Cruel Me

Chapter 42: Little Wonders

Well, this is a first.

"Hey."

I opened the door wider, indicating for his royal redheadedness to come inside. I wasn't cruel enough to let him freeze to death from standing outside.

"Nice house," said Scout, looking around.

I only nodded.

There was a moment of silence. He scratched the side of his head, while I put my hands inside my jean pockets. Neither of us spoke.

Talk about awkward.

"Look –" he started to say, but I cut him off.

"I'm sorry."

He stared at me with a confused expression, like he misheard me.

I took a deep breath and explained, "For giving you crap. You didn't deserve it."

Now he stared at me like I had three heads. If he was waiting for me to say more, tough luck. That was all he'd ever get out of me.

The thing was, Scout was part of this moving on shit. If I wanted to put the past entirely behind me, I needed to clear out some unfinished business.

I admit it. I'm a bully – or used to be.

Scout Crimson was one of the people I gave so much shit to, even if I knew that he didn't deserve it. Sure, his righteous ass was annoying as hell. But he was just being a good guy. Maybe that was what pissed me off the most.

He stayed good despite everything.

Besides, I figured I was getting too old for this crap. Only a few months left until graduation. It'd be a waste to spend those final months holding back because there was that guilt feeling nagging me.

Slowly, Scout lips turned up in a smile.

"I'm sorry, too – for everything that happened."

What did I tell ya? Good guy, apologizing even though he'd done jack shit.

I shrugged. "It's life. We just gotta deal with it."

Scout eyed me, as if deciding if he should say something.

"She'll come around, man," he finally said, referring to the dark-haired dork we both know. "Don't worry about it."

I let out a sigh. "Yeah, we'll see."

"The dicks are looking for y –"

Both of our heads turned to the direction of the voice. Connie looked at us like she just caught us making out, then her eyes settled on Scout and a smirk appeared.

"Well, look what the dirty pussy dragged in," she sneered, with a hand on her hip and the other one holding up a bottle of beer.

Scout nodded warily to her, giving out a small smile.

"Hey, Anderson."

Connie raised an eyebrow.

"Pull back your claws, Con," I told her, ruffling her still silver shoulder-length hair. "We have permanent truce," I added, reaching my fist out to him for a bump.

Scout looked just as surprised as Connie, before a slow grin stretched out on his face and he met my knuckles with his.

"Whatever," muttered Connie, turning her back on us.

"Wanna play NBA 2k16?" I asked Scout.

Connie halted in her tracks while her eyes landed on me.