Chapter 7

(Scarlett's POV)

I've never actually cared what anyone thought of me. Sure, I made sure that guys thought that I was attractive, that I was funny and charming. But when it came to other girls, I just couldn't bring myself to care. They were stupid and annoying, and I never got along well with any of them.

Melanie was no different. She was always just this annoying thorn in my side, an obstacle in the way for me and Ashley to be together. If she had walked in on me when I was telling Ashley for the first time how I felt about him, or any time since then, I would not have cared one bit if she was upset or not.

That was before. The fact that the stupid hug was completely platonic made me feel absolutely horrible. I didn't want to go to the party because I couldn't bear the thought of her being upset with me. And every time she defended me so fiercely afterwards, I felt like crying my guilt all over again.

How could she stand to be so kind to me? After all that I've done, after I treated her so awfully all the time, how could she defend me? I started to see my past interactions with her in a new light. How could I have been so horrible, and so completely wrong about her?

Rhett was a completely different story. I wanted to see him, tried to explain what had actually happened between me and Ashley. He had to know that I wouldn't betray him. That I cared enough about him not to hurt him like that. He had to know.

Even still, he completely ignored me. Weeks went by when I didn't even see him at all. After he brought me home, he practically disappeared. The next day all I wanted to do was talk to him, explain. He loved me. He practically said as much. I had to let him know that Ashley and I weren't anything to worry about. I finally found him in the library.

"Rhett!" I cried, getting a dirty look from the librarian. He glanced up from his book.

"Oh, hey." He said.

Oh hey? Was that really all he could say?

"Where have you been? I've been worried." I said. He snorted.

"You mean you didn't know? I was with Belle Watling." He said.

Belle…Watling…?

"You went from me to Belle Watling." I said, shocked.

"Of course. I've been with Belle since you and Ashley decided that we shouldn't go on dates any more." I froze. He's been with Belle this entire time? I cleared my throat awkwardly.

"Yeah. I figured. You were kind of obvious about it." I said. He smiled.

"I'm sorry I worried you so much." He said, looking completely calm.

"I didn't care." I lied rather poorly considering I just said I did earlier.

"Look, I won't try to contest it if you decide to dump me." He said. I blinked.

"A break up? I'm not going to break up with you. Can you imagine how people would talk?" I asked.

"You'd break up with me if Melanie weren't around. It blows my mind to think how quickly you'd dump me then." He said coldly. I bit my lip and left. For the next couple of weeks, he didn't talk to me, going back to waiting on his sister hand and foot.

I never felt so miserable in my life.

(Rhett's POV)

I was still furious with Scarlett. I wasn't actually cheating on her. I was spending time with Belle, that was true, but it was just a friendly thing. I was mostly spending time with Bonnie. Bonnie made me feel better. It was refreshing, having someone seeing you as a hero when usually people hated you.

"Rhett!" I rolled my eyes. Why did everyone want to talk to me all of a sudden? Usually no one wanted to talk to me. I kind of missed that.

"What?" I groaned as I turned to Melanie.

"It's Scarlett! She's been in an accident!" She said. I felt the blood drain from my face.

"What?" I asked again, but I didn't wait for an answer. Melanie and I ran to her car and she drove me to the hospital. Somebody hadn't stopped at a stop sign. She was so upset about what I had said that she didn't notice it, and she got hit head-on. My eyes closed as Melanie told me the news. When we arrived at the hospital, I couldn't move.

It was my fault. If I hadn't been so angry, if I hadn't said the things that I did then maybe she wouldn't have ran off and gotten hurt. Melanie sat with me, but nothing she said made me feel better. It was all my fault that my girlfriend was in the hospital.

"Rhett, you can't blame yourself." Melanie tried to say.

"I told her that I cheated on her. I love her so much, and it hurt that she didn't love me back. SO I wanted her to be hurt, and I said that I was cheating on her to make her feel just as bad as I did. Melanie, I'm the reason she's in there." I sobbed.

Melanie didn't say anything, and just sat with me while I cried. I couldn't go in to see her. I couldn't bear to see her covered in bandages and tubes and surrounded by machines. I just couldn't.

Weeks went by, and Scarlett slowly recovered from her accident. She was still mad as a hornet at me, and I was kind of ok with that. Her being mad at me was normal. It was something that I could handle.

