Lauren had come back home with the other women of the Payne household and Scarlet had yet to come back to her house and all her family members were worried, well except for granny Payne, who was busy patting Pudding. Lauren was the most worried since she knew just why Scarlet had ran away from the shopping mall in the first place.

"I'm hungry." Granny Payne spoke getting the attention of everyone in the living room.

"Scarlet hasn't come back home yet and you're hungry." Andrew spoke while rubbing his forehead in stress. "Please, if you can't worry about Scarlet at least show some respect."

Granny Payne rolled her eyes before slumping in her chair going back to patting the poodle's head.

Lauren stared at her phone, sending another text to Scarlet. Since Scarlet wasn't picking up Lauren's phone calls, Lauren began to text the said girl.

"What if something happened to her?" Laura spoke with her voice shaky and her expression was evidence of her worry. Vanessa soothed her mother by patting her back, "Scar is a brave and strong girl. Nothing bad is gonna happen, okay?"

Laura nodded her head before looking at her lap with her eyes getting teary. Gregory was sitting in his mother, Wanda's, lap with tears already staining his cheeks.

A click was heard and everyone's attention turned towards the entrance of the living room. Scarlet came in with her eyes covered with sunglasses and her hood was over her head. She stared around the room and her eyes lingered longer on a certain blonde before she was tackled to the floor by none other than Gregory.

"Where were yu, Aunty Scar?" He cried as she patted his head with a sigh. She had been in a bar drowning in tears and cheap cola. Since Scarlet wasn't a drinker, cola was the closest beverage to alcohol for her.

"I'm sorry I made you worry." Her voice was cracked and raspy as she spoke looking towards everyone in the living room. Everyone muttered something before going to the dining room. Laura and Lauren stayed behind as well as Andrew, who was glaring at his daughter.

Scarlet sighed and stood up with Gregory still clinging to her. "Hey Greg, why don't you go to your mom?" Gregory shook his head making Scarlet sigh out before she placed herself on her knees to look at the six year old better.

"I won't go anywhere now, okay?" Gregory looked into Scarlet's eyes for a minute before he nodded hesitantly, leaving her to go to the dining room, while still looking back at the 24 year old.

When Gregory was gone, all hell broke loose as Laura bombarded her daughter with questions and Andrew just stood there nodding his head at every question his wife asked. Lauren stood silently, looking at the three with her own eyes getting teary.

"You, young lady, are so in trouble. You had us worried." Laura spoke while pointing her index finger at her daughter with anger and worry, but mostly anger.

"What she said." Andrew spoke while pointing at his wife.

Scarlet smiled at her parents and nodded frantically. Laura puffed air into her cheeks before walking out of the living room with her feet stomping with every step but stopped at the entrance.

"And come for dinner, now." Scarlet laughed at her mother, who had now left the living room followed closely by her husband. Scarlet was now turned towards Lauren, who was standing there with her watery eyes. Lauren smiled at Scarlet, who without a word spoken, turned around and walked away from her.

Lauren knew that Scarlet was going to probably ignore her now.

After an hour of trying to get Scarlet's attention, Lauren fell on the bed with a long sigh. She was tired of getting the same answer over and over again whenever she tried to talk to Scarlet. "I'm sorry, I'm busy. Can we talk later?" And that later was never going to come by because Lauren knew perfectly well what Scarlet was doing. She was ignoring the matter completely and in other words, she was running away. Yet again.

"You look bummed." Lauren looked up to see Laura standing in the doorway with a coffee in hand and a smirk on her face. "Y-yeah, maybe I'm just homesick." One thing Lauren had noticed since coming back from that shopping trip was that Laura had started giving her these weird looks and smirks all night.

Just like every other night, the Payne household was bustling with games and beverages of all types. Everyone was having the time of their lives, well except for Lauren and Scarlet, who was busy smoking on the roof of the house, without anyone knowing.

"Well, it has been three days since you came here." Laura pointed out and Lauren laughed awkwardly.

"So..." 

"I know that you and Scar are hiding something from me." All the color went away from Lauren's face when Laura spoke and all types of bad scenarios played in Lauren's mind in repeat.

'What if she knows about Scarlet being gay? What if she found out that I came here to take her back? What if she found out that I'm attracted to Scarlet in a more than friends way? Wait what?'

Lauren brought herself back to reality where Laura was now beside her quietly sipping her coffee.

"W-what?" Was the unintelligent reply of Lauren as she stuttered while looking all around the room. Praying internally that someone calls Laura and then she would have to go.

"I know that You and Scarlet are hiding something from me." Laura repeated as she stared at Lauren with an eye brow raised in amusement. "You're really red."

Lauren quickly brought her hand to her face. "I-I am?" Laura chuckled before she placed her hand on Lauren's knee. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna drill you with questions."

Lauren nodded dumbly as she smiled lightly at the older woman. "I know how Scarlet is, she's stubborn." The younger blonde woman had no idea where this conservation was going so she just silently listened, nodding occasionally.

"She's not going to forgive that Stewart fella just yet." Lauren's eyes suddenly widened as she understood what was happening here. "Oh. You're talking about that." Lauren sighed in relief making Laura stare at the girl in confusion.

"What else did you think?" Lauren just shook her head at Laura making the older woman more confused. "I'm confused." Lauren chuckled before she stood up from the bed not wanting to make the woman suspicious.

