"Do you wanna dance?" Harry's voice brings her back to reality. She quickly tears away her eyes from that guy's.
Scarlett doesn't know how to answer, because of course she wants to dance but at the same time she doesn't want to be seen dancing with him, considering she just turned down Connor's offer to dance and since her brother might be around, it's not the best idea to be seen dancing with the guy she promised him to stay away from just some hours ago.
"No, I don't think it's a good idea..." she just says.
Harry smiles at her, as if he knows what she's
thinking and he was expecting her answer, maybe because he's thinking the same. He doesn't care about Connor, but Poe is his friend, even if they grew apart after everything that happened he still considers him his friend and he doesn't want to ruin that.
"Do you wanna go somewhere else?" Scarlett was hoping he was gonna ask her that. She feels her body on fire wondering on the endless possibilities on where he could bring her. She thinks about the possibility of going back to his room and for a minute she sees herself wondering about whatever she would sleep with him already or not. The answer is that she definitely would. She quickly nods at him and right after Harry takes her hand starting to walk toward the wood in front of them.
Harry was aching to touch her since he first saw her there and he's completely amazed and terrified both at the same time on how a simple touch of her hand can make him feel like he's feeling right now.
They don't walk too much, just enough to get them far enough to stop hearing the loud music from the party. Harry stops against a tree and looks around to make sure there's no one else here.
"Hold up, I'll be back soon!" before Scarlett can tell him that she really doesn't want to remain alone in the middle of the night in a damn wood he's already running back toward the party and Scarlett feels relieved that she didn't tell him she was kinda scared to be left alone there.
The air is chilly, she can feel it hitting her bare skin and she shivers.
She looks around carefully, trying to define lines in the dark the best she can, but it's not working really well, she's imagining them mostly. She can still hear the — now — weak music coming from the back, that's the only thing she can hear, not even a single sound of animals or anything like that.
When she feels a cold hand on her shoulder she jumps and quickly turns around just to find Harry in front of her with a smirk on his face knowing damn perfectly he just scared her.
"Sorry..." he says even though he's really not. Scarlett smiles and right after she notices two bottles of beer in his right hand, he's holding them both with three fingers.
"I got us something!" he quickly says giving Scarlett one of the two bottles and bringing his to his lips taking a small sip.
Scarlett sits down with her back against the tree and Harry imitates her right after.
"So you just left a girl on her own in a wood in the middle of the night to go get some... beer?" Harry giggles at her words while she fake scolds him and takes a sip of her beer.
"Maybe you were actually safer on your own..." he whispers. Scarlett looks at him, his eyes sparkle with a hint of amusement. "maybe the bad guy on your side your brother warned you about is what you should be scared of." he concludes, keeping his amused eyes right into hers. Scarlett can feel the thrill of excitement, mixed with fear and awareness because he's right. That's what she should be afraid of, and maybe of the beer she's already sipping that he gave her already opened. She's usually more careful and almost paranoid usually, she thinks like an agent already — that's what her father always tells her — and yet, she's careless with him, she trusts him and she's ready to take the risk. Maybe that's why that thrill is so exciting, and so is the fear. She likes to feel like that, like when she's watching a horror movie that is really scared, the only difference is that she's living it in real life. She loves it.
"You know, maybe you're right... I'm almost scared." Harry smirks at her, they both know they're just being playful but they can also feel each other's excitement and they're both enjoying it.
"So what did your brother exactly told you?" He lightens the atmosphere taking them both to a different subject.
"Nothing much, just that I should stay away from you because you sleep around a lot." Harry laughs at her words shaking his head. He was expecting something more creative from Poe, he knew he couldn't tell her the truth but he still expected something more creative and articulated.
"Did it work? Did you change your opinion on me?" Scarlett looks at him, at his reaction, she knows that there's something more behind and Harry just confirmed it to her with his reaction.
