I felt like we were both doing the same thing, holding our tongues in an attempt to get the other one to break the silence first.

I barely noticed the way people were marching around us. I barely noticed the way they scoffed at the two teenagers sitting on the ground. I was staring at the mural still, but I wasn't seeing it. I was too focused on Roman. The way he was sitting beside me, the way he still towered over me, making me feel so tiny. I was trying to ignore the smell of his cologne, which was causing my heart rate to increase once again. I was trying to ignore the way his leg was just barely brushing against my own. I couldn't though. I couldn't ignore him. I was hyper aware of him instead.

He finally sighed, about five minutes into our silence. I could have smiled in victory, relishing the fact that he made the first sound. I didn't smile, though, because I was just so simply annoyed at his presence. It felt like I couldn't go anywhere now without running into him. He was around every corner, waiting for me to embarrass myself in front of him.

"Do you need a ride?" He interrupted my thoughts of him by asking. I felt the way my breath hitched in surprise, but I didn't turn towards him. I didn't move at all, almost if I did, it would be a sign of weakness.

"No." I said curtly. Even if I did, I mostly certainly wouldn't get in a car with him.

"You sure? You probably live across town." Roman said, strengthening the annoyance that I was already feeling.

Across town is where the rich people lived. It's where Clara lived. It's where Jesse, Brett and Khalil lived. I'm guessing it's where Roman lived, since that's where I first met him outside of that party.

"I don't live across town." I sighed out. I don't know why I said that. I normally would have lied, or at the least went along with it. It's not that I'm ashamed to not have as much as much money as the rest of my friends, it's just that if I pretended I did, it caused less questions.

"I see." Roman said like it didn't surprise him, which in turn surprised me. "I can give you a ride anyways."

I felt my eyes move to the side, towards him. I was determined not to move my head, though, so I could only see half of him. He wasn't looking the mural, he was looking directly at me.

"I don't need a ride, I already said that." I muttered, wondering why he didn't get the clue that I didn't want to talk to him in the first place.

"Okay," he said, and I could barely see the way his shoulders shrugged.

"Okay?" I repeated his word, "so why are you still here?"

"Am I not allowed to be here?" Roman asked me back, and his mouth hinted at a smile. "I don't see any signs saying only Lilac can sit here."

I sighed in frustration. I didn't know what to say to that, besides the obvious answer of no, so I flicked my eyes back towards the mural instead. I wished now more than ever I could be the girl in the picture, alone and away from everyone else.

"Is there any reason that you're sitting here?" Roman didn't get the hint that I wanted him to stop talking.

"I like this mural." I told him, my voice was quiet as though I didn't really want him to hear my words.

Roman didn't speak for a moment. Just a small moment, enough to leave me wondering why he was silent.

"What do you like about it?" He asked me, his words were genuine and I wondered why he cared.

"I just like it." I told him, knowing I could never explain quite why I was so drawn to it. I didn't even know myself.

"That's not an answer." Roman chuckled out, as if he was amused by words.

"Why not?" I asked him, even though I didn't need to. I knew it wasn't a real answer, and it's part of the reason why I said it.

"There's usually a reason one likes a mural so much that they sit down on a busy street to stare at it." Roman replied, and he slightly leaned towards me, his arm touching mine for just a second before he moved away.

"Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't. I wouldn't tell you either way." I titled my chin upwards as I said the words, stretching my neck.

"And why wouldn't you tell me?" He asked me, and I could tell without looking at him that he had a smile on his face.

"I don't know you." I reminded him.

"So you keep saying. You keep telling me you don't know me." Roman said the words like he was in turn reminding me.

"It's the truth." I replied honestly.

"Is it?" Roman asked me, and the way he said it made me turn my head towards him.

I saw him completely for the first time since he sat down. His hair was wild and untamed, like he hadn't ran a brush through it. It wasn't his hair that drew my attention, however, it was his eye. It was lightly bruised, a small cut on his eyebrows.

Roman cleared his throat, as if he noticed my attention had fallen to the wrong thing and he wanted to draw me back to his words instead.

"What?" I asked him. I had forgotten what I was questioning.

Roman's lips broke out into a smile, and he looked towards the ground, shaking his head as if there could be nothing more amusing. Like I had told a joke that he was trying to fight himself from laughing at.

