Nathan

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Remember Nicolai, Roman's red-haired associate, who couldn't seem to leave his promiscuous ways behind? His goal is to become an engineer, and honestly, his grades nor determination point in the way of that happening. It's upsetting how he's completely oblivious to it, but I guess that's the beauty of hope.

Stephen, Nathan's friend, is fixed on being an entrepreneur. Unlike Nicolai's, I could see Steph's aspirations quickly coming into fruition. I guess that's what High School does to you: separates the people that are living on a dream, from the people who have been constantly living off of determination to make it come true. It was hard to place my own self in either category, I guess time will tell.

As I was letting go of Xavier, who I had just spent a while hugging, my phone rang from my other hand. I moved everything from my right hand to my left in order to see what it was. It was a text from Arson, who I thought I saw in the crowd, but wasn't sure.

Arson : Can you meet me at the far end of the parking lot?

Me : Yeah, sure, I didn't even know you came today.

Arson : Everyone came.

I decided not to reply to his message, and to just make my way over to the parking lot. I couldn't find my other friends in the sea of people anyway. I'm sure he probably only wanted to congratulate me, away from all of the clutter. If I recall, he wasn't much a fan of large crowds either.

X

Five minutes later, I found myself at the end of the lot, Arson's car sat parked in the middle of the empty parking spaces. There were at least six spaces left empty in either direction. He stood up against his car, his hands folded tightly across his chest. I tilted my head to the side in question, the boy only laughed and held his arms wide for me.

I stepped into his hug, which was very momentary. In doing so, I noticed something different about him. "Oh my gosh, you're growing your hair out?!" I poked fun, running a few fingers through the strands that fell over his forehead. It didn't look bad on him, and the fact that his hair has been in a low cut ever since I met him again was something I was just now realizing.

"Yeah, it's whatever, I think it makes me look like less of an Ex-Con." The brunette joked, even though it was very much true.

"While I thoroughly enjoy talking about your new hairdo, my ... guardians are probably looking for me." I point out, and gestured over my shoulder, back at the celebration. It was weird of him to summon me over to this lonely part of the venue. "Wait, you stayed for the whole ceremony?"

"I did." He nodded.

"Oh, I didn't even see you, there were so many people."

"I stood against a tree and watched, you know that I'm still banned from all the events your school hosts, right? Can't even walk on their property without being shooed off." Arson sadly told, only saying it so that I could feel bad for him.

"That's what happens when you–"

"–light garbage cans on fire, I know." He chuckled, before looking over from the water in the distance to meet my eyes. "I didn't tell you to come over here to talk about irrelevant stuff like that. The only thing that I want to tell you, Peri, is everything you're missing."

My genuinely happy facial expression turned into a fake one, plastered across my face. I didn't want to misinterpret what he meant, so I thought that showing a likewise emotion wouldn't be a good idea either. "What do you mean?"

"I mean ..." Arson trailed, fidgeting in his stance against his car. The fact that he never changed his posture until now shows me how serious he was, regarding whatever he was about to tell me. Everything else – moving, jittering in that spot – didn't matter, him translating his message was all that did. "I've seen that you've been entertaining and giving attention to these boys that are in your life. I just think that it'd be in your best interest if you had a man that wouldn't waste your time."