Beside Him

Chapter 16// Possession

Penny left me in the bathroom to gather my thoughts and I did just that.

For a while I just stood there, ignoring everyone who came in and out and avoiding going to first period- maths.

As soon as the bell rung for English I hauled my ass up and walked out.

I got to about 3 steps before being yanked back and thrown carelessly against the wall.

I flinched as my heart beat increased, feeling and recognising the hands on my body as his.

"Why the f*ck did you not tell me?" He grunted out, his hands gentle as they rested above my stomach, holding me in place.

"Oh So now you- you talk to me?" I ask, referring to the multiple times I'd tried and tried to apologise.

"Answer. The. Question." His eyes were dark, almost black as he looked at me with rage and concern.

"Tell you what, bff?" I asked sarcastically, yanking my wrists from his firm grip. His grip looser on me as we both froze.

"F*ck, River I'm sorry." He said suddenly, his head falling onto my collar bone.

I frowned, my hands going to the back of his head as a sort of comfort.

"I've been such a d*ck River. And I'm so, so sorry." He looked up at me suddenly, his eyes filled with guilt. "Forgive me?"

I opened my mouth but closed it again when he leaned forward and took a deep breath in as if taking in my scent.

I pushed back the tears caused by my overly sensitive-near-to-period eyes and pulled him closer, wrapping my arms around his neck and leaning on my top toes to place my head on his fast beating heart.

"I'm sorry too. I was such a judgemental t**t. I'm sorry." I murmured into his chest and he placed his hands onto my waste.

"We should go to English." He sighed after a good few minutes in that position.

"Yeah." Neither of us made any move to get away until eventually I shoved him off, a grin springing to my face.

"Very touchy feely aren't we, Archie?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. His lips twitched before he mock scowled at me.

"Don't get used to it, princess." He replied, taking my wrist gently and dragging me to English while picking up my disposed bag from the floor.

"I wouldn't dare."

We entered Mr Bryan's class together and I ignored all eyes on me, instead chewing on my bottom lip.

"Rivi, Archer. You're both late. Detention after school for 10 minutes to make up the 10 minutes you lost in this class. Got it?" I nodded wordlessly and Archer rolled his eyes, both of us taking our respected seats.

Mr Bryan leaned on the oak desk and re-entered his talk about feminism.

"So we've all agreed on the fact that Jane Eyre is a feminist novel. What I wanna know, is now, in the 21st century, what is feminism? And I don't mean the dictionary definition either. I mean the— urban dictionary definition. What, is feminism?"

He asked and hands sprung up but he kept his gaze on me, his lips filled with a small smirk.

"Rivi, any ideas?"

I paused for a moment and glared before answering. "Honestly, when I think of feminism now, I think of it as a negative thing. It's like, it's a bad thing, if anything to be a feminist and I kind of understand.

"I think the real definition of feminism has just been overpowered by the thought that women can achieve more than men, that we're better. And that's where the problem started from, men thinking they were better than women. I think we're just going around in circles and maybe, in a couple hundred years, men will be petitioning to get their votes."

I shrugged and everyone listened intently to what I was saying.

I felt Archie looking at me and when I turned, instead of looking away, he kept his eyes on mine, inspecting me.

I bit my lip and looked towards Mr Bryan.

"Can you give us an example?" He asked and I cupped my wrist.

"Erm- Ok. Let's see. If you went to a park and saw a man and a woman- a couple arguing, and let's say the man says something dumb and the woman reaches across and slaps him across the face, nothing'll happen. People will feel bad for him, and say stuff like 'aww poor guy, getting hit by a girl' but they'll never ever get up and shout at the girl, scream 'that's abuse that's abuse'.

But, if the roles were reversed and the man slapped the woman, people will go crazy. He'd get hit, he'd get slaughtered by the decent public around him and the police would be called.

But, like, why is that? That is what I mean by feminism being sometimes a bad thing. People have this thought- this mindset that everything a guy does is the most evil thing in the world and that he's automatically a sexist for every little mistake. You can't degrade a whole gender, it's what happened in the past and it's happening again. Only difference is that in the past, people weren't as educated. It's embarrassing that this stuff still happens today."

Mr Bryan looked at me for a moment before turning to Archie.

"Any thoughts?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

Archer opened his mouth, frowned, closed it again and then shook his head.

Mr Bryan nodded and continued with the discussion, taking thoughts from other people in the class.

"I always took you to be more the heavy feminist type." Archie said beside me and I pursed my lip in a smile.

"Yeah, I know."

• • • • • •

I took a deep breath in before entering the worst lesson in the history of shitty lessons.

Art.

Ignoring fully Mr Patrick, I walked to the seat right at the back where only I sat, considering the small class only had 9-10 people in it and, with Patrick being such a popular teacher, they chose to sit in the front.

Me, not so much.

"River, you're late." The asshole said and I ignored him, focusing on my drawing.

That's the same way the rest of the lesson passed.

The reason I'm so popular is because of a rumour that I'm shagging (sleeping with) Mr Bryan and that the reason I hate Mr Patrick so much is because Mr Bryan got jealous and told me to not do so, considering both were very good looking teachers.

I wish that was the case instead of what it is.

If only I was that lucky to have two guys- very hot guys may I add- scrambling for my attention.

"Rivi!" I turned on my heel on the way to Archie's table in the canteen where he smirked at me, suddenly dropping as Carter ran to my side and smiled at me.

"Hey, Carter." I said back, a small smile on my face as I balanced my salad, water and fruit pot.

" I was wondering if you're busy today, after school?" By now we both walked towards where Archie was sat, his jaw tensed and eyes narrowed.

"Actually I've got cheer-"

Before I could finish, Archer was in front of me, his large frame towering over mine as he glared Carter down.

"Listen to me, nitwit." He growled and even I flinched at his tone. "I've told you this more times than I can count but considering you're clearly f*****g demented you don't seem to understand." He stepped forward and Carter stepped back, pushing his blonde hair back and looking up at Archer as he took up every inch of his personal space.

"I will f*****g kill you." His threat was by no means a joke, a bantery comment. It was a threat. "Stay- away- from- what's -River." He paused and between each word, exaggerating each word and waiting for the poison to drop out.

"But- But Rivi's single." Carter let out, clearly terrified.

"Yea-" I started but a single glare shut me up.

He turned back to Carter and stepped forward again, his eyes black with rage. I licked my lips as he finally spoke.

"I don't give a flying f**k if she's single or not." Now he looked up and spoke to everyone who was watching on.

"Everyone needs to understand one thing once and for all." He growled but the pindrop silence allowed the whole room to hear. "Whether she's single or not is irrelevant." His voice was dangerous, low.

"River Harrison is mine." He turned and glared at Carter once more, taking my cold wrist in his large hand. "Try and fight me on it, d**k head. I dare you."

And with that, he walked out, pulling a very very shell shocked me behind him.