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Chapter 23

Day 8:  Dallas Texas, United States, Central Valley Highschool, Lunch Period, 12:00 PM

What am I gonna wear to the Masquerave? Should I wear the same suit and tie I wear to work? Should I just keep on my normal suit? Is this a normal suit kind of affair? What about my mask? What if I show up and Sage took all of my clothes as some kind of sick punishment? What if I login naked?

"Yo you alright?" 

Josh tilted his head as he watched Arsen from across the lunch table staring vaguely ahead. He held his veggie burger suspending it a few inches from his mouth where it hadn't moved for the past five minutes. Arsen glanced at Josh, then towards Gabriella who waved a hand in his face.

"Earth to Arsen, anyone in there?"

He smiled softly, and took a bite of his burger."

"Yeah! I'm h-ERE." 

He burped at the end of his statement causing his friends to cringe. Josh, grinning threw his empty water bottle at him while Arsen laughed.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Were you even listening?" 

"No sorry what were you saying?"

"We were talking about how you've been out of it since first period. But now that I think about it, you've been out of it all week. What is up with you?"

Arsen blinked twice, he had to lie again.

"Nothing, I just haven't been getting much sleep lately." He smiled sheepishly

Joshua looked at him with concern. "You sure you don't have anything else on your mind? There're less than three weeks left until the rally and we need you present so we can work on networking and getting the word out on social media and around school."

"Arsen..." Gabriella's gaze softened as she looked at him "If you need anything...I know with the anniversary of your dad-"

"It's fine. Like I said It's just lack of sleep."

His tone was harsher than he had intended, even he was surprised at his voice. Josh winced, Gabriella retreated back in her seat and bit her lip. Arsen averted his gaze. He hardly ever used that tone with his friends. Especially not Gabriella who was usually the first one to notice when something was wrong.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-...I wasn't trying to-..."

He stumbled over his words before taking a deep breath.

"I really am sorry...I won't leave you guys to work on this rally alone, both you guys and this cause mean way too much to me to not be a part of this." 

The two paused before they flashed Arsen a warm smile. Arsen returned their smiles before stealing Josh's Hot Cheetos.

"Dude give those back!

"No way! This is payback for throwing a water bottle at me!"

Josh reached across the table to retrieve his snack while Arsen jumped up holding the bag out of arms reach. Gabriella grabbed her lunchbox and playfully whacked Arsen in the stomach. Arsen doubled over and fell on the ground.

"Holy shit, Arsen are you okay?"

Gabriella's eyes widened as she dropped her lunchbox and ran around to the other side of the table to help him up. Several other students began to stare. The red marks on Arsen's neck had faded but the bruise on his stomach hadn't quite healed yet. Arsen took her hand and stood up, he dusted himself off grinning. He didn't want to worry his friends any more than he already had.

"Yeah, I'm fine! I was just overreacting is all. Why?" He smirked playing off his pain as a joke, "Did I scare you?"

Gabriella's face flushed, "N-no of course not! Just-" She averted her gaze "don't do that again."

He chuckled as he slowly returned to his seat at the table minding the new flare-up of pain Gabriella's blow had caused. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know. He glanced over at Joshua who in all the commotion, had reclaimed the bag of Hot Cheetos that were rightfully his. He locked eyes with him as he slowly crunched on a Cheeto, taunting him in a sing-songy voice.

"That's what you ~get." 

Gabriella returned to her seat in a huff. The rosiness in her cheeks had faded returning her face back to its normal bronze undertones. She pursed her lips.

"You're an idiot Arsen, you know that?"

Arsen smirked closing his eyes and resting his chin on his hands.

"Yeah, I'm aware."