Rule #3: No Physical Contact
Don't be Ticklish.
-()-
"I am now your slave."
"Peyton?"
"Good evening, Archer. I have come to announce that, as per tradition, I must your slave. You saved my life from a bloodthirsty hound and beginning today, I will repay your debt."
"It's three o'clock in the morning."
"Indeed."
"Did the doctors give you painkillers again?"
"Yes, why?"
A sigh. "Go to sleep, Peyton."
"Is that an order?"
"I thought you didn't follow orders."
"I don't. Good night, Archer."
"Good night, Peyton."
- () -
"Nice to see you again, Peyton. I see you're off the painkillers."
"Yeah. They decided to stop giving them after I shredded a pillow - anyways, I came to apologize about last night. And your leg - it's all my fault -"
"Oh no."
"What?"
"You're not going to try to blame yourself for everything, are you?"
"Well, it was my fault that I went up to the fence. If I didn't put my ear on it, the dog wouldn't have sensed me and -"
A scoff.
"Hey! I'm trying to apologize - "
"You sound like my mother."
"...What? Well, fine then! Maybe I won't apologize!"
"Much better. That's the Peyton I like to see."
"Well, you won't be seeing me anymore. I'm leaving."
"Bye Peyton!"
"Whatever!"
- () -
"Peyton? Why are you in my room?"
"Your mom's here."
"Why are you crawling under my bed?"
"My mom's here."
"You're going to get sick."
"It's a hospital. They should clean the floors every ten minutes if they don't want to be sued for health violations. I'm sure it's dust free."
"That's not how it -"
"Shh. They're coming."
Through the crack between the floor and Archer's bed, I catch the dust that flies off as Mrs. Raine swings the door open. She enters the room with a grand entrance, her heels clicking every step of the way. My mother's white flats and Bettie's blue sneakers follow.
The bed shifts over me, indicating that Archer has sat up.
"Archer, darling! Are you alright? When that girl called and told us that a dog had mauled you, we nearly had a heart attack. I leave you with her for a couple of hours and you end up in a hospital!"
My mother shuffles uneasily. "Speaking of which, where is Peyton? I haven't seen her since she stormed off the other day."
"The doctors made her stay in another room."
"What? I wasn't aware of this. Did something happen to her too?"
"Just a couple of bruises," Archer tells her, his voice low and soothing. "She was a little - uh, shocked after the incident so the doctors gave her some painkillers and made us stay the night."
"Honestly," Mrs. Raine mutters. "I don't know what that girl was thinking, making you follow her to an abandoned house with diseased mutts."
It's Bettie's turn to complain about me. "Peyton's obsession with animals stops her from thinking rationally. She nearly fell out of a tree trying to rescues this street cat."
"Peyton does seem to rescue cats often, doesn't she?" Archer says fondly.
"I don't want you talking to that girl anymore."
"It wasn't Peyton's fault, mom. I volunteered to come along."
Archer's defending me.
How sweet.
Or maybe it's because he knows I'm in the room?
I argue with myself over which option is the truth. My lack of sleep last night is getting to me ad making it hard to focus. Finally, my mother decides she's had enough and leaves to go find me. Mrs. Raine follows her, leaving Bettie alone with us.
"So, how are you doing?" The weight of the bed shifts as Bettie sits on it.
Lying under the bed is oddly comfortable. The cold tiled floor soothes my skin and the conversation around me fades into background noise. Unable to keep my eyes open, I drift off - until I hear my name.
"Did you know that Peyton used to be extremely popular in her old school?" Bettie demands.
"I did, actually. Do you mind getting me a glass of water?"
"Listen, I realize talking about somebody else's personal life is a little uncomfortable, but I think this is something you should know about Peyton before you decide to be friends with her."
"It's too late. We're already friends."
Bettie ignores him. "So when Peyton was fifteen years old, she started this boy - his name was Xavier - and became totally smitten with them. Since they were both cute, popular and members of the swim team, they became a power couple..."
My mind, riddled with painkillers and drowsiness, begins to comprehend what's going on.
"...At the end of Freshman year, Peyton decided to apply to Varsity Swimming. Varsity Swimming has these initiation where the male team gets sent - uh, pictures of the girls team and they rank them based on their appearance. Xavier was one of the judges so..."
I pull myself up so quickly that the top of my head hits the bottom of the bed. Bettie, whose speech is so loud, doesn't even notice.
"...Peyton sent him nudes because she thought she'd be able to get judged earlier. Somehow, they got leaked from his phone and spread through the school - Peyton?"
