The Unknown Road

25 - Tessa

IF I THOUGHT HIDING our relationship from Matt was hard, I had another thing coming when it came to hiding it from my friends.

On Sunday, we'd agreed to wait until he'd spoken to Dee first, but the moment I saw him on Monday when I clambered into the backseat of his car, I knew I was in trouble, especially when I'd only seen him three hours before.

Then we were even more in trouble when we got to fourth period and Dee was nowhere to be seen.

We'd thought we could go public with our new reality by the end of the week, but we had to be careful. If we announced it too soon, before news broke about Archie and Dee's break-up, Dee could spin the story in such a way that Archie looks like the one that's cheated.

Millie agreed with me when I laughed at how ridiculous this all sounded, but unfortunately these things were happening, and we just had to go along with it.

But it wasn't just Dee either.

Archie wanted to speak to Matt, before he found out from someone else. And I agreed. Matt would be livid if he found out from other people, and I don't think he'd speak to either of us again.

I could have told Matt myself on that Monday morning at breakfast, but Archie said he wanted to do it. So I respected that, and found it completely adorable that he was being so chivalrous.

However I was hating that we were still having to pander to Dee, despite what she'd done.

I hated it was happening to us, when all we wanted to do was be happy. And I hated that I was feeling this way.

There's a small balm in the fact we can be ourselves around Millie, and that meant a lot to both of us.

It was always going to be hard to hide it from her, even before I kissed Archie in front of her, but it was certainly amazing to know that at least one person had our backs through all of this.

We were able to be ourselves around her and it was a huge comfort.

She'd been true to her word when she promised she wouldn't tell anyone... but the next stage was a conversation with Dee, whenever that would be.

To be honest, it wasn't even the secret-keeping that I was finding most difficult. Now that I understood what each of Archie's gazes meant, I was finding it hard to control myself. I was now on the receiving end of those heated looks, and I was having a tough time reining myself in.

***

THE FIRST DAY WAS the worst day...

After sleeping together the night before, I wasn't acting like myself at all. That was because of the utopian-level happiness that was coursing through my body. I was off in my own little world most of the day, and by the time we all headed home people thought I'd gone crazy.

We hadn't napped either.

Fourth period on Mondays are one of the busiest frees in the common room, so if we'd fallen asleep, someone was bound to have notice us cuddled up. Instead we sat and worked on our history essays, trying hard to keep our hands to ourselves. I allowed his hand on my knee, and that was only because people couldn't see, but I had to forego that after ten minutes when I looked at my notes and realised I'd written the same sentence ten times.

I felt like I could launch myself at him, not caring who was able to see, if I stayed where I was. Thankfully that time the bell went, but this was only the beginning and it was already hugely difficult.

On Monday night they both stayed round again. Wendy had told them before they picked us up that she'd be away on a job in Toronto. And that she'd be away for a week. But Archie had told me they only planned on staying one night though, as Wendy had said they could look after themselves. And to be honest, I was a bit relieved. Having him under the same roof with feelings like these... we were bound to get caught.