SCARLET THREW THE DOOR open on Saturday afternoon, a wide smile on her face as her best friend came in with two boxes of pizza and a big soda. A satisfied groan erupted from her throat at the sight.
"This is so the perfect date!" Scarlet spread her arms wide as Sierra entered the house.
The perfect date was a running joke she and Sierra had since the beginning of high school, back when they first started noticing boys differently. Puberty hit them like a truck, and they were no longer concerned about playing outside in the dirt and competing about who could reach higher at the park swings. Their conversations transitioned into what it would be like to date a boy.
Scarlet wasn't one for dating. She found it all unnecessary and stupid. But she did agree on one thing: what the perfect date would be.
Sierra and her spit out ideas on what the perfect date would be like. They went from extravagant romantic gestures with rose petals all the way to beachside adventures, but then they landed on the simplest idea: pizza, soda, and each other's presence.
The perfect date.
If she could sit with someone over pizza and soda and actually feel something, then they were worth the shot.
However, Scarlet had never gotten the opportunity to date around. Sierra had her few flings, nothing ever too serious. None of her friends were ever in a serious spot with someone. Gwenn and Zilla had a few experiences, though it seemed like Zilla was starting to get there with her new crush. Aura... was a different case. That girl liked to play with romance, so she knew her way around a guy, no matter where they were from. But recently, she was single, and that was as much as Scarlet knew.
"I'm gonna put these on the table," Sierra said, motioning with her head to the boxes and soda in her arms.
Thus far, Scarlet could only ever get "the perfect date" with Sierra, and she was fine with that. They made it their inside joke.
Sierra plopped onto the nearest chair, heaving out a sigh. "I've been waiting to inhale one of those slices."
"First, we have to feed Mom," Scarlet reminded her, already opening the box to the cheesy goodness. "And then we can devour everything on sight."
Her mother laid in bed, reading up the book she last purchased. Sometimes Scarlet feared she would find her reading one of those romance novels, the ones with a shirtless guy on the front. But every time she browsed through books, she came out holding a biography about some random person Scarlet didn't care about.
The scent of pizza caused her to look up from the book, and she smiled. "Dinner time! Hopefully it doesn't wreck your stomach."
Her mother chuckled. "A slice won't kill me. Thank you, sweetheart."
When Scarlet came back down, Sierra wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Let's get this date started, shall we?"
She laughed. "Why do you have to say it so weird?"
"Oh, trust me," Sierra started, already tearing a slice for herself. "This isn't what's weird, girl. We got issues to talk about."
Scarlet sat opposite of her, serving herself two slices of the pepperoni she liked. Sierra grunted as she opened the bottle of soda. The house filled with the slow hiss as Sierra dropped the cap somewhere on the table.
"What type of issues are we talking about?" Scarlet asked as she sipped the soda, eyes closed. She hated when the tiny bubbles jumped up at her eyeballs.
"Just one," Sierra sat back, away from her pizza, "by the name of Elliot."
Her blood ran cold as she choked on her sip of soda.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Crimson
Teen Fiction"The vultures are disguised as humans." Scarlet Turner has her last semester of high school planned out: graduate as best as she can and take care of her sick mother. But when she's told she won't graduate because of the pile of tardies she's collec...
