Finding Scarlet

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Toby

"Cameron, I'm freaking out."

I stand in the middle of his doorframe, a shirt in one hand and my toothbrush in the other, while my best friend just sighs and spins around in his desk chair. It's the day before orientation, and I'm a hopeless mess.

"Dude, there's nothing to freak out about." He says, giving me a look.

"Yes, there is." I scoff deliriously. "This is probably the single most important day of my short and foolish life thus far!"

"Okay, I didn't understand half of what you just said there. Mostly because I'm tuning you out, but—" he rushes on as I give him a look. "—you'll be fine."

"But, what does one wear to orientation? Am I supposed to go fancy? Semi-casual?" I hold up the only nice shirt I packed—a button up red shirt with white polka dots.

"Oh my god," he groans, covering his face with a hand in shame. "You are acting like a thirteen-year-old-girl right now."

"This is serious!" I exclaim, throwing the shirt down at my side. "Alright, can I just borrow something of yours?"

"No!" He scoffs, giving me a look that reads: are you kidding me? "Why don't you just go home and change there?"

"You know I can't do that."

Cameron's shoulders sag, before he stands up and comes over, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're going to have to go home sometime."

I push his hand away and cross my arms. "I'll be going to college anyway. It's not all that different."

"It's the middle of the year! We don't go off to college until the end of the summer!" Cameron exclaims, making me grumble. "You can't do this to your family."

I glare at him. "My dad is not a part of my family. Not anymore."

He sighs, throwing his arms into the air. "What about your mom?"

I clamp my mouth shut, and turn away from him. My mom definitely doesn't deserve this—not any of it. But I can't go home when that bastard is in the house, acting like he hasn't done anything wrong. It kills me being away from her, that she's living with a lie. But I don't want her to find out through her son. Parents are supposed to protect their children, not the other way around. I just hope that my dad does finally tell her—it'll probably be the most decent thing he's done for us. After that, I just hope he stays the hell away.

"It's better if I'm not there right now," I finally say. "my parents need some time to sort things out."

"In that case, you are definitely not going out in that." Cameron says, picking up his hoodie and shrugging it on.

"Oh, now you finally contribute." I sigh, throwing my shirt onto his bed. "Then what do you suggest?"

"We do what every teenage girl loves to do." He pulls out his phone and taps away, before he looks back up at me. "We go shopping."

****

"Did you really have to drag Jessica into this?" I complain as I try on another shirt.

"We need a girl for this kind of stuff." Cameron says on the other side of the dressing room door. "They have a knack for this sort of thing, right?"