Beside Him

Chapter 8// Archie You're My Hero

I was kindly designated into the team of Archer and Jay and all in all, I was happy with my team, the other one containing Lance, Kyle and Callum.

It was clear that Lance and Kyle were best friends although their personalities did differ.

Lance was an arrogant, cocky piece of rat's sh*t and Kyle was a funny, outspoken and goofy guy.

Yeah, pretty different.

I crouched behind a tire, listening heavily as Archer went trough tactics.

It was painfully clear how serious these guys were about their sport and it honestly made me feel pretty good, to know that they got into everything just as much as I did.

"Got that?" He asked me just in case and I nodded, holding my paintball gun closer to my chest.

He nodded once, giving me one last smirk before crouching off to another place and leaving me and Jay to run together.

We did, him hiding behind the tree and me lying flat behind the tire, aiming to shoot between the gaps in the wheel.

"So," Jay started and I pursed my lips, waiting for him to continue as I kept my eyes out for enemy soldiers.

Hey, I told you I was serious.

"You and Archer then?" He asked, attempting to play it cool though I could see the beginnings of a grin begin to form.

"Nope. Never. Simply Platonic." I muttered back.

"Pfft, platonic your gorgeous ass. You so have the hots for him, just as he does you." I only shrugged, not bothering to correct him.

He gave me a grin to which I only smiled back, my head snapping up when I heard a twig snap.

"Try not to get hurt, Rivi." Before I could process whether he meant in this game or with Archer, I heard a gun go off. I yelped and put my head down, just missing the launching paint.

Then I legged it, shouting a 'you'll be missed' to Jay, who was now trying to defend himself against Kyle, me quickly aiming and shooting at Callum, who scowled at me though his eyes screamed amusement.

I bumped right into Lance, falling flat on my ass as he gave me only a once over and a smirk.

I gritted my teeth, grabbing my gun to aim fire as I stood again but was yanked out of the way by none other than Mr Hotty himself, him pressing me against a tree once we finally stopped running.

"I'm not winning that easily against the prick. Let's play for a few more minutes." He said, his eyes flicking around as he kept guard. My breathing came out hollow and quick as I attempted to ignore our proximity.

"It's rude to play with your food, Archie." I breathed out, my eyes zoned in on his lips as I struggled to breathe. This boy has more of an effect on me than I care to admit.

He flicked his gaze to me then away, then to me again, his eyes wide and dark as he too just noticed our closeness.

Instinctively, my bottom lip went between my teeth and I watched as his mossy green eyes darkened further as he licked his lips.

A gun shot made us jump away and the moment was gone.

I was left confused. What the hell just happened? The moment, the very few seconds that me and Archer had just shared were probably one of the most intimate moments that I'd had with anyone in my life, and hell knows it terrified me to the core.

A gun going off broke me out of my trance and I raised my own quickly, snapping out of my mind.

In front of me, was Kyle and in front of Archer was Lance.

I shot twice, rolling away when Kyle finally raised his weapon.

Guess Jay hadn't managed to get him out.

Or maybe he was busy with Callum.

The thought distracted me enough to get shot once before I was running again, a laugh escaping my lips as I shot right back at Kyle.

He grinned and did the same, both of us probably ending up with bruises all over.

I mean, that sh*t hurts.

"f**k," I heard Lance grunt and it broke me and Kyle out of our mini war as we looked at the two others.

Archer had his gun pressed tightly to Lance's stomach and I winced unknowingly.

If he was to shoot, that would kill like a b***h.

"Archer," Kyle grunted out lowly as if a warning. All Archie did was roll his eyes. "That's dangerous."

"F*ck off." Archer said, retreating his gun just enough to not kill the poor guy but enough to leave an obvious bruise.

The gun went off and Lance groaned on the ground, his hand tightly at his stomach.

I flinched and ran over to him, going to my knees to see if I could help in any way.

"River, for God's sake relax he's not gonna die." Archer said in a bored tone and Lance's eyes suddenly flashed with anger, supposedly forgetting about his injury as he jumped up to hit Archer.

I yelped and stepped back as he literally shoved me out of the way, causing Kyle to have to get me up, all the while trying to break the fight between Lance and Archie.

Both had now disposed of their masks and guns, using fists instead and I could already see Archie getting more and more pissed off.

He gritted his teeth as he dodged a punch, proceeding to punch Lance right in the jaw.

"Archer!" Jay ran to the two, looking flushed along with Callum. My eyes narrowed as I calculated their body languages.

Archer was pulled away by Jay, Lance being yanked off by Kyle as they both spat out horrible words that I'd rather not repeat.

A few minutes later, when everyone was calm again, I sat in front of Archie on the ice cream bench and wiped away the blood on his bottom lip.

He gave me a small, grateful smile and I leaned over to his ear, whispering, "Archie, you're my hero."

He tensed but relaxed slightly when I left a small kiss on his cheek before we both turned to the rest of the group. I could see Jay giving me raised eyebrows and I rolled my eyes before smirking.

"Where were you and Callum?" I asked in a super sweet tone. Jay glared at me and Callum got up to 'order ice cream'.

Archie, completely aware of the two, turned to Jay with a small smile.

"Am I missing something here?" Lance asked and Kyle nodded in agreement to the question.

"Nope."

"No."

"Shut the f*ck up."

All three of us replied at the same time, me the first one, Jay the second and Archie the third.

I smiled at Jay and winked, getting up and plopping myself down on his lap.

"Your secret is safe with me, Jay- Jay" I whispered and then kissed his cheek, ruffling his hair then standing up to sit beside Archie again.

He gave me a 'You're weird' look before turning to Callum as he came back, struggling with 4 ice creams.

"Rivi, I don't know what you like so I couldn't get you anything and Arch, I know you hate ice cream so I got you berry smoothie which is on its way."

With that he handed Lance the plain chocolate ice cream (boring), Kyle the Oreo one and Jay the mint choc chip, himself with the same one. Me and Archer shared a smile at that.

"I don't like ice cream, but thank you for wondering." I said with a flick of my hand. Everyone's eyes turned to me and I gave them all a blank look.

"Oh come on." I said blankly and they shook their heads.

Archie chuckled beside me and I turned just in time to catch his smile again, then shook my head at myself.

"After all you ate just an hour ago, I'd be surprised you had any space left in there." He said with a smirk as his smoothie arrived, the waiter someone I knew but couldn't place a finger on. He smiled politely and I returned it, noticing Archie's gaze this time.

Just as I turned to face him he looked away and I smiled again.

"I've got loads of space left, Archie." I shrugged, yanking his smoothie right out from under his lips and taking a sip from the straw.

He gave me a dirty look but said nothing on it.

Jay and Callum burst into laughter and me and Archie turned to them at the same time.

"What?" Again, in unison, we spoke.

Jay shared a look with Callum before speaking.

"You just kissed."