7 Ensnared - Prologue (1/2)

I lean back in my chair as the school bus' engine revs up.

”Haaa, what a tiring day.”

Seriously, Chase… Cut it a little closer, will you?

I thought my high school career was over a good five times back there. My hair probably went all gray without me even realizing it.

Uh, figuratively of course. I don't think that's actually a thing that happens.

”…”

I open up my makeup bag and lift my compact mirror above my head to investigate.

Phew, everything looks fine.

I nod to myself and place it back inside of my makeup bag before allowing myself to slink back into my seat.

I can't believe he defended me like that, though.

I had already told him to just leave it alone earlier, but he goes and butts heads with Jen anyway like I'm actually…

His…

His, girl… f…

Ahhhh! What the heck am I thinking?! That's soooo gross!

Never never never never never!

Not with a geek like him!

Not with a degenerate virgin pervert like him!

Ew ew ew ew ew!

Okay, maybe I'm overreacting a little. I wouldn't have asked him to help me if I found him that unpleasant. He's an okay person, I guess.

But still!

No way!

I would never do it! Not with him!

Ahem.

Anyways, enough about that.

Right now, I'm currently ”enjoying” the bus ride home after that day full of tension and worry.

And I say ”enjoying” because I can already tell it's going to be a dull one.

Next to me is Momo, who already has her earphones settled in and is reading one of her fancy books. From what I've gathered of her so far, this is a fairly normal thing for her to do. I mean, I caught her with earphones on reading Catcher in the Rye during geography class just last Friday. I've kinda already come to accept that this is just a part of her just style.

The introverted, cool-girl aesthetic. I don't think anyone pulls it off as well as she does.

It's a bit of let-down that she'd go as far as to do it while I'm right here, though.

Jen has cheerleading practice today, so there's absolutely no way she was gonna ride with us. Not unless we waited, and by then all of the buses would be gone and we'd have to ride with her scary dad…

Yeaaaah, there's no way I'm ever doing that again.

This basically means that I'm all alone on this bus with Momo for today.

”Haaa…”

Guess I could just scroll through Twitter on my phone like I usually do.

I haven't been able to check things out much with how exciting the day was. Maybe it'll make the ride home less boring.

But the moment I reach into my pocket, I catch a glance of Momo in the corner of my vision. She seems to be holding one of her earphones out to me.

”Would you like to listen?”

My eyes shift between the earphone and her usual, uninterested gaze.

Uhm, should I accept? She seems like a heavy metal kind of girl, and quite frankly that's really not my thing.

I guess saying no would be rude though… Like, she did offer and all.

Oh well, what's the harm?

”Uhmm, sure!”

After hesitating for a moment, I swallow my pride and pop it into my ear.

Okay Scarlet, you can do this.

Just fake your interest.

You're a pro at this, you can…

…

I freeze up the second the music starts up.

It had completely caught me off guard.

”Drake? You?”

”Surprised?”

”Pleasantly!”

Almost immediately, I begin bobbing my head slowly and steadily to the beat.

Omygosh, I did not think she would like this kind of stuff. What a good decision this was!

”You know, I thought your taste would be more… Uh…”

”Underground? Oh don't worry, it is. This is the playlist I made for Jennifer.”

”Really? You did a good job then! God's Plan is one of my new favorites. Did she prepare a list for you to go off of or something?”

”Oh no, not at all. All I did was scroll through billboard's top 100 and pick songs out at random.”

She says it with a bit of a giggle. I can't tell if she's poking at how obvious our taste is or not.

”Honestly though, what surprised me was how much she insisted that I remove all Post Malone songs.”

”Really? That's weird. Does she hate his music or something?”

”Nope, she loves them. He just reminds her of a guy she dated for two hours this one time.”

Two… hours?

”But other than that, it wasn't all that difficult to put it together. In fact, it was kind of adorable how much she enjoyed such a simple playlist.”

”A-ah, is that so?”

As far as I could tell from how they speak to one another, Momo has probably been friends with Jen for quite a long time. As a matter of fact, I only got to know Jen because I happened to speak to Momo on this very bus a few weeks ago.

It was such a fortunate coincidence, too.

After I realized they were friends, I did my best to learn how to make myself fashionable and cool enough to befriend her. Surely enough, it worked out and I've finally become someone.

This is the first time I've ever been a part of the popular crowd at school.

And as it turns out, it's everything it's hyped up to be and more.

Everyone smiles at me, people give me respect, it's completely different compared to how middle school went for me.

