My Buddy Archie [3]

68..

i can't friggin deal with wattpad. what's the point of letting me add pictures if they're just going to FUCKING disappear as soon as i post the FUCKING chapter. And????/ fuck them for re-categorizing my SHIT. Why did they even FUCKING change it from adding two?! what the FUCKFU FUCkfj/

anyway

here's the chapter. hope you like it :)

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"I cannot believe he's eight," Connie said quietly. Her eyes followed Archie and the rest of the kids skating around the ice rink. He'd gotten good at it over the years. "Seems like I've known him for longer than four years."

"Well, you're his mum now, so eventually you will."

She smiled a little before wrapping her sweater tighter around her. "Does he call Maria his mum?"

"I haven't heard him call her that...but he might when he's with her." She just nodded. "Feeling okay?"

"Yeah, that pizza was good. I don't know if I can eat any cake though."

"Never thought I'd see the day when you turn down cake."

"You and I both."

We faded into silence again as we watched the kids skate around. The group was mostly made of Archie's school friends—Simon, Jack, Aaron and Collin. Archie insisted on including the Goods triplets and Bailey, along with his half-brother and sister, John and Jessica. Mike wasn't allowed to come because he was acting up, according to Maria. He stayed at home with her husband. It was a pretty big group of kids here though, which meant there was a big group of parents sitting around, patiently waiting for this to be over.

It was good to be with some friends our own age though, people outside of work. Regina was always entertaining once she started talking about the women on The Bachelor. She was ruthless.

"Dad! Dad!" A hand pounded on the glass barrier and I turned around to see Archie trying to get my attention. "Watch this, okay? Keep looking." Then he sped off.

Already, I know this can go one of two ways.

He's either about to do something dangerous, which will send Connie into a panic attack, even though, somehow, he always turns out fine and will tell Connie she's being 'a drama queen'. Or, he's going to mess up and come back to make me watch until that dangerous thing actually happens.

I watched him round the curve, passing his friends and power skating back towards me. Honestly, I thought that was the trick—the...going fast. But as he was getting closer to me, and I saw the huge goofy smile on his face, I knew it was just coming.

He came towards the glass like he was about to smash into it. I even heard Connie gasp as she looked at him, only to be followed by a relieved sigh when he dug his skates to the side and came to a short stop.

"Oh my god, Archie! You scared me!" She scolded.

"Did you see how quick I stopped? I should play hockey and football."

I chuckled, "That was pretty cool, buddy." Someone must've pushed him from behind, because he suddenly smacked into the glass before he fell to the ground. The person behind him steadied themselves at they laughed at him.

If it wasn't Bailey, there would've been a problem...

Archie groaned and rolled over, "You're so mean to me," he muttered. Bailey just laughed harder as she helped him up.

——

——

"And this is the business management staff." Brendon, Vince and I looked up to see some woman that worked on the floor above us standing in the doorway with Anthony Camp—the guy that was set to take over the company next month. "I'm giving Mr. Camp a proper tour of the building. He's here to look around," she explained.