"Well... see Harry, I don't have an opinion on you because I don't know you. What I know is that I sleep around, so does Poe and we both couldn't care less about who sleeps with who and that's why I know that's not the real reason why he told me to stay away from you." Harry furrows his eyebrows at her words, that must be her detective side, he thinks. She's smart and he doesn't understand why she's wasting her time with him.
"I'm not gonna tell you the reason." Harry's voice is firm but soft. Scarlett is surprised to see him this sure, she was expecting to be easy to break because she's pretty and he obviously fancies her but Harry didn't hesitate one second while pronouncing the words. "Not now, not ever." He adds, once the girl next to him stays silent occupied in her own thoughts. She wants to ask him why his brother knows then, or how is she supposed to get to know him if he doesn't even want to tell her — not now and not ever — the reason why his brother is so worried about her getting to know him.
"Then why should I trust you? Maybe my brother is right and I should just leave." She doesn't really want to leave but he doesn't need to know. She can see, for a second, pain and disappointment in his eyes. He holds his lower lip between his teeth, thinking carefully about his answer.
"Whatever happened is part of my past and it has nothing to do with who I am, Scar. You don't need to know and I won't talk about that, so if you ask me again I'm gonna leave." She likes the way he sounds when he's decided, his voice sounds always firm but in a very soft way. She likes his voice in general too, to be honest. She's completely and utterly intrigued by this man, his words just makes her wish to find everything out about the beautiful man in front of her, to dig deep inside of him until she knows everything but on another side she just wants to respect his wish because she doesn't want him to go. Not now, not ever.
It's weird the way she already feels so attached to him, she already feels like it's going to be hard to let go at some point and that this man is going to bring big troubles.
"Alright." Harry smiles lightly at her answer and he quickly hides it, bringing the bottle to his lips. She chose to stay.
After bringing her back to her room Harry has to keep himself from kissing her. Scarlett does too.
He wants to taste her plump lips so bad, since the first moment he saw her but he doesn't want to rush into it, into her. He wants to feel every single moment, for the first time in forever he doesn't want her to go by fast in his life.
It's the first time in a long time that Harry comes back home after a party without getting laid and he doesn't know what's so different about this girl but he can't help it.
Maybe he wants to respect her because she's Poe's sister and he clearly keeps telling himself that since it's definitely easier to accept.
When he gets to his room he's very surprised in seeing Calvin right behind his door.
"Hey... what are you doing here?" Calvin smiles at him and Harry quickly makes his confused expression go away.
"I wanted to talk to you, since you left us so suddenly for that girl," Harry can swear that he says "girl" with a tone of disgust but can't really tell why. He doubts he knows her.
"Yeah, sorry man I had told her I would be with her at that party," Harry has known Calvin since his first day at college, they've always had a lot of — not completely legal — interests in common but he was a good friend. Maybe even more loyal than Poe.
"Yeah, how much per hour?" he says, not completely joking but Harry thinks too high of him to realize it. He just hits him on his shoulder.
"Shut up..." he knows he was talking about her dress but Harry particularly enjoyed it, he doesn't care what his friends have to say about her.
"So why aren't you shagging her right now?" Good question. How is he supposed to answer now?
"Don't be vulgar... it's not like I want to fuck random girls for the rest of my life," Calvin seems almost hurt by Harry's word and Harry doesn't understand why. Maybe he's just imagining it.
"So that's why you asked her on a date?" his tone of voice is derogatory. Harry wonders how does he know because he asked her right in front of her door and he was sure of being alone with her there, but he forgets to ask quickly when he feels a sense of jealousy and paranoia taking over him.
"What's the problem, Calvin?" Harry's bothered now. Calvin is his friend but he's absolutely no one to question Harry about his choice with girls and just the thought of him being interested in Scarlett too makes his blood boil.
"I don't have a problem! I just don't... don't like her," Harry can tell he doesn't like her but he doesn't understand why.
"Why? Do you know her?" The only idea of Calvin knowing Scarlett better than him bothers him.
"No! Oh God, no!" he seems almost offended, as if Harry had said something that crazy.
