𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘, 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐓

THREE: BASTARD

hawthorne, california | year of 2009

tyler only ever saw scarlet at the skatepark - just leaving - or at the mall but she was with her boyfriend. each time he saw her, she looked more and more drained. he wanted to know what was going on so bad.

in the meantime, he was making music. tyler would spend countless days with all of his friends, making beats and songs to rap to. on his website, he put out his mixtape: bastard and a buzz was forming.

the boys were at the skatepark per usual and had bastard playing through the speakers. no one knew of his music except for him and his friends. french! was playing and the boys were rapping along to it. "i should make a music video to this."

"and do what?" earl asked.

tyler shrugged, did a kickflip but failed and fell on the ground. "whatever the fuck i wanna do." he cursed under his breath and rubbed his elbow.

"tyler!" a familiar voice called.

all the boys looked up and there she was: scarlet. trying not to simp in front of the boys, he got up calmly and gave her a slight head nod as she approached him, walking past all of his friends.

"damn, she still around?" earl whispered to jasper with a snicker.

jasper leaned back on his hands and shook his head slowly. "man, he geeked over, but let him be."

scarlet had a huge grin on her face which was rare for tyler to see. "tyler, you never mentioned you make music." she punched him in the shoulder.

he licked his lips and tried to hide the fact that he was happy to know she heard it even though that wasn't his intention. tyler chuckled and shrugged. "never had enough time with you to mention it. so, did you like it?"

"vcr was my favorite track, but bastard is going to be fucking iconic someday. you're gonna be known for that," scarlet expressed to him. tyler could tell she was being genuine and he couldn't help but just smile, his gap showing. "i really fuck with it."

"thanks, that means a lot. so, where's your boyfriend?" he asked. he was obviously hinting towards the strange behavior she had around him. scarlet still looked drained; bags under her eyes and new bruises were on her wrist as well as a couple band-aids trailing up her arms. tyler gulped and suddenly wanted to take the question back.

she shook her head and looked off to the side. "don't worry about it. how about you introduce me to your friends?" she was quick to change the subject but tyler wasn't complaining.

"sure." they walked over to where the boys were. taco was skating and everyone else was sitting. "alright, y'all. meet scarlet. scarlet, these are my guys." he points to earl first. "big-lipped, alien-head shaped faggot is thebe."

earl stuck his middle-finger up. "call me earl." scarlet laughed at the interaction.

tyler pointed to jasper. "this fat ass fucktard is davon but we all call 'em jasper." syd, who was quiet and smoking a blunt nodded up at the two. "that's sydney, or syd. if you need your pussy eaten, she's your kid." syd chuckled and rolled her eyes. he points to taco. "that's travis. he's syd's little brother and his hair got rats living in it.

"fuck you!" taco yelled out as he went down the ramp.

"eat my ass!" tyler yelled back and turned to scarlet. "i have more but they not here right now."

scarlet nodded as she looked around. "they seem interesting."

"they're a bunch of faggots," he jokes.

jasper took a puff at the blunt that syd passed to him. "so, t, is this your girl?"

tyler launched towards jasper and smacked him. "no she ain't my fucking girlfriend, fat ass." they tackled each other on the ground.

scarlet watched in amazement. syd saw her reaction and laughed. "this is a daily thing. everyone's used to it."

scarlet smiled as she looked at syd and then back at tyler. "hey, i'm not complaining." she folded her arms as she watched tyler. "he seems really interesting."