Page 29 of Framed

I was about to turn back to Winter and her friends when, as if sensing my gaze, Kane looked up. Our eyes met, across what felt like half a mile of cafeteria. He flashed me a wink, so quick I almost convinced myself I imagined it. Except he followed it up with a broad grin, before he turned back to his own conversation, and his expression slipped into a polite yet bored mask.

I pressed my lips together and faced Winter again. Clearly, that boy was more trouble than he was worth.

chapter twelve

Scarlett

“Naomi,youtoldmethis shit was over!” The door to the other side opened and I overheard a voice I could never forget yell before the sound of faint footsteps shuffling from the adjoined music room.

The voice belonged to the boy who still owned my heart and invaded my every thought. Xavier Adams.

Ms. Everley often allowed me to eat lunch in her office space behind the music room whenever I didn’t feel comfortable enough going to the cafeteria. She ended the year by letting me know that I always had a space here if I needed one.

Today’s feat was my hair.

It was the first day of the second semester of sophomore year and I thought I wanted to do something different. I wore my natural curls for the first time in public and the masses decided it was their civic duty to tell me how funny I looked. I spent the day dodging strange looks and whispers. Normally, I didn’t care. I, Naomi, or Xavier would say some sarcastic but witty remark in response but it was just me now.

And I couldn’t handle any more scrutiny.

God, I hated this town.

“I told you, I stopped seeing him!” Another voice I could never mistake yelled back. It was indeed Naomi Stewart, my ex-best friend, and Xavier’s half-sister. They shared the same father and had only met the summer of sixth grade, but looking at the pair, anyone would’ve thought they had been together since birth.

I never understood what I did to deserve to be deserted by my two former friends. I begged, cried, and pleaded for them to talk to me for months, but they would simply ignore me as if I wasn’t standing there. Like I was invisible.

That’s when the bullying got worse. While the two siblings never participated in the bullying personally, they started to turn a blind eye like the rest of the town.

I shouldn’t be listening to this but I didn’t want them to know I was in here either. I couldn’t handle seeing them right now. I continued to sit quietly and held my breath as I secretly hoped that I don’t hear anything too detrimental.

I hated knowing secrets.

Especially if said secrets belonged to either one of them. Naomi once told us that secrets were supposed to be shared between the people we trusted the most and that they made us closer. Xavier and I never questioned it, thus, the three of us started trading a secret for a secret. Eventually, it turned into a way to speak about things we weren’t comfortable sharing with anyone else.

“Then why the hell did I see you leaving his house yesterday?” he hissed. Even though his tone was rough, you could still hear the worry in it. “Someone could’ve seen you!”

The more that I listened to his voice, the more and more I got drawn into the sound as if it called out to me like a siren.

“He loves me, Xavier!” she yelled back fiercely, her voice cracking and my heart ached at the sound of it. Naomi was never one to yell. She had a bubbly easy-going personality, which was one of the reasons we got along so well. We were complete opposites but it balanced out.

I could hear her erratic deep breaths from here and I instantly felt guilty for overhearing this seemingly personal conversation. “I love him, Xavier. He plans to tell my mom he wants to marry me. He’s going to ask William’s permission.”

“Marry you?” Xavier finally asked after a long minute, his tone menacing. “Do you even hear yourself, Nay? Please tell me you understand how ridiculous that sounds. Not to mention what Dad would say.”

The silence was deafening, almost dangerous, as the words hung in the air. Anxiety prickled my skin, causing goosebumps to rise. I couldn’t help but hold my breath as I waited for a response. A few seconds passed before I heard something crash against the wall. I flinched at the impact before shrinking into my seat.

“Damn it, Naomi. He’s too old for you. You can’t be serious.”

“He wants us to be together without having to sneak around! He wants to love me openly, in front of the world. I thought you of all people would be happy for me!” Naomi cried, her voice barely above a furious whisper.

“Have you considered how illegal this all is? Or why you have to sneak around in the first place, huh?” His tone was a dangerously low rumble. “I can’t just sit back and watch him take advantage of you, Nay. You know Dad will disown you if he finds out. I can’t lose you too.”

Sweat beaded my skin as I shot up from my bed. The memory haunted my brain like a bad dream. I hadn’t forgotten about that day I hid in the back of Ms. Everley’s classroom. Neither Naomi nor Xavier found me back there that day. I had always assumed they were talking about some college kid who was too old and Xavier was being his overprotective big-brother self.

Naomi had always been into older guys, even back then, so it never seemed like a big deal. While she made it her mission to find creative ways to say “fuck you” to her parents, I doubted she would actually get married to him. Her mother and her stepfather, William, were not good people. They were very hard on her. And if anything, her and Xavier’s father, Decan, was worse. But at least Decan didn’t hurt Naomi physically—not the way he did Xander.

Still, despite their parents, the pair looked out for each other.

Never in a million years would I have thought the guy they were talking about wasMr. Sinclair. He wasn’t as old as her dad, but he was way older than all of us—andmarried.

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