The next suspicious Gabriel sighting didn’t occur for another two weeks and Scarlet was beginning to think her doubts about Gabriel had been ridiculous. But her fears came back to life when Heather dropped into a seat next to her before first period and said, “Gabriel’s up to something shady.”
Scarlet looked up. “Not again, Heather.”
“No, I’m serious. Didn’t he tell you yesterday that he couldn’t hang out because he had to work on his English paper?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I saw him. Right after school. In the warehouse district.”
The warehouse district was considered the ghetto of Avalon. But Avalon had a population of only two-thousand, so “ghetto” was a bit of a flexible term. Either way, it was strange for anyone, especially an Avalon High student, to be in the warehouse district at all.
“What were
you
doing in the warehouse district?” Scarlet asked, putting her pencil down.
“Getting my nails done.
Duh,
” Heather said, like Scarlet was supposed to know her friend went to the slums to get pedicures. “But I
saw
him, Scarlet. And he was definitely not working on his English paper.”
“What was he doing?”
Heather leaned forward. “He was talking to some weirdo in an abandoned building.” Heather blinked. “An
abandoned building
. Who chit-chats in the warehouse district?”
“Who gets their nails done in the warehouse district?” Scarlet retorted.
“You’re not taking me seriously, Scarlet. Gabriel is hiding something.”
Scarlet paused, thinking of the possible reasons Gabriel would meet with someone in an old warehouse.
She thought of none.
“There has to be some reason why—“
“He’s shady,” Heather interrupted. “I’m telling you, Gabriel is up to something. He’s dealing drugs or selling organs on the black market or something. He’s
bad
.”
Scarlet’s heart started to pound.
No. Gabriel couldn’t be bad.
He didn’t
feel
bad.
…Did he?
Scarlet furrowed her brow, confusion seeping into her chest. “No.” She slowly shook her head.
“Why else would he lie about working on his paper? Why else would he lurk around a creepy warehouse?” Heather tapped her freshly-polished nails on the desktop.
Scarlet shook her head again. “It just doesn’t feel righ—“
“Good morning, ladies,” Gabriel said, entering their first period. “Hey, beautiful.” He leaned down and kissed Scarlet’s cheek before taking the open seat on the other side of her.
Scarlet wanted to say something to Gabriel. She wanted to ask him a million questions.
But she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answers.
“Hey, Gabriel,” Heather said, slowly. “You weren’t by any chance in the warehouse district after school yesterday…were you?”
Scarlet shifted her eyes over to Heather, hoping to halt her friend’s investigation. She wasn’t ready to hear Gabriel’s answer. She wasn’t ready for him to lie to her.
Gabriel swallowed and waited a beat. “Nope.” He shook his head. “I had that English project thing.”
“Oh.” Heather shrugged.
The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class and Scarlet turned to look at Gabriel.
His eyes were buried in his notebook as he opened to a fresh page.
Why would he lie?
Several weeks passed and Scarlet couldn’t seem to shake her feelings of distrust.
No matter what she did, no matter how wonderful Gabriel was, there was always a sense of suspicion gnawing at her insides.
Seated across from Heather in the school library thinking about how little she really knew Gabriel, Scarlet doodled on her notebook. She repeated the familiar symbol, over and over.
Doodling helped her think.
“I don’t know where Gabriel lives.” Scarlet stopped sketching and waited for her best friend to respond.
Heather didn’t look up from the magazine she was flipping through. “Yeah, that’s weird.”
Scarlet bit her bottom lip. “And I’ve never met any of his family members.”
“Nope.”
She sighed heavily, succumbing to what her instincts told her. “Gabriel’s hiding something from me, isn’t he?”
Heather looked up. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Gabriel Archer is a hot delicious man of mystery. And, possibly, a mobster.”
Scarlet leaned her head back. “I don’t want a man of mystery.
Or
a mobster. I want a regular high school boyfriend who invites me over to meet his pets and look at his baseball card collection.”
“Baseball cards?
Really?
Gabriel’s seventeen, not twelve. Do people even buy baseball cards anymore?” Heather went back to flipping through the magazine. “You know what I think? I think he owes you. I mean, you told him about your amnesia thing right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that’s super personal. It’s like the biggest secret you have. And you shared it with him. And he was cool with it. I think the least he could do is confide in you about…oh, I don’t know…his
address
.”
Scarlet didn’t regret telling Gabriel about her amnesia because that’s what girlfriends and boyfriends did. They confided in one another.
But she wished Gabriel trusted her as much as she had trusted him. “You’re right, Heather.”
“Yes, I am.” Heather grabbed a new magazine to peruse and glanced at Scarlet. “B-T-W,” she didn’t fully pronounce the ‘W’ but instead shortened it to
dubb,
“those earrings don’t match that top.”
