Pieces Of Broken Collages (A Compilation Of My One Shots And Poems)

The Archer

You never really know who's on your side or not. Sometimes, those people take advantage of you. Sometimes, you hold onto them like they're your lifeline but they're not. You just stay there, because, if you let go, no one's going to save you or even merit that you exist. You just stay.

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Standing on the side of a hospital bed as my mother laid, I felt like I was going to lose my best friend, my great war, my lifeline. It was, in a matter of seconds, gone like she never existed in the first place. Just another corpse added to the morgue.

"Mom, please don't go. Please, please," I begged her to stay. I know that my prayers wouldn't be answered in a snap of my fingers but I still hoped for a sliver of a miracle. I just wanted to say fuck death for doing this to me.

"Hey, hey. Don't cry. I want to tell you that your mommy loves you, okay?" I nodded in response to her. I couldn't do anything anymore. I felt like I was gasping and clinging for some oxygen to enter my lungs. I was almost hyperventilating because what happens if that IV rests? What happens then?

"Archer, listen to me, okay? Do not be taken advantage of by people, even if they deserve it or not, okay?" she told me. I nodded again, but this time, with a few tears running down my cheeks. It's just not what I expected to happen on a random Wednesday.

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It was another normal day in my life as a student. Nothing piques my interest nowadays other than existing. I do have a few friends that stayed with me for the last 6 years but I felt like I was always someone who never really connected with people.

Even though it's the first day in the third quarter, it feels like it was monotonous. I just wrote some stuff down as preparation for the class. There was yet another seating arrangement so I had to follow that also. I'm now far away from my friends who were sitting at the left and back side of the class.

"Hi, Archer, right?" I looked up to see a bright ray of sunshine. It was a boy, who was the same age as me, holding his aqua flask on his hand and his bag on one of his shoulders. "Yeah,"

He sat right next to me, putting his bag on the ground as he took out one of his notebooks and one of his pens and looked at me. "I'm Chase," he exclaimed and held out his hand. His smile reached his ears and I accepted his hand in response. "Archer, nice to meet you," I said.

A few days later, it was Valentines Day and as such, my school didn't want to do Intramurals because of time constraints so we have Valentines Day. It wasn't that serious, it was just a little bit expensive.

"Hey, I'm just going to run to the canteen real quick, you guys want anything?" one of my friends, Kris, asked my two other friends, Niko and Fran, and I. "Can you buy me ice candy? Here's 20," I gave her a bill and she accepted. I was then tapped on the shoulder by someone from the lower years, probably a Grade 11.

"Excuse me, are you Archer Myoui?" she asked me. I nodded in response. I thought there was no jail booth on Valentines Day. "You have been picked for a blind date. You should come with us," she exclaimed and smiled. I raised my eyes, PICKED?! I followed her after putting the blindfold on.

I just sat there and waited for the one who initiated the date. "Your date requested to write their responses to you so that you can talk. They think you would know them instantly if you heard their voice," she said and I took off my blindfold. "Okay, thank you," I replied.

In the past few minutes, I answered their questions while they wrote in a piece of paper, always with an xx at the end. Probably a Grade 7-10 student since I was kind of famous in our confession page before.

"Face reveal!" someone shouted and the curtain opened and I saw Chase panicking as he tried to stop the girl from pulling the curtain off but it was too late, I already saw him. "You arranged this date?" I asked him. He nodded and I saw what he wrote in a piece of paper.

[Would you want to date me?]

I wrote on a piece of paper.

[Yes]

*A week later*

It just feels so surreal that I'm dating a guy in my school and I just feel like I've been given this miracle, a sliver of hope.

It was dismissal time and I really want to go home but now, I'm not going to be alone. "Archer, I'm just going to say goodbye to the scouts and I'm going to come with you, okay?" he told me and I nodded.

I stayed on the side of the ramp, waiting for him to say goodbye to his friends when I heard a couple of girls talking about something. A classroom was right next to the ramp and as the ramp was on the left side of the building and I was on the right side of it, I wouldn't be seen clearly.

"Yeah, Kuya Archer and Kuya Chase do not look good together, I mean, it's not like I'm homophobic or anything, they just don't look good," one of the girls said. I couldn't help but listen to them talk about me.

"Yeah, I wish Kuya Chase and Ate Camille were still together. What ever happened to them?" the other girl replied. I still couldn't get my ears off from their conversation that I felt like I was literally stalking them. I know the conversation is a little bit private but if it concerns me, I must know.

"I heard it was because of Archer. He took Chase like he's such a bitch," the girl answered and laughed with the other girl. I just sat there, waiting for Chase to come and he did come. "Hey, want to go?" he asked me.

I walked fast and just walked outside of the gate and into the side of the busy street, walking home. He ran after me. "Hey, what happened?" he asked me. He saw how the tears flowed from my eyes down to my cheek. "I-I think we should break up, Chase. End this," I said.

"No, no. What's wrong? I want to know what's wrong," he told me and held my cheek. "Nothing, I just want to end this, please," I told him but he still resisted. God, why did God give me such a hardheaded boy to date?

"You can tell me if something's wrong, okay?" when he said those words, I just started bursting into tears. I just realized that I was overwhelmed with all this dating the famous guy thing that I was holding myself into this standard of being good enough to have this position.

"There's people getting hurt, Chase. People that say that we don't fit, and we don't. I just don't want anyone to get hurt, Chase. I just-," and then I cried. People have been looking at us but I didn't care. His embrace was all I wanted in this world. "We fit, okay?"

"Do not let other people take advantage of you or try to say that you can't do things, okay? If they do, I'm here," he told me. I wiped my tears and hugged him. I felt like I could really talk to him about this. He held my hand and kissed me under the afternoon daylight.

And in that moment, all I could see was daylight. I was asleep from this side of the world but now, I can only see the daylight. My heart was racing and pounding and I tried to keep up with its pace but I just let it be. I closed my eyes to savor and relish this moment forever.

It's brighter now. I feel like my mother is watching me. She sent Chase for me. She sent Chase to save me and give me a best friend that I could talk about again.

My lifeline.