They were country club boys who wore polos and expensive cologne riding around in cars bought with Daddy's money and sneaking to smoke cigarettes out in the edge of the woods and they would mock her they'd laugh at her for being βbeneathβ them for not having the proper upbringing or the nicest clothes until the shadows started to fall and night crept in it was her they came to for comfort it was she who held their secrets as they'd cry into her arms and whisper all their thoughts the boy with the crew cut who didn't want anyone to know that he liked other boys or the boy with the shaggy hair who hid the bruises where his father liked to beat him & she would cry with them for all the pain they felt even though it wasn't hers and they never looked at her in those moments like she was an object or beneath them in those sweet moments it was she who saved them from themselves from others & during the days when they'd shift their eyes and go along with the jokes she'd hide a smile because she knew this was just the image and not who they really were