Beside Him

Chapter 20// Permanently Temporary

Shot.

Archer King does not own me, nor does he have any right to do so.

Shot.

He may be as hot as a lava cake, but the guy has issues, specifically ones that he needs to sort out, not me.

Shot.

He's nice. So frikking nice to those he wants to be nice to. A d**k to the rest.

Shot.

"River!" He growled, his green eyes right infront of my own as he took the shot glass from me and I gave him a lazy, dizzy smile.

"Archieee..." I dragged out, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck as he crouched to my level. He pulled up my chin and first looked into my right eye, then my left.

"F*cking hell." He ground out. My eyes widened when he next spoke. "Esta chica será la muerte de mí." He said lowly, so low he thought I didn't hear.

But I did, and even my drunken self recognised it straight away as Spanish, though I had not a clue what he'd said.

Spanish only came out of me when I was angry. It's like... a trigger or something.

"Have I-" hiccup "-ever told you how hot you are?" I asked, leaning up to connect our lips at last but he quickly moved his head to the left meaning my lips planted firmly on his tensed jaw.

"Here-" he said, handing me a glass of what looked like plain water. "Drink this."

I gave him a look. "Spoilsport." I grumbled but drank the water anyway, moaning at the taste of lemons in there as well.

"Stop it." He said lowly, dangerously. I blinked up at him.

"Stop what?" I asked, as innocently as possible. He gritted his teeth and averted his gaze from my lips, to which I smirked.

As I leaned forward to try and kiss him again, but the asshat shoved a mint in my face and I gasped.

"Are you hinting that I have bad breath? Because I will kill you." I said, attempting to point to him but failing and pointing to some couple sharing tonsils, narrowing my eyes instead.

His lips quirked up and he muttered the word "cute" before taking my hand gently and taking us both out through the back yard and sitting me down on the porch steps as my drunken state lessened with every sip of the heavenly drink.

"River," he sighed, running a hand through his chocolate hair and I bit my lip, following the action as his muscles became prominent. "what are we doing?"

I frowned, chewing on the inside of my cheek. "Tryna get the goss now that I'm drunk, aye Archie?" I laughed awkwardly, cupping my wrist with my free hand.

He averted his gaze upwards. "How long-" he paused, cleared his throat and closed his eyes. "How long are we gonna do this before one of us snaps?" He breathed out and I barely made out what he was saying, focussing on how god damn good he looked under the light of the moon.

His brown hair looked a jet black, his jaw clenched and prominent as he tilted his head upwards. His neck long and slender, his navy blue shirt exaggerating his muscles and the leather band on his wrist still there, as always.

I recognised that band. From where, I had no idea.

"You need to loosen up," I muttered, moving my eyes back to his as he opened them at last, allowing the moon to make them look a navy blue.

"You need to tighten up." He retaliated and I rolled my eyes, quickly getting up to run inside and grab two bottles of vodka in my drunken haze, coming back to a confused Archie.

"How'd you manage to move so fast? Who the f**k are you, flash?" He scrunched up his nose in an absolutely adorkable way and I smiled, shoving the bottle into his chest and pressing my own to my lips. He sighed, looking from me to it back to me and then, with a shrug, placed it against his lips.

We winced and cringed, until eventually, we were both too drunk to remember what day it was.

"Soooooo...." he dragged, his arm sloppily around my shoulders as we walked down the empty street. I tripped, giggled, and got back up again, hiccuping and then laughing again.

"You- you know-" He hiccuped with me and I closed my eyes, sniffing the s**t in the air and cringing as my eyes snapped back open. "I've never- told you how- how special your eyes- eyes are. You know that?"

"Yeahhhhh..." I said in awe, my gaze on a bird as it flew up. "Naughty, Archie." I giggled again, pinching his side to which he laughed and shoved my hip lightly with his own.

I'd long ago abandoned any hope of keeping my skirt down and had removed of it, instead keeping on Archie's hoodie that reached mid thigh and zipped up the middle.

"They're like-" he paused to think and, finding his thinking face funny, I replicated it, putting a finger to my chin and tilting my head upwards. "Like two swirls of the finer honey in life." He said at last and I scrunched up my nose, tripping over literal air and falling flat on my ass, taking Archer down with me.

We landed on top of each other, a pile of limbs and both couldn't find anything but humour in it.

I landed on top of him as he lay flat on his back, me on top as we lay on the sidewalk.

"You mean more to me than the universe itself, princess." He said, his voice slurred. I grinned widely, dimples teeth and all.

"You to me too. No no, more." He narrowed his eyes as I stuck out my tongue, connecting the tip gently to the top of his nose.

He pushed me off and wiped his nose, a goofy grin on his face.

