The Rest Is History | ✓

08 | the past

Nena.

I still remembered that time clearly, like it was yesterday. A time when we were both so happy, so naïve, and so in love. A time when I wasn't shocked to hear that one word come out of his mouth.

I still remember that day.

Archer strolled into the common room, where I was sitting at the desk and finishing my homework.

"Hey, babe, Kate said she was looking for you," he said casually. I put my pen down and raised my eyebrows at him.

"Babe? Since when do you call me babe?"

He flashed me a megawatt smile. "Since right now. I just wanted to have a unique nickname for you, so I figured babe was suitable."

I couldn't help it, I started laughing. "Okay, firstly, you already call me Vi, and second, really Arch? Babe sounds like a unique nickname to you? I can't stand anyone calling me babe or baby or bae, and you won't be an exception."

He frowned. "But I really want to have a special name for you! Something which no one else calls you. I mean Vi is there but it's still common. I want to call you something which no one else can possible call you. Something more...romantic."

He looked so adorable then, with his lips tilted down and eyes like a puppy's, that I sighed and gave in.

"Okay, but you better not call me babe. You can do better than that."

He grinned and gave me a quick peck on the forehead. "On it!"

A few days later, Arch and I were under our oak tree, having lunch. Bloomwood allowed its students to go out into the garden and eat their lunch there during weekends. So we both made it a point to utilise that freedom and sit under the same tree together, my head often on his shoulder, sharing the same pair of earbuds and fighting over which song we should hear next. It was one of my favourite moments of the day.

Suddenly, Archer turned around to face me and took the earbud out of my ear. I frowned. "What's up?"

He smiled, looking at me in a way that made my insides feel like jelly, all of a sudden.

"Nena. That's gonna be my name for you. My nena."

I scrunched my eyebrows. "Is--is that spanish?"

He nodded. "It is. I was looking through my phone last night, learning a list of Spanish slangs to use later"--I rolled my eyes and laughed. How typical of him--"when I came across this word. Nena. It's a colloquial word for sweetheart, or baby. Now I know you don't like those names but come on! This is good and it's Spanish and everything sounds so much better in Spanish!"

Well he had a point there.

Eventually, after some grumbling, I let him keep that name and call me by it, mainly because a) I was getting tired of him pestering me, and b) I secretly sort of liked it. Nena. And I especially loved the way it sounded on his lips. But of course I'd never admit that to him.

And from then on, the name sort of stuck. Archer would call me Vi sometimes, and at other times, when he was feeling especially passionate, he'd call me Nena. And he'd say that in a way which made my toes curl, not gonna lie.

I just wish we could've stayed that way forever.

°

As Archer left the study in a haste, eager to get out of the highly awkward situation, I was left standing there in shock. What just happened? Did I just imagine it or had he almost called me Nena?

Maybe I was imagining it. There was no way he would call me that, after all this time.

I collected all my books and went out of the study, closing the door behind me. Frankly, I was physically and emotionally drained after our fight, and all I longed for at that moment was some sleep.

But supper was still an hour away, so with nothing else to do, I sighed and went back to the common room, figuring I'd put back my books and go to my dorm to catch a quick nap before supper.

I met Angie and Kate in the common room. "Hey, can you guys please wake me up when the bell for supper rings? I really need a nap right now, I'm so tired."

I probably looked like a dead rat, because Angie and Kate looked at me with extreme worry. "Is everything alright, Viv? You don't look well."

I couldn't tell them about the fight. I somehow didn't want to, and I knew that if I started, I would just end up spilling everything, even the part where he almost called me Nena. I didn't want to share that just yet. It felt too... personal.

So I nodded and told them everything was fine and I was just tired from the workload. They didn't question me anymore and let me go back to the dorm to drift off.

As I climbed into bed and pulled the covers over me, the only thing I could think of was Archer, and his golden-brown eyes, which had been oh-so-close to mine in that heated moment, and how wide they'd looked when he almost called me Nena. As if he himself couldn't believe what he'd just said.

The last thing hovering in my brain as I dozed off was the sound of his raspy voice, saying that name. That one word I'd come to love.

a/n: this was just a filler to give you some background on nena and its significance in this story. now i know you're probably thinking i have an unhealthy obsession with spanish and you know what? you're absolutely right. lmao anyway, lots of love until the next chapter! xx