"Right! You seem almost jealous that she likes me," Calvin almost gasps at his insinuation. He can't believe Harry, but maybe he should have just kept his mouth shout. He just doesn't like the idea of Harry being with a girl in a relationship. He couldn't bare it.
"Jealous of her? Fuck, I'm not jealous of her. I'm-" he doesn't finish his sentence. He stops himself as soon as he sees Harry's confused expression.
"It doesn't matter... I hope she's a good fuck, at least." He says before walking away, leaving Harry there more confused than before.
*
When Scarlett wakes up the first thing she sees is Cielo coming back home. Her hair is a mess and she seems more agitated than usual. She takes her shoes off and takes a deep breath while combing her hair. Scarlett doesn't tell her she's awake yet, Avery does it first.
"Why did you all have fun last night but me?" Cielo shivers as soon as she realizes Avery is awake.
"Yeah..." she just laughs it off, hiding her scared expression. She doesn't seem that sure.
"How was the party?" she asks right after.
"Great! Scarlett left me alone and I ended up drinking my ass off on my own." Cielo laughs again. Scarlett is surprised that she's that silent but maybe she just doesn't like mornings.
"Good morning you two!" Scarlett says as soon as she hears they're not talking anymore.
After getting out of the bed and taking turns to get in the shower, Scarlett is facing the dilemma of the day, that it is: what should she wear? Since last night she didn't stop thinking about Harry and she was sure to meet him around campus today, considering they still have to decide the details of their date.
She wants to look good, more than usual. She's never been like that, but the truth is that she really can't help it this time.
She picks a little white dress, really short. The fabric is so light and soft that it rests perfectly on her body. It seems to be tailor-made for her.
She also really likes that the upper part is really tight on her boobs, and considering they're not that big this dress makes her cleavage look even better.
She leaves her hair untied, still curled up from last night and applies a little bit of lipstick. She feels good.
"So did you shag him?" Avery asks on their way to lunch. Scarlett feels her cheeks going on fire. The only thought of sleeping with Harry sets her body on fire. She hates it.
"No! I didn't want to rush into things, we're gonna go on a date first..." while Avery and Scarlett keep talking about their night, Cielo seems to be somewhere else. Since this morning she has been completely silent and it's not something she would do. Scarlett notices it right away, but says nothing.
When they sit down Scarlett looks around hoping to see the person she's looking for. She can't wait to see him after yesterday and really wants to decide details about that date, before he changes his mind. This possibility scares her.
"I'm gonna take a bottle of water, I forgot it!" Cielo says, standing up again. Avery is watching the news instead and she seems really focused on something about the Giants and how a player needs a foot surgery, Scarlett doesn't really mind.
"Hello sunshine!" she involuntarily gasps when she hears his voice and a hand on her back. As soon as she turns toward him she smiles seeing the face she was missing so much. He smells very good today and is freshly shaved. He's wearing a white t-shirt and his usual black skinny jeans.
"Hey, how are you today?" she asks, forcing herself to stop looking at him like some Greek god sculpture and focus on the food in front of her.
Harry is quite happy too. He couldn't wait to see her and seeing how beautiful she was today he couldn't really wait for their date. And more than anything, he can't wait to fuck her. He feels his dick screaming and begging to be inside of her as soon as he sees — or thinks about — her.
"Quite good, now that I've you in front of me..." Scarlett giggles at his words. She knows now that he's quite a cheeky guy but she still feels like a high school girl talking to him.
"So, Scar, what are you doing tonight?" No one has ever called her that, just because she never liked that nickname since she was a child. She would get mad at people for using it, but for some weird reason it sounded good out of his mouth. Damn, this boy was driving her completely crazy.
"I don't know... you tell me," she says quite vague, smiling at him. She really wants to know.
"Nice dinner not that far away from here. What do you say?" she laughs at herself because she really doesn't care. She just wants to spend time with him.
"Yeah, sounds good!" she tries not to seem to interested or excited, but when he smiles at her she can't help but smile back. He's such a beautiful smile.
