Rule #12: Hold Grudges
Rebels Don't Back Down
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"So?
"They're nice,"I say casually."So, is this what you were doing instead of teaching me like you were supposed to?"
"Just look at them," Archer waits as I give Brutus a hug. After one last affectionate pat to the head, I wave goodbye and he shuts the door. We turn to go into his house.
Our shoulders bump.
I take a step away from him, clicking through the pictures he took on the camera.
Most of them are of the ocean and woods. There's one picture of me riding a horse, but you can't even see my face because the sunset in the background. I can't believe I didn't even notice him - I must have been having too much fun riding Brutus.
"This is art," Archer tells me, taking his pictures back. "You looked like you were have fun today."
"That was because of Brutus, not you."
"Let's go swimming." He says suddenly.
"No, thanks," I've had enough nightmares about the ocean to last me a lifetime.
"Why not? You live on a beach house."
"Not willingly."
Our shoulders bump again.
I walk away from him again. Is he brushing up against my shoulders just to annoy me or is he naturally wandering towards me? A few months ago, I would have said the first option, but now I realize that Archer's naturally a people person. He even hugged my parents when we walked in.
"I haven't met one person so far that hasn't liked swimming," Archer says after a moment.
I roll my eyes. "That's because all your friends are on the swim team."
"Not you."
"Exactly."
Our shoulders bump again.
I take a step forward, until we reach the steps of his porch. Archer takes my helmet and puts on top of the shelf with all the others. I lean against the wooden post, thoroughly exhausted.
"Are you scared?" Archer questions.
"Of what?"
He shrugs, bringing his hands down. His eyes twinkle in the dark night. I look away. "The high tides, the gross seaweed, the bloodthirsty sharks, take your pick."
"Well, it's not the sharks, that's obvious," I scoff, kicking a pebble on the porch. "Humans kills more sharks per hour than sharks kill human per year and when they do manage to kill humans, it's because they mistake us for another species. We just kill sharks for souvenirs and other dumb shit. It's ridiculous. If anything, sharks should be afraid of us, considering we're the most dangerous species alive."
Archer gives me a strange look that I've never seen on his face. It's a mixture between confusion and amazement, a look I've never seen before.
Just then, the door slams open, making both of us jump. A large man stands in the door with a tray with three glass that are filled with pink liquid. I squint against the light from inside.
It's Sebastian.
"Just in time - is that lemonade?" Archer gives him a clap on the back, but Sebastian looks he hardly felt it. He offers one to me.
"I didn't know you were invited," I say, taking the lemonade.
"He wasn't. Did my mom invite you?" His tone makes it sound like some inside joke.
"Who else?" Sebastian grins - a rare occasion - Â takes a glass and puts the tray aside. "She told me to give you those and to tell you take a shower. By the way, it's sherbet, not lemonade."
I take a sip - and nearly spit it out. It's way too sweet. I think I can actually taste the tiny grains of sugar lingering on my tongue. I hold in mouth for a second than swallow it down, trying not to cringe at the taste.
"Don't like it?" Archer's already finished half of his drink.
"Too sweet," I mutter.
"Must be you, then. I overheard mom saying she was going to put extra sugar in your glass because you needed to sweeten up."
"Really?" I wouldn't put it past her.
"No," He smiles at the expression on my face.
Sebastian and Archer share that look that I hate. Suddenly annoyed, I put my glass on the tray, walk inside and call back to them.
"Well, now that you two found each other again, I think I'll just go play with Buster-"
My words are cut short when I crash into somebody stumble backwards. A nasty retort comes to my lips immediately before I remember where I am. I scowl even harder when I see that it's Melody. She has a glass of her own.
She opens her mouth for a second, as if to say something, but then shakes her head and walks past me.
Good riddance, I think and start to unzip my boots.
"You can't play with Buster - he just came back from the vet," Archer says. His words trail off once Melody pushes past him. "Are you guys still fighting?
I shrug.
"She's your sister. Don't you miss spending time with her?"
"No," I lie. He looks like he's going to protest, so I continue. "But, whatever, I'll go and talk with her."
"Wasn't that easy?" He says as I stand up again.
"Anything to get away from you," I mutter.
The last thing I hear before walking outside is him laugh. And strangely, I have the urge to smile myself. I push it away and hop down the steps. The faint smell of salt lingers in the air and a cool breeze blows throughout the beach. In the distance, you can hear two kids playing.
Melody's sitting at the edge of the seas. The waves wash up on her bare feet. I walk closer and stare my boots, which sink into the sand. The crunching beneath my footsteps seem maximize in the night.
Melody looks over her shoulder. "What are you doing here?"
