Beside Him

Chapter 25// Archer and River's Wedding (Clothes Shopping)

Archer and I were sprawled onto my bed, me lying with my head on his stomach and his fingers playing with my hair.

We were talking about random stuff, finding out new stuff about each other (such as what shower gel I use and how many times in a week he shaves) until a thought came to my mind.

"It's Amanda's wedding next weekend." I said.

He paused as if weighing out what to say. "Is that a good thing?"

"Not good, but not bad either." I replied and he nodded. I took a deep breath in. "You wanna come with?"

He raised an amused eyebrow. "I'm sorry, wouldn't you want your boyfriend Diego to come with you?"

"What are you, five?" I asked, holding in a laugh. "No I don't want my boyfriend Diego to come with me. I want you to come with me."

He smiled. "Yeah, I'd love to. But your 'Lolly' already asked me to be your date... well, told me."

"Date? Who said anything about a date?" I challenged, sitting up and pushing my hair out of my eyes. His ears reddened and I swear I nearly died. "I was just talking about you coming with me as a friend but of course I'm more than willing to-"

He cut me off swiftly by pulling me to him and pressing his lips softly to mine, easily flipping us over so he was hovering over me.

"I don't know what we are, River," he said between kisses, leaving me utterly breathless. "But I really, really don't want it to change."

I couldn't have agreed more.

• • •

It was the Saturday a week before Amanda's wedding, and I was at the boutique with Archie, Penny, Diego, Jay and, of course, his Siamese twin, Callum.

The boys were all looking for suits and me, Penny and Diego were looking for dresses. Well, the latter was helping us because Archer had refused to come anywhere near 'prick face'.

I'd asked Amanda a few days ago whether I could bring a few friends and she'd said quote on quote 'as long as you're there, you can bring the whole of America, Riv'.

Her words, not mine.

So I'd chosen my elite friends and here we were. I would've picked Lance and Kyle too but of course I had to appease Master King.

While thinking of all this, I couldn't help but wonder if I was giving Archer too much control over me, if I was letting his opinions change mine a little too much.

What if he isn't feeling the same way? What if he just feels sorry for you?

I had no choice but to let those thoughts sink in, because after years of struggling against anorexia, it was basically impossible to fight off new insecurities.

So I accepted them.

Ergo, I accepted the new one that screamed that Archer was only with me for one thing- s*x. I mean, it wouldn't be exactly some sort of milestone and at the present it wouldn't hurt my heart too much considering I really, really wanted to have s*x with him too, but yeah it'd be pretty damn painful.

Ok, fine, it would kind of a little bit maybe break my heart but no one needs to know that.

"Riv?" Penny asked, holding on her arm about 8 dresses.

"Yup?" I asked, as if I wasn't in the land of Far Far Away just now.

"Are you gonna go ask the lady for your dress?"

My eyes widened and , after grinning at my two friends, I turned on my heel and made my way to Kelly.

"Hello again, Miss Harrison," She said and I smiled. "I was wondering when you'd ask me for your dress. Would you like to bring anyone with you to the changing rooms or just let everyone see the dress once you come out?"

I thought about it for a moment and stopped myself from saying the obvious name that sprung to mind.

"It's ok, I'll just show everyone at the same time."

That was that. Kelly led me to the room and unzipped the long silk dress that Amanda had picked out for me.

I'd already been pretty strict on my answer of 'no' to the question of 'will you be my bridesmaid?' so this wasn't a dress designed for that specific reason. But to appease my sister I'd allowed her to pick a dress of her choice that matched her theme of burgundy and black. It was her wedding after all.

And, alas, I was not bitter about it. And that thought was not to hide my true feelings or any bullshit like that, it was true. I was happy for her, but if Vincent was a prick to her too, I would castrate his balls and shove them so far up his ass they'd pop through his skull as another pair of eyeballs.

Wow, that's new.

Kelly helped me into the dress and I had to give it to her, my sister had taste.

The soft silk material fit like second skin on my body and the halter neck showed cleavage to a good, rather modest amount. The slit at the side made up for it, and made my legs look longer than they normally would.

"You look absolutely lovely, Miss Harrison. Would you like me to quickly re-arrange your hair too?"

