BAD REPUTATION [SCOTT REED]

SEVEN

"NOW YOU OWE ME TWICE!"

——

Scott Reed was on his way to Bryce's house. He was tapping absentmindedly at the steering wheel as he swerves the car to the right and drives down the familiar path of the shortcut to the Walker's neighborhood when he noticed a familiar face walking out of a dark building.

He frowned and slowed down the car as he neared the curb she was walking at, trailing behind her as she muttered something in Spanish under her breath, tugging her leather jacket tighter around her body as she trudges.

He turns off the engine and stepped out of the car, he placed a hand on her shoulder and as a reflex, her hand flew up to a death grip around his neck. He yelped like a girl and when Alona realized it was just him, she relaxed.

"Jesus, you startled me!" Alona breathed, pushing her hair back. "Don't sneak up on people like that, especially at a place like this."

Her top was barely covering anything and it bothered him immensely. He tried averting his gaze from her cleavage with a flustered look, failing terribly as his eyes automatically magnets itself at the exposed skin. But the state of her face was what bothered him to a great extent. "What happened to your face? Who did that to you?"

Her lower lip was cut and busted and blood oozed from it. There was a gash just above her left cheekbone, dried crimson trickling down from it. His hand carefully hovers on her cheek and grazed his fingertips at the cut. "It's below twenty degrees out here and you're wearing that?"

"It's none of your business, okay?" She snapped but he doesn't seem unnerved with her harsh tone and instead, glares at her.

He pulls out his jacket and Alona watches him in confusion as he drapes the thick fabric around her shoulders. "I'll take you home. Get in the car. I don't want you freezing to death."

Alona watched with sheer interest and there was something about the softness of his tone that finds herself getting in the car. She seemed lost in her thoughts to even buckle up and her eyes snapped back up to meet his ocean blue eyes when he buckles the seatbelt for her.

Scott's eyes stares right to hers and for the first time, she was the one to look away flustered. He retrieves a small towel from the backseat and dabs it lightly at the edge of her lip. He looked like he had a lot of questions in mind but he decided to save it for later.

"Hey, Scott?" Alona asks quietly. "Do you mind driving me to the Baker's Drugstore? I don't think my Mom would be too happy to see me in a bad shape."

Scott nods and sends her a small smile before reversing the car and driving to the Baker's Drugstore as requested. He ignored the vibrations from his phone; messages and calls from Bryce and the others, he didn't care if they were waiting for him and the stash of weeds he was planning to smoke with them. He didn't care because Alona needed him and for him, she was more of a priority than drugs.