Taylor wrapped his arms around Scarlet protectively as if he were trying to keep her from harm.
“Sshh…don’t cry, Scarlet,” he comforted her unsuccessfully. He led her back inside the hotel suite, closing the sliding door behind him. Scarlet sat down on the couch as Taylor kneeled down in front of her. One of Taylor’s hands rested on her knee and the other on her arm, touching it slightly.
“Come on, tell me what’s wrong,” Taylor coaxed her.
She shook her head violently, “I can’t, Taylor. You’ll think less of me,” Scarlet sobbed.
Taylor creased his brow, “Scarlet, it can’t be that bad,”
“Yes, it is,”
“It can’t be-“
“How would you fucking know, Taylor? You don’t even know the whole story!” Scarlet shouted as she stood up roughly.
”Whoa…calm down Scarlet. Calm,” he said soothingly as he slowly made her sit back down. Scarlet sighed heavily.
“I would tell you if I could, but I can’t. You’d think I’m some kind of sleazy bitch,” she said, not looking at Taylor but at the white couch she was sitting on.
“I don’t think you’re sleazy and I don’t think you’re a bitch. I don’t think there’s anything that could change my mind. OK?” Taylor asked as he lifted her chin so she was looking at him directly in the eye. She did not respond.
“OK?” he asked, a little more stern this time.
Scarlet nodded slowly.
“Now, can you tell me what’s wrong?” Taylor questioned.
Scarlet closed her eyes and took a deep breath in before exhaling, “When I was back in Arkansas, I was totally normal. I was the cheerleading squad’s captain, I was on the honor roll. Everything was going perfect for me. I’m not the one to brag, but I had it all. And then when this one thing happened, it changed all that. My world crumbled down into more than a million pieces,” Scarlet explained as she sniffed a few times.
Taylor was even more curious now, “What happened to change all that?” he asked, concern and curiosity filling his voice.
Scarlet shut her eyes tightly and opened them again before continuing her story.
“My Science teacher. God…at first it was like he was only being nice. But then, innocence floats away. He used to make me stay in after each period to, as he called it, ‘talk’. I thought it meant a)I was in trouble or b)he wanted to talk about my grades. But he started touching me, at first it was friendly, then it got flirty, then seductive. He made me keep it a secret, and he said that if I told anybody, he’d kill me. It kept on happening for a whole semester until the Principal of our school walked in on him doing the act. He told my parents and the teacher was fired,” Scarlet said as more tears fell freely from her eyes.
“Oh god, Scarlet,” Taylor gasped, he was almost on the brink of tears as well, “So is that why you came to live with Chris? To get away from everything?”
Scarlet nodded weakly, “I just couldn’t stay there. It had too many harsh realities. I thought things like that only happened in movies, not in real life. But it can happen,”
“I’m so sorry,” Taylor said quietly as he bit his lip.
“Don’t be. You had jack shit to do with it,” Scarlet replied although she could not believe that she had poured all that out to a complete stranger.
“You can’t tell a soul, Taylor. Please,” Scarlet begged him.
“I won’t,” he vowed as he sat on the couch next to her.
Scarlet rested her head on his chest as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“I promise you,” Taylor whispered.
"Men are assholes, Candy. It's common sense,"-Melissa