Beside Him

Chapter 23// Punches To Kisses

My eyes widened, mouth dropping and all, at the sight of Archie's fist aiming directly towards the new boy's nose.

I flinched for Asshat as the noise of bone against bone resonated through the otherwise empty corridor.

"I've told you already, Diego," Archer let out through gritted teeth and the guilt of eavesdropping was overpowered by the curiosity of his dangerous words. "I don't want any part of that s**t anymore."

I frowned. What s**t?

"You can't leave, King." Diego replied, yanking himself away from Archer, who stood with his hands fisted instead.

"I can, and I f*****g have." Then his voice dropped, his eyes darkening, and he took a step forward towards him. "Leave. Her. Out. Of. It." He ground out and Diego himself took a small, barely noticeable step back.

"Boss's orders, man."

"If there is so much as a scratch on her f*****g body, I will hang you up like a pin-f*****g-ñata and beat the living s**t out of you. I swear to you, Diego, you will not live to see your god damned cat grow old if there is a hair out of place."

Diego smirked cockily and I nearly punched the bastard.

"I make no promises, King. Just come and talk to AJ. I'm sure he'll understand you're a love-struck p***y ass b***h who's quitting something amazing for a random w***e off the stre-" Archie's fist was saying hello to Asshat's teeth before he could finish the sentence.

This time though, the punches didn't stop. Punch after punch after punch until they were both on the floor.

I let out a yelp and finally moved from my position, running towards the two and using every piece of strength in me to yank Archer off.

He fell back with an umph, not expecting the rebuttal.

"Kitten?"

"River?"

Both boys said at the same time and I glared at Asshat before helping Archer up, wincing at the sight of his sore, freshly cut open knuckles that had barely healed from the fight with Lance.

This guy really needs to get his game together. ASAP.

Too many fights were going on with him. He'd always had a bad reputation but it was never this bad. He'd gotten into more fights than I could dream of but now, well, now he might as well have a frikking museum dedicated to him.

I gently interlocked our fingers before, wordlessly, going over to the nurse's office.

She greeted us with a large smile, dropping as soon as she saw Archer. The woman had Archephobia, you see.

I could see why, many people suffered from the same phobia- completely rational I assure you.

I told her that I'd deal with it and she happily agreed, though I wasn't sure how legal this act was.

"Sit." Was the first word that was spoken between us, said by me as I gestured towards the spinney chair.

He sat without any sort of reaction, keeping his jaw locked and eyes cast low, staring dangerously at the ground as if it were the cause of all his problems.

I sighed and grabbed the first aid kit, doing the job with little to no sort of reaction from him, more towards the 'no' side. He'd cast me an almost shy glance at times but other than that, he said nothing.

I bit my bottom lip and put the first aid kit away, resuming my seat in front of him once I did.

"River-"

"Archie-"

We both said at the same time, then smiled in mutual respect before I gestured for him to go on.

"How much of that conversation did you hear exactly?" He asked, his voice slow and tentative.

I creased my brow. "Enough for it to make no sense whatsoever." I said then raised my eyes to look at him. "You'll tell me when you're ready."

He cleared his throat and looked away, green eyes wide and bright. "What did you wanna say?"

My mouth opened and words were out before it had been filtered in the brains department. "Just kiss me already."

Archer did not need prompting. As soon as the words were sunk in, his lips were on mine.

Butterflies, fireworks, sparks. The lot of it.

I never really understood what all the books and movies were about, or what everyone was talking about when they said a kiss was so important that it enraptured into the mind like a stamp.

Now though... now I knew. Now I could write a whole frikking essay on it. Or two, or a million.

Any of those would suffice.

Archer's lips felt like heaven. Soft, melting. He tasted of bubble gum.

He was slow at first, almost tentative as if afraid I'd push him away but as soon as my own began moving, he increased his pace, one hand going to my cheek and the other the small of my back to pull me closer.

He stood between my legs as I ran my hands up to his hair and interlocked my fingers into the thick locks, wrapping my legs around his waist, an action that caused us both to release a low moan/groan.

The door opening snapped us out of our states of euphoria and we pulled apart, both breathing wildly.

Archer didn't look at me as he took my wrist, completely ignoring the nurse who was staring at us looking like a raccoon.

As soon as we were back in the corridor, my back was against the locker, my leg hooked around his waist, his body on mine and lips pressed tightly to my own.

"God, princess." He breathed out against me. "I've wanted to do that for so, so long."

I smiled slightly, closing my eyes as he leaned his forehead down onto mine. "Me too, Archie. Me too."

He placed a gentle peck against my nose before pulling back and interlocking our fingers.

He looked up into my eyes, looking at me with a complex as if trying to figure me out.

I rolled my eyes and walked in front of him, yanking him behind me as we walked off to lunch.

"Let's go Dan's instead." He said suddenly, tugging on my hand so that I turned and landed straight onto his chest. I glared and then sighed.

"I'm not wagging last period."

"Wagging?" He asked, utterly perplexed. "Is that a type of food?"

I gave him a blank look. "Wagging means skipping school, genius. And I'm not doing it."

"Jay will be there. And Callum, and Ky-"

"I'm in."

• • • •

"Jay-Jay!" I yelled, jumping into his arms as if I hadn't seen him in centuries. He laughed and picked me up with a worrying ease, spinning me around before easily putting me on my feet once more.

I did the same thing to Callum, who gave me a dirty look once I was pulled away by Archer and yanked into his side.

"Hey, Rivi." I turned to Lance and waved, doing the same to Kyle. I noticed Archer's arm around me get a little tighter.

We walked inside Dan's and I grinned at the man in charge before going into on of the booths with Archer on one side and (despite Archie's mindset to change it) Lance on the other.

I ordered some fries and a burger, pulling up my legs to cross them beneath me and basically sitting on Lance.

Archer clenched his jaw and shuffled over slightly, his hand on the inside of my thigh as he moved me towards him with a gentle force that burned through my entire leg.

"Touch her again, and I'll cut off your arms and feed them to wolves." He snapped at Lance, who raised a confused eyebrow.

"What?" He asked, clearly confused and I breathed out a laugh.

"Don't speak dipshit, your breath is like a nuclear bomb." Archie snapped back and this time, a whole large laugh erupted through me, getting louder as I saw Lance's tinted red cheeks.

"Chill, man." Jay said, though his eyes were twinkling brown in amusement. This only caused me to laugh harder, eyes dripping with tears at this point.

I felt Archer's gaze on me but I was too busy dying to care. As my laughter died down, I noticed all the boys staring at me (Lily I will not longer mention because I despise her and she has absolutely no relevance in my life whatsoever). I raised an eyebrow.

"You're very pretty, Rivi." Callum said, and I saw Jay glance at him, and then Archer, his eyes slightly narrowed. They both spoke at the same time.

"Shut the f*ck up, Callum."