Wandering through the clothing racks again was like walking through heaven for Seraphina.
She loved drifting through the various articles of clothing, wondering what would look good on her and what would be interesting to try on.
It was relaxing to finally be doing something normal for once.
Well, as normal as it could get given the circumstances.
This time to the mall however, she wasn't looking at clothes for herself.
While shopping for herself was easy as she was well aware of her own tastes, she had almost no clue on how to shop for others, all with very, very different ideas on clothing and attire.
It was a bit tricky but she was slowly making progress. And while progress was slow, she was glad that students now had a designated time slot to leave campus.
Granted, she had to bring someone along with her given her current predicament, but she'd rather have Arlo with her than no one at all.
Not only that, she chose him to come with her as she had no idea what could possibly fit the towering blonde.
She knew about the other's sizes as they had written them down, trusting Seraphina's choice in clothing.
Arlo, however, did not.
Despite the others attempt at convincing Arlo to just give her his sizes, he refused, Seraphina having to compromise and bring him along.
Currently, Arlo was also wandering around, looking at clothes. He wasn't as much of a clothing snob as she was, but he at least had a good eye.
Seraphina had picked out some simple, but form fitting clothes for the others. She would let them add on later.
So far for Remi, she had gotten her a grey t-shirt and a high-necked sleeveless zip-up vest in light pink with a set of white stripes. She had also taken the liberty of getting her some plain grey pants.
Sera didn't have to worry about shoes since Remi owned a decent pair of calf boots.
She had also stumbled upon some full leather gloves and padded arm sleeves for the pinkette to help better keep her fingers and arms protected from any heat.
For Blyke, she got a red shirt, a long, hooded black jacket that cut off at the shoulders, and finger-less gloves. She had also gotten a pair of dark grey combat pants and he already owned a pair of work boots.
Isen was a bit more difficult.
His style was very particular. he didn't like overly tight clothing but he also didn't want anything abnormally baggy.
So, she settled upon an orange turtle neck with a black over shirt and a dark brown trench coat. Isen insisted on wearing his pants from school but Remi had convinced him to allow Sera to get him new shoes, his uniform shoes not having enough traction to keep up.
Seraphina had just grabbed a pair of shoes for Isen when Arlo walked over to her, looking slightly uncomfortable.
The magenta haired girl raised an eyebrow. "Arlo? Everything alright there?"
He sighed as he ran a hand over the back of his neck. "I...I might need some help."
She simply stared at him before getting up, brushing her jeans off. "What happened to Mr. 'I can handle this by myself?'"
Arlo huffed. "Look, I'm not exactly used to shopping like this. Can you help me out just this once?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Hm...well, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. So sure. Why not?"
She almost smirked as she walked by Arlo who had a look of pure annoyance.
As the two surveyed the hangers, Arlo decided to ask something. He had been curious about it for awhile now and wondered if the girl beside him could answer some questions. "Seraphina, I've been wondering, why are you still so invested in John? I understand he is, well, was your friend, but that doesn't mean you're obliged to go after him. Why do you still care so much about him after everythi-?"
He stopped when he saw the look she gave him.
Seraphina sighed as she looked at a dark blue shirt with a white v-like stripe. "I'll explain when we're done here. For now, let's just find you some suitable clothes." She threw the shirt in his face before walking off to keep looking.
The blonde had eventually found a pair of grey pants and some dark grey boots. Seraphina had also tossed him a pair of arm guards, the leather looking slightly uncomfortable as it was brand new.
Arlo had asked her where she found them and why he needed them. The girl only turned and pointed to the discount bin where junk items had been tossed to and then gestured to his arms. "You and I both know your arms are the weakest spot on you when you're using your shield. Hopefully, they'll help provide some added protection from whatever you'll face out there."
The blonde wanted to argue but bought them anyways, realizing there was no point in fighting with Seraphina.
Once they had gotten their bags, they headed for the food court to grab some food and a drink before heading out.
Seraphina bought her usual drink and a pretzel while Arlo, much to Seraphina's surprise, bought a plain black coffee.
'How original.' She thought.
They eventually found an empty table to sit at in the food court.
The two sat across from one another in an awkward silence for a minute before Seraphina spoke up. "Arlo...what do you know about John?"
The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Where is this coming from?"
The girl across from him raised an eyebrow, silently referencing his question from back in the store before Arlo finally caught on. "Well, he's always angry, aggressive, violent, he acts like a damn child-"
"No." Arlo stopped as Seraphina took a sip of her soda. "I meant, what do you know about John before all of this happened?"
There was silence between the two for a minute before Arlo finally spoke. "Annoying as hell. His confidence was almost unsettling and he was almost unbearably cheery once he warmed up to me..."