I shrug and sit down next to her so that I'm close enough to touch her but still far from the ocean. Just the sound of the waves crashing against the shore makes my nerves on edge. I wish I could have found some way to stop those nightmares.
We sit in silence for a while. The breeze pushes the waves forwards so that some of the water sprays on my arm. With a frown, I bring my knees up to my chin.
"I was trying to help." She explains finally. "You were always so lonely at school. It was like you weren't even trying to make friends. Nobody would come near you because they thought you were too scary, so I dyed your hair pink so you would seem more friendly."
Then, she heaves a sigh. "But it backfired. Everybody just started making fun of you instead."
I stare at her for a second. "I can't believe you thought anything else would happen."
Still, her admission makes me feel lighter. Melody's little prank seemed to be just silly and shallow, but I still felt a sense of betrayal. It's nice to know that not everybody is against me. I guess she wasn't disloyal - just stupid.
"I know, sorry," She mutters. "I always try to help, but I always mess it up. Remember that time I won that plant at the country fair? I loved it so much that I watered it everyday. But then it drowned."
"You killed Carl?"
"Yeah," Melody kicks a patch of sand and leans back on her palms. "I'm hopeless."
Another minute of silence. My mood has slightly lifted, even though I'm not going to admit it anytime soon. I check my phone. It's only eight o'clock. Dinner should be soon and the sooner I eat, the sooner I go home, so I stand up.
"Nice talk," I brush the sand off my pants and head towards the house.
"That's it," Melody shouts as another wave crashes onto the shore. "No 'you're not hopeless, Melody' or 'I accept your apology. It's not your fault.'"
I turn around. "But it is  your fault."
"So, you don't forgive me?"
"I didn't say that."
Melody groans. "I can't believe this. I never should have apologized."
"Your mistake."
I'm about to laugh when she throws a fistful of wet sand at me. It lands all over my clothes, hair and face. My eyes start to burn and I stumble backwards with a cry. "Melody!"
"Your mistake," She cackles.
My eyes are starting to tear up, so I just kick sand in what I think might be her direction and storm towards the house. But my vision is blurry and I end up hitting the screen door before Mr. Raine lets me. He and my father end up watching me with mute horror as I stumble towards the bathroom.
Once I switch the lights on, I turn on the faucet and begin splashing water on my face. It's no use, though, the sand just sticks harder. That little pest got some of it everywhere, including down my shirt. I scrub violently at my eyes, trying to wash the pain out.
"How'd the bonding session go?" Archer's voice comes from the doorway.
I suppress the urge to scream and throw something. He is the very last thing I need right, especially since there are tears coming down from my eyes and my nose is all stuffy.
"Go away." Great, now my voice is all choked up.
"Are you crying?" His voice comes closer.
"No. Just leave me alone."
"What happened?" I can feel him standing next to me. Not a hard feat, since the bathroom is so small. "Was it Melody?"
"No, you fool, she threw sand at me."
"Oh," He laughs and touches my cheek. I smack his hand away. "I didn't even notice that."
"Clearly," I snap. The pain is fading by now.
I blink and check myself out in the mirror. Great. No wonder he thought I was crying. My eyeliner has smeared and now its running down my face. My cheeks and nose are flushed from the wind and cold water. My eyes are red. I look terrible.
"You got some behind your ears," Archer points out.
I take a step away from, giving him a glare just in case he tries to touch me again. I jerk my head, but all it does is make me dizzy. I feel another headache coming on.
I look at myself in the mirror. With a shiver, I try to wipe some of the eyeliner away with the back of my hand. The only thing I manage to do is smudge even further. Great.
"I look like a raccoon."
"A cute raccoon." Archer offers.
I glare at him.
He rolls his eyes and holds up the fluffy white towel besides the sink. "Try this."
"I'll just ruin it," I say, turning back to the mirror. "Give me something disposable."
"Just take it. It doesn't matter."
"Try telling that your mom. I think she'll kill me."
"You can always blame me," And then before I can stop him, he starts scrubbing away at my cheeks. I stand still for a moment, too shocked to respond.
"Just let me do - ouch!"
"Oops, sorry," Archer pats my now-throbbing eye before I snatch the towel away from him, muttering a curse word under my breath.
I wipe it all over my face, making black streaks come off. The eyeliner goes away gradually as black streaks begin to appear on the white cloth. It's actually kind of satisfying. But I'm pretty sure we're going to have burn before Mrs. Raine finds it.
I look at myself in the mirror. Not all of the eyeliner is gone, but my face looks much better than before.
"You should listen to more," Archer says, leaning against the wall.
"You nearly poked my eye out," I tell him.
"Yes, well, it was the thought that counted."