Before saying anything else he's quickly distracted by the news on tv. He looks at the television really confused. They're talking about a murder, a latino — mexican —, here in Washington. His name is Juan Martinez, but Scarlett can't really tell why he's so interested in it.
"I- I need to go, sorry..." he whispers, quickly standing up without tearing the eyes away from the tv.
"Wait, what time tonight?" she asks quite shocked by his behavior.
"Uh, wh- eight!" he says, before running away without adding anything else. She can't lie and say she doesn't care. He was definitely weird and she really wants to know what happened, but they haven't known each other for that long and she can't pressure him to speak to her. She really hopes it's nothing too bad. She just wants to have a nice dinner with him tonight.
As soon as Harry walks out he starts looking around for her. He has seen her at lunch with Scarlett, before she left and he definitely knows that there's something wrong with that girl and he might have helped her in committing a murder. He swore to stay away from trouble — murders — a long time ago. He can't go back in now.
When he founds her, she's in the park outside on a bench alone. She looks like a mess, nothing like the last time he has seen her. Her sad gaze is lost in the mail blank as if she's thinking about something really bad. Harry thinks he knows what's in her mind.
"What the fuck did you do?" he whispers as soon as he's near enough. She seems shocked to see him that mad at her. Maybe she doesn't know it's all over the news.
"What? What did I do?" she says annoyed, but she's different from the last time. she seems less... energetic.
"Juan Martinez. He's dead. Murdered. He's all over the news" at his name she gulps and lowers her gaze. She seems nervous.
"I don't want to be involved in this, Cielo! So tell me that you didn't kill him, please." She gasps, looking at him right in the eyes again. She seems offended and hurt by his accusation.
"I didn't kill him, I could never kill someone... I went there last night, yeah, but I swear to God he was already dead. You have to believe me!" Harry understands right away that it's never been a missing family member story, she lied to him but for some weird reason he believes her now. She seems honest, but only about this. Harry feels like there's a lot she didn't and isn't telling him.
"I wanna know what the fuck is going on and please cut the missing family member bullshit." Cielo can see in his eyes that he's not going to give up and maybe it's the right thing. She's been carrying this inside of her her whole life, without telling anyone. She's always been on herself, but after last night... after seeing that man lifeless in his house she's not sure she can make it on her own. She's always been sure of it, but she's been throwing up all night and can't stop to see his face in her mind. Another thing she can't seem to forget is the smell of that place and as soon as she remembers it she feels like throwing up again. She almost threw up on him yesterday, she had to run out. She definitely can't do it on her own.
"I can't talk about this here... come tonight at this bar," she takes his arm and start to write on him an address and Harry doesn't even have the time to react.
"Seven!" she screams, before getting back inside.
Harry is too intrigued by whatever that girl is into that completely forgets about his other plans for the night.
When Scarlett gets back to her room, with a bag full of new clothes and a couple of heels she's quite satisfied with herself, Avery helped her out with a lot of cute outfits and some hot as hell dresses. Apart from Harry, she really needed a bunch of new stuff. Avery was pretty happy too, considering she had bought half of the shop. She was definitely less happy on how she has all this cool stuff and nobody to show it off to. But they both had fun. If Scarlett wasn't that sure about Cielo, she could tell that she definitely trusted Avery.
"So, the black one?" Scarlett asks, watching her figure in the mirror and holding the soft black dress in front of her.
"Yes! So if he takes you in an ugly fast food you're good anyway," Avery's right. She doesn't want to be too elegant, maybe he's not even bringing her in a fancy restaurant. Luckily, black is perfect for occasion like that. Plus, the dress is really simple. Skin-tight, with long sleeves and really, really short.
She ties her hair up this time, she's a really particular face and with her hair up is even more evident.
It's only 7.30 pm and she's already dressed up, the only thing missing are her black stilettos. She sits on her bed, just waiting for it to be 8 pm already. She can't believe she's that head over heels for a guy.
