𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒 | 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖

the hospital

—

The ride to the hospital was as chaotic as a car full of teenager could get, especially with who the driver was.

Ricky was behind the wheel, which ultimately meant, that if ghost face didn't take their lives then he definitely would.

The football player was amazing at the sport he played, yet it was often asked how and what he did to acquire a drivers license.

Unluckily enough, Scarlet had gotten stuck in his car, Wes and Noah being the only other two that either brought their cars, or knew how to drive. Wes refused to allow anyone aside from his girlfriend in his car, mentioning something about how reckless and distracting everyone else was.

The Turner girl pretended not to be bothered by his offensive words, deciding to focus on how she was sitting in between the Meeks-Martin twins. She didn't really mind her placement near Mandy, but she was more concerned about how she was pressed up against Chad. She didn't know if Mandy was awkwardly positioned the way she was purposefully or if that's just how she sat in the backseat of a moving vehicle.

Either way, Scarlet didn't know if she wanted to thank her friend or scold her for the inner embarrassment she was feeling.

She could family hear Chad grunt, clearly regretting not fighting with Amber over the passenger seat.

His arm moved from the space between, to around the back of seat. Chad glanced down at the frozen, red faced girl, silently asking if she was uncomfortable with the change.

She didn't bother to glance in his direction, Chad taking it as her just not noticing.

Unknown to him, her heart was in her stomach and she was freaking out internally.

•••

"How are you feeling?"

Tara didn't know who to look at, her brown eyes darting between Ricky and Amber, the two wasting little to know time in asking the girl of her well-being.

She had eventually settled on the boy, smiling in direction with a reassuring look, completely unaware of the jaw clench that the action got from a certain Freeman.

"She was almost— never mind." Scarlet sighed,

Tara's eyes fell on the door, "You came"

Sam walked in, gaining both surprised and annoyed looks from the group of teenagers, "Of course I came. This is my boyfriend, Richie."

Scarlet eyed Noah, silently questioning if she was getting the same feeling that she was. The Ashwell girl pursed her lips at Richie's weird nature. He's been here all of five minutes and was already getting suspicious looks from the two least judgmental girls in the friend group.

"It's so nice to meet you. I'm so sorry if I'm intruding." Richie greeted, shaking the youngest Carpenter's hand.

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Hi." Wes smiled at Sam, the older girl not hesitating to return the gesture,

"Hi, Thank you for calling."

Wes shrugged it off, knowing that if anyone else had bothered to save her number, they would have done the same thing, "Of course."

Sam began to inspect the group of friends in front of her, starting on the couple who stood in the front,

"Look at your hair! I like it." She gushed at Wes, turning her attention to Noah, who looked unusually happy to see her, "And you! You didn't grow an inch."

"Thanks." The couple mutters in unison, one being more enthusiastic than the other.

"Are you two—?" She pointed between them, her smile growing as they nodded, raising their intertwined fingers, "How long?!"

"Almost three years." Wes answered, pulling the girl closer to him as he smiled proudly.

"These are Chad and Mindy, the twins and Wes, Ricky, Scar and Noah." Sam introduced the teens to her boyfriend, "I used to babysit them all."

"You didn't babysit me—" Ricky tried to speak up from his place near Tara's bed, the brown haired girl shoving him with her leg.

"Which is always how I like to be introduced." The Hicks teen mumbles sarcastically.

"Because that's how anyone wants to be introduced." Scarlet followed, Sam smiling at her, before it dropped at the sight of the teen who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but near them.

"And Amber. Hey."

Amber forced a smile, "Hi."

"Nice to see you."

Noah glanced around uneasily, her green eyes catching Ricky's, the two immediately glancing away from each other as they held in laughs.

"What a liar." Scarlet whispered, her words being heard by the twins, who weren't stood too far away from her.

Richie took this as an opportunity to step up. From an outsider, or at least Scarlet, it looked as if Richie was stunned by Amber's beauty. While she wasn't a huge fan of the Freeman girl, like Richie clearly was, Scarlet could admit that Amber was a beautiful girl. It was her attitude that made her ugly.

"Hi, I'm Richie."

Amber smiled, "Hi."

"Hi." The man repeated.

Ricky's face scrunch up, disgust covering his dark features, "I think that's enough hi's."

"Where's Mom?" Sam asked, her question was no doubt directed to her younger sister.

"She's stuck at a conference in London."

"That's unfortunate." Noah muttered, Wes squeezing her hip as he moved to stand behind her.

"She called me earlier."

Amber scoffed, "Yeah, for all of ten minutes."

The air grew silent at Amber's obvious animosity for Tara's family. It made Ricky uncomfortable. He had both known and liked Tara romantically for a while, he was aware that Amber felt the same way, but he wouldn't go so far to hate her family. Yeah, they might have don't some bad things to the girl, but if Tara didn't outright despise them, then why would he?

He thought it was a little weird.

"Look, guys, Tara's really tired. Maybe we should just give her some space."

"I agree!" Scarlet raised a hand, completely okay with the suggestion. Her eyes widen when a hand grabs hers, softly pushing it down by her wrist. She knew that the warmth had came from Chad, it only fueled her want to leave the room, hoping the football player didn't noticed the flush of her features. She could only pray that the color could pass off as makeup.

"Out we go!" Ricky chirps.

"Don't do that again."