"Can you introduce me to all the others?" Laura stayed confused for a moment but her eyes immediately lit up when Lauren mentioned introductions. "Yeah, let's do that."

Lauren smiled and when Laura got up from the bed and walked out of the room while gesturing Lauren to follow, she sighed another breath of relief. "Thank god she doesn't suspect anything."

The blonde followed the older woman out of the room with another sigh of relief as she thought of what Scarlet would have been doing at the moment.

Lauren had just stepped foot into the living room when she was hit by a sofa cushion.

"Vanessa! Edward hit Scar's pretty friend in the face with the sofa cushion!"

"I did not!" 

The blonde woman stood looking at the two twins who were bickering at each other, while Greg was laughing at both of them not from afar.

"Behave, Ed and Ed!" Vanessa's voice was heard from the kitchen and both the twins stopped before glaring at each other. Blake was also sitting in the living room but he was quite busy with his phone to study what was going on around him.

"Black, where's Scar?" Greg asked as he came over to the said man wearing a cute pout. Blake looked up from his phone to glare at the small boy, "For the millionth time, it's Blake."

At the entrance of the living room, Laura and Lauren stood staring at the twins. "Okay, Ed and Ed, come here. Meet Scar's friend, Lauren." Both of the twins looked at Lauren before walking over to her with quick steps.

"Hi, I'm Edmund. I'm the charming and funny one." A hand was stretched out in front of Lauren to shake but before she could take it, Edmund was pushed away by his twin.

"He's totally lying. I'm the charming and funny one, he's just the nerd." The other Ed pushed out his hand while giving a cheeky smile which Lauren found really adorable. "Edward at your service." When Lauren shook his hand, he pecked the back of it like a true gentleman, while his twin brother scoffed from behind him.

"Don't worry. I think both of you are charming and funny." Lauren complimented as she glanced from Edmund to Edward with a sweet smile on her face making the two boys give her a toothy smile back.

"And that's Blake." Laura pointed at the man that sat on the sofa with his eyes trained on his phone. "Mom!" Vanessa's voice was heard from the kitchen making Laura yell back at her. "Yeah?"

"Kevin's gonna be early, so you better make the kids behave!" Vanessa demanded which got her a loud 'Hey!' from the said kids also known as; Greg, Edmund and Edward. "We always behave!"

"No, you don't! And can someone please go find my crazy sister!"

"Aunt Scar ish not crazy! You people are!" Greg shouted as he ran out of the living room to maybe go find Scarlet. Edmund and Edward followed closely behind him while bickering about something.

"We love each other so much here." Laura spoke sarcastically as she smiled at Lauren, who giggled adorably. "Do you have a boyfriend, dear?" Laura interjected making Lauren widen her eyes.

"What?" Lauren choked on her own saliva as she looked at Laura with questioning and confused eyes. "That was a turn of subject."

"Well, do you?" Laura urged as she gestured for the both of them to sit down at the couch that was vacant.

"Um, no."

"Oh, that is such a shame. You're a beautiful young lady. I'm sure men throw themselves at you." Laura remarked as Lauren blushed bashfully.

"No. It's nothing like that." Lauren denied as she sat awkwardly, trying to get the topic off of her. "Maybe you don't notice." Laura shrugged and Lauren just smiled awkwardly.

"I should go find Scarlet. Besides I do need to talk to her about something." Lauren admitted as she stood up quickly getting a confused look from Laura. "I'll be back after I talk to her. Promise." And with that she was out of the living room as fast as possible.

Looking around the house, Lauren had finally found Scarlet sitting on the rooftop of the house with an unlit cigarette between her lips.

"Oh my god, everyone has been looking for you. Well, only the kids but everyone has been wondering where you are." Lauren ranted as she walked carefully towards the sitting girl.

Just as Lauren sat down, Scarlet threw away the unlit cigarette before going to get up. Lauren sighed before she grabbed Scarlet by the arm and bringing her back down to sit beside her.

"We have to talk, and we will talk." Lauren announced as she glared at Scarlet, who was already returning the glare. "Later. We'll talk later."

"This 'later' won't come. So, we're gonna talk now." Lauren demanded as she stared Scarlet down, which made the girl sit down without another word.

"So you miss Katie. What's the big deal?" Lauren started as she took a hold of Scarlet's hand which was clutching harshly at her jeans. "You love her, and she betrayed you. It's going to take time to move on from that." Lauren continued as she brought Scarlet's hand to her own lap.

"That's why I'm here. That's why we all are here, and I'm talking about your family. They don't know about it but they will help you even when you don't want it. We will help you move on." Lauren explained as she smiled at a now frowning Scarlet, who was looking at Lauren in a new light.

"I wish she had just talked to me." A sob escaped Scarlet's lips as she quickly went to wipe at her eyes. "I still wish that she would've just talked to me instead of breaking my trust like that." Lauren watched as Scarlet tried to wipe away her now falling tears.

"And you know what the most pathetic thing about this all is?" Scarlet looked Lauren in the eyes as she smiled painfully.

"That I still want her back. I still want to hold her and tell her how much I am in love with her. I still want her. I still want her." Scarlet broke down as tears came streaming down her cheeks. Lauren watched Scarlet with a pained expression before she wrapped her arms around Scarlet's shoulders tightly.

"That's not pathetic. That's love." And Scarlet cried in Lauren's arms as Lauren looked out into the night sky, as she tried not to tear up herself.

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