She ended the quarter with an A+ in woodshop. I smiled when I heard. She wanted to take the advanced class, but Melanie and Ashley convinced her not to. She pouted for a while, but Melanie pointed out that maybe she shouldn't be so close to power tools when she still had a concussion.

She didn't want me to pay attention to her. So I paid attention to my sister instead. Especially after Scarlett's accident, I needed Bonnie to tell me that I was the best big brudder she ever had.

That's when it all went wrong.

My dad decided to take Bonnie back to live with him. Apparently that whole scandal with the rest of the football team made me a bad influence in her life. Which is funny, because no one actually proved that I did any pot (which I didn't, by the way) and he was the one who wanted me to join the football team in the first place.

I moped around the school for a long time after that. Bonnie was the one person in my life that I didn't think I screwed over. Not yet, anyway. She made me feel like I could be a better guy. And now she was gone. Melanie tried to talk to me, tried to make me feel better, but it didn't work very well.

Melanie wasn't doing too well herself. She was starting to feel the pressure of junior year like the rest of her class, and she was starting to get sick. She had a really bad cough, and after a while she couldn't even get out of bed. Ashley waited on her hand and foot, and when he wasn't around her he was usually sneaking some booze.

"She's not getting better, man." Ashley slurred. I sighed.

"She'll be fine, Wilkes. Quit freaking out." I said every time that he started on that. But I was starting to worry too, because he was right. Melanie wasn't getting better. We didn't know what was wrong with her. She was just sick. Doctors came by, and finally we got the news. Melanie had to go up north for some special treatment.

Ashley and Scarlett were devastated. I was too, though I didn't show it. Melanie was the one who kept all of us sane, was the one who made us all happy even when everyone was miserable. She was an important part of all of us, and the fact that she was leaving us was nearly unbearable.

I was staying in the library thinking. That's when Scarlett came in. Figures. Now there was no way I could finish that. She had tear streaks on her face. I guessed that she had just said goodbye to Melanie.

"Well, she's gone. It's what you always wanted, right?" I asked. She gasped.

"How could you say that, Rhett? Melanie was my best friend!" She asked, sounding horrified. I snorted.

"Oh, now she's your best friend. Now that you don't have to worry about her being in the way of you and your darling any more." I snapped. She looked tired, as though she had just made a realization and was tired of thinking.

"The last things that she said to me were about you, you know." She said. For once, I was taken aback.

"What did she say?" I asked. She paused.

"She said 'Be kind to Rhett. He loves you so much.'" She said. I felt my face heat up a bit. Thanks, Melanie.

"Anything else?" I asked, trying to ignore that.

"Oh, she said to take care of Ashley." She replied. I sat back, rubbing my eyes. Here we go.

"I'm glad you got the ex's permission."

"What?"

"You know exactly what I mean. Now that Melanie's gone, then you can-"

"I don't want Ashley, Rhett. I want you. Oh Rhett, I can't believe that I was such an idiot for so long. I never loved Ashley. I just loved the idea of him. One that I came up with. And because I was so in love with him, I couldn't see the truth."

"The truth?"

"That I love you Rhett. That all of this time I was upset about Ashley you were there for me. You took care of me and you were the one that I could talk to about my problems. Rhett, you were the one that I loved this entire time!" She exclaimed. I laughed.

"You're joking, right?" I said. She looked confused and hurt.

"No, why would I joke about something like that?" She said. I felt kind of bad looking at her.

"Scarlett, if you had told me that a few weeks earlier, then I would've been thrilled. But now…"

"Now what? I don't understand."

"Scarlett, we're in high school. I said stupid things. You and I, we're too young to know anything about love. I thought I was in love with you, but I was wrong. I'm sure that in some time, you'll realize that you're not in love too. You stopped being in love with Ashley as soon as you decided you loved me. Soon you'll decide that you're not in love me, and you'll be pining over some other sap." I said, closing my book and standing up.

"Rhett! What am I supposed to do without you?" She asked, tears streaming down her face. I stopped, kissed her on her right temple.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

(Scarlett's POV)

Rhett left. I didn't even see him anymore after he did. But I wasn't too worried. I was Scarlett O'hara. I got what I wanted, even if it took me a while to get it. Rhett had once said that I was a lioness surrounded by gazelle. Well, I had set my sights on one, and I was going to begin hunting. Rhett said he wasn't in love with me, but I didn't believe him. And even if he was telling the truth, I would change that.

After all, tomorrow's a new day.