The Loner's Journey

Chapter 22

Grayson's POV
After Danny tells me who the guy was, we all sit and watch him as he leaves the gym. Once he's gone, I turn back to Danny and archer. Archer seems to be ok now after his episode. I look at Danny and notice he's keeping a close eye on archer's behavior. "So, can we finish what we were talking about now?" I ask Danny. He looks at me, then leans down to archer and whispers something to him. I can't hear it but it seems like it surprised or upset archer cause his eyes grew wide and he started to tremble slightly. Once Danny was done, he moved back to look at archer's face for an answer to whatever he said. It takes a minute but eventually archer seems to relax a little and gives a barely noticeable nod to Danny. Danny gives him a reassuring look and then turns back to me. I look at him expectantly. He sighs and looks like he's thinking. "I was telling archer what we talked about while he was asleep, and he agreed to let me tell you everything." He says. I'm shocked at first but then immediately feel happy that archer trusts me to know whatever it is Danny is gonna tell me. "I'm gonna go ahead and warn you that you probably aren't gonna like most of what I have to tell you. You'll probably cry and get really angry. But just sit there and listen to what I say." Danny says sternly. I give a hesitant nod for him to continue. "It all started on archer's 6th birthday. He was riding in the car with his mom to go to the store for cake and ice cream for his party, when all of a sudden a deer jumped in the road in front of their car. His mom tried to swerve around it but ended up running off the road and hitting something that made the car flip. When it stopped, archer called for his mom but she didn't answer. Eventually, he passed out and doesn't remember anything else. But when he woke up again he was in the hospital and his dad was sitting with him. When his dad noticed he was awake his dad just flat out told him his mom was dead and then left." He said and then paused to let me process and check on archer. After making sure archer was still ok, he began the story again. "After his dad left, archer just broke down. He was sad and blamed himself for his mom dying. Of course it didn't really help that his dad was being so distant and cold." He sighed and then began again. "Archer got out of the hospital a few days later and they had his moms funeral the next day. As cliche as it sounds, it was actually raining that day. After the funeral, archer and his dad went home. But only archer stayed. His dad went out drinking to get rid of the grief he felt. When he got home, he was wasted. Obviously, grief and alcohol don't mix very well, and his grief turned to rage. But he didn't have anyone to blame but himself or his son. So, as most people do, he went with the easiest thing, and blamed his 6 year old son." He said and paused again. He checked on archer again to make sure he was still ok with what was going on and then started the story back up. "Since archer was so young, he didn't really understand what was happening, so he didn't say anything. What was happening behind closed doors was that archer was being badly abused by his father for something that he really had no control over. But his dad didn't care. His dad beat him every day for something he couldn't control. He starved archer to the point he was so weak he couldn't move enough to even try to feed himself. It got so bad that archer ended up in the hospital. He only ended up there, because one of the neighbors became suspicious about his whereabouts, after not seeing him for a while. They called 911 and when they got there they found archer and his dad both passed out on the floor. But the horrifying thing, was that archer didn't even look like he was alive. It took one of the paramedics three tries to get his pulse. They were about to declare him dead when he took a deep breath and the medic felt his faint pulse." He said, pausing again so I could process. What the hell was I hearing? I thought. This is twisted and wrong on so many levels. Once I had my thoughts mostly in order I motioned for him to continue. As he opened his mouth to speak, the bell rang for the end of school. We all jumped a little as we weren't expecting it. "Let's go get ice cream or something and we can finish this talk." I suggest. Danny looks at archer for confirmation and when he nods, we all get up and head to the parking lot of the school. We go our separate was after pulling up directions to the closest ice cream shop.