walked into the living room leaning against the wall staring at her mother. "Scarlett Madelyn Abrams what the hell do you thing your doing?" Her mom shouted. The tone of her moms voice surprised her more than how loud she was being. "Excuse me?" Scarlett responded. "You think it's okay to just walk into MY house with some strange boy and not tell me." Her mom shouted back. Scarlett took a deep breath. "Look mom I'm sorry I thought I told you on the phone I was bringing a friend over but maybe I forgo-". "You think you can just drag your deadbeat boy toy in this house and I'd be okay with you fucking up your life." Scarlett immediately took a step back. "What the hell mom don't call him that." She continued anyway though. "You think you look so cool don't you? Well you're wrong Scarlett you look like you're a fucking idiot spending time around a good for nothing bum. He's a parasite Scarlett he's just gonna ruin your life and turn you into a scumbag too!" She said making Scarlett open her mouth to shout something back but she was interrupted again.  "Oh I'm sorry do you want me to just let you run around all over town with some fucking loser until you tell me you've fucked up your life and he left you for someone prettier?" At this point Scarlett was fuming. "Oh because your such a fucking good judge of character?" She asked. "Scarlett I swear to god." Her mom yelled. "No no really what made you think you were? Was it the part where your 16 year old daughter caught your husband fucking someone younger than her in your bed? I don't know how old was she ? 15 right? Wait or was it the one where you knew all along and didn't say anything? Nope! Must have been the one where when you confronted the asshole after two years of knowing what he was doing and he thought your daughter was the one who told you so he pushed her down a flight of stairs and she ended up in the hospital for a week? Yes! That must be the one that made you thing you were a real. Fucking. Genius. at having a good judge of character." Scarlett screamed at the top of her lungs with tear streaming down her face. Her and her mom had never talked about what happened. She hadn't told Fez and she knew that he heard the whole thing. "Fez we're leaving" she shouted down the hallway then walked to the front door. Her mom hadn't moved from the spot she was in since Scarlett had said those things out loud. She just stood there mouth in a tight crease with her eyes fixated on the wall. Scarlett's mom knew about all of it. For the years after Sammy was born her husband had gotten violent with her mother and Scarlett multiple times, they had sat in Scarlett's old room as her mom patted concealer over their bruises. It was fucked up. They both knew it. But Scarlett felt trapped. She didn't know what to do and she was so scared of the man she didn't tell her mom that she had caught him having sex with a girl in the grade below her. They had never talked about the abuse. Even right after it happened Scarlett's mother refused to say a word and told Scarlett she couldn't tell anyone or they would lose Sammy. She told Scarlett that he loved her and that if Scarlett said anything her mother didn't know if she could ever even look at Scarlett again. Scarlett knew then that she could never tell anyone, her mom and Sammy was all that she had. Since her dad had left when she was so young, Scarlett's only real father figure was that monster which is probably why she had never been in a serious loving relationship. She had seen the man her mother loved slowly turn into an abusive sociopath. She didn't really trust men before Fez. She didn't know how to.
As her and Fez got into the car they didn't say a word. Scarlett pressed her forehead against the window watching rain start to fall. Fez didn't want to push her. What Scarlett didn't know was that Sammy had come into the Scarlett's room while her mother and her were screaming at each other. "Are they talking about what my daddy did?" Sammy had asked sitting next to Fez on the bed. "Ion know little man." He had told him before putting headphones in Sammy's ears and turning the volume all the way up as Sammy held Fez's hand. Fez had no idea all the shit that Scarlett had dealt with and the one time Fez had asked Scarlett why she moved in town, Scarlett's only response was "family stuff I don't really want to talk about it". He had figured it was just a divorce or something even though he knew about her dad leaving them when she was only 4. When they arrived at Fez's place they stayed in the silent car while the rain continued to fall. Neither one of them knew what to say to each other so they just sat there, holding hands, starring forward.