Page 50 of Archer
“Honestly, I think…” he said, pausing, making my heart rush, wondering what he’d say. “I think I’ve changed since… you being here. I feel… different. Like… like I’m turning into a decent person.”
“You’re a very decent person, Archer,” I said. “I wouldn’t lose my virginity who I feel didn’t deserve it.”
Grabbing my hand, he kissed it again, this time, my knuckles. Looking into his eyes as he fiddled with my fingers, I thought about how much I truly cared about him. I cleared my throat to speak again.
“I know this whole situation has been a nightmare, and I hate it, but…” I swallowed. “I’m really glad this has happened. For this.”
“God, me too,” he said. “You have no idea.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve been waiting like a year,” I said, sending him a wink and he rolled his eyes.
He tutted his tongue and shook his head. “And to think I tried to pawn you off after a couple days.”
“Haha, y—Wait.” I sat up and narrowed my eyes. “You… tried to pawn me off? What do you mean?”
When his face dropped, I knew he let something slip he didn’t mean to. I shifted to sit on my knees so I could square my shoulders with him, both of us still nude.
“N-no, it was nothing,” he said, trying to brush it off. “Seriously, please, don’t worry about it.”
Something told me he was hiding something he didn’t want me to hear. Too frustrated with lies to swallow another, I egged him on, saying, “No. Come on. When’d you do that?”
“Do we need to do this?” he asked. “We were just having fun…”
“Yeah, but now we aren’t,” I said, not letting him back out of it. My eyebrows dropped a little, growing more certain that I was asking to get hurt. “Archer, what happened?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from me. “It was… that day we had that big fight. When you found out I was in a club. Or well, the day after, I guess what when I… tried… yeah…”
“Whatever happened to you being such a nice, selfless guy?” I asked, folding my arms. I had a feeling I was overreacting, but I was hurt. “What? Because I didn’t immediately act like all the other girls who just fell to your feet, you drop me?”
“What? No, Rose. Please.”
“Who’d you try to drop me off with, huh?” I pressed on. “What? Crow?”
“Maybe, I don’t remember…”
“Oh, so what? You, my knight in shining armour, askedsomany people to take me off your hands that you can’t even remember who you asked?”
“What? No, oh my god, what are you doing?” He slid his legs off the bed and grabbed his jeans, and I did the same. It didn’t feel right fighting naked.
“You’re looking for something to be wrong,” he said. “Crow was sitting at the table and I can’t remember if I specifically asked him or not because I knew he wouldn’t because it’s Crow.”
“All right then, who did you ask to protect me? How many people? How much effort did you really put in?”
“Just Evelyn and Tank, mainly, and…” He paled as he trailed off, and instead of naming someone he muttered, “Fuck.”
My heart sunk, and a part of me wanted to tell him not to say it. I didn’t want to know. I understood why he was telling me to drop it, because then I wanted to crawl back into bed. Rewind and go back to the sweet musings. Not standing with my hands on my hips, wearing just my jeans and my boobs hanging out, unsure of where my bra ended up. But I couldn’t help myself.
“What, Archer?”
“Your dad.”
“My dad?” That didn’t make much sense. “Then… why am I still here?”
“Just… because.”
“No. Not just because.” He was putting on his shirt when I marched toward him, shoving my finger into his face. “If you were that damn upset that a girl yelled at you, that youactuallywent back to my dad, after so graciously offering to help, knowing the dangerous shit he’s involved with…”
“Rose, so much has changed.” He pleaded but it went through one ear out the other.