Arlo swore he saw the faintest smile cross her face. "But, it was a John you started to open up to, right?"
The blonde gave her a crazed look.
What?!
Where did she get that assumption from?!
And like hell he would ever start opening up to-!
..................................
John pointed his finger at Arlo slightly. "What about you? Do you look up to anyone?"
Arlo's eyebrows knitted together. "Uhh what?"
John's mouth curved into a small smile. "C'mon, there's gotta be one person! Sera maybe?"
Arlo would've busted out laughing at the statement if he weren't so stubborn. Instead, he gave an annoyed chuckle. "Her? Psh! No way." He turned his head to look out the window, his thoughts starting to turn a bit.
As Arlo sat there, he couldn't help the image of an electric man with wavy green hair and bright citric eyes who managed to see the best in everyone.
Part of him wondered what would happen if Rei were sitting with him and John in this booth.
If he had to guess, Rei would urge him to try the boba tea, knowing if he didn't agree, the green haired man would've just taken the coffee cup and chucked it out the window. Had that happened, John would've probably laughed his *ss off and Rei would probably join in when the two saw Arlo's reaction.
Arlo sighed slightly as he turned back to look at the ravenette sitting across from him as he uttered one name.
"Rei."
John was obviously confused, one of his eyebrows raising up. "Who?"
Arlo turned his gaze down to the table slightly. "He was my predecessor. I never agreed with the way he ran things. But, it was difficult to dislike him."
The blonde turned his gaze back to John, who watched him with full attention. "He had quite the knack for recognizing others talents. And, he was extremely powerful."
He didn't know why he was telling all of this to the ravenette. He hadn't even talked this out with Remi entirely yet. But before he knew it, he had found himself actually being honest with John. He found himself being open not just with the ravenette, but with himself.
And, dare he say, it actually felt relieving to finally talk about this.
Arlo didn't even notice the tone in his voice change ever so slightly, growing a bit quiet, a bit distant. "If he were still alive, I wonder which one of us would be stronger."
John's eyebrows furrowed together, a mix of confusion and concern flashing across his features. "What do you mean by that-?"
Arlo stood up suddenly, finally snapping back into his senses.
What was he doing, talking about all of this?!
He wasn't here to make friends or to have a damn heart to heart!
He was just here to figure out what John was hiding, nothing more, nothing less!
Besides, how could he ever trust someone who was withholding such a tremendous amount of power? Who had been hiding who and what he really was all along?!
Someone that unpredictable...they could never be trusted.
Arlo slid a $5 bill across he table. "I just remembered. There's something I have to take care of. This is for my drink."
..................................
Arlo froze in the middle of sipping his coffee, the sudden flashback and the familiar drink mingling together, now starting to taint the drink in his hand.
'Was I really opening up to him...?'
He instead put the cup down, staring down at the table slightly. He was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Even if I did, what does that have to do with John right now?"
The girl shook her head. "It has everything to do with John right now."
Seraphina leaned her head against her hand slightly. "What I mean Arlo is that the John from then compared to now, he's probably still in there somewhere. It's just been buried underneath a lot of his anger and pain."
Arlo scoffed. "Seraphina, what makes you so sure that the John we knew then isn't fake? What if this is the real John and the cripple persona you knew was just a lie?"
Seraphina crossed her arms. "And how do you know if it isn't?"
Arlo shut his mouth as Seraphina went on.
"Look, I'm not saying either side of John is real or fake. But before he vanished, he was very lost and he just seemed defeated. Like he had given up on everyone, including himself. It doesn't make what he did right, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to leave him to brew in this pain alone."
Seraphina turned her head up as Arlo leaned back in his chair. "I don't know what pain you think he's in, but whatever he's going through, he's inflicted it on himself. None of this would've happened had he just taken his place."
The magenta haired girl sighed. "Maybe. But I do know that a good portion of this pain wasn't caused by his own tendencies."
Arlo stared at her in confusion for a minute as she mindlessly played around with a straw wrapper.
Her expression darkened and her voice grew cold. "You know, when I came back from my suspension early, I was waiting for John to come back at his apartment. It was just going to be a little surprise since I knew he must've been having a hard time without me. One second I was sitting by the steps, the next, I see him stumbling down the sidewalk doused in blood."
The blonde nodded slightly. He didn't like to recall that day. It had been the day he had greatly underestimated John's ability and had gotten all of Wellston wrapped up in this mess. "It...was a pretty brutal fight."
Seraphina nodded. "It was brutal in more ways than one I think..."
