How to Stay Afloat

~22: Archer's Story~

CHAPTER 22:

Archer's Story

TW: Mention of s*icide

~~**~~

|Archer|

|2 Years Ago|

I tugged the hood further over my head. My shoulders were hunched, hoping to draw as little attention as I could towards myself.

Sometimes I wished I hadn't been so popular before my life went to shit. That I hadn't had so many friends or people who knew who I was. That way no one would have known me. No one would have cared.

But that hadn't been the case.

Everyone knew me.

And everyone abandoned me.

Everyone hated me.

It's harder to have people in your life and lose them as opposed to having been alone to begin with.

A couple of months ago, I'd been the Captain of the swim team. There would be groups of people holding banners with my name across them at tournaments. I'd been dating the girl of my dreams.

I'd had everything.

Until that day.

Suddenly the guys from the swim team, who I'd considered my family, were cornering me in the locker room and beating the shit out of me, telling me that my family and I shouldn't be showing our faces in public. The beating wasn't the worst part, the fact that they completely abandoned our decade-old friendship hurt worse than that. I quit the team after that.

Maggie, the girl who came to all my tournaments with homemade pom-poms to cheer for me and wore a necklace with my initials around her neck, suddenly couldn't even look at me. She blocked my number and ignored me in the school hallway like we were strangers.

All the other kids would give me nasty looks and leave with their lunch trays if I sat at the same table as them at the cafeteria so I started spending my lunch breaks alone in the library instead.

The school turned into my very own personal version of hell.

The hateful looks thrown in my direction, the whispers, the name-calling. 

But after a while, I got used to it. I wasn't weak. I could handle their hostility because in my heart I knew the truth and that was what really mattered.

In my heart, I knew they were wrong about him.

They were wrong about my family.

~~**~~

It was the last class on a Friday.

My eyes were glued to the clock as I counted the minutes as they ticked by.

Our biology teacher droned on about the Metaphase and spindle fibers but I couldn't focus. All I could think about was the bell ringing and me finally being free of this shithole for the next two days.

I sat up straight when I heard my name being called out.

"Archer." The teacher said, "You've been called to the principal's office."

I frowned as I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way outside.

Our principal was already waiting for me when I got there. She gave me a sympathetic look before handing me the phone. She squeezed my shoulder and shook her head before walking out of her office.

Warning bells start going off inside my head.

Something isn't right.

I brought the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Archer?" My mother's hysterical voice answered from the other end. "Archer! Why haven't you been answering your cell phone?" She demanded.

I could feel my heart drop to my stomach. Slowly, ice started to seep into my veins.

"My phone's battery died," I said, trying to sound calm.

"Oh, Archer." She wailed.

"Mom, what's wrong?" My voice sounded small, foreign to my ears.

"It's about Jordan." She choked out between sobs. She was crying so hard her words were incomprehensible.

I can feel pieces of myself cracking.

In the waiting area outside the office, someone turned on the television. I froze when I saw my brother's picture flash across the screen.

The news anchor's clear voice carried inside,

My hands were clutching the phone so tightly I was surprised it didn't break into a million pieces.

No

No

No

It's not true

It can't be true

I chanted it over and over in my head.

"Jordan Hastings, the defense attorney leading the O'Malley case has been found dead in his apartment."

Everything around me shattered.

I was numb.

"The police have ruled his death as suicide."

~~**~~

My legs worked on autopilot as they carried me outside the office and towards the main door.

I have to get out of here.

Everyone was staring at me. Muffled whispers reached my ears from all directions.

"That asshole got what was coming for him." Someone spat out.

I ignored it and kept walking.

"That's right. Murderers deserve to die." Someone else shouted.

I blocked them out as my legs carried me faster and faster till I was running outside the school gates. I had no idea where I was going but I just kept running.

I was numb

Jordan is dead

I told myself.

Your brother is dead.

The only person you had in your corner is gone for good.

I felt empty.

All my hope, all my happiness, everything good inside me died with Jordan that day.