Don't Call Me Baby

13 | ROSES

"What are you even doing here, Archer? I told you to not talk to me ever again." I start slowly, trying to look everywhere but at him, while rubbing my still aching bottom. I guess I'm too clumsy to even balance my weight in a hammock.

What a joke.

At the very least, that's not the first time for me to fall and be hurt. Ha.

"I just couldn't let this misunderstanding destroy my relationship with you." He murmurs softly and looks down at the roses in his arms. In any other scenario I would've commented on how pure and fragile he looked right at that moment, but considering the circumstances, I can only curse him to filth so it's better if I don't even say anything.

"There's no relationship here anymore, Archer." I sigh and put the rest of the chocolate bar in my back pocket, suddenly losing my appetite.

"You can't run away from what you did and I won't let my feelings manipulate me again. We're done and that's it."

His eyes are as large as the roses in his grip when he blinks a few times in confusion. "I never thought that going to your best friend for advices about how to be a better boyfriend to you would be this much of a big deal."

"Yeah, no. I don't believe that this is why you were going to her." I reply and cock my eyebrow in challenge.

He rubs the back of his neck, as if it's awkward for him to even talk about this."Why would I go to her for something else when I'm in love with you?"

"First of all it's me who's supposed to be asking this question and second of all, you love me?" My voice gets progressively weaker with every word I say. What is he even trying to achieve here?

Nothing says 'sorry I fucked your best friend' like 'I love you'.

"Archer, Stella told me everything today. She told me you've been sleeping with her for the past few months. And you continued even after we started dating." I shake my head, suddenly angry at myself. "I knew this entire thing was a bad idea from the start."

"I'm sorry to inform you but your best friend is a liar." He begins again, slowly but surely. He is searching for my eyes and when he finds them I see sincerity in his gaze. But Archer Finn is notoriously good at manipulating and lying so why should I believe him and his puppy dog eyes?

"She is not my best friend anymore but I can say one thing and that is that Stella is not a liar. She has never ever lied to me about anything." I say, confused as to why I'm even defending her when she stabbed me in the back. Maybe our years long friendship is harder to cut off than I thought.

"Well, I'm telling you now, Jordy, she fucking lied to you." He remains calm but I sense the anger in his voice.

Something inside of me, call it a gut feeling, tells me that he isn't deceiving me but I can't accept his words. He's fucked up way too many times and this is so much of an Archer Finn situation that I can't find it in me to believe him.

I decide to play along, however.

"So, you're trying to say that you haven't slept with her while we were already in a relationship?"

He groans and steps closer to me, to which my body intuitively takes a step back. The action doesn't slip unnoticed because I see the hurt in Archer's eyes. "That's why i wanted to talk to you, Birdie. I didn't cheat on you. I never would. I'm not that much of a scumbag!"

"Yeah, what about when you were with Loraine Gray? Are you going to deny that you cheated on her, because everybody in school knows you did and the poor girl was walking around heartbroken for an entire year!" I shake my head and he remains silent.

Of course he cheated on her, how am I any different? "Thought so. Just go, Archer. Don't make this any harder for me than it already is."

"I admit I cheated on Loraine but you're not her, Jordie! You're so much different and I knew it from the first time we went out together a few months ago. I love how easy it is to talk to you, I love that you love poetry as much as I do, I love that you are so composed and strong. And all of that makes you way more beautiful than any of the girls I've dated before."

"Don't do this, Archer. Stop being such a manipulative piece of shit!" I am getting angrier with every word he says and he sees it but the determination in his eyes tells me that he's not going to back off yet. He's not done trying to win me back. I take a glance at his hands and I see that they are shaking, making the soft, fragile petals of the roses tremble as if they're blown by the wind.

"Everything I've done in my past is bringing me down now, and you, Jordan Blue, you are the only person who still believed in me. Please don't let me down." He whispers the last part and he finally steps close enough to me so that we are face to face.

From this close I can see how brown his eyes really are and for a moment, just for a short while, I let myself get lost in them. If I could compare the feeling, it would be like swimming in a pool of warm chocolate that never seems to end.

"Even if you didn't cheat on me while we were together Archer, can you deny sleeping with Stella? Or anyone else for that matter? Huh? You are trying to tell me that you've had feelings for me for months but your old player ways wouldn't just disappear like that, now, would they?"

He gulps uncomfortably, and from this close I see his Adam's apple bobbing and a drop of sweat running down his neck. I suspect that it has nothing to do with the hot summer weather.

"I did sleep with Stella. I can't deny that but listen-"

"No. That's enough. My parents are probably looking for me and I need to get back inside." I step away from him and i suddenly feel the touch of the cold breeze that i didn't know was there only seconds ago. Although I don't want to admit, the separation from the warmth that Archer emits, makes me feel cold and alone. Mostly alone.

"Leave now, Archer, and forget we ever met. Because I definitely will."
And with that I turn around, leaving the beautiful, oh so beautiful, Archer Finn behind me with a bouquet of big red roses and sadness in his brown eyes.