CHAPTER ONE
(Elle Mark's POV)
"Shrimp? Anyone?" Maisie, my best friend, saunters around the café, holding up plates that are covered with pink shrimps that she just harvested from her nets. Of course, she would be the one to walk around, smiling and laughing amicably. I'm forever just the one with the weird too blond hair, too tall figure, and solemn face. I shouldn't even be working in a café, seeing how much I suck at communicating with people, but Michael was kind enough to offer me a job here for two weeks. I need the money for the trip I'm going on with Maisie's boyfriend. It's a strange thing to do, believe me, I know. But I just broke up with this guy and she feels sorry for me so she asked Archer to come with me on a road trip thingy so that I could de-stress.
I'm going to leave at seven a.m. tomorrow, and it's already twelve a.m. now. I haven't even packed yet, and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST I just need to calm down.
"Hey, Elle, how's it going?" To make things worse, Archer, Maisie's boyfriend, steps up to the counter, his green eyes light and teasing. "You ready for tomorrow?"
"I don't think you'd like me to be honest right now, so I'm just going to say that I am pumped." I give him a wry grin. "Don't take it personally, it's nothing big, it's just that I don't like to think that breaking up with James has affected me so much that she thinks I need some sort of rehab in the form of a 'relaxing road trip with Archie' to get myself together it's just not-"
"Slow down, Elle." He laughs a little and gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Oh my God, I fucking hate the name Archie."
"I agree with you. It shouts redhead newspaper boy on a Saturday morning. I don't know why." I gasp involuntarily when his hand makes contact with the skin on my arm. He's smiling warmly at me, totally unaware of the effect that he had on me. That's one thing I forgot to mention, presumably because it's very convenient to just shove that particular ugly truth in the back of the metaphorical closet: I broke up with James because I am a fair person and I did not want him to be the object of my half-hearted affections. Okay, so what if I'm a bitch for falling in love with my best friend's boyfriend? I'm technically not even a bitch, because I knew Archer waaaaay before she did, and I started to love him waaaaay before she started realizing that he was actually a wonderful person behind the geeky demeanor. Too bad for me, this summer, he started to become one of the hottest guys in town and she started noticing him. I started dating James to make myself feel better about their (Maisie's and Archer's) incessant flirting. I started to lose my best friend status with Archer, and I started to stare outside the window hoping that I could have him back, even though he was never mine to begin with. This summer, a lot of things started happening. Stating the obvious.
"How are you anyways?" He sounds casual, but my chest tightens. "I haven't spoken to you in such a long while. Remember when we used to crawl into each other's bedrooms and have movie marathons with buckets of ice cream?"
He just casually pulled the past out-the past that we skirted around for so long, simply because I feel guilty for practically severing our friendship when Maisie's and his relationship started-and he expects me to smile and laugh alongside him? Nodding and reminiscing obligingly? I can't, it's too much.
I think that he can tell from my expression too because his smile falters and his eyes try to convey a message his voice fails to. The unspoken hangs in the air, while he tries to be on all the levels that I'm on. But he can't, because he is whole, and has it all together, while I am all over the place, pretending to be happy.
He starts to say something, but I cut him off, because I don't want him to tell me that he's noticed the difference too. It's too painful. "Lol, that was awkward. Sorry, and yeah, I remember."
