Hello.

She shook her head, “I–I..” Nothing was able to come out. She wanted to tell him, but she couldn’t, it would only hurt him more. “I can’t Cas. I–I can’t, not ever.” She felt the shiver go up her spine reliving the moments over and over and knowing how he would react if he ever found out. “You would hate me. You would hate me.” She just imagined his face after she said she wanted to break up the first time, the pain and sorrow, and she didn’t want to hurt him anymore. She took a small step back, not letting go of him but enough to look up at him, “Long enough to make you forget anything that i’ve said in the last five minutes?” She tried to smile through whatever emotions were clearly being displayed on her face. The world around them disappeared and for the first time in months it was just the two of them.

His hands found her shoulders, fingers wrapping around them and pushing her back slightly until she was at arm’s length, so that he could get a good look at her. “Listen to me. I won’t hate you. Have I ever broken a promise to you, Scarlett? I need to know.” He pleaded, the events of their breakup playing over and over in his head - him asking her questions and not getting any answers. It was harder to move on when his mind was stuck on what could have been. Without a reason, he just couldn’t close that chapter of his life no matter how hard he tried. He needed to know. He needed to be able to move on like she had. “My memory’s pretty good, so I doubt it. But I’ll tell you, if you tell me. Fair?”

“I do have some pot brownies, did you want a slice?” Ivy asked with a smirk on her face, setting aside the regular brownies aside as she pulled out the baggie that held the special brownies in. Something she was glad turned out excellent. “Now remember limit yourself on the intake, I made these strong.”

“Ivy” he groaned, “you’re an angel. I need this after the day I’ve had.” He took the brownie gratefully and took a bite, nodding as she spoke. “Okay mother.” He teased, a smirk on his face as he took another bite of the special brownies.

The minute he closed the space she let her arms go around him and the first tear spilled over. She hadn’t cried in months, she forced herself not to cry and yet here in his arms that’s all she wanted to do was cry. Cry for how much she hurt the both of them, for what she’s lost, for him. “It’s so much more, you wouldn’t understand.” She felt embarrassed, sucking up whatever tears she had left and wiping under her eye, not wanting him to move farther away. “What did you do?” She knew he didn’t want her to push but she had to, she had to know him again.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you.” Casper said softly as he reached up to gently stroke her head. He didn’t pressure her to speak but just held her and let her cry in his arms for a minute, rocking her gently as she spoke. He wanted so badly to understand. “Help me understand then, Scar.” He started, forgetting everything around them. It was just her now, and he didn’t care about anything else. “I got involved with some bad people. It’s kind of a long story.” He began, shrugging. He knew that she wouldn’t let it go, but that wasn’t want he wanted to talk about - especially not at this moment.

“You have to try out first. What’s your name? Qualifications?”

“Casper, but I normally go by Cas. What’s yours?  My hobby is joyriding, I can roll a joint in under a minute, and I’ve been on fire - twice. Oh, and I’ve got some booze in my dorm with your name on it if you pick me.”

She shook her head, “Don’t be, you know me..no one’s wanted me in 17 years why would I expect them to start now.” Thankful that the conversation was off of her, and sure she wasn’t making it to her next class she gave up on that, almost forgot about it even. “Have you given her a reason to worry about you?” She had always worried about him, wondered what she had missed. He was the only constant in her life back then and she wished that hadn’t changed. She felt as if she was missing a part of her own life by not being in his. It killed her to think she didn’t know him anymore, 

An invisible force propelled him towards her. Without thinking, he took two quick steps to close the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her tiny frame. He had to have her in his arms again, even if it was for a little while. He pulled away, a hand carded awkwardly through his hair, and gave the girl a tight smile. “They have no idea what they’re missing out on. Fuck the Andrews! And that’s not true. There are a ton of people who want you.” His voice trailed off as he spoke, kicking imaginary rocks as he avoided her gaze. “Yeah.” He answered, not wanting to delve into the topic any further. He wasn’t sure if she cared anymore, but he didn’t want to risk worrying her too. Just in case.

