Devils and Angels

ix. whispered confessions

c a f u n é

running your fingers through the hair of someone you love

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"I HATE THIS," EXASPERATED ARCHIE, dropping his head onto my shoulder. His entire body pressed against mine, crushing me to the wall, to which I had to brace a hand on the table we were on to stay upright. 

"Elaborate," I told him, rotating myself so I was able to catch his seemingly limp body before he rolled off entirely. "There's nobody around."

The classroom was empty aside for us―Archie having insisted upon this, while he'd been growing more distant and visibly unnerved by the minute. Still having no idea what was the matter with him, I'd hastened my search and dragged us into the first vacant classroom available, whacking an In Use sign over the door so we could have some privacy for him to gather his thoughts.

And now that they were gathered, I wondered how long it would take for him to spill them to me.

"I..." His tongue darted out of his mouth, gliding across his lips in nervousness. His pale fingers drummed against his knee, and I realised now that there were very little times when you caught Archie as anything other than impassive―if you were close, perhaps friendly and funny. But never anxious; it never tended to be a part of his personality, only now it was, and begged the question was it something new, or had it developed over time? "Kat, I...I think I might like somebody." 

"You know that's nothing to be...scared of, right?" I questioned, and he nodded, his hair brushing against my sleeve, but then his brows were pulling together, and he was sighing, his fingers closing in on themselves into a tight fist.

I eyed that, then the rest of him, wary and confused, as to what this meant―what it all meant, and what was bothering Archie to this level. 

"Listen." His voice lowered. "You―you asked me if I'd heard about Ayden. I'd said yeah, and that it felt like betrayal. You said you knew what I meant, and I said you don't have a clue."

"I don't get it," I murmured. "I didn't then, and I don't now. He told you late, last out of all of us, and you felt betrayed by that, but I don't see how―,"

"Katya, that wasn't the part I felt betrayed by," He said with his voice tightening, before he then sunk into himself, hiding his face. Looking like his heart was stoppering and acid-laden venom was seeping into every part of him that ached, and intensifying the pain.

I knew, because I'd felt it too, when I'd been pummelled in the chest by a blazing fist with the realisation that what I'd thought was going on with Ayden was nothing to him.

All I could manage was a bittersweet smile. "You too, huh?" I asked, and this had his drawing himself into an upright position, beside me.

"What do you mean?" He asked, and his hand gripped mine. I shrugged in response, staring down at my lap.

"Ayden and I had been talking for ages. Not openly flirting, but...I was preparing to ask him out." I swallowed. "What about you?"

Deep chocolate eyes pierced their way into mine, and I felt the misery ripple through them as Archie said;

"He told me he liked me. He raised my hopes up by flirting with me, sending pictures..." He dipped his head in slight embarrassment. "We were every part of a relationship but the official part. Then suddenly, I got a text. Ayden told me he had a girlfriend, and I...I hate it. It isn't fair. He can choose who he wants, what he wants, while I'm stuck with this disgusting curse that he was supposed to support me through, and didn't."