"Archer, sweetheart?" A new, but awfully familiar voice comes from behind us. We turn around. Mrs. Raine and my mom stand at the doorway. "What are you doing?"
I put the towel behind my back.
"Peyton need help with his makeup," Archer tells her, looking way too casual for this. He looks like he's trying not to laugh.
The moms look between us. Their expressions are so different that it's kind of funny. While mom looks like Christmas has come early, Mrs. Raine looks like she just stepped on something nasty.
"Have you been crying?" Mom questions. Her smile fades.
"No. It's sand. Melody threw some at me."
"Oh," Her eyes light up. "Did you two make up?"
I nod.
"Oh, that's just-"
"Didn't I tell you to go take a shower?" Mrs. Raine interrupts.
"What kind of host would I be if I left Sebastian and Peyton alone?" Archer asks. I notice he's inching closer to me. He makes some kind of hand motion behind his back, but I can't interrupt it.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll keep them busy." She says. "Now, go on and take a shower."
"Alright. Just don't torture them," He says lightly.
All of a sudden, he snatches the towel from behind me and tucks into his jean's pocket. Smiling at his mom's suspicious looks, he walks out from the bathroom, but not before throwing me a wink. I stare after him blankly.
Then I notice that she's still looking at me. "Don't go out of your way to keep us busy, Mrs. Raine. We'll manage."
"Oh, no, I insist," She tells me, an unpleasant smile forming on her face. "We haven't made dinner, yet and I understand you're a vegetarian? Unfortunately, I don't know many recipes without meat. But I'm sure you and Sebastian can come up with something.
- () -
An hour and a tarnished kitchen later, Sebastian and I are fighting over the stove. We decided to make a fancy dinner with lasagna. He's in charge of the vegetables and I'm in charge of the sauce, but now he won't stop trying into interrupt me
"I can't believe you turned it on that high," Sebastian walks towards the stove, but I stop him midway. He glares at me. "You can't just double the temperature."
"I just did," I challenge. "Besides, it'll cut the time in half."
"That's now how it works," A vein in his head throbs.
"How do you know? It's not like you ever cooked sauce before."
"It's called common sense."
"Well, this is called logical thinking." I wave my hands around for emphasis.
"Move out of the way, Peyton." He growls, moving closer. As usual, his intimidation techniques don't work on me. I cross my arms.
"No, just trust me on this, okay-"
Just then, the sauce sets on fire.
Both of us scream in horror and stumble backwards. I shut my mouth with a large clap. There goes any side of my argument.
"Shit," Sebastian curses on the top of his voice. "What the hell are we going to do? What did you do? We're going to burn the house down!"
If it weren't for the fact that everybody was outside, I'd tell him to shut up. Instead, I inch my way towards the stove and try to turn the temperature off. I manage to turn the dial all the way back to zero before the flame leaps at my hand. With a small shriek - and an even bigger one from Sebastian - I jump back.
Sebastion starts cursing again.
"Okay, just calm down!" I yell, trying to go back to chemistry class. "It's a small fire, so we can probably put it out with - no, don't throw it!"
I manage stop Sebastian from throwing the water in time. He yanks the cup away from me so hard that I nearly fall to the ground. The water splashes on the ground and Sebastian hurries back to the faucet to fill it up again. I turn it off.
"You can't put water on a grease fire!" I scream. "It'll only make it worse!"
"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?"
"Sand!" I remember."Sand helps stop grease fires!"
"WHERE THE HELL ARE SUPPOSED TO FIND SAND?" He screams and throws his arms up into the air and the water left in the cup falls to the floor.
Note to Self: Sebastian is not good with panic.
I look back at the fire. It's not growing quickly, but the pot is rapidly turning black. I bite my lip and turn back to a wide-eyed Sebastian, grabbing a nearby napkin and giving it to him.
"Try keeping the fire from spreading. I'm going to get some sand."
With two large mugs, I rush out the kitchen, leaving Sebastian to fan widely at the fire. Then, I rush towards the backyard, where are our parents are hanging around the woods and talking about something in the trees. None of them notice me as I hop off the porch, fill the cups with sand and run back upstairs.
Archer's coming down the stairs when I storm inside. He still has a towel tucked under his elbow. I spend no time in looking at him. Instead, I try to balance my cups and run to the kitchen.
"Need some help carrying that, Peyton?" He yells, laughter in his voice.
"Go get some sand!" I call.
Inside the kitchen, I hear a high-pitched scream. Shit, I think and slam open the door. Without even looking, I fling the sand into the fire. With a loud sizzling noise, it sinks into the darkened pot, but barely stops the flames from rising.