Of course, there's still one problem. I'm having trouble hiding my boy issue. If that secret gets out, then there's no telling what would happen to my reputation.

Ahh, it's so frustrating! Why can't I just talk to guys normally like every other girl?! Geez, some people don't know how easy they have it…

I take a glance at Momo, who's already back to being absorbed in her book.

Only… huh? This doesn't look like an ordinary book.

The general formatting of the page is something I'm not very familiar with. The names of each character are written in bold print followed by their lines, which are written tidily beneath it. From where I'm seated, it reads more like a script than like a novel.

It's making me curious...

”Hey, what're you reading there?”

”A Midsummer Night's Dream.”

She answers without skipping a beat. The lack of pause gives me the impression that she had already known what I was going to ask. Or maybe she wanted me to?

”Oh. Sounds interesting, I think? Is it for your literature class?”

”Nope, we're reading Romeo \u0026 Juliet in that class. I felt the urge to read this one since I was already in the mood for Shakespeare. This one's a bit more comical.”

”Comical, huh? Must be… Uh, fun?”

Dammit Scarlet, you're blowing this.

I take a deep breath to refocus on the conversation.

”So, what's it about?”

At my question, she slides her bookmark into the page she was reading from before completely shutting the book.

”What do you think it's about?”

She holds the cover up to my face.

”Hmmm…”

The art on the cover page shows a man with a horse… no, a donkey's head beside a woman with insect-like wings. A fairy, maybe?

It's kind of… abstract, isn't it?

Still, as far as her question goes, this kind of cover will only confuse me even more. What kind of answer is she expecting, exactly?

”Uhh… Some sort of weird dream about animal people, maybe?”

I smile nervously, but she continues eyeing me as if waiting for another guess.

”I'm sorry, I have no idea…”

”Haha, don't worry. I didn't expect you to get it right. I picked it up because I couldn't tell you what the subject was at the time either.”

She smiles and then opens the book to the page her bookmark was resting in.

”Everyone already knows about Romeo \u0026 Juliet. They were in love, but their love was forbidden by their families. And in the end, due to some nonsensical misunderstanding, they both end up committing suicide over one another.”

Well yeah, even someone like me who's barely paid attention in a Literature class knows that much. The two are kind of iconic in romance fiction after all.

”But this play? The most you'll have heard without prior knowledge are a few quotes or the names 'Oberon', 'Titania' or 'Puck'. It's way more interesting than a play that everyone already knows the ending to.”

She takes a moment to turn the page.

”But anyway, to answer your question: after Hermia was forced into an arranged marriage with a handsome nobleman called Demetrius, she ends up escaping into the woods to elope with her true love, Lysander. It sounds like a simplistic story at first, but coincidentally, the king and queen of fairies are actually in the middle of a dispute over something mundane in that very same forest. When the conflicts over-arch… Well, as you can tell from the cover, some interesting things end up happening.”

After explaining the story, she goes quiet once more as she falls back into her book.

That's Momo for you, she's even better spoken than Chase…

But I end up scoffing at the synopsis despite how well she explains it.

”Sounds unrealistic. Who would turn down marrying into money just to go live in the wild with some everyday Joe?”

I mean seriously, why would you run away from that? Marrying a rich, handsome noble? That's anything you could ever want in life and it's being handed to you. Talk about an unrealistic story. It's painstakingly obvious that it was written by a dumb male who has no idea how a woman's heart works.

”…”

But, thinking back to how Chase took control of the situation and got me out of cafeteria back then… I did think he wasn't so bad at that time.

Maybe an average guy might not be the worst thing in the world.

The music from the earphone fills my mind, allowing me to entertain that fantasy of a whimsical love with someone completely normal for just a moment.

”Yeah, you're right. Thinking about it logically, who would turn down dating their pick of popular guys just to go out with a normal-looking man from the nerd circle?”

”Wha-! T-that's different…”

How did she know what I was thinking?!

”Hehe, are you sure it's different? Look, Scarlet. You're blushing.”

She snickers at me while poking my cheek.

”What…? N-no I'm not…”

I reach into my makeup bag one more time and take a look at my face through the mirror.

Oh my gosh, she's right. But why? I don't even like him that way!

I guess it's because I've just never been this close to a boy my age… I mean, we've only spoken to each other for a day but he's already been a lot of firsts for me.

Still, even after imagining it I just can't see myself going out with him for real. He's just way too plain. And his friends are just so… Ugh!

He still gets a big no from me.

”By the way…”

I instinctively rush to pack the mirror the instant I sense Momo's sudden shift in tone.

”Y-yes? What is it?”