A pair of bright blue eyes peeked over two textbooks kept close to his chest as his knight in shining.. jeans and hoodie managed to shoo away the couple before fingers disappeared behind private places that the good lord would definitely not approve of. Well,  not in public anyway. Taking a few steps forward, he offered him a big smile. “Thank you so so so so much! I just– I wasn’t sure what to do and they looked really comfortable and, you know, maybe they were making up after a large fight so I wouldn’t want to intrude but, um, I’m new. I’m Levi and–do I look like something you know?”

“No problem. It’s pretty annoying, especially since dorms are like five minutes away. They’re probably exhibitionists or something.” Casper joked, returning the smile. “You just gotta shoo them away, like they’re cats or something. One of my teachers in middle school used to have a spray bottle she used on the couples, which was pretty effective. Maybe we should get one of those.” He shrugged. “Well you look kind of familiar, but I can’t exactly put a name on it. But hey, welcome to Plath! What are you in for?”

Everything she had done to him came rushing back, her heart breaking more for the guy she fell in love with so suddenly and all at once. Before she knew it he was there, right in front of her, asking the question that had been able to  answer too many questions. Everything came back to the answer. “I-I’m a fucked up teenager, isn’t that why we’re all at Plath? I-It was only so long until the Andrews didn’t want me, just like any family..” She chocked on her own words, hating the lies that were coming out, wanting to be able to curl up in his arms once more. “They don’t want me, and this is the one family that couldn’t just hand me back to another person.” She looked away, hoping he couldn’t read through her the way he always was able too. Her eyes giving away all the pain that she had gone through, all the horror of moving here. “So here I am.” She said, it practically coming out as a whisper. “Why are you here?”

Casper hated small talk, but he couldn't deny that he did have some interest in where life had taken Scarlett since she'd disappeared. This was a girl with who he had shared at least a small part of his life. This was a girl he had been in love with. Yes, it was perfectly normal for him to wonder what had happened to her. “Fair enough, fucked up kids is like Plath’s catch phrase or something.” he tried to joke, but it came out sounding dull. Casper eyed the girl tentatively, as she spoke. His blood boiled at the suggestion of a family rejecting her. He’d always been protective over Scarlett, and that hadn’t changed - even if she was no longer his. “Scar, I’m so sorry.” It took all that was in him to resist pulling her into his arms at that very second and reassure her that things would be okay. He eventually cleared his throat, wondering vaguely whether that was what all that happened. When they were together, getting things out of her was like pulling teeth. He found it odd that she spilled so quickly, but he knew better than to pry and risk upsetting her. “Oh, you know. Mom’s been worried about me. I figured it would calm her down a bit if I agreed to stay here for a while.”

Lydia gave a small laugh, pushing her hair back out of her face as she looked up at him, leaving a streak of red frosting on her skin as she did so. “You can have one of the ones that are done, if you want? They’re cooled off because of the icing, but they’re still pretty fresh,” she offered, gesturing to a pile of finished cookies. “You can help me ice, if you want? It’s a little hard because I don’t have any proper tips or anything. It’s just a plastic bag, but you can if you want.”

“You’ve got a little something, here” Casper started, motioning towards his cheek before deciding to lean in slowly, gaze fixed intently on the red mark on the other’s face. He quickly swiped it with his thumb, lingering a bit before finally pulling away and shifting his attention to the cookies in front of them. Grabbing one, he popped it into his mouth, making noises of approval as he chewed. “These are amazing. Have you considered selling these? Because I would definitely buy ‘em.” He enthused, popping the remainder of the cookie into his mouth and grabbing the bag of icing. “Well how about you show me how it’s done?”

She had a rough start to the morning and was never late to class, but this morning, it had to all be happening this morning. She quickly ran as fast as she could to class when she tripped and fell, suddenly. She threw the rest of her stuff down before she could even realize she made a bigger mess. She looked around and started collecting papers and her books. She felt the pair of eyes on her back before he even said anything and she regretting him wanting to speak up. His voice made her stop in her tracks. She could feel her heart sinking lower than ever, and it took everything in her to talk herself into thinking it was just a coincidence, just a funny voice fluke, but as she turned around to face him there was nothing she could do but stare in that moment. The guy she loves standing right in front of her and she couldn’t do anything about it, couldn’t move closer or even feel like she could speak. Although when she felt the tears prickling and threatening to fall over she spoke, “Cas?” Her voice shaky and nervous, not sure if her mind was playing tricks on her or not.