Scarlet touched a finger to the hoops she had on. “You know what I need to do?”
“Buy new earrings?”
“I need to fully embed myself in Gabriel’s life. I need to get to know the
real
Gabriel Archer.”
“You
need
to buy new earrings,” Heather said.
Scarlet ignored Heather and went on. “No more excuses. The time has come. Today, I am going over to Gabriel’s house after school.”
“Good for you. Now let’s talk about your shoes.” Heather put her magazine down. “They suck.”
Gabriel had forgotten how much he hated school.
Homework...P.E....cafeteria food? What had he gotten himself into?
School had been a very bad idea.
He grabbed his lunch food, bit back a sigh of despair, and made his way over to where Scarlet and Heather were seated.
“Hey.” Scarlet smiled up at him with her perfect, kissable lips and radiant blue eyes. He studied them for a moment. Were they bluer than they’d been yesterday? It was hard to tell.
A pang of concern shot through him as he took in her sweet face and, suddenly, he was overwhelmed with the desire to keep her safe.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said.
“So, I was thinking.” Scarlet leaned forward. “How about I come to your house after school today?” She smiled. “We can ‘study’ in
your
bedroom this time.”
Well, that certainly wouldn’t be happening.
Tristan would kill him.
Scarlet batted her lashes. “Please?”
Oh, crap. He was going to sound like a jerk. “I would love that, but today won’t work.”
Why won’t it work? Come up with something good. Come on, come on….
“It won’t?” Scarlet’s big eyes looked hurt.
“Unfortunately today…”
What do I say? Think, think…
“My house is being fumigated.”
Wow. Terrible excuse.
Heather coughed.
Scarlet raised her eyebrows. “Fumigated?”
He was committed now. “Yeah, you know, we have lots of those big…Georgia bugs.”
What in the world was he saying?
Scarlet nodded slowly. “Oh.”
Gabriel wanted to kick himself.
“Maybe next week,” he said, putting as much charm as possible into the smile he gave her.
Scarlet tucked her lips in and nodded her head. “Yeah. Sure. Next week.” She looked down at her food.
Gabriel moved his eyes and caught Heather glaring at him with an eyebrow raised.
I know, I know.
Busted.
Scarlet decided not to hang out after school. Gabriel had wanted to watch a movie or “study” with her—at her house, of course—but Scarlet hadn’t been in the mood.
Fumigated?
She wanted to believe him, but the lie was so bad she was almost ashamed of him. What was he hiding from her? What could possibly be so bad at his house that he didn’t want her there?
With those thoughts, Scarlet drove herself downtown after school. Downtown Avalon pretty much consisted of the town square, The Millhouse, and the public library.
Heather was working at The Millhouse after school, so Scarlet’s plan was to grab a cup of coffee from Heather and head to the library to study.
The
real
type of studying.
That’s how depressed she was; she actually wanted to study.
Scarlet’s boyfriend was a liar.
Agh.
She steered her car into the parking lot of The Millhouse and waited for Heather to arrive. Heather’s car was nowhere to be found because she was late for work.
Of course.
Scarlet tapped on her steering wheel and listened to the radio as she watched people mill about downtown.
She felt a pity-party coming on and let herself indulge for a minute.
Look at all these people. Happy, content. None of them have amnesia. None of them have identity issues. None of them have a lying boyfriend.
Poor Scarlet.
Lost, abandoned, lied to by her boyfriend.
If it hadn’t been so pathetic, Scarlet would have cried.
Maybe.
Scarlet wasn’t much of a crier, but she could see herself crying over Gabriel lying to her.
Maybe.
She sat in the car and tried to conjure up some tears.
Nothing came.
She sighed, looked across the street, and froze.
There was Gabriel, exiting the public library, looking as sexy as ever.
Her heart began to beat erratically.
What had he been doing at the library? Had he been studying?
Apparently, Scarlet and Gabriel needed to actually
study
during their next “study” session.
Scarlet watched him walk down the sidewalk and couldn’t help but sigh.
He was so perfect.
So handsome.
She almost got out of the car to call after him. Maybe they could get coffee together. Maybe they could talk about Gabriel’s secrets. Maybe Gabriel’s house really
was
being fumigated.
Maybe Scarlet was an idiot.
She moved to open her door when a thought hit her.
Or
maybe
…she could spy on Gabriel and see where he was going.
It was a naughty thought. It was wrong.
And it was absolutely what Scarlet was going to do.
How else was she going to learn things about Gabriel? He, clearly, had no intention of telling her himself.
She reached for her sunglasses—a universally accepted form of disguise—and started her engine.
Gabriel walked for another minute until he reached a black car she’d never seen him drive before. Usually, Gabriel drove a silver car.
Strange.
Scarlet stealthily pulled out behind Gabriel, keeping a good distance between them, and followed him out of downtown.
