the scarlet painting

𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜

EL thought it would be a good thing for me to join some clubs since I have been in school for a few months it's been nothing but bliss I loved every bit of it , but to say it wasn't hard work wouldn't be the whole truth.

I had been working my butt off but when I wasn't in work mode I would hang out with my new friends.

Things with Blair and I were still very much Icey. I had the constant thought of "will I wake up today or not" .

I tried swapping rooms multiple times but they wouldn't let me  they thought it would be better for me to " be able to deal with conflict" .

fun right ... but I kept thinking about what Reed  said and that always calmed me in a weird way .

our college had all tons of traditions such as games you had to attend and clubs I never really found interest in clubs but since I had to find one I sat in the lecture hall, today the different clubs would come up and present to try to persuade us into joining .

It was club after club there really wasn't anything eye-catching that screamed join my club.

"Have you ever explored the wonders of the earth" have you ever thought am I the only seeing the weird ? things going on? .

"trying to find a way to quench your curiosity? "

I had lifted my head from my arms , it felt like I was a dog with its ears perked ears .

"then why don't you join our club".

After the hundreds of clubs that were presented, we were able to go sign up to join I ran to go get in to the club that won me over , there was a limited amount of people that could join It looked like I was the last person that could sign up.

It was later in the afternoon and I had been walking back from hanging out with the crew, we decided to have dinner together.

" oh yeah and I joined a club today."

"you joined a club ? wow college really is changing"
you .

" I don't know If, like it."

"oh shut up Reed, I mean it's kinda a tradition here plus I am tired of feeling like I am walking on eggshells when I am around Blair in the dorm"

he gave a little laugh " I wonder when she's gonna give up the act and come back home".

I stopped walking for a bit trying to process reeds words

"act what do you mean about the act?"

"well we clearly know she's there for you I mean azreed kind of don't have the intention to go , its high school then training and that's all she ever knew."

"oh..."

"Hey hey don't be scared though I made myself a promise to protect you and that's what I am going to do".

We talked for a bit on the phone before I reached the front door of the dorm.

I was about to enter the door but got a notification I checked my phone to see who it is and to my surprise, it was Chase.

" hey, I am near your campus .. drinks?".

I made a u-turn to the café near my campus and found chase sitting by the booth by himself.

Chase defiantly changed
as well he had this aura to him that seemed different, he also had some new tattoos here and there and got glasses.

"hey there stranger" i Immediately cringed at my statement

"hey there stranger, hey there fricking stranger are you serious right now" I thought .

"hey he stood up and hugged me" he even smelt different he didn't smell like cheap spray but a fresh almost woodsy cologne .

we sat and talked I couldn't pinpoint the feeling but it felt as if there was a piece of him that had been trying to get something out .

"oh, right can you believe everything happening in Selmer"

"no what's happening?" I sipped my coffee

"well you know MR and MRS Filand will they came back after the disappearance but after people asked around where they went they wouldn't mention a peep or they would just stare into the distance, one of the neighbours finally cracked them open and they answered "they didn't know" they even dropped the whole creepy storytelling thing, it's like they had a whole three-sixty done to them like they were brainwashed."

Had this all been done by the azreed?
had Reed been responsible for any of it ?I mean he was acting rather suspicious every time I would ask; he would always be uncomfortable .
After all he also a bunch of new tattoos?

"Earth to Leo?"

"oh, right I am sorry"

" that's ok"

after a few more hours chase had
decided to drink, and I mean drink a heck a lot.

"ok buddy I think that's enough I tried" grabbing the beer from his hand

He had now laid his head on the table mumbling a bunch of nonsense

"give me your phone so Anna can come to get you."

he tossed his phone mid-air for me to catch

After calling anna we had to wait for a couple more minutes

"I ca-n-t do th-is to herrrrr" he slurred his words

" what, what are you talking about" I tried asking

He pushed himself to sit up and looked at me with a straight expression

"it's always been you no matter how hard I try it's you.. do you know how frustrating this is for me?".

"What are you..."

he kissed me there and there in the middle of my sentence .

I pushed him off quickly letting him slouch back into the booth.

panicked I looked around to see if Anna was here "are you crazy! Chase  you have a girlfriend"
It was no use he was asleep ,dead asleep.

"thank you for taking care of him I don't know why he would drink that much"

Anna spoke she had helped me get chase in the car and now we talked outside for a bit.

"Yeah, no problem" I tried to say feeling the guilt eat me up inside from the kiss earlier.

She gave a chuckle and pushed her hair behind her ear "em you know what's crazy I kinda know why he drank so much ,we had a huge explosive  fight and I kinda feel stupid I don't blame him for drinking so much."

I nodded my head and put my arms around my self feeling the cold breeze from the night air .

She chuckled again this time it almost gave of a bittersweet tone to it as if she was trying to mask the emotion she was feeling with that laugh.

"you know what's even more silly? ... the fight was about you , I got delusional and accused him of having feelings for you"

I looked at her swallowing hard .

" silly right any way we gotta go" she gave me hug and started the car .

she didn't know the truth,

but I did.