The Change (The Alliance #2)

Chapter 25

"What?" I ask. I heard what he said, but I don't understand.

"Usually the girls wears boys hoodies. Usually the boys are all nice and give the girls their jackets and stuff. Or they open the car doors for girls. That's what I've learned, anyhow." He goes on. "As a guy wearing a girls hoodie and is being taken cared of like this-makes me a pretty wimpy guy."

I smile. "Your not wimpy. You're the strongest guy I know."

"Then you don't get out much, huh."

I laugh this time. "You're right on that. At least you have Adam and Casper beat."

I see a small smile on his face and it hits me like a brick wall.

We're talking.

And there's some humor in it. It doesn't seemed forced, it seems like a regular conversation. Archer is talking to me. He didn't have to, he could've stayed silent.

It's progress.

"You know a lot about the whole girls and boys thing, don't you." I say, and he nods.

"Can you tell me some?"

"Like stereotypes?" He asks, and I nod.

"Well, boys like muscles, and girls like small."

"What?" I laugh, and he shrugs. "I've heard girls always want to be skinner, and guys muscular. It's a stereotype, though. Not true, really."

"Well, I'm for sure not the girl type," I smile, "but you fit the boy image perfectly."

"I think I've got the girl image down perfectly," he says, looking down at his frail, skinny body. I would laugh, but this is something that's serious. Evelyn and the mayors made him way skinner. He's still toned and well built, but lost a lot of weight.

"How do you know all these things, about the genders." I say.

"I've learned a lot. I was interested at a young age, so I did research."

"And that's why you left your dome."

"Yes." He says. "There was so much more out there, you know? Things that I would have never of seen. Not just girls, but different guys too. Different personalities, different lifestyles. I didn't care if nobody left my dome with me. I didn't care that I was captured by your dome. I would have done anything to leave. I wanted it."

"You got it, though." I say, and Archer laughs a little. "Yeah, right. This is exactly what I wanted."

I know what he means. He did make it to the Alliance, but was captured and hurt multiple times.

"It was horrible, Mia."

I freeze. He said my name. And he's taking about what-when he was captured?

"You know I hate to talk about it. I'm pretty sure you've heard about my sister. Evelyn did it. She beat me till I forgot who I was. She locked me up till I went mad. She chained me up till I felt like the monster. It's something I want to forget-"

"But you can't." I say, and he looks up at me and nods.

"Why?" He asks suddenly.

I don't know that answer, really. Obviously because it was traumatizing, but I think he knows that. He wants a better reason, a better answer.

"Because-it changed you," I say, "you can't forget because you want to go back to that old person you were. Maybe the memories are coming back so you can remember who you were." It's a cheesy answer, but hell, maybe it's true.

"Maybe that's why I can't forget about you."

"What?" I say, and I see a small smile on his face.

"By god I want to think you're a horrible person, but something is telling me you're not. Maybe that's why."

"I don't get what you're saying," I say, my eyes fixed on his bright blue ones.

"You said I can't forget about it because I want to remember who I was. And I can't forget about you."

I smile. He remembers me because he wants to remember who he was.

Who he was with me. I smile at him.

"Then maybe that's why I can't let you go."

••••••
Hiiii!!!

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