Painted Hearts | ✔️

XXI

CHAPTER 21

Putting a voice to your soul helps you to let go of the negative energy of fear and regret.
-Shannon L. Alder

Evans bought me to his cozy home once more, which was dimly lighted and his family was asleep. So with hushed voices and quiet steps we sneaked up to his bedroom and he quickly put away his overwhelming mess such as a pair of dirty socks thrown across his computer chair. He went down to the kitchen and got some water and snacks for us before we settled in on his bed.

"You should eat something before taking your pills, Scarlett." He said gently.

"Hmm." I replied airily, I wondered where Logan took off to.

"You're thinking about your brother, aren't you?" Evans asked. He unwrapped a strawberry Swiss roll and offered it to me.

Taking it, I nodded my head. "I sort of didn't tell you but he left last year. I literally saw him for the first time in a year after he hit me with his car today."

"Was it a fight with your parents?" I almost laughed at the irony, instead I fell my throat clog up. Evans pushed a pillow against the headboard and leaned against it. The fates are probably having a laugh right now, as I ended up right in front of Logan's car.

"It was a fight over my parents, yeah. But it was with me. He left me... because I killed our parents."

Evans gasped and his eyes snapped up to mine but he didn't say anything. Like Logan was that night. He was silent.

The silence screamed at me and I talked, guilt flooding through me. "At the team's party I went to, with Eric, I'd had a few drinks. Basically after that, he pushed me to you know, I hit him with a lamp and then I ran out. I had no ride and I was a mess. So I called my parents." The words just poured out of my mouth. "After ditching them for an asshole, I called them begging to pick me up. And they left home for me worried and stressed, but they never arrived, Evans."

Evans held my hand and squeezed it tight, "Scarlett, you didn't kill them, it's not your fault."

"It is though, isn't it. If I wasn't so blind, I would've seen Eric for who he was. I should've listened to Logan and I should've been spending time with them but no- I left them. Maybe if they weren't so worried... And then I lead them to their deaths."

"Scarlett it wasn't in your hands, none of it was. You didn't know about Eric, everyone makes wrong judgments sometimes. And you're only feeling guilty because you went to a party instead of being with your family but you're a fricking teenager Scarlett. It's what you're supposed to do. What happened at the party wasn't your fault. Don't put yourself to blame when you were the victim."

"If I didn't just go out with a random person, it wouldn't have happened."

"Scarlett. No one in the world should think twice about having fun, dating or going out to a party because of people like Eric. It's sick the way the world works." He eyed the bruise again.

"It was David Hale. My mom's best friend took me in after Logan left, Brianna Hale. Her husband gave me this." Evans' jaw clenched. He got up and walked over to his draw, pulling out a white tube of ointment.

He walked back to me and sat down, looking at the bruise, his face concentrated. He gently rubbed some ointment on to my jaw. I winced a little, and he froze.

"I'd kill him. If I knew, he'd have been dead by now." Evans muttered.

"I'd like to say I gave him a good right fist, though." I grinned at Evans, who still looked concerned. He handed me my pills and got off the bed.