Passionate Exchange

Chapter Three

I stumble back in shock, holding onto the door to regain my balance. "No," my voice comes out laced with guilt. I clear my throat, "why would I be spying on you?" I cast my gaze to the ground to try and hide the blush that's creeping its way up my cheeks.

Lucky for me, it's dark so he might not be able to see it.

"You were staring directly at my door." He deadpans. I was doing that. I lean against the door frame to make our encounter look a little less suspicious and make my argument more believable.

"I was getting water." I lie.

He flashes me a smirk as he folds his arms over his chest. The look on his face tells me that he doesn't believe me. Hell, I wouldn't even believe me.

"I don't know what it's like in England but in America, our kitchens are downstairs."

I rub my sweaty palms on my trousers with a scoff. "I know that."

Deciding that I've had enough of our conversation, I head towards the kitchen. "Nice pyjamas." He teases before going back into his room and closing the door behind him. I walk down the stairs, holding onto the bannister to stop me from falling in embarrassment.

I look down at my pyjamas and hold my head in my hands. "You couldn't have chosen better ones?" I mutter to myself, mortified at his words.

My pink polka-dot pyjama trousers are slightly too big for me, so I have to pull them up as I walk towards the cupboard. My white t-shirt has an array of stains on it from god knows when. I curse myself for deciding to check who the footsteps belonged to.

*

It's been one day since our awkward encounter. Archer didn't mention anything about it to anyone though I wasn't expecting him to anyway.

I've only seen him a few times in passing and I've kept my eyes glued to the floor every time.

It's now Friday and, you know what that means, the first game of the season. It's all anyone's been talking about. I've seen in movies the excitement that people have towards these games, but I didn't think that it was this big of a deal.

Some of the girls tied ribbons in their hair to match the team's colours. The players, including Tyler, were hounded by at least fifteen people as soon as they stepped out into the corridor.

Everyone treated them as if they were celebrities like it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see them. In reality, they see them every day at school. They walked past the players, patting them on the back and wishing them luck. Anyone with eyes could see that they loved the attention, some even went as far as blowing kisses.

"It's the first game of the season," Penny drags me into her room and pushes the door shut. "We're going." She rummages through her closet in an attempt to find something suitable to wear.

"But I'm tired," I drag out as I fall back onto her bed.

It's the truth, I am tired. I don't understand how some people can leave school looking the same as they did when they entered. I look like I've been in a fight with a rabid bear and barely survived...okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

"You can't not go, going to this game is a rite of passage around here." The volume of her voice gets louder as she goes on. She's almost completely submerged in her closet, ripping out clothes left, right, and centre.

"Do I have to?" I groan, covering my face with my hands.

"You have to." She confirms before ordering me to go get changed.

We both manage to find an outfit; she took longer than me because she was being indecisive. I just grabbed a random blue dress out of my suitcase that I still need to unpack and chucked it on. It's been a warm day today, so I didn't want to risk wearing trousers and sweating an obnoxious amount.