When Harry arrives to the place Cielo had told him he's sure that's the right place. He had to drive quite a lot and that's why he's already late of half a hour. That bar is in an isolated place and inside it's even scarier. It's an old, empty place. There are only two fat sweaty men, with a beer in their hands sat right near the counter.
He immediately recognizes her. She's sat alone, looking right at her hands with the gaze lost in blank mail once more. When Harry sits down she gives him a kind smile. She seems still kinda shocked. Harry knows what it's like to see a dead body, he understands her and maybe that's why he's here now. He's not sure it's the right thing.
"Nice place... honestly," he says with sarcasm, moving his eyes around the place. Cielo knows he's trying to make her feel at ease and she's really glad of it. It won't be easy for her.
"Thanks for being here..." she says.
"What's happening, Cielo?" she sighs at his words and right after she seems quite thoughtful. She's thinking about where to start. It's not a short story.
"What I told you isn't completely a lie. It really has something to do with my family... kind of. With my mom, to be exact," she takes a deep breath before going on. "Before coming here I used to live in Mexico. I'm Mexican. I grew up with my grandma, she told me my mom had left me with her when I was only a child. Growing up, though, I started to remember my mom. She loved me, so much. I remember her being taken away from me, Harry. I asked my grandma about this so many times before she died but she told me I was just imagining it but I know she was so damn scared to talk. Back in Mexico so many horrible things happen that you can't even imagine, I know something happened to my mom" Harry looks at her understanding her struggle, but he's also confused. He doesn't understand what she's doing here if she thinks something happened to her mother back in Mexico, but he just lets her go on.
"I've found this a couple of years ago!" she says, taking from her bag an old picture and showing it to Harry. It's in black and white, there are a child, an old lady, a woman and three men. Cielo must be the child, with her mom and grandma. That's when Harry recognizes the man from the news. It's the man found dead, the one he thought Cielo was responsible for. He's starting to understand.
"That guy, Juan, his real name is Pablo Morales. When I found this picture I asked trusted people in my town about these men. They run human trafficking here in the States. I tracked him back here, I found out he used to work at our college as janitor but I couldn't find an address. When I did, I tried to break into his house, but he was dead there and I just ran away..." when she finishes talking she's in tears. She wipes her tears away right after, hiding her face from Harry. She seems a totally different person from the one back in the office. She's fragile, broken and Harry feels bad for her. He can see a bit lf his old self in her. But unlike him, she's also brave, for doing something like that on her own and Harry admires it. He doesn't know how it is to love someone this much. Especially a parent.
"And you think she's still alive?"
"I don't know for sure, but I want to know what happened to her... I need to know," She thought about going to the police as soon as she arrived in the United States, but she wasn't sure she could trust them. From what she knew, these people had snitches in the police and she couldn't afford being a target.
"Cielo, that man was murdered... it means that it's definitely dangerous for you. You can't make it on your own," she knows he's right and after last night she's even more scared than before. Even if she's studying criminology, she's not an agent yet and she's no idea where to start now that he's dead. She needs help and she has to accept it.
"Help me, then," she says, placing her hand on his.
When Scarlett checks the time for the thousand time that night it's already 10 pm. At 9 pm she had thought that he was simply late and it happened all the time, but now she doesn't know what to think anymore. Or better, she knows but she doesn't want to.
She hates to think that Harry was maybe just playing her about the date, but then again why would he when they didn't even sleep together? Harry didn't even try to take her to bed. Maybe he just doesn't like her. Scarlett is starting to think so. She just hates the fact that he had to play with her like that.
He stood her up and it's two hours too late to deny it. She's just happy Avery and Cielo are not there to see her embarrassing herself like that, still waiting — hoping — for him. She's not that girl and he can't make her.
When she leaves her room, she just heads toward the nearest fast food. She just wants to eat junk food and forget that asshole.
"A girl this beautiful should never eat her hot dog alone," when she looks up from her hot dog she sees Connor standing in front of her table and she doesn't know how to feel. She's kinda annoyed, because she really wanted to be alone but at the same time it was becoming too annoying to watch all these happy couples around her. So she smiles, because yes, she's happy to see him.
