“I thought it would be easier to find a prom date with more guys here, but I’m still stuck with the same old fuck boys asking me out,” Tiffany said.
“Ugh. I know. Janelle told me that Britton said those guys Bentley and Anthony don’t have dates. Maybe he could hook us up,” Erin said.
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “If I’m going to go to prom with one of Britton’s friends, it’s not going to be those two. They’re always high.”
“True, but we can’t be lucky enough to already have a man like Janelle and Scarlett over here. Beggars can’t be choosers, right Scar?”
Scarlett nodded absently, mostly ignoring their conversation. Devin hadn’t actually asked her to prom yet and she assumed that they wouldn’t be going as he wasn’t the type to turn up to school dances without an immense amount of prodding that she just couldn’t be bothered to muster for the first of three Terrebonne proms.
The three of them made their way to the school’s parking lot, slowly following along the mash of students shuffling along the sidewalk near the football stadium. Long queues of cars and buses lined the streets to pick up those unfortunate enough to not have a car.
“Scarlett, you alright?” Erin asked.
“Yeah, I’m just ti—”
A fist connecting with her face and pain springing from her nose stopped her sentence short. She stumbled back, her hands dropping her books and instinctively going to her nose just in time to catch the first few drops of blood.
Through teary eyes, she saw the blonde Caesar was always with standing in front of her. “What the fuck? What the fuck is your problem?”
“You are, bitch,” she said, dropping her backpack.
Confused, Scarlett opened her mouth to speak again, but the blonde lunged forward and grabbed a fist full of her hair with one hand and began wildly swinging at her face with the other.
Scarlett used her hands to shield her face as she was jerked around by her hair. She could hear Tiffany and Erin shouting between the insults from the girl assaulting her.
It was over as soon as it began. Although it felt like it an eternity to Scarlett. She remained bent over, afraid to look up knowing there would be a crowd of onlookers watching a fight.
“Stop thrashing around!” the school’s resource officer shouted. He shook his can of mace. “I mace girls too.”
Scarlett peaked up. The girl wore a smug grin despite the police officer handcuffing her, a “My daddy is an insert prominent last name here” grin.
She spat on the pavement. “You aren’t even fucking pretty. Stay away from Caesar, bitch.”
“That’s enough of that! It’s a trip to Ashland for you,” the SRO said as he shoved her back toward the school.
Tiffany and Erin rushed to Scarlett’s side.
“Oh my God. What a crazy bitch! Are you alright?” Tiffany asked, frantic.
“What was that all about? She kept saying shit about Caesar. Since when did you hang out with Caesar?” Erin asked before she could answer Tiffany’s question.
Scarlett just shook her head, using her hand to try to staunch the blood pouring from her nose. She picked up her books as best she could and pushed through the crowd that’d formed, ignoring the jokes about her getting her ass whooped and needing to learn to duck.
He stepped in and shut the door behind him. He slowly walked to the side of her bed and knelt next to it.
“Your mom said that you’ve been in here since you got home,” he said in a hushed tone. “Do you want me to go get you some food or something?”
She sniffed back tears and shook her head. Her hand was strategically placed on one side of her face, attempting to hide the beginnings of a black eye.
“What do you want me to do then?” he asked.
“Build a time machine so I could go back to this morning before I was the laughing stock of the school,” she whispered.
“You know by tomorrow morning that someone else will get in a fight and everyone will be talking about that. We do go to Terrebonne, after all.”
“I don’t care. I’ve never been so embarrassed. You weren’t there.”
Devin hung his head in guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all so stupid.”
“Tiffany told me why that girl hit you.”
She laughed, but it was humorless. “Oh, right. I forgot that everyone is going to think I had sex with Caesar Jenkins because of this, too. I guess this is where you tell me that you’re breaking up with me to put a bow on this horrible day?”
“No. I know you wouldn’t do that. I trust you.” He paused. “But you didn’t tell me that you’d been hanging around with him for a few weeks.”
“He was helping me with history. He’s got the highest grade in the damn class.”
“Why wouldn’t you just tell me that?”
“I know you don’t like him. And clearly, people think that if you are around him then you’re spreading your legs for him. It’s just unfair. I get help from some guy who happens to be a man whore and the whole world blows up. What’s going to happen to his reputation? Nothing.”
Devin reached for the hand that she was laying on and pulled it away from her face. He cringed at the bruises but threading his fingers through hers. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all high school bullshit. Can you say you survived the Terrebonne Jungle if you’ve never been in a fight?”
“I didn’t even hit her. How pathetic.” She scoffed.
“Next time, you have to swing back,” he said, laughing softly. He stood up. “I’m going to go get you some ice for your eye.”
She held onto his hand. “I love you, Devin.”
“I love you, too.”
“Can you stay tonight?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
She smiled and let him go. He walked out into the hall and stopped for a moment after closing the door. He took a few deep breaths to calm to the anger inside him from hearing that Scarlett had been hanging around Caesar. He trusted her fully, but that didn’t make him feel much better.
Sighing, he headed for the kitchen to find some ice.
After a few more minutes passed, the light in her parents’ bedroom clicked off. She poked her head out of the door soon after and beckoning for him to come in. He shook his head and remained standing against her car.
“What the fuck are you doing? Come on,” she said, her voice raspy.
“Come out here.”
She looked over her shoulder and stepped outside, walking over to him. In her hand, she held a water bottle. Opening it, she brought it up to her lips.
Caesar smacked it out of her hand, sending the water spilling over her.
Her mouth hung open in shock. She quickly composed herself, though. “What the fuck is your problem? That was completely unnecessary.”
“I heard about your little tussle this afternoon. Didn’t I tell you not to do that jealousy shit?”
“Maybe you should be fucking ugly girls.”
He shook his head. “Let’s start with the facts. I didn’t fuck Scarlett, but even if I did, it wouldn’t be any of your fucking business.”
“Yes, it would be my business! We’re together!”
“Do you think I’ve stopped fucking other chicks because of that? Clearly not or we wouldn’t be standing here right now,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter because we’re done. You’re not going to be going around dragging my name through the mud because you can’t keep your fucking emotions in check.”
“That’s bullshit!” she shouted, starting to hit him in the chest. “What I did wasn—”
He grabbed her by the hair and turned her so she was facing away from him. She yelped in pain and clawed at his hand. He wrapped his other arm around her so she couldn’t scratch him but kept his hold on her hair.
“Not as fun being on the other end of this is it?” he asked. “It must suck not being able to defend yourself against someone.”
“Let me fucking go!” She struggled against his hold, but it was no use.
“I thought you wanted to act like a ghetto queen. You’re going around fighting and shit behind stupid shit. So if you’re going to be ghetto, this is where I should bounce your head off the pavement, right? That’s how it happens on Stovall and Prince Collins, I’m sure. You make your man mad. Your man beats the shit out of you.”
She whimpered. “Caesar, please stop. I’m sorry.”
Caesar let go of her and shoved her away from him. “I’m glad you’re embracing being at Terrebonne. You just need to get knocked up but some motherfucker selling drugs now. Good luck with that. Stay the fuck away from me.”
“No, please. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, trying to stop him from leaving.
He brushed her off and started walking down the street to where he’d parked. As he did, he took his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Ashley asking her if she was up.