A Scarlett Ruin

Chapter Five

Scarlett wasn't exactly sure why she'd waited until that moment.

Right there he looked ridiculously beautiful; loose limbed and lithe. His pupils were blown wide and dark above her, just a rim of that blue that was icy enough to almost be confused with grey, and he was staring down at her. The moon was behind him, a messy line with his tumbled hair against the light. It would have been easy to stay there

That hair was soft beneath her hand, and she couldn't stop the way her thumb caressed his cheek. It was done for comfort. And although she didn't understand just why she felt the need for the action, she did know that it was necessary.

Just like how she knew she had to leave right then.

Those eyes widened as she pushed away. The hand that gripped at the prominent hipbone fell away as easily as it had stroked there.

When Scarlett sat up, he'd risen with her, but she hadn't moved her hand away. The temptation to close that distance was too tempting, so she allowed her hand to slip back, cupping his head before she pressed her lips together.

It was a chaste kiss, closed lips pressed together.

Julian tasted of bourbon and smokey herb and something that tingled like sadness on her lips, a taste that she was sure she mimicked. He was warm beneath her hands. However when his hand went to grip her back in kind, Scarlett was already slipping away. Both of them having forgotten about the joint that had fallen into the grass between them.

A blade of grass burnt sluggishly between them.

And just as easily as he'd slipped beside her, Scarlett tugged herself away.

She didn't dare to glance over her shoulder as she edged around the party. It was only when she was sure countless bodies would be spaced between them that she allowed herself to have that one last backwards look. It had to be safe enough then. And sure enough, she couldn't see Julian through them.

Only then did she let loose the breath it felt as if she'd been holding since he'd blown the smoke into her mouth.

Her head felt far away, but that had to be the vodka and cranberry that Hester had been pressing down on her through the night. When they'd arrived, the other girl had immediately dropped the pills that were rampant around the other people, while Scarlett hesitated. She'd stuck to the alcohol when told it was molly that had her roommate rolling. Her experience with drugs was still rather minimal, some black nights that she didn't remember but that had been the whole point. A little weed and ecstasy was different in her head.

There was a dramatic dark line in her head. So she stuck to the alcohol.

But the exhilaration of the party and vodka had faded to blurriness before Julian had even sat beside her. She might as well have been floating at that point for all she could feel of the world around her, eyes wanting to roll back into the back of her head. He'd been the only thing that had kept her cemented to the ground, her feet not nearly enough, and she was almost worried that she might just walk until she was on her knees before curling on the ground.

Still her feet stayed solidly on the grass, the maroon boots making their way across the soft soil until her feet hit the comforting cobblestone. Somehow it had become something that she was used to. It did nothing to ease the way she felt out of sync, almost foggy, as if she couldn't quite coordinate her feet to her brain. Like something had short circuited.

Yet Scarlett made her way into the girl's dormitory, but the floor she got off on was unfamiliar.

Thankfully there were the same plaques on these doors as the year thirteen corridor. She wandered, arms wrapped almost protectively around her stomach, until she reached a single familiar name. It just read 'Vivian LeChapelle' plainly in typed writing. Not all that different her dorm room, though that read both hers and Hester's names. Apparently the year twelve was lucky enough to have snagged a private room, or her parents had donated more than liberally to the school.