Hand in Heart

Reaching

A beeping alarm intruded Archie's sleep and he smacked the bed a couple of times until he found his phone. He turned it off and sat up. It was 7AM but to Archie it was 5 hours later. Technically he had slept for way too long but the time difference made him look like some healthy, 'get your life together' person. He decided to unpack all of his many clothes before he went out.

The first box he opened contained his more earthy toned clothing; beiges, browns and olives burst out of the cardboard and infected the plain room with colour. The next box seeped with inky black coloured jeans and jumpers. By the time all the boxes had been opened, Fran came meandering in.

"The heat woke me up." She exclaimed groggily.

"We are in America now?" Archie replied.

"Wait really?" She shot back with sarcasm laced in her voice.

Archie rolled his eyes. "Help me unpack pleaseeeee!"

"Oh my god fine, but you have to help me later." Fran insisted

She could be very persuasive.

After his wardrobe was full to the brim, Archie changed into a more sporty outfit and shoved his trainers on. He opened his phone onto google maps and punched in a postcode that was recommended from someone he followed on instagram. It was of walking distance which was a positive. Grabbing a backpack, he trudged downstairs and packed a bottle of water, some snacks, finger tape and his climbing shoes.

"Oi Fran, wanna come climbing?" Archie shouted up the stairs.

"Nah i can't be arsed. Thanks for the offer though Arch!" She shouted back.

Archie put his headphones on and started walking, listening to his playlist as he did.

The building in front of him looked like a broken down warehouse, but so did every climbing building in honesty. He strolled in and payed. Once sat on a bench, he switched his shoes and stepped up onto the bouncy floor. It was a decent layout, bouldering walls in a secluded area, a couple of kid-style walls and huge top rope and lead walls. Today Archie would do some lead walls. He headed over to a small warm up area and suddenly realisation smacked him in the face: he forgot his chalk. Surely he would be fine? All he knew is he would definitely not be asking anyone here, he didn't want to be asked a bunch of questions about his accent or his skill level. Also partly because he was a little scared of sporty Americans due to the stupid shows he watched sometimes. They were always depicted as jerks and bullies. It was silly to believe them but he did anyway.

Nevertheless, he started warming up despite his lack of equipment and began to put his harness on. Striding over to the wall, he clipped himself onto the first anchor. Once halfway up, he really regretted pursuing this climb as his hands were sweating and hot. There was also a gorgeous boy ahead of him. He had wavy brunette hair with muscles poking through his tight shirt sleeves. He also had a rough voice by the sound of his frequent grunts and sighs. Archie couldn't really see much of his face as he was below him but he could see an extremely sharp jawline. This boy might have been causing some extra sweat and heat from Archie; that and the weather.

Amidst his gazing, Archie abruptly missed the loop on the next anchor, his clip made a soft grating noise and as he looked down, he yelped in terror. Well, and embarrassment. His life flashed before his eyes, his heart pounded in his chest even more than before. He reached out above him, like that was going to do anything, and gripped onto a hold with his other hand. Was he going to die? Was he going to fall and be paralysed for life? The only bad fall he had ever had with climbing was when he was a beginner and tried to beat Fran at a red climb before he could even pass a hard green. He fell on his arm and twisted it round until he heard a crack. It was broken and in a cast for about a month. That injury was only from halfway up a bouldering wall, this was almost at the top of a lead wall. This was much worse.

Suddenly his falling stopped. He jolted in the air and looked up in confusion and panic. That boy had clasped his hand and caught him, mid air. This seemed impossible. Swiftly, Archie regained a safe foot placement and clumsily clipped himself back onto the anchor and took a deep sigh of relief.

"You better climb down dude." The raspy voice said down to Archie.

"Yep, noted." Archie replied, his voice trembling slightly.

Following the instructions, he gingerly climbed down, taking extra care this time. The boy climbed down with him which was moderately awkward. Squishy ground welcomed his feet as he unclipped from the beginning anchor.

"Erm hi, thank you so much for that mate." Archie muttered.

"No problem bro. What happened up there though?" The mysterious guy asked.

"Well i kinda forgot my chalk and still thought it would be a good idea to climb. Didn't wanna waste the session y'know." Archie answered.

"I mean fair enough but maybe don't climb with out chalk next time." The boy chuckled. "I'm Noah by the way." He smiled and held his hand out.

"Archie." He shook his hand and side smiled.

Maybe socialising with an American wasn't the worst thing in the world, plus he hadn't asked about his accent yet.

"So where are you from? You sound very English." Noah chuckled.

Well that was short lived.

"Yup, just moved yesterday. I lived in the UK." Archie said reluctantly.

"Woah, cool! What's London like?" Noah asked, excitement and curiosity floated in his voice.

"Well i've only been like once but it's okay, a lot of knife crime and stuff. And it's full of homeless people. Not really the dark academia dream people think it is." Archie waffled.

"Damn, that's a let down i guess." Noah mumbled. "Hey you got snap? I gotta run and you seem cool."

Oh my god. This drop-dead gorgeous man was actually asking Archie for his snap after five minutes of talking to him. Maybe he is better looking than he thought.

"Uh yeah, it's @Arch1e_22, i can write it down though." Archie replied, a bit of surprise lingered in his words.

Noah dug around in his pocket and handed Archie a pen. It had a business written on it.

"I've got no paper but you can just write it on my hand." Noah stated.

Archie did as he was told and gently held his hand. He slowly wrote his snap while simultaneously studying Noahs tanned skin and cobalt, wine veins as they interrupting the smooth flow of his hand.

"Thanks, catch you later!" Noah exclaimed before slinging a bad over his shoulder and waving to the climbing instructor.

"Bye." Archie replied, transfixed on his silky hair.

He couldn't believe what just happened.