It's Complicated

Six

WARNING: Eli's back in this b**** so there's gonna be some homophobic slurs.

Archer's POV

She spoke, "Are you okay?" I looked up. It was the girl from choir.

I faked a smile at her, trying to ignore my anxiety, "Hey. Yeah, I'm fine. Madison, right?" She looked worried and looked directly into my eyes.

"Yeah. You don't look okay. What happened?" She was squatting next to me, her face lined with concern. The memories came flooding back, but I was able to shake them away and respond, "It's not important. Someone was just being stupid."

"I'll beat 'em up. Tell me who it is. I know people." I laughed. She knew how to cheer me up, even if we'd just met.

"I'm fine. I promise." As I wiped away my tears, I added, "Things just get to me easily."

"Okay, but I'm staying here until lunch ends." She sat down and crossed her arms. I don't know why she cared so much for me, but I wanted to test the limits.

"Okay. Have fun with that." I stood and was walking off when she called after me.

"Archer?"

"Yeah?" I spun around. Her face was confused, yet curious.

"Would you stay here with me?" My mind was a whirlwind. Thoughts flying in and out before I could recognize them.

"There's a price, tesoro."

"What is it?" She just looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"You have to sing for me." I grinned at her.

"Only if you sing with me." She was playing along. I raised my eyebrows and asked, "What song?"

"The one from choir." I nodded and sat back down with her. We sang and sang. I didn't get why she wanted to sing that song because, truthfully, it was a terrible song. I finally realized why when I ended up singing all by myself and she was there with her eyes closed soaking up my voice. I was almost finished with my part when her phone started to buzz, cutting me off.

"You gotta rude phone there, tesoro."

"No kidding. It's just Presley. I'll call him back. Continue where you were." Presley? She never mentioned a boy.

"Who's Presley?" I asked this, hoping she would say that he was her brother.

"My boyfriend." Of course. She just had to be straight. I was slightly annoyed, but I couldn't change her sexuality. Even if I wanted to.

"Oh. Maybe you should call him back. Lunch is almost over anyways." She seemed to not to want to talk to or about him. I ignored the little burst of hope in my chest.

"I'll just text him. You haven't finished your part, so continue." I ignored her and asked, "Do you know where E103 is? That's my next class and I couldn't even find the cafeteria, so the day will probably be over by the time I find it." I looked at her as she looked at her schedule. She looked at me with a glint of something in her eye that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"No, but it looks like we'll be looking for it together."

"And why is that?"

"I have math in E103 after lunch." Well, this year will definitely be interesting.

"Is that so? Well then, we should probably get on our way." We went back to get her things and then started looking for the classroom. When we got there, there were hardly any other students there. I stared at the open seats and asked, "Front or back?"

She shrugged, "It doesn't really matter to me."

"Okay." I walked to the back and sat towards the middle. I motioned for Madison to sit next to me. She sat and looked at me. She then asked, "What do you have next?"

I studied my schedule before answering, "French. Then, study hall in E129." Her eyes widened. Her expression was relaxed and surprised all at once. "Me too." My eyes were the wide ones now. I looked at her. I was about to respond, when the teacher started to practically yell, "Good morning, class!" The class was slow and boring, but at least the work was easy. Finally, the hour was up. "Remember, pages 1-4 are for homework! See you tomorrow!"

We hurried out into the hallway and started to walk to French.

"That class dragged." She flinched before realizing I was the one talking. She smiled and said, "Yeah. I thought it was never going to end." I was facing the hallway, not wanting to look at her when I blurted out, "I think the only good thing about that class was you." I felt my face tinge as she responded, "Right back at you." I didn't know what that meant or why I had said that. At least she didn't completely reject me. We found our way to French before sitting down and having some small talk. She asked me about my old school, my brother, my parents. I left out my biological parents because I didn't want to go into that after what happened at lunch.

French passed by pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were on our way to study hall. This is what I was nervous about. We got there and luckily, we both had homework. We still talked, but the conversations were mostly about the homework. When the final bell rang, I had finished with my last assignment. We packed up and walked out of school together. Madison spotted someone, who I figured was Presley, and then said goodbye as she dashed off.

I texted my dads to see if either one of them could pick me up. They both responded with a blunt, "No." Couldn't blame them. They both worked full time jobs and had to pick up my brother. I started to walk home, when I saw them. The group of boys from lunch. They were completely blocking the path to my house.

I started to walk their way, trying not to be noticed.  As expected, they saw me. They all started to lightly hit each other as I neared. The biggest one, Eli, was in the front grinning maliciously. When I reached them, he spoke, "Sup, fag."

"What do you want?" My tone was annoyed, but I was honestly scared for my life.

"I want to know why you're in front of me."

"My house is this way."

"Your faggy parents couldn't pick you up?" My fear quickly turned to anger.

"Don't say that about my parents. You can call me all the names you want, but don't bring my parents into this."

"Ooooo. I'm so scared." He growled the last word, he face covered in annoyance and hatred. He looked back at his friends before saying, "Get her."

They started moving forward. Eli was laughing a devilish laugh. I started to run the other way. They started chasing. I ran and ran until I couldn't hear them shouting behind me. I stopped and looked around. Where was I?

Then, they were there. All around me. Circling me like they were starving lions, and I was the baby gazelle that would become their dinner. I started to run through the nearby street, not worrying about anything around me. Just my opponents.

And then, everything went black.