It was her. The only thought in his brain that made sense as he stared back at the girl he desperately hoped was a stranger. His fingers clenching tightly into a fist, his mind went back to the last time she was standing in front of him like this. Casper had been unable to think of anything but Scarlett and how he was pretty certain she had broken his heart. They hadn't been dating each other for all that long, but the time they had spent together had been wonderful. At least he thought it had been, until the day she had approached him at the their favourite spot and told him that this wasn't what she wanted; what she was looking for and that they were over. Those first few weeks of summer had been hard for Casper, especially as he would occasionally see her around the neighborhood. But suddenly she was gone - which if you asked different people about, you’d get different responses about where she had gone to. He was just glad she was leaving, knowing that he wouldn't have to worry about running into her anymore. But here she was again, and he didn’t know how to react. He smiled in spite of himself as he walked toward her, his blonde hair bouncing with his steps. He wasn't the same broken man that she had left standing in that park. No, quite a bit had changed since then. Facing her again, he needed her to know how happy he was now. “What are you doing at Plath?”

He showed the boy the front classes and the courtyard where everyone ate. He walked him to the cafe, making a little small talk about the weather and the movies. “So, what brings you to plath monsieur?”

Casper listened as the other pointed out different areas of the school, grateful for the directions as he had gotten lost countless times since he started at Plath. “Got into some trouble, like most of the kids here did.” he said vaguely, doing his best to avoid the question. The judgement that came along with being associated with an infamous gang was something he wanted to avoid at his new school. At least for a little while. “You? Why did you choose to teach here?”

He proceeded to gather his clothes that were scattered across his side of the dorm and slipped them on quickly, realizing that he’d already wasted ten minutes attempting to make his way through his room. Catching his reflection in the mirror, he ran his fingers through his hair to make sure that there weren’t any stray strands over his face. After he was satisfied with his look, he grabbed his phone and wallet from the table and headed out the front door. Once outside, he shoved a hand into his pocket in search for his keys. Realizing that he’d forgot them inside, he rolled his eyes and shoved the door open once again to retrieve his keys. Letting out an exaggerated sigh, he scanned the unkempt room, feeling disheartened at the idea of sifting through all the clutter to find them. As he made his way to the couch to check between the cushions, he wondered why alarms weren’t invented for keys. That thought was interrupted by a sigh of relief as he pulled his arm from under the cushion, his hands clutching the keys tightly. For the second time, he walked out the door, his steps slightly quickened this time. He locked the door and twisted the doorknob twice to ensure that it was indeed locked.

He had just started towards his class when he noticed a familiar face that caused his heart sink into his chest. Could it be? No. He really hoped that it wasn’t her. The one that got away. It had been so long since they had ended things - since she decided they couldn’t be together - and he would be lying if he said he was over it. He stood there for a moment, debating on whether he should stop and talk to her, or just keep walking and move on. Like she explicitly told him to do a while ago. “Scar?” He finally called out, the name slipping out of his mouth, immediately regretting it as he waited for her to turn around.

“I can always tutor you if you need the help…” Simon offered with a smile. “I mean– unless you’re taking calc. I’m struggling a bit there but I’m a great peer tutor.” He started to gather up his things and nodded a bit, “I’ll take you for Chinese. I’m getting hungry anyway. And I’ll help you don’t worry, I don’t laugh at people for stuff like that.”

“It’s not calc, it’s the one with all the triangles and stuff.” He started, unable to remember the course name for the life of him. “Oh, so you’re a peer tutor? I’ve heard about you guys from some of my teachers actually. Do you get paid for doing that?” Casper had actually heard a lot about the tutoring that goes on around school. It seemed like he was being held back after every class he attended to discuss peer tutoring arrangements. He could basically recite the speech that he heard over and over about taking advantage of the resources available to him. “Cool. What sorts of things do you laugh at people for?”

Ainslee rolled her eyes as he pat her on the head. “Relax pretty boy – I wasn’t even talking about you anyways.”

Casper arched a brow, smirk never leaving his lips as he started to ponder possible suspects. “Well now I’ve got to know who this secret admirer is! Or the suspense will probably kill me.”