6- A Fist and A Gentleman

Walking into the kitchen, Scarlet noticed how her grandmother was standing on her tippy toes looking for something in the upper most cabinet. Scarlet chuckled to herself before she went over to her grandmother and stood beside her.

"What do you need?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Granny Payne scoffed as she kept rumbling in the cabinet while still standing on her toes. "Oh come on, let me help you or you'll break a hip." Another scoff came from Granny Payne as she stepped aside and looked up at Scarlet, due to the said woman's height.

"I need Pudding's can of food. It's in the back." Scarlet nodded before she began to search for the can of dog food while wondering who had put it this far into the cabinet.

Granny Payne looked at Scarlet's back with a look of pain as she remembered something specifically about her husband, who had died just a day after Scarlet's birth.

"Never mind, I don't need it anymore." Granny Payne announced as she turned around to leave the kitchen with quick steps. "I can get it." Scarlet spoke as she turned around to find that her grandmother wasn't behind her anymore.

A sigh escaped her lips as she turned back around to find the can in the cabinet. When she had finally found the can of dog food, she carefully got it out of the cabinet and placed it on top of the kitchen counter.

Looking at the kitchen door, she felt a dull ache in her heart, before she wandered off into the back yard.

It was still early in the morning and most of the Payne family was still asleep while a few were awake.

When Lauren had finally done her business, she had come out of the bathroom to find that Scarlet was wide awake and had her cellphone in her hand. A small part of Lauren was rejoicing at the thought that she didn't have to cuddle with Scarlet again but the other part of her, the fairly large part; was disappointed.

Scarlet had excused herself to go get a cup of coffee while Lauren had gone to the guestroom that consisted of the Payne kids; namely, Blake, Juliet, the twins and Greg.

Just as she entered the room, Lauren was hit with the sounds of snoring and bickering. The snoring was undoubtedly coming from the half-naked Blake, while the three kids were fighting over an action figure.

Juliet sat on a movable mattress, looking at her phone with determination as she typed away quickly.

"How can you stay calm in this chaos?" Lauren asked just as she sat down next to Juliet with a plop.

"When you're related to them, it comes naturally." Juliet joked as she looked up from her phone to stare at Lauren's red face. "What happened to you?"

"What? I'm okay." Juliet raised a perfect eyebrow up at the blonde woman. "Your face is all red." Juliet stated and Lauren's face became much more red as if pointing it out fueled it.

"It's probably nothing." Lauren waved it off as she tried to avoid looking in Juliet's eyes. "Oh my god, do you like Blake?"

"What? Ew, no." Lauren glanced at the shirtless sleeping Blake with disgust as she turned back to look at Juliet. "Then what is it? Is it someone else?" Juliet's eyebrows began to wiggle as she smirked at the blonde woman.

"There is someone." Lauren muttered to herself but Juliet heard it as an excited squeal came out of her mouth, grabbing the kids' attention.

"Is she okay?" Ed loudly asked the other Ed as Greg looked at Juliet with his head tilted to the side. "I can hear you, Edward."

"I'm not Edward, he is." Ed pointed at Edward with a frown making Juliet apologize quickly.

"I'm just kidding, I am Edward."

The resemblance of the two twins always confused people, there family as well and Juliet, who was the sister of the two, couldn't even tell them apart except for the different interests of the two brothers.

"I am going to kill you two if you don't leave right away." Juliet growled as she placed her phone beside her. "Sheesh, woman. Can't even take a joke."

Ed and Ed got up off from their own movable mattress before they went out of the room with Greg, who was awfully quiet.

After the kids had left, Juliet turned back to Lauren, who was trying her best to not blush again. "Tell me all of the details and I mean all."

"It's nothing big, just a little crush." Lauren explained as she stretched out her legs from a bent position. "Doesn't matter. I want details."

Lauren sighed before she began, "Well, she just got out of a relationship- "

"What!" Lauren flinched from the loudness of Juliet's voice. "She!"

"Oh my god." Lauren muttered as she slapped her forehead, realizing her mistake. Thoughts swirled around her head that now the whole Payne household will know that she has a crush on a female and Juliet won't talk to her, and she'd probably have to leave the house right away. She won't even be invited to the wedding as well.

"Uh, yes. I have a crush on a girl." Lauren admitted as she slumped her shoulders waiting for a negative response from her new friend.

The response that Lauren was waiting for didn't come, instead came squealing noises as Juliet fan girled.

"Is she good looking?" Juliet asked after a whole minute of fan girling, and Lauren staring at her with confusion and surprise. Lauren snapped out of her daze to give a slight nod of agreement, at which Juliet squealed again.

"Okay, you have to stop doing that." Lauren pointed out as she began to feel comfortable with this.

"Sorry. But I'm just so excited." Juliet laughed at herself while Lauren smiled at her. "Thanks for understanding." She thanked shyly and Juliet cooed at the cuteness before she spoke something that Lauren was definitely not expecting.

"Besides, now you can finally talk Scar into coming out as well."

"What?" The shock was evident in Lauren's face as she stared dumbfounded at the red head.

