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Chapter: Nineteen

Scarlett

"Are you nervous?" Chloe asks me as we pull into the RVSS parking lot. I look at her through the rear-view mirror as she steers us into a parking space. I shrug my shoulders at her while Chase spins around in the passenger seat to look at me. His eyebrows arch in response to my shrug.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm fine." I grumble and he shakes his head at me.

"I'll try and believe you." He scoffs. I roll my eyes at him before unclipping my seatbelt with my left hand. Chloe turns off the car before getting outside and grabbing my laptop and text books from beside me in the back. Since my writing hand is currently in a cast at the moment, we decided that I would take notes with my new laptop, courtesy of Lynn and John. It would be a slow process typing with my left hand but it was the best solution we could come up with.

My first class is music but because of my hand I'm not able to play my violin so I'll have spare first period for the next few weeks. The feeling of not being able to play makes me feel like I'm going to be sick. My stomach is twisted in knots and every time I think about Julliard and applications my stomach coils. The stress to recover physically by application deadlines is overwhelming and has caused way too many sleepless nights the past week.

I'm shook out of my thoughts when Chase lightly touches my good shoulder. I flinch before shaking my head to get rid of the unwanted thoughts swirling around my mind like a reckless tornado. Chase looks down at me with eyes that hold warmth and kindness. I smile at him because he's been the only one who hasn't looked at me like I'm something broken. He treats me like how he had wanted to be treated when he was in the foster system and I'm so grateful for him. "You good?" He asks and I nod my head.

"Yeah sorry I'm fine. I just got distracted." I say and he nods.

"Letty?" I hear a shout from across the lot and I twist my head to see Matty sprinting towards me. The other boys are following behind him, slower though. I crane my neck to get a good look at them and am somewhat disappointed when I find that Alex isn't among them. Matty tries to run in and give me a hug but Chase's arm flings out and hits him square in the chest, stopping him from running into me. Matty glares at Chase.

"Chill man, I don't want you accidently hurting her. Just be careful with her shoulder." Chase says defending himself against Matty's harsh glare. Matty's expression softens at this before Chase turns to me. "I gotta get to class but text if you need anything okay?" He says and I nod. "I'll see you back here at the end of the day. Bye Scarlett." I wave goodbye with my cast and all of the guys' eyes are drawn to my hand. Their eyes widen and they exchange glances with each other.

"Why the hell were you with Chase and where have you been for the last week and a half?" Connor asks me his eyes narrowed in concern and suspicion.

"And what happened to your face?" Matty asks.

"And your shoulder and hand?" Luca asks. Noah stays quiet as he watches me carefully. He came over to Chloe's a few nights ago, and since both my sister and I were there he kind of found out what happened. I asked what had been going on at school since I'd been gone but he had dodged my questions.

I sigh and shake my head as Chloe comes by my side holding my books. "Guys just leave her alone." She snaps and I turn and glare at her. She'd been pretty protective of me and my sister since finding out about everything that happened and when I mean everything I mean every single thing about my home life. A few nights ago, I had gotten up because I couldn't sleep and she heard me come back into the room crying. She gently forced me to tell her about what had happened and she hasn't left my side since. It's nice to know that she's looking out for me but it's starting to get suffocating having everyone constantly looking over me.