Here Lies the Lives Left at the Altar (On Hold)

Chapter Seven

Archer

We've been driving for a few hours now, and we have a little over three and a half hours left before we get to... whatever city Rosie picked first. She has a map of the US with the trip highlighted, but I can hardly read the names with the amount she decorated the map. There's colorful circles around the landmarks she wants to stop at, and stickers of cars on the cities we're stopping at. She wanted to use it to drive at first, but I don't think she realizes how driving with a map actually works.

She's been reciting to me what happened with her family when she went back home. It's hard to believe families like these actually exist and that they'd set their daughter up like this.

"And then, I called him a pretentious douchebag," Rosie tells me giddily.

I turn to her with furrowed eyebrows, shoving a handful of chips into my mouth. "You stole that from me."

"Well, you were right."

I snort. "I know."

"He wasn't always like this, you know," Rosie tells me with a hint of protectiveness in her voice. I raise my eyebrows in doubt and she rolls her eyes. "When we were younger, he was actually almost fun. He changed when his parents started telling him what to do."

"When was that?" I ask.

"Around when we were thirteen, I think," Rosie recalls as she switches lanes and passes by someone driving exceptionally slow. "I never really liked him as more than a friend but once we became teenagers, they told us we would be married."

"That's insane, you know that right?" I clarify. "To do that as a kid?"

She lifted a hand from the wheel and gestured towards me. "Why do you think I ran?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Huh, you mean there's more to it than his last name?"

"Well, I wasn't fully lying, it is atrocious."

I wait for her to continue, but she just sits there in silence. "You gonna make me ask?"

She smiles innocently. "I'm building suspense."

After a few more moments of silence, I say, "Well?"

There's another brief moment of quiet before she says it so softly I almost miss it. "Clitterbuck."

Immediately, I howl with laughter. In between breaths, I manage to say, "There's no way that's real."

"No, it is."

I lean towards her over the center console, trying to pull it together long enough to speak. I speak in a hushed voice, "You know, the beginning of it has the word—"

"I know!" she cries out, and naturally, this only makes me laugh harder.

After a few moments, I finally calm down. I almost feel bad when I notice her face is beat red, clashing her hair, but it's too funny to not laugh. I realize that I don't actually know her last name.

"What's your last name anyway?" I ask. "Since you seem so attached to it and won't give it up for Clitterbuck."

"Keller."

"Rosie Keller, huh?"

"Sounds better than Rosie Clitterbuck, wouldn't you say?" I ask and he lets out a low chuckle while nodding. "What's yours?"

"Calloway. Archer Calloway."

Rosie smiles widely at the road. "Nice to officially meet you Archer Calloway."