"Scar's also a lesbian." The nonchalance in Juliet's voice was what made Lauren's eyes open wider than they had ever opened before. "You know."

"Of course, I know. I'm her sist- "

"Wait, you knew as well?" Juliet cut herself off as she squinted her eyes at Lauren making Lauren chuckle nervously. "Yes."

"Wait, then are you two a couple or something?" Juliet's voice dropped a little as she leaned closer to Lauren to whisper.

"No. I wish." Lauren face palmed herself immediately just as the words left her lips. "You like her!" Juliet stated loudly and Lauren flinched before she covered Juliet's lips with her hand.

"Could you speak any louder?" Lauren hissed as she turned to look at a still snoring Blake.

"I'm sorry." Juliet apologized just as Lauren took back her hand. "But if you like her and she's into girls, then why aren't you confessing your love your love to each other and riding a unicorn into the sunset?" Lauren laughed at the colorful imagination of the girl.

"First off, it isn't love, it's a mild crush." Lie. "And second off, she already has a girlfriend, or had." Lauren listed off with a little disappointment.

"But what about that Stewart guy?" Juliet asked confusedly as she looked at Lauren for answers.

"It's a long story."

"We seem to have a lot of time." Juliet smirked and Lauren glanced at a sleeping Blake before she broke.

After a few minutes, Juliet was made aware of the whole situation that had happened in New York. Lauren told her everything about how Katie, Scarlet's girlfriend, had cheated on her with Lauren's brother, Stewart, also the boss of Scarlet.

"Oh God, that's is a new level of fucked up."

"Tell me about it." Lauren muttered as she folded her legs up beneath her. "I hate this Katie for breaking my favorite cousin's heart."

"I hate her too." Lauren admitted and then instantly got a smirk from Juliet that spoke volumes. "What are you waiting for then, this is your chance."

"What?"

"You can win Scarlet's heart by confessing your love." Juliet spoke excitedly as Lauren shook her head frantically. "Crush."

"And I'm not going to just fall into her lap just because she's single now. She's heartbroken." Lauren mentioned as she sighed.

Juliet fell back on her back as she groaned loudly. "That sounds a bit sexual." Juliet commented and Lauren fell on her back laughing.

"It does, doesn't it?"

"You can try it."

"I'm starting to think that you're mad." Lauren confessed as she shook her head at her.

"What's there to lose?" Juliet pointed out as Lauren began to wonder.

Scarlet was sitting in the living room drinking a cup of warm chocolate milk just like Greg, who was sitting beside her smiling up at her while drinking the same thing.

"It's good, isn't it?" Greg nodded his head cutely as he sucked at the straw.

Everyone was now awake, even Blake, who was now fully dressed. Vanessa and Kevin had come back from the hotel with all of Kevin's stuff which had brought up a million questions that Vanessa calmly answered.

"He's gonna stay in my room." 'It's my room', thought Scarlet as she scoffed before padding away into the living room.

"Lauren, you and Scar can sleep in the guestroom where Juliet and Blake are staying." Lauren simply nodded as she and Juliet went to the living room as well where Scarlet was sitting with a frown, staring at the t.v that showed cartoons.

"We'll have sleep overs every night till the wedding." Juliet excitedly spoke as she jumped on the sofa beside Scarlet, who just scoffed.

"She'll get over it." Juliet murmured as she took hold of the t.v remote which was in one of the twin's hands.

"Hey!"

"Go out and play. Kids your age shouldn't be watching t.v." Juliet ordered as she glared at her brothers. "Scar." They both ran to Scarlet as she chuckled at them. "She's being mean to us."

"Yeah, like she'll listen to your lies even after seeing everything happen." Juliet laughed at them making the twins pout adorably. "Jules." Scarlet spoke in a tone of warning as she looked at the said girl, making Juliet look at Scarlet in disbelief.

"Whatever." Juliet waved her hand as she left the t.v remote on the sofa before getting up and stomping out of the living room making the twins celebrate.

Scarlet laughed at the girl while Lauren was torn between two things; first was to keep looking at Scarlet laugh like a kid, which was extremely cute in her eyes, or she could go and accompany her new friend.

For a while, Lauren sat glued to the sofa, looking at Scarlet's laugh turn into a smile that lit up the whole living room, but she immediately looked away when Scarlet's eyes turned to her.

"You're red." Lauren immediately brought her hands to her cheeks in embarrassment. "I should go see where Juliet is." Lauren quickly got up off the sofa and walked out of the living room as fast as her legs could take her.

"Oh my god." She muttered to herself just as she got out of the living room.

She was just half way up the stairs when her phone began to ring inside of her jeans pocket. Confusedly, she got her phone out of her pocket and immediately frowned at looking at the screen.

Rejecting the call, she continued up the stairs indifferently as if her brother hadn't just called her.

It wasn't such a surprising thing for her since she had been rejecting all the calls from Stewart since she had come to Scarlet's house.

She didn't want anything to do with Stewart for the time being because everything was going so great with Scarlet and her family. Lauren didn't want to think about her life in New York, specifically her brother.

