Dedication

A Change of Heart

I stretched from my sleeping bag and rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I sat up yawning as I allowed my eyes to fully adjust to the strong light that poured into the tent. I was startled to see Euca in the tent with us, yet the most surprising of things was that she was in Archers' bag, and he was curled up outside of it next to her, I doubt that he had a decent sleep with how cold it got last night. I bit the inside of my cheek and stole a closer look at the pair. Euca's eyes were slightly puffy, she had been crying last night I guess, and I broke a small smile when I noticed, that even with the cold, Archer was still holding her hand. Reaching over to Duke and Joseph, I woke them silently. I hushed them quickly so that they wouldn't snap at me, pointing at the pair in the corner of the tent. Quickly and quietly we made our way out of the tent here round the camp fire.

"What the hell was that?" Joseph whispered, rubbing his face.

I shrugged," I'm not sure. To be perfectly honest... this is the first time I've ever seen Archer care so much about anyone."

"Really?" Duke yawned as he stretched out.

I nodded," And I saw his first love."

"How do you mean?" Joseph asked, waking up a but more.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair as I looked back at the tent," Her name was Amelia Middleton, and she took his heart and shattered it."

The two perked up at that.

"It was about... two years ago I wanna say that it ended. But before that, it was a regular relationship. They met at school, hit it off and started to date. Archer was happy, spoiled the living hell out if her."

"What happened to make it go south?"

I glanced at Duke," The very thing that Archer was nicknamed after back home. Archfiend Archer. He's always been a hot head, very short fuse with anyone. Could and can hold his own against anyone. He loved fighting. Took up a lot of different classes to fulfill that urge."

"Like what?"

"Martial arts, boxing, you name it he tried it."

"Did he get kicked out?"

I shook my head," No, he achieved a lot in all of them but then just kinda... dropped them after a while. One day... one day while he and Amelia were out, a mutual friend came up with their own squad... turns out Amelia had arranged it."

"What the hell happened?" Joseph asked, his voice coated in worry and fear.

I swallowed hard," Archer... they uh... they jumped him that day. His first and main priority was to protect his girl. He fought and fought hard for her..."

"Did she plan the jump?"

I shrugged," I can't really say. She was... surprised and scared to say the least. All I know is the aftermath, she called me and I rushed over... Archer had his back against the wall... his fists were bleeding and so was most of him... he was trembling... the guys around him were out cold but they weren't bleeding as much as him..."

"He was careful-"

"Not to hurt them to much... yeah." I sighed," His aim wasn't to hurt them. Just to subdue them... his hair was matted down with sweat, dirt and blood. He had this dead look in his eyes. He didn't talk. Once I got him in the car, Amelia was gone... None of those guys could press charges. Looking between them and Archer, how could they. He looked ten times worse than they did."

"Was he alright?"

I nodded," He got a shit ton of stitches and a couple broken ribs from the fight. He had to stay in the hospital for recovery for a couple weeks because of some internal bleeding and stitching... Amelia never went to visit. To make sure he was ok... every time I went to visit... I knew he wanted it to be her... each day he died a little more inside... the day came for him to be released and... I caught her with one of the guys Archer had beaten down."