devotion

middle ground

Scarlett didn't know what to say to Fez. She was hoping that that would all be left in the past, she hoped Cody would be left in the past. Fez's grip on the steering wheel was so hard his knuckles were white. He didn't hear much of what that guy was saying to Scarlett but the last sentence was enough. It was how that guy spoke to her that enraged him. He wasn't jealous or upset to have learned Scarlett had slept with people before him, they had that conversation and neither one of them thought it mattered. What bothered him was the aggression in that guys tone, the way he spoke to Scarlett, as if she was an object.
"Are we going to talk about this?" Scarlett said quietly. Fez just looked over at her, he didn't get pissed off often but he felt like he needed to calm down before they talked, it was taking everything in him to not turn the car around. They walked up to the apartment in silence. "Who the hell was that?" Fez said trying to cool his temper. "Cody. His dad got stationed at the base here. Just my luck." She whispered. "Why you let him talk to you like that?" He said sitting on the couch. "Because he's not worth the trouble Fez. It's some sick joke from the universe that he's even here. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of thinking I care about what he says." She told him sitting down next to him. "What'd he do? back at your old school." He asked leaning back on the couch. "Your just gonna get pissed off if I tell you and I don't need you giving anyone else black eyes. I told you he's not worth it." Scarlett told him putting a hand on his leg. "I'll be cool bout it. You can tell me." Fez promised. Scarlett thought for a moment. She wanted to be honest with him she just didn't think it was good to dredge up the past. Fez always respected her space though and she figured if he was genuinely just wondering then it wouldn't hurt to tell him. "We grew up next door to each other. Same schools every year. We were best friends we just kind of started to hang out less when I started dating Paxton at the beginning of the school year. Then after we broke up and I was seeing other guys..." she paused not sure how much is right to tell your current boyfriend about your old hookups. She knew Fez didn't care but she didn't want to over share and make things uncomfortable. She had never asked about the girls he had been with because she genuinely didn't mind that they weren't each other's firsts. "I guess everyone kind of knew that I saw... seeing other guys who went to the college in our town so Cody asked if I would..." She stopped scared to make things awkward. "Look Scar you can tell me this if you want to because I really want to know but if it makes you feel to weird it's fine." He said. "Okay well basically he asked if I would take his virginity because I was his best friend and I had been spending all my time with other people and not him and he never asked me for anything except this one thing so I did." She said as fast as she could. Fez's face didn't change reactions so she kept going. "So then he basically told everyone I was a slut and the whole town believed it and everyone was talking about for like a month so I told him I'd tell everyone he was a virgin and he got super pissed and he.... well he..." She was now starting to get embarrassed. "Scarlett you don't have to.." Fez started but she cut him off. "He had recorded the night we were together and I didn't know and he ended up sending it out to everyone." She blurted out. Fez immediately got out of his seat and made a B-line for the door. "Fez don't please I told you this because I thought i could trust you. You promised you wouldn't." She yelled at him as he opened the door. She watched him pause looking out the door not stepping out of the doorway yet. He looked down, his forehead creasing as he thought. Eventually though he closed the door and walked back over to sit on the couch. "So you just expect me not to do nothing bout this?" He asked rubbing his face with both hands. "Yes because you promised me and that was like a year ago. A week later everyone found out Stacy Williams got pregnant and that was the new thing. Everyone stopped watching and sending the video and it was fine." She told him. "That shits illegal Scar. He should be in jail right now." He said. "You think I don't know that? Of course I thought about it but it wasn't worth dredging everything up again. I was stupid and embarrassed and I should of never let it happen." She said looking down. "It's not your fault Scarlett don't think that for a second." She met his eyes and saw how sincere he was being and she couldn't help but feel comforted by that. There was a lot of stuff in her life that she knew wasn't her fault but she subconsciously blamed herself for it. She leaned into him and they sat on the couch holding each other for what seemed like hours. Fez was her safe place and he reminded her of that constantly, not in his words but in his actions. She had never been in love before and she didn't want this feeling to ever stop. It felt as though it could be ripped for her any second and she wanted to hold onto him for as long as she could. They both knew that them being together wasn't always the smartest decision but it felt right. The weeks that Fez and Scarlett had been broken up he had sat up in his bed every night trying to think of what he would say to her if they could be back together. He couldn't remember a time when he had been happier than the way he was when they were together. He knew they were in love before they had ever said the words out loud. He hadn't ever yearned to be near someone so badly. He had never felt so comforted being in someone's presence. It made him almost laugh to himself when he realized he couldn't remember what life felt like without her. They had only known one another for less than six months but he didn't want to remember life before Scarlett, it didn't seem to mean anything before her. She made him want to be a better person and she felt the same way.