Besides, it wasn't like his brother would show up at Scarlet's house. He knew about distance and why people wanted it in the first place, and the distance that Scarlet had put in between New York and her wasn't just out of boredom, it was completely serious.

He had to know that he had broken up Scarlet's relationship and on top of that, he had the audacity to even think of himself as the victim.

He was in the wrong and he knew that himself.

......................................................

The whole family was sitting in the living room, preparing for the wedding, except for Kevin and the older Payne men as well as the children, as they were out in the town to get suits.

The rest of the Payne family was sitting in the living room as Vanessa was picking out the decorations for the wedding.

"Why am I even here?" Blake complained as he sat between Scarlet and Juliet. "You and me both, bud." Scarlet mumbled sourly as she looked at Vanessa pointing excitedly at every decoration that she could see in the brochure.

Vanessa and Laura were sitting on the carpet as Wanda and Judith -Scarlet's aunts-, were busy on their phone talking to caterers about different things.

"Don't be so whiny." Juliet commented as she leaned backwards so that both Scarlet and Blake could hear. Lauren unconsciously nodded her head as she was sitting beside Juliet on the carpet as well while Blake and Scarlet occupied the couch with their legs up.

"But I wanted a suit too." Blake whined while Scarlet nodded her head with a frown as well. "I want a suit too, I hate dresses." Scarlet commented as she leaned back on the sofa with a sigh.

Lauren looked at Scarlet with a small smile on her face, "You look amazing in a suit too."

Three set of eyes turned to Lauren as she sat confused before she saw the smirk on Juliet's face which pretty much said it all. "Did I just..."

Juliet nodded her head with the smirk still on her face and Lauren had nothing else to do but to blush and hide her face from Blake and Scarlet's eyes. Lauren groaned when she heard the laughter of Blake but she groaned even louder when Scarlet said an awkward 'thanks' to her.

"I'm gonna..." Lauren stood up abruptly while making weird hand gestures before rushing out of the living room as if her life depended on it.

"Where did she go?" Laura asked from across the room as she squinted her eyes at the three young adults. "What did you three do?" She asked after the three remained awfully quiet.

"Nothing! We did nothing." Juliet burst out, as Scarlet and Blake glanced at each other before they looked at Juliet. "I'll go see where she went." Scarlet quickly got off of the couch before she went out of the living room and opted to go up the stairs first.

Walking into the guest room where Scarlet and Lauren were to sleep in for now, she looked at the blonde that sat in a corner with her legs close to her chest, and her head bowed down.

"Are you okay?" Scarlet asked carefully as she walked slowly over to the girl.

"Oh my god, yeah. Yeah." Lauren spoke quickly as she sniffed a little. Scarlet's expression softened as she sat down beside the blonde draping an arm over Lauren's shoulders.

"Were you crying?" Lauren denied to look into Scarlet's eyes as she shook her head, making her hair fall over her face. "Okay. What were you doing then?" Scarlet snuggled closer to Lauren as she brought Lauren's body closer to her own, much to the blonde's pleasure.

"N-Nothing." Lauren stuttered as she tried to wipe away a few stray tears that had fell out of her eyes. "If this is about how you complimented me downstairs, it's okay."

"No, it isn't about that." Lauren spoke in a low voice.

"Then is it about how Blake laughed at you, I could punch him into next week for you." Lauren giggled making Scarlet smile at the sound. "It isn't about that either, and besides, he's a good-looking man. He needs his face." Scarlet gave out a loud laugh as Lauren giggled adorably.

"Don't say that in front of him, the next thing we want is his ego inflating some more." Scarlet joked and Lauren nodded her head with a small smile as she stared at Scarlet.

"Now tell me why you were crying and why you left like that?" Lauren's smile disappeared as she looked into Scarlet's brown eyes.

"You won't get angry. Or ignore me." Lauren spoke as she pointed at the brown eyed girl.

"No, I wouldn't." Scarlet gave a smile for encouragement and Lauren heaved a sigh before she turned her entire beauty towards Scarlet's.

"I have a- "

"Scarlet!" Both Lauren and Scarlet jumped at the loud call of Laura.

"Yeah, mom!" Scarlet yelled back as she showed Lauren her index finger as to say to give her a minute. "There's a gentleman here to meet you!" Laura yelled back and both Lauren and Scarlet looked at each other before they got off the floor to go downstairs to see who this 'gentleman' was.

Descending the stairs with Scarlet, Lauren was cursing at the universe for disturbing her confession.

"Hello, Scarlet." Looking at the man standing in the middle of the living room, Scarlet's first reaction was to rush over to him and punch him in the face brutally as Wanda and Laura, both screamed at her while Vanessa and Judith tried to pull Scarlet away from the man.

Her second reaction to the 'gentleman' was to kick his balls as hard as she could while yelling, "Get out of my damn house!"

And Lauren stood in the doorway of the living room looking horrified at the whole situation. She had an idea why Stewart was here and she wasn't liking it one bit.

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