Beside Him

Chapter 29// Family Reunion

Kill me.

Sitting around a dinner table with friends and loved ones with even average made food is great.

Sitting around a silent dinner table with piles of disgusting food amongst family you haven't seen in years, however, is not so much.

I rolled my eyes as mother put another scoop of plain, disgusting vegetables on my plate, sending me a hard, solid glare.

I sighed and took the plate from her, noticing Archer's expression harden at the message mum was tryna send- lose weight.

He kept his gaze firmly on the oak infront of him. Infront of us sat Bubby and his girlfriend, Taylor. Beside Bubby sat dad and beside me sat mum. And at the end of the table were Amanda and Vincent while on the other wide was Lolly and Pops.

Yeah, confusing.

The rest of the friends I'd invited to this trip had gotten today off, but were expected back to our hotel rooms by 5, which was when this hell hole of a dinner recital would end.

Exchanges between Amanda and I were brief and utterly awkward, though not nearly as much as they were with Vincent, as all we'd exchanged was a nod and a pursed lip, awkward and slightly hesitant smile.

"So," Bubby, cleared his throat and spoke. "How's the food, everyone?"

Bubby, or James Harrison, was what one would call a people pleaser. He was always supporting a smile, or a grin and was usually very calm and grounded.

He wasn't the player type, but was kind to all and had been with Taylor for what I assume is a long time. He didn't do long distance, but he did do long term.

"Shit." Archer mumbled beside me, though not nearly loud enough for everyone to hear. I kept in a laugh by coughing into a napkin.

"It's lovely." Amanda said, slightly cringing. Vincent nodded beside her.

"Oh shut up, will you?" Lolly suddenly said, taking a napkin to spit her food out on. Mum rolled her eyes. "It's worse than balls."

Everyone at the table gasped at her choice of words. She grinned back and I cringed, knowing she was gonna make some gross, un-grandma-like comment.

"What? I got around in my young days too."

Archer choked on the water he'd had the mistake of taking when Lolly began to speak. His face flushed as he coughed out the water and, pursing my lips, I patted his back to unblock his throat.

I was used to this type of Lolly, who wasn't stressed over her granddaughters wedding and her other grand-kids's relationships. Archer, however, was not so much.

"Ma," dad groaned, cringing into his seat beside Bubby. Taylor laughed. "Why? Just why?"

"Ok, Owen." Pops spoke up, narrowing his eyes at dad. "It's not as if she said they tasted like my balls."

I let out a small yelp as Archer once more began choking. Dad groaned, covering his ears. Mum rolled her eyes again while everyone else at the table laughed.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Vincent connect Amanda and his hands, bringing them up to his lips to kiss the ring on her finger as she laughed.

She turned to him and yanked her hand out of his grip, rolling her eyes before continuing with her food in silence.

"I'm really glad everyone could make it." Dad said after flicking a pea at his own father. "It's been a long time since we've all been together as a family."

Archer looked down, along with Taylor as they both knew this was a Harrison family moment.

Mother and I rolled our eyes at the same time. "Family my arse." I muttered.

"Are we done with this dinner yet?" Bubby spoke up to cover what I'd said. "Because Mands, Chubby and I were gonna go out."

I picked up a disgusting boiled slimy carrot and threw it at him, causing it to bounce off of his nose. "Oi!" He yelled picking up a carrot of his own.

"My-" I said, taking another vegetable. A broccoli this time. "Name-" pea. "is-" sweet corn. "River!" This time I picked up the huge slab of conjoined boiled veggies and chucked it at him.

He jumped out of his chair just in time, taking his plate with him before taking aim and hitting me with a slob of gross stingy chicken.

"You'll-" pepper. "Always-" rice. "Be-" Meatball. "Chubby."

I gaped at the string of stir-fry coming in my direction and quickly dived so that I landed on the floor beside me.

Standing up, I dusted myself off. Everyone, bar Archer and Taylor, were continuing with their conversation as if world war three hadn't just begun. The other two were staring with their mouths agape.

"Oh you are so dying today, Bubby." I retaliated, picking up mums uneaten plate and launching it at him. It landed with a 'spoldge' on top of his head.

His mouth fell open. Then he narrowed his eyes, taking his girlfriend's plate of hamburger and chucking it at me. I ducked just in time for it to land on the wall behind me.

I turned with a victorious grin. "Ha, You missed-"

Before I could finish, however, a cold, freezing cold, minimum litre of water came tumbling my way. My jaw slacked and I shivered, staring in shock at the empty jug of sprite in my twin brother's hand.

I gritted my teeth. "No one is ever gonna find your body, brother." I muttered and began climbing over he table to strangle him to death before stopping as suddenly as I started.

"That's enough." Two words were enough to have both me and Bubby scrambling back to get our asses to our seats.

Mum was the one who had spoken, never once taking her eyes off of her phone. Yet her voice reeked so much power and authority that it was enough to send two 17 year-olds into a toddler like state.

