My Buddy Archie [1]

17..

Surprise chapter hi

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I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, not bothering to turn any lights on or closing the door behind me. I’m not sure how I even forgot I had extra people in my house, but like some fucked up act of karma, just as I finished washing my hands and left the bathroom, I bumped into Connie in the hall.

“Oh, shit sorry.” I hushed, grabbing her hip before she could fall. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

I scratched my neck, flinching my arm away when I realized I was still holding her hip. “What are you doing up?”

“I got another glass of water then I heard you got up and…um…I don’t really know.”

“Ah.”

“So…I’m gonna go back to sleep now.”

“Do you want clothes to change into?” We both glanced down at her long dress then she gave me a nod. I could practically sense her following me to my room, but didn’t look back as I went straight to my dresser. Blindly, I plucked out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, then turned to face her.

She was looking around the room with an unreadable expression, before her eyes met mine. I gulped a bit, and wordlessly handed her the clothes.

“Thanks,” she whispered. “Goodnight.”

I coughed a little, “Yeah, goodb—goodnight.” She smiled then left the room.

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The next time I woke up, the sun was shining through my blinds, and the remains of a pretty inappropriate dream were still lingering in my head. It was just last night all over again, except our meet up in the hallway got a lot steamier than it did in reality. Needless to say, I’m a little disappointed to see my bed was empty. I should’ve expected that though.

“Should we say goodbye?” My heart jumped as I recognized her voice downstairs. “I feel weird leaving like this.”

“If you want to wake him up, go ahead.” Bucky told her.

“Why don’t you come with me? You’re friends with him.”

“What is that going to look like, him waking up to me leaning over him? He’ll understand if we just leave, but if you want to say goodbye, go—and make it quick.” I waited. She didn’t anything back and I heard the front door close.

With a sigh, I got up from bed and hopped in the shower. Of course it was only interrupted within minutes, by Archie demanding to be fed. I dried off and dressed in just a different pair of sweatpants before Archie and I went to the kitchen.

“Carry me,” he whined.

“I’m cooking Archie. I need both hands.”

He crumbled to the floor and laid there, “Pick me up.” I rolled my eyes and ignored him. “Pleeease, Niall.”

“There you go.” I left the spatula on the counter as I bent over to haul Archie up on my hip. He rested his head on my shoulder as I went on cooking with one arm. “What did you and Bucky do all night?”

“I beat him up.”

“You beat him up?! Why did you do that?”

“I’m just stronger than him.”

I laughed, “I’m not surprised. What else did you do?”

“We watched the telly, then played in the snow, then watched more telly.”