Arlo looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
She looked at him. "You know about John's suspension from New Bostin...but you don't know why it happened. John...he had this close friend named Claire. I won't go into much detail about what happened between them, but in a very obscure attempt to bring John back to his senses, Claire brought him out to a field with about a dozen of their classmates in an effort to show John that what he was doing was wrong."
Seraphina gave a tired sigh. "Needless to say, it didn't end well for anyone involved when things got heated...Claire and the others were beaten, John was detained by the authorities, and the rest is history."
The blonde blankly stared at her as he let this information sink in.
Taking a bite out of her pretzel, she went on. "Arlo, I think you made him relive the New Bostin incident. What you did that day...it sounds exactly like what Claire did to him. She took him out to an open field and ambushed him with a group of their classmates. But with Claire, she had a somewhat valid reason to do so. Granted, she could've handled it better, but she had a genuine reason for doing it. But with you? You did it out of selfish intent. And I think it hurt him in more ways than any of us ever could have realized."
The blonde across from her huffed slightly, not knowing how to process her words. "Please Seraphina, I know that I screwed up, but how bad could it have been-?"
"Enough to make him drop to the ground and break down into f*cking tears Arlo."
He immediately shut up.
For one thing, he rarely ever heard the magenta haired girl swear.
But for another, the blonde didn't know how to take that mental image.
John? Crying?
It sounded absolutely insane.
Obviously everyone had emotions and they all had to let them out eventually.
But he couldn't imagine John expressing his emotions in any other form other than anger and rage.
That's all he had ever seen from the ravenette.
He could never imagine John on his knees, tears streaming down his face. He could never imagine John broken to the point of breaking down in front of his best friend.
He could never imagine John as anything less than strong and fueled by rage.
And that is what had kept him blinded for so long.
He never considered John as an actual human. He had only seen John at face value instead of thinking further about how his actions may have hurt the ravenette in the long run.
But now he was...and many things were starting to make so much more sense than before.
Arlo stared straight forward, his gaze growing distant as a certain event came to mind, one that he thought he had handled as best as he could.
He thought he had already come to terms with the fact that yes, he screwed up and he did try to apologize for it...
But he should've taken the time to understand why he was apologizing.
At first, he did it solely to try and put a stop to all the chaos John had created in the fallout of their battle. He did it in an effort to somehow try and make things right.
Arlo himself thought it was a genuine apology and to his credit it was.
But looking back on it now, looking back on John's reaction and how he refused to believe the blonde, Arlo now realized that his apology seemed fake to the ravenette.
It wasn't that Arlo had been lying when he said he regretted what he did. It was that he had been both far too late and far too early with his apology. He had been too late to realize his mistake sooner and he had been too early when giving it to John, the teen already having stared his rampage and throwing the school into chaos.
Now he realized that to the ravenette, it seemed like Arlo was just trying to save his own neck in an effort to minimize the damage being done to him when the damage he had done to John was far too great.
The blonde ran his hands over his face. "Dammit..."
He really had been blind.
Seraphina eventually flicked her straw wrapper into the trash can next to them. "Look, not all of this was your fault Arlo. But when...or if...we get John back, you two need to talk it out and bury the hatchet. Because nothing, and I mean nothing can get better while you two are constantly fueling each other's rage. Nothing will get better for any of us unless you two make an effort to fix things or at the very least just cooperate."
She let her gaze linger on Arlo for a minute. "I'm not asking you to be buddies with him. But you owe it not just to him but to me to at least try."
Arlo glared down at the table.
How was he supposed to forgive John for what he did to Remi?
How was he supposed to forgive John for all the harm he put the school through during his very brief time as king?
John destroyed all the royals and sent them all to the damn hospital!
He's made so many unforgivable mistakes!
How was he supposed to ever forgive him?!
'"Everyone makes mistakes Arlo...and sometimes, we don't see them until they're right in front of our eyes. But they don't define you. What does, however, is how you move on, how you try to better yourself and make amends for your actions. And yeah, sometimes your mistakes will hurt people. But that's when you take action and take responsibility for what you've done. Even if they don't forgive you in the end, that's ok. Because you at least tried and that's all anyone can ask for."'
Arlo relaxed slightly. Even now, Rei's advice could still guide him when he least expected it.
The blonde sighed a bit as he tried to process everything.
Forgiveness seemed impossible...
But making amends may not be out of his reach.
He looked back up at Seraphina, his lips pressed into a thin line. "I don't know if I can forgive him Seraphina."
Just as she was about to argue, he held up his hand. "But. I am willing to talk this out with him as long as he's willing to do the same. All I can do is try to make amends for what I've done. Whether he accepts that and we move forward or not is beyond my control."