I looked at the loose ponytail falling to the middle of my head with wisps and bits falling out and couldn't find it in myself to be offended by her question.

"Yes, please." Is what I decide to stick with.

She fiddled with my hair in the most gentle way, towering over me in her heels to the point where she didn't have to ask me to sit.

She secured my hair in a very loose side braid that fell to the curve of my breast.

As I put on the matching tan heels, I can't help but think that I actually look quite nice in this dress.

It shows what little curves I have and some that I didn't know existed and makes my boobs look amazing.

That's all a girl can ask for.

I know, I know, sexist comment. I'm kidding.

"Are you ready?" Kelly asked and I nodded, plastering on a smile.

Why am I so frikking sad today?

I pulled up my dress at the knees to allow myself to walk without falling and made my way to the small podium thingy.

"Holy sh*t," came from Diego.

Jay and Callum started shouting, Penny started complimenting, but Archer stayed silent.

His eyes widened to the size of saucers and his mouth opened, but no words came out other than a faint, barely audible swear.

"Rivi, if I was straight, I would so tap that." Jay said and Diego's head whipped around in his direction, eyes narrowing slightly at his and Callum's proxemics before moving back up to Jay's face, a grin on his own.

"You're..." he trailed off and Jay nodded, smiling. "Same."

That seemed to break Archer out of his zombie-like trance as he turned towards Diego so quickly I reckon he got himself whip lash. "You are?" He said in shock and Diego gave an uncommitted shrug.

"Kinda."

"Ahh and here I thought I was sharing oxygen with my future baby daddy." Penny decided to input and I laughed as Archer glared at her, Diego finding her comment amusing yet embarrassing.

"Well, you could be." He said. "I can't possible find River this hot and only be playing for the boy's team."

"Rivi," Archer quickly corrected before looking to me. "Right?"

I couldn't help but find him slightly cute at that moment. I'd been acting a little off with him the whole day and he'd noticed, choosing to tread very carefully in hopes of not upsetting him further.

"Right." I confirmed, eyes on his trough the mirror. He gave me a small smile before raising his hand to connect his index finger with his thumb in a circle, the international sign for 'perfect' , while raising a suggestive eyebrow.

I shyly smiled back, patting down the dress into position.

"You do look very pretty, Rivi." Callum said and gave me a grin but my eyes were still on Archer's.

"Thank you." I breathed out, trapped in the spell that was Archer King.

"Well you can take this now if no alterations need to be made." Kelly said, clapping her hands together.

I looked away, rather hesitantly, from Archie and gave her a small, this time real smile.

"Yeah, that's fine." I cleared my throat. "Did Amanda already pay for it or do I need to-"

"Don't worry about that Miss Harrison, your sister already paid." She said with a smile.

I nodded and turned back to my friends. "You all got your clothes?"

"I need your help, Rivi," Penelope said, standing up to pick up two different dresses. "This one?" She asked, holding up a black, short dress with a one shoulder strap. "Or this one?" This time she held up a two piece dress that was black and had white sequins up and down the bottom.

"Second one." We all said at the same time and, after a moment of surprise, Penny nodded.

"Agreed."

I went back inside the changing room and paid for (despite her many arguments) Penny's dress, but unable to pay for the boys's tuxedos considering Me King beat me to it.

We all began to leave the shop before I realised I'd left my phone inside the changing rooms. I quickly excused myself and went to fetch it, thanking every god I could think of that it was still there.

I stuffed it into my purse and, as I made my way back out, realised that Archer was waiting for me in the show room.

"Got it?" He asked, extending his hand for me.

I nodded, biting my lip as I placed my hand into his.

To my surprise, he didn't start walking out of the shop, but instead went further in.

"Er... Archer, you're kinda going the wrong way." I said with a nervous laugh.

I noticed his grip on my hand tighten and his jaw lock.

Before I knew it, we were in the section of the boutique where they had white, traditional and very expensive wedding dresses on display.

"If..." he paused and took a deep breath in, as if preparing for war or something. I raised an eyebrow, suddenly feeling very tired.

"If I asked you try on one of these dresses, would you?"

• • • •