"I know, right?!" he laughs at her words. Scarlett doesn't want that guy to make her feel any less of who and what she is.
"Can I sit?" she nods. Connor sits right in front of her, before asking the waitress to bring him some fries. He seems happy, just to talk to her and laugh with her and be in her company and Scarlett is quite surprised. She doesn't understand how this guy is not mad at all, after yesterday. But she doesn't ask, she's just glad that he isn't because she really didn't want to stay alone tonight.
When Harry arrives to Scarlett's door it's almost 11 pm. He's not that surprised to see she's not there anymore. He stood her up and didn't even have her number to warn her. He feels like shit. He was so focused on Cielo's story that he forgot about Scarlett. He had accepted to help her. He felt like it was the right thing to do, but she told him not to tell anyone. It was their secret.
But now his mind is on Scarlett, he has to find her and apologize. But when he finds her, in the campus' fast food talking and laughing with Connor he's not that sure anymore that he wants to apologize.
Connor stole his date. He feels like he's being consumed by his own jealousy, watching how she laughs at his jokes and how Connor moves a lock of hair fallen from her ponytail out of her face. He should have been the one doing this and he should have been the one bringing her home tonight.
PRESENT
"Harry! Are you ok?" as soon as Harry comes back home, he sees Cielo running toward him. She's been worried sick the whole day. She knows how much Harry hates being there and she's also worried about Scarlett's father. He's sure Harry's guilty and Cielo knows he's gonna try everything to put him behind bars, it doesn't matter if Harry's really guilty or not.
She caresses his face and gets even more worried when she sees that Harry's gaze is lost in blank mail. He looks like he's been crying and doesn't smell that good. He looks shocked.
He slowly pushes her hands away from his face and walks toward the couch. He needs to sit down.
"Mi amor, please, talk to me... you're worrying me," she almost cries, holding tight his hand.
"They've found her..." he whispers. Cielo feels a pain right at the center of her heart. Since Scarlett's disappearance she had thought a lot about her coming back. She didn't know how to feel right now. She doesn't know how this will affect them. She doesn't want this to affect whatever there's between them, it's too soon. But she also knows that she's being selfish.
"Good... where is she?" her tone of voice isn't too convinced but Harry's too shocked to process it right now. He doesn't care about what she feels, about what any of the two of them feels. They both deserve it, Harry knows it.
"She's dead..." Cielo gasps loudly. Once again, she doesn't know how to feel. Is it bad that she feels better than a couple of seconds ago? She knows it is, it's completely fucked up, but their lives without Scarlett have been so much more normal. Of course, she never hoped she was dead, she just wanted her out of the picture. Scarlett was toxic, poisoning everything good around her and more than anything else she was poisoning Harry, sucking the life out of him every day a little by little. They had been happy for a while, then everything had started to go downhill. Scarlett was going downhill and she had every intention to drag Harry down with her. He was better off alone without her. They both were.
But now she gets why Harry's in this state. He's always been blaming himself for Scarlett's disappearance, even if he didn't want to admit it.
"Hey! Look at me..." she caresses both of his cheeks, making him look at her right in the eyes. "It's not your fault!" she says. A tear streams down Harry's cheek, before she wipes it away.
"But it is. It's my fault and yours, Cielo..." he pushes away her hands again. "we killed her!" he whispers, his eyes still wide open and lost in emptiness.
"Hey! Look at me..." Cielo holds his face in between her hands, forcing his stare on her face. Their noses' tips are touching now. "don't ever say that again. Never again. Are you listening to me?!" Harry is listening but it's like he can't really hear her words. It doesn't matter, nothing of it matters anymore. He pushes her hands away from his face, standing up and heading to his room. He had enough for today. He just wants to sleep and forget, far from Cielo. The more he sees her, the more she touches him, the more he remembers.
Cielo lets him go. She wants to go back to a couple of hours ago, before all of this happened, because now she knows that something broke. It's never going to be back to a couple of hours ago.
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