𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊, 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐄! | 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐆𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐘

ten.

olivia slid into her seat in history the next morning, kalani and iris already in their respective seats. they exchanged looks as olivia sat down which the girl couldn't quite read, she didn't like the feeling at all. "where'd you go after school yesterday?" iris asked as casually as she could possibly manage. "you know if either of you have a problem with the other girls you can tell me, right?" olivia asked. "you're not exactly subtle people." kalani bit her lower lip harshly. "it's not that we have a problem with them or you being around them," kalani shrugged. "we just don't exactly trust them."

"ok," olivia replied. "that's it?" iris raised a brow. "you're not gonna take their side?" olivia shrugged. "no," she said. "alison was a mean girl and we stood by while she was a bully, why would you trust those girls?" iris glanced towards kalani. "we do trust you," she said. "you're not like them." olivia understood why people prejudged her and her friends, if she had been slightly less of a coward, she would've stood up to alison more. but she never did, and she felt guilty about it almost every day. "ok," olivia repeated herself with a small smile. "you don't have to be friends with them or even be civil to them, it doesn't really matter."

"we don't want to make you feel like you have to choose," kalani said. "but you'd choose us, right?" iris asked, ignoring the way kalani glared at her. olivia hesitated for a moment and instantly knew it was not the answer iris had been looking for. she'd played her question off as a joke but all three of them knew she was actually asking and maybe olivia should've reassured her, but she was getting along so well with her former friend group. kalani and iris never judged her because she never told them anything but the other girls already knew mostly everything about olivia's life and they still didn't judge her - she was starting to trust them again and she didn't know what that meant for her relationship with kalani and iris. "are you giving me an ultimatum right now?" she asked.

"no," kalani interjected before iris could answer. "we just don't want things to change." olivia couldn't tell them about the memorial because then she'd have to explain why they didn't end up going through with it being out in the woods. she didn't have a lie formed for that yet, and she was also overly aware of just how suspicious it looked for her and her former friend group to be hanging around in the woods. "nothing is going to change," olivia sighed. "really?" iris asked. "you go off with them after school, at the weekends and you've been distant and jumpy since alison's funeral." jumpy. olivia thought that she had been doing a good job of concealing her fear of this 'A' person from iris and kalani but she had obviously been wrong about that.

"i don't know what you're talking about," olivia replied. "we're just reconnecting because that fucking cop is on our asses over a crime we didn't commit, it's pretty hard not to band together over something like that." iris shook her head. "what have you been doing outside of school with them?" she questioned. "do you not think that it looks suspicious to that cop?" olivia frowned at her, ignoring the first question. "what?" kalani cleared her throat loudly in an attempt to catch iris' attention but the girl completely ignored her. "you think you're the only people he's been talking to?" she asked. "he's been quizzing up half of rosewood, you think that they're not going to say you five have barely spoken in the last year and now you're constantly with each other?"

"did wilden talk to you?" olivia asked, sitting up straighter in her chair. common sense had told her that officer wilden would obviously talk to the other residents but she hadn't realised her friends had been on that list. she was even more shocked that iris was only telling her now. "yes!" iris snapped. "what did you say?" olivia asked. "that your friends are mean and awful and that it's suspicious that you're all suddenly friends again," she replied. "i did say that you're not the mean one."

"why would you say that?" olivia felt nauseated. she'd made a promise to the girls that they would look out for each other yet this had slipped past her without her even noticing. "why would you call me - call any of us - suspicious?" iris raised a brow. "because it's the truth?" she frowned. "you're always whispering in the hallways, you're hiding stuff from us but they definitely know about whatever it is that's going on and i don't like it."