"Excuse me, I think you dropped this."<o:p></o:p>
Embarassed, Arclette faced a boy whose face she had seen countless of times at school in classes and in passing periods. It was Luke Martin, infamous "funny guy" and synonymous with prankster, who held her cell phone out to her, gesturing for Arcie to take it. Smiling awkwardly, she took the phone from Luke and examined it for scratches and malfunctions. Thankfully her phone was one durable piece of shit.<o:p></o:p>
He stood there expecting Arcie to say something, but she found no words. It wasn't that she was particularly socially inept, but she honestly found nothing relatable to say to Luke Martin; they were two complete different breeds of people. He made everyone laugh, and she made everyone on edge. He was widely accepted and she was widely shunned. The only thing they had in common, Arcie decided, was the color blue—his eyes and her hair. His eyes were the most beautiful, deep sapphire, and she had to fight an insane urge to get lost in their hypnotic exquisiteness. Now was not the time to be a sucker for blue eyes…<o:p></o:p>
Looking past Arclette, Luke saw someone else, which luckily distracted from Arcie's lack of human communication. "Oh hey, Christine," he said to a familiar-looking girl who was walking down the sidewalk. "The party tonight is at Nikki's house. If you're interested, I'm on my way there now."<o:p></o:p>
Arcie lit up. Party! Tonight! Nikki's house! On his way now!<o:p></o:p>
"Fantastic!" Arclette cheered, almost dropping her phone again in nervous excitement. Both Luke and Christine looked puzzled by her sudden change in demeanor. "It's just that I was going to go, but I had no idea where it was, and then you said you were going, and I…"<o:p></o:p>
She stopped. Luke and Christine looked utterly shocked. Arclette was the girl who was notorious for not giving a shit and keeping to herself. Here she was, embarrassed, excited, and suddenly talkative—showing an array of emotions was a complete shift from her public self.<o:p></o:p>
"You were going to Nikki's party?" Christine asked. Arcie knew that the question was not meant to be rude, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of discomfort from it.<o:p></o:p>
A dejected look washed over Arclette's face and she kicked her toe in the dirt. "…Yes," she answered softly. Maybe it was time to stop being the girl with the tough, unbreakable exterior. Secretly, Arcie yearned to be vulnerable again, to let down the barriers gradually and safely. <o:p></o:p>
Luke smiled warmly to her, and she could feel the heat of his friendliness embrace her. She didn't know Luke, but she had heard that his life had been a rough one, and yet here he was, offering kindness to someone despite what life had thrown his way. The buzz around school was that he was a bit of a manwhore, always chasing women, but Arcie didn't see that. She saw a person who had the power to make her feel relaxed with just the flash of a smile. A genuinely nice guy. "Would you like to come with us?" he asked.<o:p></o:p>
Arcie smiled back at him, his blue eyes twinkling. She bit her bottom lip. "I'd love to."<o:p></o:p>