The girls moved along through the empty halls of the school in the direction of the cafeteria in silence. Taro's eyes glimpsed over at her friend with a nagging question playing on her lips. She swallowed the gathering saliva down and prepared to be brave. "Is it true?" Arlo stopped in her tracks.

Her back towards Taro and her eyes straight ahead. "Is wh—."

"Don't act naïve. It isn't your style."

The air thickened, and her lungs grew tight. Her head spun and her eyes blurred. His face a clouded image replaying in her mind's eyes as she found herself lost. Arlo didn't turn around and Taro didn't move. "Be specific."

"You want specific? Why am I hearing that you're talking to a murderer?!" her words stung like the lashes of a whip at her back and she shook. Her skin burnt, those words hurt, her head ached.

"I... h—he was kind."

She scoffed at the bullshit. "Kindness can be faked."

Arlo shrugged, not knowing how to defend someone her own instincts didn't. She searched her brain for an answer, wanting to get the sting of Taro's words off her flesh. Her breath quickened, her mind raced, she stopped. Arlo turned to face her, turned to watch her, turned to show her her eyes. "He was kind, and he seemed too good to be true," she took in air, "I didn't judge him too quick."

Arlo's dark brown pupils burnt into the soft browns of Taro. She nodded. "Where is he?" She shrugged. "What do you mean? If you're talking with him you should know—." she cut off her own words when she saw the emotions laced in Arlo's eyes. "Arlo, what is it?" it was as hushed as a whisper could be.

"He lied... so easily... he scared me." Taro stepped forward, her eyes saddened as she pulled Arlo into her arms. Arlo buried her face into the crook of her shoulder as tears waltzed down her cheeks in an uncertain path. "Shh, I'm here now."

She gripped the back of her jacket, her tears not of sorrow, but of worry. There in her class, before her eyes, she found him in a lie and she couldn't tell his lies apart from his truths. She shook her head, trying to find the fault in his words towards her; praying to get a false word hidden between the deceptions. Arlo bit her bottom lip, is Cillian really who she thinks he might not be, or is he playing his cards right at her oblivion?

She drew back from Taro and sighed. "Hey, you done crying?" Taro asked.

She nodded and wiped her eyes away. "Let's get to lunch."

"Okay, as long as you're alright." she hooked her arms with Arlo's as they continued to the cafeteria.

They walked through the doors of the lunchroom, a littering of eyes peered at the duo as they made way to the lunch line. Arlo was caught up in her mind, so she couldn't be scorned by the glares that marked her steps. Taro was her rock, she was the closest person to her, the only one that understood her and the only one that didn't judge her like the hornets infesting this school.

"So, what happened?" Taro queried. Arlo nodded to the lunch lady and glanced at her friend as they moved down.

"Not here." she got the message and let the topic go free. Picking up their trays, they made a beeline for the exits leading to the outside patio where they'd frequently escape to eat.

The rain had let up enough so they were able to eat outside. Taro found their table close to the tall oak tree that wasn't that wet. Arlo and Taro used their napkins to dry off the metallic bench so they could sit. Arlo didn't start off right away, but first, she savored the sweet taste of the honey glazed chicken drumstick on her tray, then looked up. Taro was patiently waiting to hear her side, having heard enough make believe and nonsensical utterances from her fellow artist and other classmates. She wanted to listen so she could wrong them for saying that Arlo was involved with Cillian. She didn't believe a soul in that classroom.

Arlo cleared her throat. "Did you hear about this morning?"

"Someone said you threw yourself at him."

She shook her head. "I tripped over my laces. He caught me."

"Then they said you and him befriended each other in math."

"I didn't know the problem. He likes math, he answered the question... for me."

Taro nodded at the answers she got, she knew Arlo wasn't what the masses said about her. "What happened then?"

"We kept on finding out that we had the same classes each period. At one point I asked to go to the restroom and considered skipping the class. I just didn't know enough to trust him and I questioned why I did."

"Do you trust him?" her voice got softer, she knew Arlo always found good in people but she didn't want her to fall in with bad company.

Arlo's mind was a danger zone—a mess of emotional confusion, a chaotic fight with both sides of the topic, debating over whether it was right to help keep his name tainted or aid in scrubbing his title anew. Her thoughts couldn't settle, her mind couldn't let up. "I don't know." Taro reached out, her hand covering Arlo's from across the table.

The friends sat in a bubble of comfort as the silence made a free fall in the open space of the patio. Every pair of eyeballs followed the other in the same direction... Then the buzzing came, the harsh noise building as soft footfall crushed blades of grass into the muddied earth.

Balled up fist, shoved into warm padded pockets of a leather jacket. The eyes followed where the feet trailed. His eyes non-expressive, blue orbs of countless questions. Taro was first to notice that the regular buzz of activity had stopped and that something was off. She turned her head and her pupils shrank at the sight. Arlo saw Taro's face, wondering what distraction could have stolen her gaze.

Time slowed, the wind brushing through, the trees shuffled with unrushed grace; the blinking eyelids took their time to reach each other, with no urgency; his crushing footfall steering themselves towards her, they're confidence blinding; her heart expanded, and deflated, lazy in its job to keep her alive. She gulped, feeling the world stop and then pick up speed.

Cillian's sharp gaze touched hers and did not care to let go. The heels of his black boots echoed thunder on the pavement as they took their time.

With each step, time seemed to inch faster, to get quicker, to push against the hold on its axis. His feet came to a stop, and the cord snapped, the axis kicked times ass back forward and resumed as usual. A small smile touched pale pink lips, and a soft grace hugged his features as he tipped his head to a side. "Hey, Arlo."

The murmurs erupted, her name sang in a choir of uncertainty, his title flew around the open space like raging wasp and her heart hiccupped back to life.