if these wings could fly for the rest of our lives
Lying was bad. Abigail knew this. She was never supposed to lie and omitting the truth was a lie too. Arlo was her bestest friend in the whole wide world and she'd been lying to him for almost a year. She was pretty sure that she deserved the worst friend ever award. But she was going to fix that. It was kind of scary because she didn't want him to be mad at her but...her mother always said that telling the truth sooner was better than waiting till later. Because what if two or THREE years past and THEN he found out?! He might be even more mad then. It was perhaps a childish thought process to tell the truth while giving a gift, as if that would make the lie less awful but...it was the only way she could build up the courage to face her bestie looking all...normal.

She had eyed those instruments in that music store for what felt like forever. In fact, she was pretty sure it was forever because the sales associate walked by her like four times eying her before finally asking her what she was here for like he was all annoyed with her standing there in the corner staring blankly at all the different shaped guitars. There were even itty bitty ones! She had considered getting one of them because they were just so CUTE...until the man told her that was definitely not a guitar. He'd led her to all the different guitars but her inability to tell him exactly what she was looking for seemed to make him a little exasperated at her. They looked at all the acoustic guitars with steel strings and the ones with nylon strings though she hadn't the slightest idea which one Arlo liked. She was pretty sure he'd be a God at like all of them. She'd stared at them for a bit longer until those hazel eyes fell upon a super duper SPECIAL one. One that was PERFECT for them. It was a bit over what she'd wanted to spend but perfection could be expensive now couldn't it?! Soon enough, Abigail was stepping outside that music store into the darkness of the world beyond with that guitar nestled in that hard case clutched to her chest. Step one: Buy Guitar. Status: Completed.

Now she just had to worry about finding Arlo and giving it to him and telling him who she was and oh my god, all of it felt like too much. A soft sigh left her lips as she hugged that guitar to her lips, the girl chewing on her bottom lip as she followed that same familiar path she did every Friday night. She didn't usually stop by his house on the weekends, the girl tried to be quite regular about her visits but there were times when she just needed evenings with her friend that might prompt her to pop up unannounced. Arlo wasn't always home when she did and a tiny part of her hoped that maybe he wouldn't be there tonight either. Then again, if he wasn't then she'd just be putting this off until tomorrow night and...eventually he'd be home to answer that door. She was only just beginning to contemplate what she would say to the man (something like 'Hi! You don't know me but my name is Abigail and you're my best friend!'. No, that sounded wrong, maybe, 'Hi, I'm your panda and I bought you a present?') when, quite suddenly, the girl stopped rather abruptly in her tracks by the sight of a rather familiar figure. Oh my god. There he was, coming down the street....AT HER.

It was a sheer move of panic that prompted the girl to duck in the nearby alley, letting the man pass by her utterly unnoticed. Her heart felt like it was beating super duper fast in her chest. She so wasn't prepared for this but she'd promised them both that she'd tell him. She took a bigggggg breath before slowly stepping out of that alleyway, holding that guitar case closer as her hazel eyes landed upon his figure. The girl slowly trailed after him, several feet behind and yet hardly making an effort to close the distance or call out to him. Dear god, she was stalking a vampire. She followed him down the street....and the next one....and kind of the next one too before he turned off the main road and into some dingy side street. The girl paused around the corner, another deep breath filling her lungs. Okay. She could do this. She could totally do this. Okay. She nodded quite firmly at herself, turning around that corner to stare at...an empty alley? Whhhatttt? Tentatively the girl stepped into it, her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. Arlo hadn't been going that fast. Had she lost him already?!?! Oh god, this was going to be so much more awkward if she had to wait at his doorstep for him to come home.