The Rest Is History | ✓

15 | the heartbreak

I spent the rest of the holidays lazing around at home, not having the energy or the desire to do anything else.

My mind kept on drifting back to the night of the gala, back to those whispered words which seemed like a dream now. You looked good tonight.

It wasn't supposed to be a big deal. It was a simple compliment, I kept telling myself. Nothing to fuss over. Anyone could have said that, there were no...romantic implications whatsoever.

But Archer? His case was different. He wasn't just anyone. At one point, I'd even thought he was the one for me.

Oh, how wrong I'd been.

°

I was sitting in the common room, reading a book. For the first time in a long time, I was relatively relaxed, since there was no homework due and I had ample time to start a novel I'd been dying to read.

Just as I was opening the book I'd borrowed from the library, Archer came storming into the room. Everyone present looked up, since the way he'd walked in here clearly spelled trouble.

I frowned. "Hey. Is something up?"

Archer gave me a stony look. "Can we talk in private? I need to ask you something."

My frown deepened. "Um, sure."

We walked outside to one of the empty classrooms. He shut the door behind him and turned on me.

I asked, "Is something wrong?"

Archer laughed wrily. I'd never heard or seen him look so bitter before. I was honestly getting more and more scared by the second.

He took a step forward. "You tell me, Vivian. I think you'll know better."

What the hell? Why was he calling me Vivian all of a sudden? He always called me either Vi, or Nena. Never by my full name. And what did he mean?

"What are you saying? I don't get it."

He took out something from his blazer pocket. It was a picture. I couldn't quite make out what was shown in it, since he had it in his hands in a vice-like grip. His knuckles were white.

I asked slowly, "What's that?"

His eyes flashed, an unknown look in them. "Wanna see? Here, let me show it to you. It's a really lovely picture."

He shoved the picture into my hands. I looked at it and my heart almost stopped.

It was a picture of me walking in Hyde Park. Wearing a jumper with a trench coat.

Kissing a boy who wasn't Archer.

My eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"What the bloody hell is this?! Where did you get this? This isn't real!" I almost yelled.

He scoffed. "Isn't real? You expect me to believe the shite coming out of your mouth right now?"

I knew this looked like the worst thing in the world, but I swear it wasn't true, the picture wasn't real. I would never in a million years cheat on Archer, or anyone for that matter. And I didn't even know this boy who I was 'kissing'!  This was absolute bollocks!

"Archer," I pleaded, "Please just hear me out for a minute. I swear I have no idea what this is because I don't even know this boy! I never kissed him or anyone else!"