Seraphina stared at him, quite surprised with his response.
She wasn't expecting him to give such a thought out answer.
But, Arlo was right. She knew that it was very unlikely the two would ever forgive each other. At least, not without a lot of time and work. But at the very least, she was glad he would try and make the effort to work this out.
The magenta haired girl nodded. "And that's all I ask Arlo."
The two sat in another round of silence before Arlo spoke up this time. "You still haven't really answered my question. I know you and John were close, but why?"
Seraphina hummed slightly in response. "Well...to put it simply, he showed me just how miserable I was being at the top."
She looked up to see Arlo looking completely baffled.
It slowly dawned on her that she never really told Arlo why she left the royals to begin with.
Yeah, she told him she didn't want to be queen and that she wanted to pursue her own interests, but she never elaborated why.
She leaned back in her chair slightly. "Arlo...back when I was queen...I never realized just how angry and upset I was with my position. Everyone was always looking up to me as this beacon of perfection, as this goddess to worship. But the truth was Arlo, I was miserable. I hated being the center of attention, I hated how everyone had something to say no matter how well I did. But I shoved it all aside because I thought that this was just the way things were, that what I thought didn't matter..."
Seraphina looked up at the blonde as she felt a surge of emotions run through her. "But John...he was the first person to not act like I was above him. He was the first person to actually treat me like a human, like an equal. Obviously, we didn't get along at first...but the more we talked, the more he showed me that I don't have to be everyone's idol. That I don't have to be perfect."
She felt her vision blur a bit as tears began to gather in her eyes. "That's why it hurt so much when I found out he wasn't a cripple. Because I thought that he was just using me and that everything he said was a lie, that everything we had been through together was just a game. But looking back on it now, I realize that John was honest with me when he said he wanted to live his life how he wanted to. It just so happens that he wanted to live as a cripple despite how foolish it was..."
Arlo felt his expression soften as she wiped at her eyes. "I know what happened between us that day in the classroom wasn't right and that we both have things we need to sort out before we can ever go back to how things were. But how can I give up on he one person who actually cared about me for me? How can I give up on John when he never gave up on me?"
She took a deep breath as she willed her tears to stop. "He's my best friend Arlo. I can't just give up on him. Not when he needs me the most."
The magenta haired girl looked down at her hands now resting on the table.
Deep down, she knew her friendship with John would never be the same after this. She knew that if they were ever going to have that same bond again, things would have to change between them.
Seraphina was terrified yes, but she was willing to do it if it meant she could have John in her life again.
A hand gently rested on Seraphina's knuckles and snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked up at Arlo who looked at her with an expression she didn't think she ever saw on him before.
It was a strange mix of sympathy and concern. Her and Arlo had never been as close as she had been with John. But, Seraphina couldn't deny that they had somewhat of a friendship however strange it was.
The blonde kept his voice steady as he spoke, though it was obvious he was struggling to process everything she just admitted to. "I didn't know that's how you felt being queen. All this time, I thought it was John who was forcing you to act outside of your role. But now I realize it was a decision you came to terms with because of him." He looked down slightly. "Seraphina...I'm sorry. I never should've tried to force you back into this. I should've respected your choices instead of trying to make you be something you hated."
The girl across from him gave an amused huff. "Wow, you asking me for help and apologizing to me all in one day? Who are you and what have you done with the real Arlo?"
The blonde rolled his eyes and took his hand back, grabbing his drink and sipping it.
It was silent for a minute before Seraphina spoke up. "Hey..."
Arlo looked over and saw the faintest smile lining her face. "Thank you Arlo...I'm glad you're trying to make things right."
He nodded slightly. "It's the least I can do."
Seraphina nodded before looking down at her phone. "Oh, we need to get going. We're only allowed to be out for a few hours and our slots about to be up in 15 minutes."
The blonde almost spat out his coffee. He almost choked before he started coughing. "Then why *COUGH* are you sitting here talking to me?! *COUGH* It takes 10 minutes to get to the high school by bus!"
The two quickly grabbed their bags and took off for the exit of the mall, hoping that they could catch the bus on time.
They made it just in time and Arlo mumbled under his breath about how Seraphina had no sense of time management, the girl quipping back if that was a reference to the fact she couldn't freeze time anymore.
All the while, as the two bickered, they both felt grateful deep down that things were starting to get better, that they could finally start putting their mistakes in the past.
It wasn't much, but they were gradually changing.
Blyke, Remi, Isen, Cecile, even the teachers at Wellston.
They were all gradually changing.
Where this change would take them, nobody knew.
But for whatever was about to come their way, they were ready.
Chapter 32: end.