I sighed, shivering from the impact of the ice cubes melting onto my head and waited for this damn day to be over.

• • • •

I sighed as the warm water from the shower embraced me with a force to last. Benefits of staying under the presidential suite at the Four Seasons hotel, I suppose.

After a long, well needed shower, I wrapped a towel around myself, one around my chest and one in my hair before walking out into the main bedroom.

"f*****g hell, River." Archer groaned, throwing a pillow in my direction and using his other hand to block his eyes. "A warning would be f*****g great."

"You've seen millions of girls naked before, Archie." I said, taking my hair out of the towel to dry it. "Don't act like Virgin Mary."

I saw his jaw tick. "I'm not acting like shit." He said lowly. "And you're right." Then he took his hands off of his eyes. His green eyes darkened as they raked over my skin, leaving a trail of scorching skin. "It's not like one more naked girl will make much of a difference."

I rolled my eyes, running a brush through my hair. "Don't kid yourself. We both know if I took this towel off right now you wouldn't exactly be unaffected."

His eyes narrowed, jaw ticking again. "That's not true." He said, lowly, dangerously. "You don't affect me, River. I don't feel anything around you."

My eye twitched as my hands fisted up. An ache, actual literal ache began crawling through my chest area.

Then, quickly covering it up, I smirked. I walked to him slowly, my hands on the brim of the towel on my chest where it was tied.

"Is that so?" My voice was a mere whisper, but had the affect needed as his eyes darkened even further, now almost a jet black.

"Y-" his voice cracked and he cleared his throat, bringing his arms to his chest. "Yes."

The right side of my lip tilted up once more as I crawled to him, now on the comfy ass bed. "You know for some reason," I began, now at arms length. I moved to stick my hips in the air and bend my head to his ear. "I don't believe you."

His eyes closed as I placed my lips gently onto his ear lobe.

"I-" I cut him off by moving my mouth to the side of his cheek and he growled, a low, feral and frankly rather manly sound that had me quivering.

"Shh..." I breathed out, moving my lips now to his cheek bone. I felt against my chin as his jaw worked.

I didn't know where this new found confidence was coming from but lord knows I liked it.

Then, a small smile falling to place, I moved so I was straddling him and, at last, I finally kissed him.

Ha- as if.

Nope, in the classic old fashioned, piss take author style, we were interrupted.

This time by two sharp knocks on the door. "If either of you are naked, I'll drown your asses. I'm not kidding!" I heard my brother's voice through the door and, with one final solid peck to his lips, I pulled back, leaving him in a dazed state.

"What the fuck..." he breathed, running his hand through his hair.

After shooing my brother away and ordering Archer to go shower and then change, I began to get dressed myself.

After the obvious bra and undies, I put on my black skinny jeans with rips at the knee only visible when I bent them. Then, I put on my black and white Adidas boyfriend shirt and finished it off with a khaki army print throw on.

I first blow dried my hair then kind of stood there and looked at it for a while.

I simply decided to wait for Archer to ask him what I should do with it, tying it into a loose ponytail for now. I put on some socks, my usual anklet and then of course my black and white vans.

Then I packed a small backpack with gum, perfume and money, picking up my phone.

Just as I was about to open a text from Lance, the bathroom door opened and Archie came out.

He kept his eyes closed as he dried his hair with a towel and I took to opportunity to gawk at the fine specimen before me.

His brown hair was now black due to its wetness. On his body, he wore a black shirt and black jeans. On top his shirt he wore a jacket a lot like mine just less... girly (?).

A grin lit my face. We were matching.

He seemed to notice this too as he raised an eyebrow, looking up and down at me and then himself. Then, deciding it wasn't worth his time, he shrugged and tried to run his hands through his thick locks.

He gave up after a while and let the waves fall over his forehead. "It'll dry to how it usually looks." He muttered and I held up my hands.

"No questions." I said, actually really liking how cute and boyish he looked with his hair down. Literally.

"You ready to go?" He asked, picking up his own phone without a glance and shoving it into his back pocket.

He went over to his suitcase as I nodded. He looked down at my feet, smirked and then pulled out a pair of his own vans, though his were white with black around them.

I rolled my eyes, biting back a smile.

I stood up and he came close to me, wrapping my arms around his neck as he summoned me up.

I sighed and placed my head above his heart, hearing the steady pace.

"You Ok?" He asked. I nuzzled into his chest, inhaling the scent of pine trees.

"No." I muttered honestly, feeling the weight all of a sudden of my mother, my sister and Vincent. Basically my whole kind of f****d up family.

He didn't say anything, just let me hug him for a while. I felt his hands crawl up my back and to my pony tail where he pulled at the band and allowed my brown tassels to fall down my back.

My hair was getting really long now, reaching about my mid back and I really needed to cut it.

Archer nuzzled his own nose into the top of my head and took a deep breath in, as if inhaling my scent and it caused a small smile to rise on to my face.

"We should get going." He murmured into my head and I said something back in agreement.

None of us, however, made any movement that would indicate us doing just that.