A Spirit Between Us (bxb)

Chapter 2 - Archie.

The moment had finally arrived. The day that Finley O'conner had both dreaded and daydreamed about in equal measure for as long as he could remember. This was it. The time to break out of his shell, to face his daunting feelings, and to talk to the boy who had unknowingly set up camp in his brain and refused to leave. For years, Finn had hidden his true self, He had cloaked his thoughts with painfully bad acting, but now was the moment for him to embrace his identity, take back control of his own feelings, and take a bold step toward the happiness he deserved.

Or, you know... not.

Finn felt like a complete creep. Not the "quirky rom-com" kind, but the kind you'd cross the street to avoid walking next to. He was in awe of his own stupid actions that led him into this position.

When the final school bell rang and unleashed a tidal wave of students eager to flee, Finn... didn't. Instead of immediately racing to his freedom like any other sane person, he somehow managed to shuffle at the pace of a tortoise in quicksand. Archie was still talking to Mrs. Rosery, and Finn, in his infinite wisdom, decided the best move was to wait for him to finish.

In his head, this was a strategic move. It would give him time to calculate how he'd approach Archie and come up with a cool, charming way to talk to him. Something smooth or maybe even funny. Like in the movies. It couldn't be that hard, he had built his fake personality brick by brick in order to fit in with the people surrounding him, and he was doing it again in an attempt to impress his crush. But because the universe loves a good laugh at Finn's expense, Mrs. Rosery's "serious chat" lasted all of two seconds.

Before Finn could have even comprehended it, Archie was casually strolling out of the classroom, and had rushed passed Finn, which, in all fairness was an easy task given his snail-like speed. But Finn had nothing. Obviously. No plan, no words, no escape route. Naturally, he panicked and did the worst thing he could've possibly done in that moment. He followed him.

Followed him. Straight out of the school, down the street, and right into the middle of town, which, in fact, was in the complete opposite direction of Finn's house. So now, not only did he look like a total stalker, but he was also hopelessly lost and heading further from home with every awkward step.

Smooth, Finn. Really smooth.

At this point, time had slowed to an agonising crawl as Finn Spiralled into a full internal panic. He had been trailing behind Archie for a solid ten minutes, each step he took making him feel more and more like a criminal in one of those true crime documentaries 'Teen Boy Follows Crush For Miles, No One Surprised' would be the headline. He wanted to say something, anything would've been better than the quietness, but his throat was too dry to call out to Archie, his stomach had formed some sort of weird anxiety pretzel, and his mouth was too busy biting down on his fingernails.

The longer Finn stayed silent, the worse the situation got. The tension was suffocating, but if he turned around and bolted now, he'd basically be admitting that he had, in fact, been following Archie like some sort of deranged puppy, and he didn't want to draw that kind of attention to himself. Luckily for him, Archie hadn't seemed to notice, but time was precious in that situation, and Finn was utterly clueless on how to navigate it.

He kept trying to gather the courage to reach out to Archie, using his previous determined thoughts as motivation. He kept thinking of how disappointed he would be in himself if he simply didn't do anything and went home with his tail tucked between his legs. Not to mention, he'd taken this route specifically to follow Archie and was too busy overthinking everything to pay attention to any of his surroundings, if he turned around now he'd be completely lost.

Different thoughts and imaginary situations tumbled through Finns mind like an anxiety ridden pinball machine. "What should I say..?" was the question that he was trying so desperately to find the answer to. "How do I say it without sounding like a total freak? Should I try to be friendly or flirty? Should I compliment his hair?? No. Too weird. His outfit? Still kinda weird. His ..breathing..?.."