"It's rude to talk about a person's private life without their permission," I crawl out from under the bed, causing Bettie to squeal and jump off. "Especially when you don't know the whole story. The photos weren't leaked. Xavier sent them to all his friends to prove a point."
My face is flushed. The weight of Archer's gaze bores into the side of my face, but I don't have the courage to check his expression. Instead, I focus on the stunned Bettie, whose mouth opens and closes several times.
"What the hell were you doing under Archer's bed?"
"That's where monsters usually reside, isn't it?"
"I can't believe this. Mrs. Monroe and Mr. Raine are probably freaking out again, wondering where you are by now."
I roll my eyes. "Quit trying to pretend like you're the victim in this situation."
"I'm not trying to do anything. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to the find the moms and tell them what you've been up to so they don't call the police looking for you." And with flaming red cheeks, Bettie stomps outside.
That leaves just Archer and I.
And this awkward silence.
I turn around.
"So," Archer rests back on his pillows. "That's the story."
"Parts of it," I mutter, rolling a strand of pink hair around my finger. "She exaggerated a lot. We weren't a power couple. And I wasn't smitten with him."
I glance at Archer out of the corner of my eye, waiting for the inevitable change of character as he realizes that I sent nudes to a guy who forwarded them to the whole school. Waiting for him to call me a slut, like my best friend did or threaten to stop talking forever, like my mother did.
But Archer hasn't done any of that. Instead, he seems thoughtful.
"I'm going to go under your bed again."
"Hiding?"
"No," I lie. "I'm just going to sleep."
"Sleep here," Archer moves over so there's space for one person on his bed. "It's more comfortable. And we can talk."
"I don't want to talk."
"Then we can sleep."
"Fine." I sit next to Archer, above the blankets so our legs don't touch.
Archer relaxes and nuzzles into the pillows, even though he was sleeping right before I entered the room. After a few minutes, I begin to relax too.
"I didn't know the Varsity swim team had a hazing ritual when I first applied, you know," I say, still playing with the strand of pink hair. "When Xavier told me about the ranking girls thing, I though it was supposed to super casual, clothes-on, kind of stuff."
Silence.
"Archer?"
I drop my hair and turn around.
He's asleep.
Of course. I press the pillow over my face and scoff. That idiot would never miss a chance to take a nap.
Still.
He just found out my worst secret from Bettie. And he hasn't done anything. Out of all the people I've met, including Jake, Irene and Andrew, he's had the calmest reaction - or should I say, lack of reaction.
It's as if nothing changed.
With that thought, I bring down the pillow and look at his face. I don't want to fall asleep, since the threat of my mom entering any second looms over my head. But maybe, I could just lie here for a while and relax.
At first, everything goes well.
But then it turns out that Archer's a cuddly sleeper.
Within minutes, he's latched on to my side and nuzzled his nose into my hair. It tickles. I press my lips together to keep from laughing.
I know how to solve this.
Revenge.
So, completely disregarding my don't-touch-anyone policy, I attempt to tickle him. He shifts a little, loosening his group, but that's the one response I get out of him. Half of his face is hidden with he pillow so when he opens his eyes, I can only see one one of them.
"What are you doing?" Archer murmurs.
I scowl. "You're not ticklish?"
"Hmm, no?" He lifts his face off the pillow. "Why, are you?"
"No." I say quickly. Too quickly.
A smirk crosses his lips.
And before I can stop him, he launches an attack, wrapping his arms around my sides and tickling me until I'm gasping with laughter. I slam the palm of my hand against his jaw. It's enough pressure to make him stop, but not hurt him. He relents and flops back on his back.
I push myself off the bed and flatten my hair down.
"That's a nice sound to wake up to," Archer muses and then promptly falls asleep again.
A tiny firework goes off in my stomach when he says that, leaving a trace of warmth all over my heart and cheeks. What just happened? I shake off the feeling and glance at the mirror to make sure I'm not smiling. As comforting it is to stay in the same room with Archer, I know I have to find my mother before she barges in on us.
And I don't want to be here when Archer wakes up and finally realizes that he might not want to be friends with me all along.
Whatever.
I place my usual annoyed expression on my face and pull my hair back until it looks normal again.
It was fun while it lasted.
With one last nod to my reflection, I leave the room.
- () -
So, we get another glimpse of Peyton's past. Thanks Bettie.
"...."
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This chapter's dedication goes to carlyle140! If you guys want to know when I'm going to update next, check out my profile. I try to put the next date up there at least a week before I actually update.
Thanks for reading!
QotC: Are you guys ticklish?