The Innocent ↝ ÉLITE ¹

EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT
Forgiveness

ARLO SAT IN Guzmán's car, leaning her head against the window as he drove her home. It was late and she was still surprised he came back for her to drop her home.

"You really didn't have to come back. I could have gotten an Uber." She breathed out.

"At this time of night and in that neighbourhood? No way." Guzmán said, shaking his head. "You can't trust Ubers nowadays. I was your ride anyway. I'm sorry I left. I wanted to check up on Marina and Nadia sort of...blackmailed me."

"About you having sex with Lu in the girl's locker room?"

Guzmán turned his head to her with wide eyes. "You know?"

"I was there when she threatened you the first time. It's not hard to figure out what she was talking about." Arlo laughed. "Don't worry, I won't say anything."

"Thank you." Guzmán smiled.

"Even if it was stupid. You're lucky no one else walked in on you two."

"As opposed to the one person who saw us and is using it against me?"

"You have a point." Arlo laughed. "Where is Nadia now anyways?"

"I got her a taxi home. Her drink was spiked."

"Is she okay?"

Guzmán nodded. "Yeah. She's fine. She's just coming off the high."

"At least it wasn't a knock out drug." Arlo sighed in relief. "But still messed up."

"I'm sorry again for leaving without you."

Arlo waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. It was only for like half an hour or forty five minutes at most."

"And what did you do in that period of time?"

"I helped Samuel to bed, he looked like he was gonna pass out and I helped Christian clean up. That was pretty much it."

"Where was Samuel's brother?"

Arlo shrugged. "I don't know. He came in about 5 minutes before you arrived and spoke to Christian privately in the kitchen. How's Marina?"

"She was just sitting on the couch when I got home. I was expecting something a lot worse. What did she say to you?"

"She was pissed." Arlo explained. "Don't think we'll be speaking for a couple of days– same with Ander."

"I don't know what's going on with him." The boy huffed. "He just won't tell me anything."

Arlo didn't reply and the two stayed quiet until Guzmán pulled up in her driveway and she turned to him, seeing just how worn out he was. "You wanna have a coffee? You look pretty tired and you still have to drive home."

The corner of Guzmán's lips pulled upwards before nodding. "Yeah, sure."

The two climbed out of the boy's car and walked up to her front door, the girl taking out her keys, unlocking it. She walked into her house and turned on the light, everyone else must have been asleep. She took off her shoes, Guzmán following her lead before she shut the door behind him.

She then put her bag down on the table in the hallway and started walking into the living room.
She looked over at Guzmán who was turning on the spot, looking in all directions with a smile on his face. The girl looked at him weirdly. "What?"

"Almost everything's the same. It's like I was here yesterday." The boy grinned.

"No time for a change in the decor." Arlo exhaled as she led him to the kitchen and grabbed two mugs.