She Ain't a Princess (Brantley Gilbert)

Chapter 9

Archie's POV

I wake up for the second time this morning to a bang. Fuck!! I don't want to get up right now!!! "Archie Mae!!!" I hear Brantley yell at the top of his lungs and yell back "Brantley Keith!!! Some people try to sleep at this time" trying to block out his heavy boot steps with a pillow wrapped around my head before he jerked at away from me. "What the hell happened to you last night?? I was worried out of my fucking mind and about ready to come over here" He says, staring down at me half asleep and wanting to be fully asleep before I answer him with a simple "I wanted to be alone". He growls and says "well I guess hanging out with an ex is now considered being alone now". What? I shoot up out of bed, glaring at him before asking "how did you know that" and he smirks. "Jackass texted me from your phone when I was blowing it up". I sigh angrily, falling back on my pillows. I need coffee. "I going to fucking kill him" I growl, dragging myself out of bed to go get something to keep me awake. "And he's not a jackass, jackass" I mumble, plugging in my speaker and turning it up so I can't hear Brantley's bitching. As 'I'm Down' by Murphy Elmore blares through my house I turn on my coffee maker and grab a Monster out of the fridge. I crack it open and start chugging as Brantley stares me down. What's his fucking problem? I get he's protective and he misses this ass sometimes but damn. I put my coffee in the coffee maker and start brewing before looking over at him and throw my hands up in the air, aggravated that he's acting this way and he just lip syncs to the lyric 'you woke up the devil girl, and it ain't even dark yet' as it plays in the background and I roll my eyes and finish chugging my Monster, flipping him off over my shoulder. My music gets quieter and I groan, knowing he wants to talk which as you may be able to guess is not my thing. "First question: I've seen you turn down countless guys when they come crawling back from leaving you, why is this one any different? Second question: why do you keep doing that?" Brantley asks, turning me around from facing my coffee maker, waiting on my coffee and I groan, slumping against my counter. "Keep doing what?" I ask, not even looking up at him. He growls and lift me up, sitting me on the counter so I have to look at him and tells me "Monster and coffee. I've told you, not healthy". Rolling my eyes I explain to him that I have a lot of shit to do at the shop and that he should mind his own business. "Your business is my business. You're my bestfriend, I'm aloud to worry about these things" he growls and I just growl back. "Don't you growl at me. I'm already pissed" he says, pointing a finger at me and I jump foreword to bit in when pulls it back. "So am I, dickhead" I mock him, crossing my arms over my chest when the coffee maker beeps. I reach back to turn it off when he turns my head back to his by my chin, holding it in place and tells me "your gonna answer my question". "I'm not gonna do anything if you keep being an asshole" I glare, still trying to find the off button without looking at my coffee maker. He reaches over beside me and turns it off for me, letting go of my chin before stepping in closer, resting his hands on either side of the counter and cages me in. I stare up at him, intimidated as hell even though I know he's not gonna do anything. "Why him?" He rumbles, me feeling his breath every time he exhales angrily. Confused, I ask him "what?" and he lets out a sigh, asking more clearly "Why did you pick him to take back? Every other guy was just nothing to you. You always said you could do better and I know damn good and well that you can do better than the one your with now. So why did you pick him?". "Brantley, look at me" I order, jerking his head to look at me by his beard and take a deep breath "I really love him Brantley. He may be a dick to my guy friends sometimes because he's protective but I love him...... Last night when I didn't answer your calls or texts I was crying my eyes out because I found out the night you got home that he had a girlfriend again. I was still praying he would call me so we could make up and he was already dating. We'd been broken up a month and you know it on average takes me like 2 days to get over someone if we break up, that's how much I care about him Brant, so please for the love of god be nice"

Brantley's POV

Shit!! Did she just say the L word? I've never heard her say that she loved a man other than me, her dad or the guys and that's just because most of them are father figures to her. She actually loves this Zane dude. "Baby doll, you really love him?" I ask and she nods her head, looking up at me and I sigh. "I'll try. I don't want to be nice to that little shit but if you really do love him.... I won't knock his teeth out" I say, grumbling and Archie squeals and hugs me mumbling "Thank you Brant" into my neck as I wrap my arms around her, hugging back. "Alright now the other point, could you please stop working yourself to death, sweetheart. You get up drink a Monster, coffee and a Redbull at the shop then work until 2am and it's not anywhere near healthy so can you please try to stop. It'll give you more time to hang out with me" I ask her, laying my hands on her hips before she moves them and tells me "boyfriend, remember. And I'll try, it does get tiring after a little while of barely getting any sleep and working all the damn time". I smile and hug her one more time before letting go and backing up to let her hop down and fix her coffee. She starts to fix her coffee and asks me "are you gonna be at the clubhouse tonight?". "Always am, sweetheart". Archie giggles and says "good, I'm gonna let you formally meet Zane tonight, and do me a favor and don't start comparing him to you. I know y'all are similar in a lot of ways but just don't, I don't need Mama Bear whipping out the ruler again". I laugh, leaning up against the counter and tell her "awe c'mon, last time she did that I had a pretty damn good time". "That's cause you were twice his size and he was jealous. Now I need to go to work so give me a hug and get out of me house".