"Prove it!" He yelled suddenly and my eyes widened in excitement at the tattoo parlour he was pointing at, named Inked Up.

I nodded instantly, knowing where he was going with it and wanting to do it immediately.

Highlight of my very essence. f*****g mind bogilingly smart move. Tattooed while drunk.

And that was how we awoke the next morning.

• • • •

I groaned, feeling a sharp pain in my hand and in my head.

"What the f..." my voice trailed off.

Someone's in my bed. Or better yet, I'm in someone's bed. And it's not frikking Taco.

A naked chest stared back at me, me being in the very warm and comfortable arms of some one with huge muscles and... a tattoo.

My eyes widened as I slapped a hand over my mouth.

'Archie wants to drown in River Harrison.'

My mouth dried, my heart beat increasing as the events of last night slowly, slowly creeped back to me like f*****g slender man.

Directly above his heart. Directly. The words were written in Roman numeral style writing, big and taking up his entire left pectoral muscle. I licked my lips and looked down at my wrist, where I knew the stinging pain meant mine was.

Why did the dipshit not give us any tape?

Oh wait, he did but we played mummies with them.

"Holy, sh*t." I breathed out, seeing the small bow and arrow, taking up my the bottom right corner of my left wrist and then the bit where my hand connected with my wrist occupied with the words 'like a loyal arrow to its bow'.'

I cringed. What the actual f*ck was a thinking?

Oh wait, I wasn't thinking very hard was I?

I cringed again. Why couldn't it have been something less cringe worthy? Why? Obviously the bow and arrow represented an archer. And the damn words meant me and him.

Fucking smart i***t.

I flinched as Archer stirred beside me, cracking one forest ball open before closing it again with a groany sigh.

"This is why I don't drink." He muttered and then winced. "Why the f**k does my chest sting?"

I licked my lips and pulled the covers up to cover my clothed body.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should've never got you drunk. God, don't hate me.

I cleared my throat and looked away. His eyes widened as I looked around, taking in the Archer King's bedroom.

Flawless, not a spec of dust misbehaving.

I guess even it was terrified of him.

"F*ck..." he breathed out, running a finger up his chest. I averted my gaze, not knowing how to react.

"We got s**t drunk didn't we?" He was laughing.

I blinked.

"You're not- you're not mad?" I asked, genuinely utterly confused.

"Why would I be mad?" He looked curious to my answer his eyes doing a quick sweep of my body.

Please don't be naked, I thought, eyes running to the prominent 'v' under hard, beautiful, picture-f*****g-esque abs, the bottom of which was covered by the remainder of the sheets.

"Because I practically made you get drunk." He only shrugged, his eyes glinting with amusement and something I was beginning to now recognise.

"Can I see your wrist?" Then he scrunched up his face and closed his eyes tightly. "F*cking hell, that is where you got it right? Cuz I'm getting a lot of images and I'm not sure which one is right..."

Despite myself, I found a laugh escaped my lips as I nodded and confirmed that it was in fact my wrist that had been branded by Archie.

Clearly not the only thing.

Oh, shut up.

"Yeah... err... it's worse than yours." I said with a nervous laugh. He grinned at me, making me snap my hesitance string and show him almost immediately what the very talented artist had done to my skin.

His jaw opened slightly, his fingers sweeping ever so gently across the ink, his green eyes brighter than I remembered. "Beautiful." One word that had my world shook, my eyes wide as I watched him looking at me with a kind of look that girls would die for.

"It's very cringey isn't it?" He said, scrunching up his nose, though his grin remained adamantly plastered onto his gorgeous face.

"Yes, and also very illegal." I said, as that factor suddenly came to me.

Oh that prick of a tattoo artist is gonna be swimming with the cockroaches 6 foot under when I'm done with him.

"Oh shit." He said, his eyes wide as he too only realised this small factor.

"School's gonna murder both our asses." I said, tucking my tangled hair behind my ear, the braid having come loose and it now resembling a beautiful, intricate bird's nest.

Fan-frikking-tastic.

"I can cover mine up easily." He said thoughtfully and I bit my lip. "But yours is right on you wrist. So unless you wanna befriend permanent long sleeve shirts, you're gonna need some sort of bracelet."

I nodded. "I'll go shopping and get one once this damn head ache dies down."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, I got you."

He got out of bed and I waited as he ran through his drawers with an impatience that made me a little antsy.

Thank Christ he's wearing joggers.

My eyes widened when I realised something.

The only clothes I was wearing was his hoodie, my panties, and some bright, dolphin socks.

Where the hell did my clothes go?

I didn't have much time to ponder over it as he came back and shoved a black box in my hands.

"That should do the job."