In 27 Days (Watty Award Winner 2012)

Chapter 20

 I tried to keep Mom's awkward behavior out of my mind while I showered and got ready for school. I had bigger fish to fry today. I was hoping with crossed fingers that my involvement with Archer was old news now, but that was probably wishful thinking. This was JFK we were talking about, so one could never be too sure.

 Mom and Dad were both gone by the time I dragged myself out of my bedroom and out the front door. My mind was mostly in the clouds as I made for the subway. This was nothing out of the normal. Taelor was already waiting on the platform when I finally arrived, and she instantly started babbling at me about anything and everything in her typical Taelor way.

Today, for some reason, this didn't bother me. If it were any other day, I probably would have told her to shut up. But my mind was focused on something else. A something else like Archer.

 I couldn't explain the feeling that was slowly starting to creep over me as Taelor and I filed off the subway and made our way for the surface. It was as if there was this heavy weight pressing down on my shoulders, and my stomach was twisting with butterflies. I kept looking over my shoulder every moment or so, having this overpowering sensation that I was being watched. Nobody was paying any attention to me, but that did nothing to quell my neves.

 "Okay, what are you looking at?" Taelor demanded, yanking my forearm to pull me to a stop.

"Nothing," I said slowly. "Nothing at all."

 That was certainly a total lie.

Taelor's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Yeah, right. Are you looking for Archer?"

 "No," I sighed exasperatedly. "I'm not. Let's just go now, okay?"

Taelor kept shooting me shrewd looks as we started walking again, which just made me all the more annoyed. This day had started out weird, and now it was turning into something I knew wasn't going to be too particularly pleasant.

 Taelor and I parted ways after we stepped through the front doors of the school, and I walked off to homeroom with that creepy feeling hovering over me.

 Something was wrong here, and I wasn't too eager to find out what it was.

  Archer wasn't at lunch. I stared at his empty seat with a baffled look on my face, wondering where on earth he could be. The coffee house wasn't in need of extra help, was it? The coffee house was doing just fine to my knowledge. Was Victoria alright? Did Regina have another flashback or something? Did something happen with April, May, or June?

 The possibilties of what could have happened were endless. My hands were shaking as I dropped into my seat and I nearly knocked my lemonade bottle off the table.

 Every possible frightening scenario was currently running through my mind and it was all I could do not to burst into tears in the middle of the cafeteria. I knew I was sort of a crybaby about all of this. There was no getting around that fact. But today something horribly wrong was waiting on the horizon and there was no doubt about it. Archer hadn't once missed a day of school to the best of my knowledge even this entire semester. When I headed down to the gym from chemistry I'd pass his locker every day, and he'd always be there, shoving things into his backpack with his usual surly expression. It wasn't like I purposely went out of my way to look for him, but I usually always kept to the sidelines in the hallways and it was sort of hard not to catch sight of him. Even if everything else in my life was ridiculously unpedictable, Acher was always there, and that was sort of reassuring.

 A sliver of ice cold dread slipped down my spine at one thought that occured to me suddenly.

What if Archer had killed himself? What if he'd actually done it?