Beside Him

Chapter 9// Do You wanna Build a Snowman

After pizza in which I had to suffer through seeing Lilly's gross face flirt with my pretty little Archie, he offered to walk me home, saying Jay was gonna take his car to drop everyone off.

We were about a 30 minutes walk from my parents's house so I decided to just go there.

"Sure." I shrugged to his question and we were out, me waving good byes to the boys and a promise of another meet up, preferably without ending up bruised up next time.

I winced against the bitter cold wind of the night and walked unknowingly a little closer to Archie, the dark always a huge phobia of mine.

My eyes flicked around everywhere, my hands in tight fists inside my hoodie.

Archie slowed down to my pace, looking at me for a good minute straight before finally deciding on what to do about my obvious paranoia.

He slowly reached into my hoodie pocket and took the hand closest to him,almost as if waiting for me to rebuttal. Upon finding none, he took my small fist in both of his big ones, slowly prying open the tightly packed hand and interlocking our fingers with ease.

I gulped, the small touch doing more to me than Vince's big touches had ever done.

There was no s****l purpose behind it, there was no altering motive to it. It was a nice thing to do, something that I appreciated so heavily I could cry.

I sighed, my breath causing a small puff of air to form to the sky and Archie pulled me closer to him, causing me to smile.

For the most part, no words were exchanged as we walked, the only sound being the hitting of my vans and his against the clean pavement.

We'd reached the North side, i.e the rich side and it was obvious that Archie was getting uncomfortable, though I hadn't a clue why.

"I can walk alone from here, if you want." I said quietly, shitting bricks that he'd say yes. I had a pride yes and I would never beg him to walk me but the dark is something that terrifies me.

"Shut up, River" he muttered playfully, bumping shoulders with mine. "This is where my mum used to live." He said and I knew he was referring to the area and not the house we were outside of.

"Used to? Did she move?" I asked, in the same quiet and soft voice that he'd used. He smiled bitterly.

"Something like that." Was all he said and I frowned, noticing his tense arm and his fingers tightening around mine.

I sighed with a shrug, not pushing him. I pulled his arm to me, leaning my head on his bicep as we walked. There was still around 15 minutes to go.

"Where does she live now? Do you visit often?" I asked then winced. "I'm sorry, you don't have to-"

"I wish I could visit, River, Christ I really do." His voice cracked near the end and I bit my lip.

I didn't say anything more as I continued hugging his arm to my chest, placing a very soft kiss there that he probably didn't notice.

We stopped outside the mansion gates.

He pulled his hand out of mine and I bit my lip, stuffing my hand back into my pocket.

"Thank you, Archie." I said quietly. We both knew I was grateful for more than just him walking me home.

"Yeah, don't sweat it... princess." He said with a wink and lopsided grin that made my heart skip a beat.

I smiled at him and, much to my pleasant surprise, he smiled back.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" I asked, pressing the button on the gate and then punching in the code to the house.

"You wish." He replied though I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Yeah, I do." I smiled slightly and he rolled his eyes. "So," I stopped desperately thinking of

Something to say. My eyes widened. "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

He looked at me, without saying anything, for a good 30 seconds before opening his mouth to reply.

"If you can produce snow, love to."

I grinned happily, opening the gates and skipping inside with him in tow.

The weather was getting colder and colder and with him in only his bomber jacket and me in only my hoodie, I knew I'd have to get us something warmer.

"Come in, put on something warm." I said and then, before he could say no, I skipped inside.

I heard him grunt but otherwise no comment spurred from his smart ass sarcastic mouth.

I went to the kitchen, hearing Archie's sharp intake of breath at my house.

Telling Jenny to make us both a hot chocolate, I ran upstairs to my room, hearing Archie's footsteps behind me.

I gulped, standing outside my bedroom. It wasn't exactly messy but there was paint bottles and stains and pen marks and all the rest of it everywhere, along with some half arsed paintings that I'd never shown anyone out of sheer embarrassment.

Licking my lips, I went inside, Archie right behind me.

He once again took in a deep breath and I gave him a 'what the hell' look to which he said the next three words that very nearly threw me off.

"You smell good."