I look around for Sebastian. My eyes start to burn. He's washing his hands in the sink, his black and ashy napkin discarded on the floor. He doesn't look burnt, but is still scrubbing his hands with soaps. Slightly relived, I look back at the flames. Dark, ashy, smoke starts to the fill the room.
"We need more sand," I mutter, turn around to go back outside again and
- promptly run into Archer's chest.
The impact is so hard that I topple to the floor. With a small squeak, I land on my back. The cups slip out of my hands and onto the floor with loud clacking noise. I go on my knees, but a surge of dizziness hits me. I think it might be the smoke.
With a small frown, Archer looks down at me. I watch his eyes widen as he turns towards the fire, his lips press together as he look at Sebastian. He looks back at me, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
"What happened?"
"I'll explain later," Hurriedly, I get up to my feet again, almost slipping from the water that spilled earlier. "Grab a mug and let's get some sand.
I'm about to sprint outside again when he grabs the back of my shirt and leads me the flame. He grabs the metal lid lying next to the pot. With a pointed look at me, he holds it up.
"This is what you do when a fire starts in the kitchen."
He puts the lid on the flame.
With a faint popping noise, the kitchen falls silent. I stare open-mouthed at the flames - why didn't I think of that? Fire can't live without oxygen, so if you block that off, the fire goes out. Stupid. I guess I'm not that good at these type of situations either.
"You two are crazy," Archer says, shaking his head. He takes the lid off. We look inside. Needless to say, the sauce is beyond repair. "What even is this?"
"Lasagna sauce," I say sadly.
"Did you make this, Sebastian?" His lip twitches. "I always knew you were horrible, but this must be a new a record even for you."
"You should be looking at your girlfriend," Sebastian snaps. He's still washing his hands, even though he didn't even get burnt.
"Hey, I wanted to make sandwiches!"
"Well, I guess you're going to get what you want," He turns the faucet off. Now that fire's gone, he's back to his low, smooth and collected attitude. I want to scream at him. "Now the lasagna is ruined and you ruined Mrs. Raine's pot."
I want to argue, but it's true. My heart sinks into my stomach as I look at the burnt sauce. Great, first, her son, then her hand towel and now her pot. I'm pretty sure she's never going to let me in the house again.
And I have a headache.
"Don't worry, Peyton, I'll take the blame." Archer reassure, with a smile smile on his face. How can he be happy in this situation? "Besides, mom never uses the pot. I'm pretty sure she won't she even notice it's missing. I'll just tell her we accidentally set the stove on too high."
I scan him suspiciously. "Why are you being so nice?"
"Is that bad?"
Just unusual.
instead, I say, "Are you going to blackmail me again?"
"We'll see."
I scowl.
After that, Archer takes over the kitchen, ordering Sebastian and I all over the place while he just watches. Unlike Sebastian and I, he doesn't even look at the recipe book. That is, until the end, when he takes over the presentation.
"Art comes in different forms," He informs us while cutting the sandwiches.
"So does insanity," I mutter back, causing him to throw Sebastian's black towel at me.
Archer made us cut the sandwiches into perfect circles while creating a new type of sauce, so in the end you also have a chip and dip with bread and sauce. He seems to be creative, even with food. He even made us decorate the plates so that it looks like something from Masterchef.
"This might be the nicest thing, I ever cooked," Sebastian muses, setting the forks and knives while Archer calls everybody to dinner.
I secretly agree.
"Ah, this smells delicious," Dad says, walking into the kitchen. "And looks delicious too - my god, Peyton, are your mom's cooking genes finally kicking in?"
I roll my eyes, but I have a small, but tired, smile on my face. While everybody takes their seats, I start handing out the plates. Even mom and Melody look impressed at our 'cooking'.
"It does look good," Mrs. Raine concedes with a small frown. "But this has your craftsmanship all over it, Archer, I thought I told Sebastian and Peyton to cook."
"I didn't touch anything," Archer says, which is, technically, true.
But his mom seems to sense the loophole and opens her mouth. Luckily for us, though, Mr. Raine interrupts her.
"Peyton, did I mention your dad and I are building a tree house?"
I shake my head.
"Well, he mentioned that you're an excellent handyman - woman. Would you like to help us build it in a few days?"
Archer looks up briefly from when he's serving juice.
"Uh," I say. "Sure."
"Nice," Archer stands up to go put the extra plates away. He walks past me on his way to the kitchen, nudging my shoulder."That's another thing we can do together."
- () -
Lots of bonding in this chapter (kinda). The next one is going to be fun! It's Halloween and it's going to be a two-parter.
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This one's dedication goes to sarabeara92 for her awesome voting skills.
Thanks for reading!
QotC: Worst cooking mishap you had? (I once melted easy-mac.)