"You twat!"
I was seething at Archer, who'd just achieved the feat of, how do I put it, royally pissing me off. Again.
He just smirked. "So this time, I win."
I stared at him. So this was his plan, to piss me off and get one step closer to winning the end-of-year bet. He opened his notebook and struck another tally mark on a page.
Oh yeah, we were keeping tabs on our wins.
"Okay, this time you win," I growled, "But you're not gonna be this lucky all the time."
Archer laughed, a golden sound which felt like honey to my ears. "Whatever you say, Vivian."
I froze. I hadn't heard him laugh like that in a long time, and I did not just say it felt like honey to my ears. Ew.
But it did. Admit it. You liked hearing it.
I shook my head slightly, stopping that train of thought before it could go any further. I was not allowed to think like that, not anymore.
My face turned stoic, cold. "Alright can we please get on with this work? There's a lot left."
Archer stared at me for a second, the air in the study thick with some kind of tension, I can't exactly describe what. After a few moments he dropped his gaze and turned back to his work.
°
"Archer?"
"What?"
I paused, swallowing. Should I ask?
But dismissing all my hesitation I went ahead anyway.
"You know the Ball's coming up right? But it's just before the deadline by which we have to submit all this work, so do you think we should go? Or should we just stay here and complete the work?"
Archer turned on me, an incredulous expression on his face. "You can't be serious. Of course we'll go! Well I don't know about you, since you're a goody two shoes,"--I rolled my eyes--"But bloody hell, I have to go! I can't just miss out on the one exciting night of the school year just for some stupid work!"
I put my hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, just asking."
He stared at me. "Why, won't you go?"
I sighed. "I was hesitant at first, but Angie and Kate are hellbent on dragging me there and now that you're saying you'll go too, I don't see why I should be the only one cooped up here instead of enjoying the night."
He shrugged. "Do whatever, I don't give a damn."
I glared at him. "And the arsehole is back."
"When was he ever gone?"
"You're right for once. Once an arse, always a bloody arse."
He shot a fake smile in my direction. "Funny, that's not what you used to say a year back."
I froze for the second time that night. Shock and hurt coursed through my body, leaving me reeling. Archer didn't seem to realise though and he continued.
"You'd be all, Hey Arch, I love you soo much, please kiss m--"
He didn't get to finish that sentence, as I slapped him across his left cheek. He stilled, holding his cheek with his hand.
Hot tears prickled my eyes, but I wasn't going to let them fall. Not now at least.
"You think it's funny? You think it's okay to joke around about this? You bastard!"
Archer glared in a deadly way at me. "Don't pretend like what happened wasn't your fault, Vivian. Don't act like a damsel in distress now, it's pathetic. You're pathetic."
I stared at him. How we could go from a civil conversation to this, was beyond my understanding.
"You think you can get to say whatever you want to me, and then get away with it? Well, newsflash, you can't! And you can't possibly say all that was my fault? You're an absolute hypocrite and it's your fault that you can't trust anyone, not even your bloody girlfriend and best friend!"
He flinched at my words. I continued.
"Trust is the most important thing in any relationship, be it romantic or platonic. And the fact remains that you couldn't trust me enough to believe me. Instead you chose to believe a random phone call from a random third party!"
"It wasn't random! I not only heard, Vivian, but I saw. Saw with my own two eyes! How can you possibly not believe that?!"
I stopped short. "Saw? What did you even see? A couple of pictures? Huh? That's what you saw? You know they can be deceiving right? You know there's such a thing called photoshop? I haven't seen anything myself but you have, and you chose to believe some photos which are probably doctored over even hearing what I had to say! Is that what you call trust these days?!"
A look of what I thought was remorse shot through his eyes, but it was gone in a flash. Instead his once-warm brown eyes grew cold and empty.
"I believe what I saw, and I don't trust people who lie to me."
"When did I ever lie to you? You were the one who chose to believe what's-her-name before me, and didn't even give me a chance to bloody explain! You know why I ended things with you, Archer? Of course because of the whole thing that happened but also because I realised you didn't trust me. And if you couldn't trust the one person you were supposed to be with, then I'm sorry but I just couldn't stay."
He gritted his teeth. "I'm pretty sure it was a mutual decision to end the relationship. You didn't just dump me. But whatever. Don't go around saying I'm the one to blame when it was all you."
"Did you even hear a word of what I just said? The fact that you chose to believe a few possibly photoshopped pictures over me, speaks a thousand words!"
"Listen here, Nen--"
We both froze. Was he seriously just going to say...?
I looked at him with wide eyes, lips parted. Archer's own eyes were wide with shock and astonishment at his own words, or almost-words.
The room suddenly felt too small, too claustrophobic. The space between Archer and I felt too tiny, and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't think.
But most of all, I couldn't look away.
Archer's eyes had always been a brilliant shade of brown. Not the boring brown which most have, no. His eyes had flecks of gold in them too, which made it seem as if they were sparkling everytime he laughed. I used to love it once upon a time.
And now I couldn't stop looking at them, which were as wide as mine.
I finally had the courage to whisper, "What were you just going to say?"
He stared at me blankly, and then, giving a little shake of his head, stepped back, putting more space between us. His face went back to the cold mask it was before.
"Nothing. I wasn't gonna say anything."
With that he picked up his books and left, since it was already half past seven.
I stood in the study for a few more moments, trying to process everything that happened in the past ten minutes. And the last moment, when he said "nothing." I knew it wasn't nothing. I knew what he'd intended to say.
Nena.
a/n: that's all for today! phew this was tough to write. what did you think of the fight and especially what happened in the end? i know everything's a little confusing now because you don't know what happened to cause their breakup (though with this chapter it became a bit clearer right?) and also what happened at the end. but don't worry, explanations are coming soon, and in the next chapter you're going to see the meaning and story behind the word nena, and why it's so significant. anyway, hope you liked this chapter! lots of love xx