Me and Him (UNEDITTED)

35

I stood there for a while. It could have been seconds, it could have been minutes, it could have been hours. The streets were empty and the night was cold and windy. All I could stare at was the empty vacant sidewalk in which my beloved mother cowardly ran away from me even after using force by pushing her own daughter away.

I scoffed and turned around, thoughts still running wild in my mind. Was I expecting anything? Did I honestly think that the moment I saw her, she'd burst into happy tears, hold her arms out to hug me, then repeatedly say how wrong she was and how sorry she was and how she'll never do that again? 

Suddenly, my mind became empty of everything else and all that ran about in my meaningless mind was the thought of a single mother who started off amazing and then, ended up abandoning her only child. Perfect. This is just what I needed in my life. More problems. I buried my hands into my hair and let out a sigh of frustration, my eyebrows scrunching up and tears brimming the corner of my eyes.

The back of my throat was hurting and all I wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs. Why would she do that? Why would she come all the way from wherever, stare at the house for a while, and then run away the second she spots me? Running a hand through my hair, I turned around and forced myself to walk back home. 

When I arrived, I was still in a haze and I could not even hear when Archer and James was calling my name until Archer put his hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes, his own worried, scared, angry, and confused. "Raina! Are you deaf? Where have you been? You said you wanted to get air. It's been almost thirty minutes and the whole time you've been missing!" Archer shouted. He was obviously angry.

"I... saw my mom, Archer" I muttered. 

I didn't understand exactly why I said that. I couldn't think straight, perhaps, or maybe I just wanted someone to comfort me because this time, I honestly didn't know what I needed to do to help myself. 

"What?" Archer stared at me, searching my eyes. 

"Archer," I let out a sob, "I-I saw my mo... m-mom," 

James looked at me in disbelief and suddenly, pushed Archer away from me, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Are you sure? It was her? What'd she look like? Did you talk with her? Where is she? Where'd she go?" James bombarded me with more questions until finally, Archer had enough and pulled me away from him.

"Stop that. Can't you see she's been through enough?" Archer sent a small glare at him. "Let her have some space and when she's ready to talk or if she even wants to talk, then she will," I looked at him. He didn't look at me. Instead, he grabbed my hand tightly, in a reassuring way and led me into my room. 

"Go to sleep," Archer said, grabbing a chair, pulling it toward the bed, and sitting in it. 

"What?" I breathed.

"Go to bed. Sleep. You're tired. It's been a long day," Archer said. Reluctantly, I turned the lights off and slipped under my covers. He stared at me for a few seconds before tucking me into the blanket. "You're probably cold, right? Ask me to do anything, I'll do it for you," 

"Can you sleep with me and hold my hand?" I blurted. 

"Whatever you want," Archer smiled, rolling in next to me and taking ahold of my cold hands. "You're hands are ice, Ray. Gimmie you're other one, I'll warm them both for you." Before I could do anything, Archer found my other hand in the covers and held that one, too. 

"I want to talk with you about it," I said. 

"You should go to sleep for now, Ray," Archer said. "I want tot talk about it with you, too, but right now, I don't want you to cry because you're still birthday girl, okay? You need to go to sleep. Tomorrow, we can skip school, and we can play hooky for the whole day. I'll buy you whatever you want from your favorite food to the new shoes you want to diamond necklaces, okay? We'll talk about it then,"

I nodded. Archer closed his eyes.

It was quiet for a few seconds. 

"Hey, Archer?" 

"Hmm?" 

"I love you," 

"I love you, too,"

Almost immediately, his eyes shot open and he fell off the bed. "W-w-w-w-w-what?" Archer stammered, backing up against the wall. "That was a dream, right? That was just a dream?" I looked at him, and sat up in bed. 

"How could it be a dream?" I asked, blinking a few times. 

Did I not have the right timing? Was it too soon? It wasn't a lie. But he said it back. Was that a lie? Was this too much of a tragic moment to say those three words? I love you? I've practiced telling him I love him too many times to count in my head over and over again, yet none of the times where I wanted to tell him seemed right. 

This moment in my life, this very place with him holding my hands, keeping me warm, worrying about me, this was the moment where I wanted to tell him I love him. It was enough for him? Was it not enough for him? 

I mentally shook my head. I shouldn't get mad at him. Sooner or later he'd have to love me, too. Right? I shouldn't be the only one feeling like this in our relationship. 

"Seriously?!" Archer exclaimed, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked back at him. There was a large smile on his face, his face was blood red. "You're serious right now? You love me?" Is he a little kid?

"Are you happy or not?" I asked. 

"How could you beat me to it? You are stripping me of my masculine appeal," Archer glared, getting back in bed and holding both my hands once again. I smiled and closed my eyes, falling asleep, but now before he whispered it again once more.

"I love you, too. A lot,"