The next couple days Scarlett didn't run into Cody at school. It may have been do the fact that she had stopped talking to friends between classes and she rarely ate her lunch without a group of friends present. When she walked down the halls she couldn't help but look over her shoulder. She felt like she was just waiting for him to pop out of one of the classroom doors and start making her life a living hell. But he didn't. When she looked he was never there. She didn't see him at lunch. She didn't see him in the halls. She didn't see him anywhere. And she was thanking the universe for giving her time to recuperate. She sat down at one of the empty lunch tables and started flicking through her phone. When she felt a tap on her shoulder she flinched, not wanting to think of who it might be. "Hey Abrams." She felt instant relief when she realized it was just Connor. They had agreed to meet at lunch to go over the study review they had for their test. Connor sat down across from her at the table. "You seen Cody around?" He asked causing Scarlett to stop what she was doing. "Uh no. I hope I don't have to." She said looking over her shoulder. "Good. He was at football practice a few days ago and I told him if I caught him near you the team would beat his ass." Connor told her making her sigh in relief. "Well you really didn't have to do that but I appreciate it." She told him. "Anytime Abrams. He did make the team though so I guess you should be staying away from football games from now on." Connor said starting his review. Scarlett nodded in response secretly smiling to herself that Cody was now going to be staying far away from her. Connor was actually a sweetheart but you'd never know it looking at him. They decided to work on their review for the rest of lunch.
When Scarlett walked to the convenient store she strolled with a pep in her step. She felt happy and relieved her and Fez no longer had to worry about the Cody situation. When she go to the store and opened up the fridge she saw that only Ashtray was inside. "Hey sis." Ashtray said when she opened the door. It was his new nickname for her and she thought it was sweet. Ashtray was such a good kid and Scarlett noticed how sweet he always was with her even though he did have a hard exterior. "Hey Ash. How's your day been?" She sat down and they talked for a while until there was a knock on the door. Daniel from school stood outside the door and when Ashtray went to open the door Scarlett got up out of her seat to leave. "No no the lady gets the seat. I'll stand" Daniel said blocking her from leaving. She didn't mind though she knew that Ashtrays deals were always quick and to the point. "What can I get for u my man?" Ashtray said leaning back in his chair. "1 gram. Weed." Daniel replied looking over at Scarlett for the second time. She decided she would have a little fun. Waiting for Fez to get back was going to start get boring soon enough. "That's it?" She said raising her eyebrows at Daniel. He just looked at her. "Uh I meant three." He said retracting what he had asked for before. She looked at Ashtray who met her glance with a smirk and they exchanged the cash for the order. "I'll see you around. It's Scarlett right?" Daniel said opening up the fridge door. She just twirled her hair. "See you around Daniel." She said. When the door closed she looked at Ashtray. "Damn sis that was pretty good." Ashtray told her counting his cash. She faked a bow for Ashtray. She couldn't help but feel a rush helping with deals. She didn't necessarily love their line of work but Scarlett couldn't judge it. She knew the reason why Fez worked so hard. He had medical bills to pay off and he was providing for his family. She just didn't like how it put them into danger. The next customer knocked at the door and Scarlett recognized the boy from school. She shared a look with Ashtray before he opened the door to let his customer in. The guy asked for a small amount of coke. Scarlett looked down at her phone shaking her head. The boy saw it and asked her why she shook her head. "That just doesn't seem like much, you know with the party coming up soon."She told him. "What party, who's having it this week?" He asked curiously. There wasn't a party that Scarlett knew of yet but she didn't want to tell him that. In this town a party is on the weekend and you normally find out the day before but who was to