The Innocent ↝ ÉLITE ¹

TWENTY ONE

"I mean, I can give you one if you want."

Samuel's eyes widened slightly. "No. I'm good."

Arlo smiled in amusement. "That's what I thought." She then looked up at hesitantly. "So are we good?"

"Yeah." The boy smiled. "We're good."

"Cool." Arlo beamed before she hugged him. "I've gotta go. I'm going shopping with Izzy and she's waiting in the car downstairs. I'll see you at school."

"Bye, Lo."

As Arlo walked out of the boy's room, she looked around to see Pilar was no longer in the kitchen or living room as she went to the front door, carefully not stepping on anything. She placed her hand on the door knob but Nano's voice stopped her from opening it.

"I care about her." He spoke up, getting up from his position on the couch. Arlo stopped in her tracks, not turning around. "I know you might think I'm just an asshole and I am. But I care about her. I'd do anything for her and I would never hurt her like that Pablo did."

Arlo tensed at the mention of Pablo's name before she finally turned to face him to see nothing but sincerity in his face and she inhaled a sharp breath, not knowing what came over her. "I believe you."

BEFORE ARLO KNEW it, the last day of school had come and she was now sat on the small staircase, reading with her earphones in. Her grades had been better than she was expecting. Martín had really helped and it sucked that she wouldn't have him next year to help her.

People were chattering all around her, buzzed about the last day of school and talking about the party that would happen when the school day ended. Girls were talking about their outfits while boys were talking about what girl they were taking. The girl briefly glanced around at the decorations before she went back to her book.

Someone then sat down next to her and the girl turned her head to see Guzmán smiling at her. Arlo returned the smile as she took her earphones out. "Hey."

"Hi." Guzmán greeted before he kissed her forehead. "What are you reading?"

"Pride and Prejudice." Arlo informed, holding the book up to show him.

"It's the last day of school and you're reading?" The boy asked. "You enjoying it?"

The girl grinned. "Yeah, it's great." She then shut the book. "How are you doing? How's Marina?"

"I'm okay. And I really don't know. She got all sentimental with us this morning and apologised."

"Maybe she really is sorry, Guzmán."

Guzmán scoffed. "I don't care anymore. You were right. It was her choice to do all that crap and I no longer gonna try and fix her mistakes. Are your parents coming to the party?"

"No." Arlo shook her head, feeling it best to go along with his change of subject. "Neither are Izzy and Diego. I didn't even wanna go myself, but someone managed to rope me in."

The boy grinned, shrugging in victory. "What can I say? I'm pretty persuasive."

Before Arlo had the chance to mock him, Samuel walked up to the two. "Sorry to interrupt, but Guzmán, can we talk?"

"I'll leave you to it." Arlo said, getting up to leave, but before she could, Guzmán took a gentle hold of her hand.

"Save me a dance later?" He requested.

Arlo grinned. "Sure." She then squeezed Samuel's shoulder before she left the two boys to it.

The rest of the day flew by just as quick as the year did and Arlo was in the locker room, putting on her party clothes which consisted of a short sleeved black dress that stopped above her knees with daisies scattered all over them, accessorised with black heels.