Chapter 50
Fifty
Scarlett
18 Years Old
The boxes Scarlett had managed to pack were sporadically strewn about her room, and her entire closet scattered across her bed and the floor made it look like a bomb had gone off in there. Kashvi had helped her a bit earlier, but as soon as Colin arrived, he would know what to do with her mess. She was sure that he would make a list of categories or something and they would tackle the overwhelming chaos in an organized fashion that would make her question why she hadn’t thought of it earlier.
“She’s in here,” Harper’s voice called out from the upstairs hallway, and footsteps traveled to her room until her sister and Colin were standing in her doorway.
“My two favorite people,” Scarlett chirped.
“Was your packing method just to throw everything on the floor?” Harper’s eyes scanned the room with a judgemental gaze.
“Maybe,” Scarlett laughed. Colin didn’t seem to think any of this was funny, and just stood awkwardly to the side while she and Harper teased each other.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Harper said, finally leaving Scarlett and Colin alone. Scarlett took the opportunity and bounded over to him, tossing her arms around his neck and kissing him. He stiffened against her, and she pulled back, confused.
“Ready to help me tackle this? I know it’s a lot, but I?—”
“Stop packing, Scarlett.” Colin’s voice was so cold, she immediately straightened her posture. He sometimes had that tone in bed, though, so she broke into a wide smile, realizing what this was.
“Why?” She dragged a seductive hand down his chest. “You have other things in mind?”
Colin jerked back from her touch and shook his head. “You aren’t coming to Maryland with me. I’m going alone.”
Her heart seemed to stutter in her chest, and she jerked her head back like she had been slapped, not even sure she had heard him right. “What?”
“This was never a good idea,” Colin said, his voice still void of emotion.
“You’re scaring me. What’s wrong? You want to do long distance?” Her voice cracked. If that was what he truly wanted, then it was disappointing, but she could make it work. “Did my uncle say something? Because I’ve already told him and my mom and my aunt a thousand times that I can paint anywhere. They still want me to stay, but it’s not their decision. I’ve submitted a few rental applications for those places we were looking at, and I think that one with the extra room is the perfect spot to?—”
“Scarlett!” he interrupted loudly. “You’re not coming because I don’t want you to. We aren’t going to work. We never were. I’m ending it.”
“W-what?” None of this made any sense, and the whooshing sound pumping in her ears wasn’t making it any easier.
Colin looked away and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m breaking up with you.”
Suddenly her entire world was spinning. The tears rolling down her face and the fear that had started vibrating through her veins the second he had stepped into the room had finally collided, and she realized he was serious. “C-Colin,” her stutter came back in full force. “Why? W-what did I do?”
“Nothing.” His voice was so bitter that she didn’t believe him for one second. “You did nothing, Scarlett. This was fun while it lasted. It was an experiment that worked for a little while but would never last in the long run.”
She gripped his arm, desperately trying to make him see reason. “Colin, look at me! Please,” she sobbed. Instead, he stepped toward the door, and she yelled after him, “You said you loved me.”
He didn’t look back, but froze in the doorway. “I used you, Scarlett. I used you to feel better after my parents died, and you did make me feel better. So thank you for that. You can move on with your life now.”
“Move on with my—what are you even talking about? We—we were moving in together. You said you wanted to do this forever. You said you were happy . That you wanted me.” Scarlett was hysterical now, her words coming out so frantic and pleading and angry, and every other emotion she could throw into the mix.
“Look at how I’m making you cry right now and think about all the times I’ve made you cry before, and I think you’ll come to the same conclusion I did. I was temporary for you, and you don’t need me. I have to go now.”
“You know what?” Scarlett shouted. “Go!” She jogged over to her nightstand and jerked open the first drawer, plucking out their filled-out experiment charts and crumbling each one to throw it at his head. “Here, you can have your fucking experiment!” Another crumpled page flew across the room. “Leave me if you want to!” Colin bent to scoop up each balled paper, collecting them like they were his prized possessions. His little experiment that he had worked so hard on while she was just a variable he had thrown into the mix. “Get out!” she yelled, finally launching the last one at him. He didn’t hesitate. Their entire relationship laid out on the crumpled paper in his hands, he left her standing among the chaos of her room, sobbing and falling to her knees, heart ripped from her chest and severed from all her vital organs.
“Letti?” Harper’s voice came into the room, but Scarlett couldn’t hear anything else she said over the sound of her own wracking sobs until she was lying on the floor with her head in her sister’s lap, still crying, but the kind that lacked emotion. Staring into the distance and barely noticing that tears were still forming.
The dull numbness left over from when her brother died was back. Like an old friend, it slipped into place like a sweater she was trying on.
And it didn’t come off for a long, long time.