say she already didn't know of one. "Oh maybe it's not an open invite then. I don't know, guess you have to have stuff to bring. Can't hog it all to yourself and expect invites to parties like this one." He looked at her for a moment. She knew it was a bitchy thing to say but she was just doing a test run, she continued scrolling on her phone looking unbothered. A couple seconds passed before the boy changed his order to more. She smiled to herself still not looking up from her phone. "It was nice doing business with you. Maybe we'll see you at that party." Ashtray said shaking the boys hand. When the boy left Scarlett looked up at Ashtray and gave him a smile. "That was a nice one. Is there actually a party?" Ash asked. "Not that I know of." She said giggling. A few more deals happened and Scarlett did the same thing every time, and every time the male customer would raise their order. Ashtray was very pleased and even bumped the price for one of the guys from school that had never been in before. "We make a good team." Scarlett said to Ashtray. He laughed in response. "I guess we do sis." It wasn't long before Fez showed up at the convenience store after his deal with mouse. "Yo Fez I'm about to hire your girl to do my work she be making me mad money." Ashtray said as Fez walked in. Fez looked at Scarlett then back to Ashtray. "Ion even know what the means." He said. "Every time a guy comes in here to buy Scarlett be getting them to raise their amount. We doubled sales already of what we'd normally make in a night." Ashtray said. "And how you doing that?" Fez asked Scarlett leaning against the wall. "Depends on the guy. Most of the time just make fun of them for getting so little and then they end up asking for more." She said shrugging as if it was no big deal. "Here you can have half the profits I made while you was in here. You good at this shit sis." Ashtray said to her handing her a small wad of cash. Fez drove them all home and as he did so he was quite. Fez was always quite but Scarlett noticed his one word answers turned into a nod or a shake of the head all in one drive. She didn't know what was up with him and Ashtray didn't seem to notice it. When they got to the apartment Fez went in his room with Scarlett trailing close behind. "Hey babe what's wrong." She said laying down on the bed next to him. Fez didn't respond right away. He seemed to be trying to figure out the words he was going to use before he said them. "Look Scar, I know you was just having fun helping Ashtray out today but I don't like it. Ion know who's gonna walk through that door and I want you to be safe." He told her. She thought about what he was saying but she disagreed. "Fez I get it but it's all harmless. I'm just lowering a guys ego so he tries to look cooler in front of me. It's only because I'm a girl that it works and none of the hard core guys walk through that fridge without calling first and you know that." She said to him. "I'm just trying to tell you how I feel. I don't want you to be doing that anymore." Fez said scratching his head. He knew that Scarlett didn't like being told no and he was trying his best to be chill about the situation. It wasn't that Scarlett was flirting a little bit to up sales, it was the fact that every creep in the universe seemed to notice Scarlett and he wouldn't always be there to protect her. Fez understood she could take care of herself but it didn't stop him from worrying. "Well I need the money and I'm sick of just mooching off of u. I'll tell you what, I won't go out of my way to help Ash with sales anymore but if it happens then it happens and that's up to me." She said trying not to come off bitchy since she knew Fez was coming from a good place. He just nodded knowing it wasn't worth the fight. "Ight imma go give her a bath." He said pointing at the older woman's bedroom across the hall. "No I've got it, you get some sleep. I love you." She said kissing him on the head. "I love you too Scar." He said. As she sponge bathed the older woman she couldn't help but think about the possibilities of what would happen if she was able to make enough money to actually contribute to their life. She started talking to the older woman knowing she couldn't hear her and told her all about her thoughts and what she should do. Scarlett didn't know what the right thing to do was but she knew she would have to figure it out.