"I asked, is it? Is it the truth?" He repeated himself, looking back up towards me.

I felt the blush rise on my cheeks as I remembered why I had turned towards him in the first place. See? I'm always embarrassing myself when Roman is around me.

"Just because we go to school together, it doesn't mean we know each other." I concluded, wondering why he thought it did. I went to school with thousands of people, and I barely knew any of them.

"Okay, Lilac." My words didn't seem to bother him at all. "So, do you need a ride or are you going to sit here and stare at the wall some more?"

I felt the frown on my face as I turned away from him once more, looking back at the mural. I took once last lingering look at it, trying to embody the feeling that looking at it gave me. I pulled myself to my feet, brushing the dust off of me.

"Bye." I muttered to Roman, who was still sitting on the ground, looking up at me.

I didn't give him as chance to respond before I stepped past him, walking in the direction of my house. I felt my anxiety begin to creep up as I walked. The questions of today had been silenced for a little bit. They had been silenced slightly by the mural, as I intended for it to do, but mostly... they had been silenced by Roman.

"Wait." I heard his voice say, and even though I didn't turn around to see what he wanted, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because I heard him behind me.

I groaned as I turned my head back, seeing him jog towards me until he finally came up beside me.

"What do you want? I said I didn't need a ride. Just leave it." I barked at him.

"I'm not giving you a ride." Roman said simply, slowing his pace to match mine. "I'm just walking with you."

I shook my head, as if I couldn't find the words to say just how annoying he was. "I know what you're doing."

"Oh yeah?" Roman replied, and I hated the way his voice sounded so carefree. "What am I doing?"

"It's obvious." I told him.

"What's obvious, Lilac?" He asked me, the humour evident in his voice. I'm glad he found it so funny.

"If you want to pick a fight with Jesse, just leave me out of it." I told him through gritted teeth.

"Wait," the humour dropped from his voice. "What?"

"What? Are you surprised I figured it out?" I scoffed at him. "It's pretty obvious, and you don't need to do it. In case you haven't noticed, Jesse has a bad temper. You don't need to keep bugging me to get him to swing at you."

"Lilac, what are you talking about?" Roman asked me as he increased his pace until he was in front of me, before turning around and walking backwards so that he was facing me.

"Stop. I don't care if you want to fight him, have at it. I don't care what reasons you have, what grudge you hold against him. Just leave me out of it." I explained.

"I don't give a fuck about your douche bag boyfriend." Roman said as he tilted his head, his eyes scrunched as if he didn't understand where my words were coming from.

I rolled my eyes at his lies. "Sure."

"It's the truth," he shrugged at me as he spoke.

"Well, if it's the truth then you can leave me alone." I told him.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" Roman asked me, his eyebrows raising.

I paused for half a second, and I don't know why the next words that came out of my mouth weren't yes.

"I want to know why you keep bugging me." I said instead.

Roman smiled again, like he also noticed I didn't say yes. "Maybe I just think you deserve better than how he treats you."

I felt his words in my gut, a mixture of shock and anger. Shock that he said them, and anger that he thinks he had the right to.

"You don't know how he treats me." I argued. It's true, he didn't. He didn't know the half of it.

"I know enough." Roman said, before he turned back around and fell back into step with me.

"You don't know me." I repeated.

Roman chuckled, again. "You keep saying that."

I didn't answer this time. I could see my house in the distance, and I felt mildly embarrassed that it meant Roman would see it too.

"Maybe I don't deserve better." I said the words before I could stop myself.

"What do you mean?" Roman's voice took a tone that I hadn't heard from him before, and I couldn't pinpoint what it meant.

"Exactly what I said." I muttered as I slowed my steps. We were beside my house now. It's not that it was a bad house. It's not that it was in shambles or in disrepair. It was just small and shabby, and the complete opposite from the mansions that my friends lived in. I watched as Roman took in the sight of it, but his eyes didn't give anything away.

"This you?" Roman asked me, his eyes still observing my home.

I nodded, wordlessly turning away from him and and walking up the path to my house. I was about to open the door when Roman called my name.

I sighed as I turned back to face him, "what?"

"I'm glad you like my mural." Roman said with a wink, before he turned around and walked back in the direction he came from.