Broken Home - a Thomas Sangster Fanfic

Scarlet

Thomas's POV
"Her name was Scarlet. She was so kind, and loving. She had jet black hair, bright, brilliant eyes and a killer smile." I look up at Payton. She is swirling her coffee with a vacant expression. "I loved her with all my heart. She was my everything." My voice cracks, and I feel a single tear drip off my eyelashes. "About a year ago, we were driving through the city. We saw some criminals robbing a high-end, clothing store. We stopped and tried to call the cops, but we heard the scream of the sirens before we had even pulled out our phones. An employee ran out, hands tied with rope, and dripping in blood. Scarlet, wanting to help, shot like a bullet, out of the car, and ran up to the girl with her Swiss Army knife, wanting to cut her loose. Before I could get out, the cops had run up to Scarlet and the employee. The paramedics took the girl, who had passed out, due to blood loss, and the police grabbed my Scarlet. They assumed that she had cut the girl, because she was still holding her knife. She begged to be released, but they locked her up in the police station until they could sort everything else out. She was taken to court. She pleaded innocent, but was found guilty for an assault on an unarmed girl. They sent her to a horrible prison, for what was supposed to be three years. A month into her sentence, one of her prison mates strangled her during a fight over food." I can barley get the next part out, because tears are flowing down my face. "She died on the spot." Payton is crying too. The people sitting next to us are giving me dirty looks, but I don't care.
"I'm... I'm so sorry, Tommy." She looks up at me with bloodshot eyes.
"Me too. I'm sorry these things happened to us." I just realized she called me Tommy. "Hey, did you call me Tommy?"
"Maybe." She pulls off a weak smile. I love when she smiles. "Will you come to my house tonight? I have nothing going on." She asks. Uh oh. I can't fall in love again. I can't. Someone is bound to get hurt. Although, I can't very well go home either. My sister Ava said that Kaya was going over to hang out. I can't let her see me like this. She thinks Scarlet dumped me. Payton was the first person -outside of my family - that I've ever told.
"Yeah. I'll come."

••• time skip •••

Payton's POV
"Keep going! You can do better than that!" Thomas and I are playing chubby bunny, but with gummy bears. Thomas's cheeks are so full, he can barley say,
"Hubby bubby!" I laugh. He laughs too, which was a mistake. Half chewed gummy bears spew out of his mouth, and land all over the basement couch. "Gah! I'm sorry!" His face turns bright red. Somehow, this makes his beautiful eyes stand out even more.
"Haha, it's ok. It was bound to happen!" We start to clean up.
"Sweetie, there's someone on the phone for you." My mom says as she walks into the basement. That's weird, no one ever calls me. And why did her voice crack?
"Hello?" I take the phone from my mom. Thomas finishes cleaning up the soggy gummy bears and sits down next to me.
"Hello?"
"Hello. Is this Payton Henry?"
"It is."
"This is the Napa Hospital. I'm afraid I have some bad news for you." I am scared. "Um, ok."
"Your father came down with a horrible case of the flu, and it went straight to his lungs. He is unable to breathe properly, and is not expected to live. I'm very sorry." I drop the phone, and everything goes black.