Heather would love this.
It went right along with her theory that Scarlet had been a spy.
Gabriel drove out of the city limits and into the thick wooded area outside Avalon, the same general area where Scarlet had woken without her memories.
Very strange.
She trailed him deeper into the forest until the dirt roads and lack of cars made it impossible for her to be sneaky.
She pulled off the road and waited until Gabriel’s car had disappeared into the woodlands, giving him a very generous head start, and then proceeded to track him down.
Like an assassin.
Maybe she
had
been a spy.
She drove through the forest for several minutes until she was sure she was lost and on the wrong trail. She couldn’t see the black car anywhere. All she saw were the many, many Georgia trees.
She’d lost him.
Maybe she’d failed as a spy in her other life and that’s why her memories had been erased.
Maybe Heather had been right.
Then Scarlet spotted him. The black car was a few hundred yards in front of her, cruising down a long driveway.
She slowly drove closer, trying to keep her little car as hidden as possible in the thick foliage.
She watched as Gabriel pulled his car up alongside an enormous cabin and parked.
Was this his home?
He got out of the car and headed up to the front door, where he let himself in. The cabin door closed behind him and Scarlet blinked.
The large cabin, made entirely of knotty pine, looked like a mansion with dozens of windows and a four-car garage. It stood two stories high with a short set of stairs that led up to a wrap-around porch and a huge front door.
This must be Gabriel’s house.
A house that was
not
being fumigated.
She’d officially caught him in a lie.
Was Scarlet satisfied? No.
Why would Gabriel hide this from her?
Scarlet found a shadowy place to park her car; close enough to walk to the cabin’s front door, but far enough away where Gabriel wouldn’t be alerted to her presence.
She had two choices.
She could bravely march up to his door with an excuse as to why she’d followed him.
Hi Gabriel. You left your history book at my house and I thought I’d stop by and return it to you since, you know, I was in the neighborhood. I often roam the deep woods of Georgia by myself after school….
Okay, clearly she’d have to work on the excuse.
Or
she could turn around and go home. Like a chicken.
Scarlet tapped her fingers on the steering wheel for a minute.
She hated mysteries. Her own. Those of others.
She was done.
She’d spent the past two years being afraid of everything. Afraid of her past, afraid she’d never recover her memories, afraid she’d never be able to live a normal life… afraid of
living.
Being fearful was exhausting. And Scarlet was done with the mysteries. Today, she was going to do something brave. Today, she was going to get some answers.
Scarlet got out of her car and quietly walked up to the cabin’s front door, her heart picking up with every step she took. Although there were many windows at the front of the house, all of them were closed off by drapes and blinds, making it impossible to see inside.
But also ensuring no one could see outside.
Gabriel had no clue Scarlet was standing on his front porch.
It was then that Scarlet started to reconsider her plan.
What was she going to do, knock on his door and say
Surprise! Just thought I’d drop in and catch you in a lie?
That was certainly no way to make a good impression on his family members.
No, Scarlet needed to leave.
Gabriel hadn’t wanted to share this with her, and she should be respectful of that.
This wasn’t brave. This was stupid.
Scarlet lifted one tattooed shoe and was about to turn away when she heard the doorknob turn.
Someone was opening the door!
Oh, no. No, no, no.
Scarlet hadn’t perfected her excuse yet. The only thing she had in her arsenal was the roaming-the-woods-after-school thing. And
that
certainly wasn’t going to work.
Gabriel would see her standing out there and she’d have to explain that she’d followed him to the middle of nowhere because she was a crazy girlfriend.
And then he would get all freaked out and dump her. She could see the heartbreak unfolding, right there, on the front porch of Gabriel’s cabin mansion.
Scarlet had to flee.
Too late.
The front door swung open and Scarlet couldn’t help but stare up at the person who’d caught her prowling.
It was Gabriel.
He was looking at her in confusion and disbelief. A thousand emotions crossing his beautiful face as his mouth parted and his eyes searched her over.
Scarlet’s heart began to drum wildly inside her, pounding against her chest like a caged feral animal.
As if it were desperate to break free. Desperate for…something.
Desperate for…
Gabriel
?
Uncontrollable and fervent, it arose in her chest as if waking from a deep and heavy slumber.
What was happening to her?
She couldn’t tear her gaze away from him.
She’d never been more drawn to him or more captivated by him.
Brief, incoherent flashes of memory assailed her mind and stung her consciousness like tiny darts.
There one millisecond, gone the next.
She was frozen in place, drawing in one long breath like she was breathing for the first time.
When her eyes locked on his, her violent heart nearly stopped.
The eyes staring back at her weren’t brown like Gabriel’s.
They were bright green.
Scarlet blinked as a sudden realization struck her.
This wasn’t Gabriel.
This was his twin brother.