Morgan Rice - Craved

She thought to herself: he has no idea how right he was.

“Thank you, Mr. Sparrow. For everything,” she said meaningfully, knowing this would be the last time she ever saw him again. “I just want you to know, I really enjoyed this year.”

“The year is not over yet!” he said, with a smile.

“I know. I just want to say, if for some reason I don’t see you again, thanks for everything.”

He gave her a puzzled look, but before he could ask what she meant, she hurried from the room.

Scarlet walked into the hall and spotted Maria, closing her locker. Maria began to turn, and Scarlet hurried over to her. She figured it was now or never: she wanted to clear the air, and at least voice her side of the story.

“Maria,” she said.

Slowly, reluctantly, Maria stopped and turned. She was scowling back.

“What do you want?” she snapped.

Scarlet was taken aback by her anger.

“Look, I’m really sorry about whatever it is you think happened, but I didn’t steal Sage. You have to know that.”

“Oh no? So what did you do exactly? He just walked away by himself?”

“It’s not like that. I tried to set you two up. I really did. But he just wasn’t into you.”

Maria scowled, embarrassed.

“Is that what he said? Or is that what you are saying?”

“That’s what he told me,” Scarlet said.

But Maria just got angrier.

“Well, how could he be into me with you stealing him away? You didn’t give him a chance.”

“It wasn’t like that. I swear,” Scarlet said. “He came up to me.”

“Oh, really? Like you had nothing to do with it at all?”

Scarlet felt like this was going nowhere.

“Look, I would never steal anyone out from under you,” she said. “But it’s not like you two were dating. You didn’t even know each other. And he liked me. He approached me. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”

“You could phrase it any way you want to,” Maria said. “But the bottom line is, you betrayed me. That is something I will never forgive. You were supposed to be my best friend. You were supposed to look out for me.” Maria leaned forward. “We’re done. I don’t know you anymore.”

Maria slammed her locker, and turned and marched away.

Waiting for Maria down the hall were Jasmin and Becca. They each gave Scarlet a snotty look, then turned and marched off with Maria.

Scarlet could not believe it. Maria had managed to turn her two other best friends against her. She felt like she’d been excommunicated from her group of friends. She’d never felt so alone.

As she walked, the halls felt a lot bigger, and a lot less friendly.

Scarlet spotted someone heading towards her out of the corner of her eye, and she couldn’t believe it: Blake.

Oh no , Scarlet thought.

She braced herself. She could only imagine what her dad might’ve said to him the night before. She was already cringing with embarrassment. She was beginning to think that coming to school today had been a bad idea. Could this day get any worse?

“Hey,” Blake said.

“Hey.”

“So I like ran into your dad last night,” he said, sounding nervous. “He like cornered me in at the party. He was pretty pissed.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I really am.”

He shrugged.

“Whatever. He thought I was like a druggy or something. He’s so got the wrong idea. Is he always like that?”

Scarlet shrugged.

“He’s pretty protective, I guess.”

Blake looked down and toed the floor.

“Well, like, anyway,” he said, “I’m sorry that, like, you left when you did. I didn’t really, like, get a chance to finish talking to you.”

Scarlet looked at him.

“Actually I think you had your chance. But you let Vivian get in the way.”

It was time for Scarlet to air the truth. She’d had enough of half-truths. He could either take it or leave it. She really didn’t care anymore. Now, all she thought about was Sage. Blake had had his chance; he was too late.

The weird thing was, it was like Blake sensed it. He was acting differently towards her. It was like he sensed that she no longer cared – and that made him want her even more. In fact, she had never seen him seem so into her before.

“Well like listen, anyway,” he continued, stumbling, “the dance tonight. I really want to take you. Will you be my date?” he asked, finally looking up and asking her directly.

Scarlet was shocked.

Now? Of all times? Why did he have to ask her now?

She thought of the irony: if he’d asked her only 48 hours before, she would have been thrilled – she would have given anything. But now, she had genuinely lost interest. Now, she had Sage. And with Sage in her life, nothing else mattered. This dance, her friends, the cliques, the fights – all of it seemed so petty to her now. It felt like a world that was already far away from her.

“I’m sorry Blake,” she said. “But I can’t go with you.”

Blake looked at her, eyes open wide in astonishment. Clearly that was not the answer he had expected.

Scarlet didn’t wait for a response. She turned and headed off, walking down the hall, thinking of Sage – and wishing the minutes would tick faster until she could see him again.

Caitlin lost all track of time and place. She had no idea how many hours she’d been in this secret back room of this rare bookstore, combing frantically through stacks and stacks of books. There were mountains of them. Worse, they were all thrown in haphazardly, in so many different positions and directions, it was almost as if someone had deliberately tried to keep them disorganized. Perhaps that was the point: perhaps whoever did this wanted to hide that book.

Caitlin had seen chaos throughout her career in bookstores and libraries – but she’d never encountered anything like this. Not only were there so many books, but they were also each so rare, so valuable. She was astonished. She’d never seen such an abundance of riches under one roof. Some of the books that she’d already passed through her hands, she knew, would be worth millions of dollars on the open market. Why had anyone treated them this way?

Clearly, Aiden knew what he was talking about when he sent her here. And now she understood why the old woman was so reluctant to open her door. She was sitting on a gold mine. Each and every one of these volumes belonged in a museum, or university library, and a part of Caitlin wanted to stop and spend time with each one as she picked it up.

But there was no time. She felt a greater urgency than ever as she rifled through one book after the next, opening the binding as quickly yet carefully as she could, glancing at the title page, skimming through it to make sure it was not a printer’s error, and moving on.

Hours had passed, and she’d already managed to go through hundreds of titles. She was sneezing at a more rapid rate, the dust piling up, and was beyond exhausted, especially after not sleeping on the plane. A sense of hopelessness was starting to creep in. What if the book was not here after all? What if the page was missing? What if its ceremony didn’t work? What if she didn’t find it in time?

It could easily take weeks, she knew, to find the book in this room – if it even existed. She would have to get supremely lucky.

Caitlin scanned the room: there were thousands of titles yet to go, some stacked all the way to the ceiling. She swallowed, having no idea how she would even access those.

But she was not one to give up easily. She jumped back into the stacks on the floor, dealing with what she could in front of her. She rolled up her sleeves, reached over and hoisted yet another heavy volume. She went through books faster now, one, two, three at a time. Now, she just scanned the title pages and moved on. In some cases, she just scanned the spines, when visible.