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Chapter Twenty One - The Beginning of High School Life

Chapter Twenty One - The Beginning of High School Life

The car curved round the roundabout and it took all of my strength not to sway against the door. “What kind of favour?” I asked.

The air around us seemed unusually tense. It was that or the smell of cologne that was making me really uncomfortable.

“I know I’ve made a mistake, but I’m trying to fix things,” he began. I recalled the series of events that I’d witnessed at the Sawyer estate. Had the girl left him? “It’s over with the girl, and I’ve been meaning to reconcile with Lainie and Archer, but Archer hasn’t spoken to me. I waited for him outside the school this afternoon and he just walked away. Please talk to him for me.”

I felt my fist clenching as I tensed my jaw. I would never forget the one time I saw tears manage to escape Archer’s eyes, and the way Peter left. Now this man was asking me to convince Archer to take him back. If it were up to me, I’d never acknowledge his existence again, but I wasn’t going to say that.

“I’ll tell him about what you’ve said, but I won’t convince or persuade him to do anything. You hurt Archer. A lot. And it’s up to him now, whether or not he’ll see you.”

The car stopped at my house and I got out, shutting the door behind me. I watched the black car disappear into the distance before getting into the house.

I thought about what I was going to say to Archer the next day. I’d just tell him exactly what his dad had said; my job wasn’t to do any persuading. Being involved in someone else’s personal affairs was weird, but I was Archer’s friend. Weren’t friends supposed to do these sorts of things?

The next morning I hurried to school, making sure I was at least fifteen minutes to catch Archer arriving. The schoolyard was fairly empty. I rocked back and forth on my heels, my breath coming out in white puffs of smoke-like air.

Some of the juniors arrived and I kept my head down, trying not to seem creepy, inspecting every new arrival as they entered.  I watched the cars pull up and leave. Then I spotted the sleek black sedan. The door swung open and as expected, Archer got out of the car, one strap of his bag slung loosely over his shoulder.

Still having the careless guy image. “Archer,” I said. He looked up.

“Hey,” he replied. “You’re early.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“It sounds really serious,” he chuckled. “Let’s walk and talk.” He waited for me to go through the gate before he followed.

My heart pounded. What exactly was I supposed to say? I just needed to get it over and done with, and so, I just started talking. “Yesterday, your dad talked to me…”

He stopped walking and turned to face me. “And?”

“He wants to fix things.”

“Now that the little gold digger left him he’s looking to fix things?” Archer scoffed. “He’s trying to gather the shreds of his dignity?”

“I’m just telling you what he said,” I added quickly, in case he misunderstood anything. “He wants to talk to you.”

“ I don’t want to talk to him. If he talks to you again, tell him that I’m personally telling him to piss off.”

It was as though a grey cloud had moved in. Archer’s forehead showed creases, his eyebrows furrowing downwards as he glowered and walked. I’d single handedly ruined his day. Maybe I should have waited until the afternoon.