Mrs. Archer Xavier (REWRITING)

Chapter One

The One Without Commitment

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"Are you sure this is fine?" I slide my hand across the black star freckled dress that stops mid-thigh. "Yeah, you're fine." Marianne replies, walking into into the frame of the mirror with an oversized T-Shirt and dad jeans. "How come I can't wear pants?" I gasp, turning towards her.

"Because you're going on a date." she says matter-of-factly in her comfy clothes. "It's not a date." I snapped back, feeling blood rush up to my cheeks at the thought. It wasn't a date. In fact, I never intended to go to the party and we're not even sure if Zachary would show up. There were other parties too.

"Potato, potato." She grumbles and grabs me by the arm. "Let's go."

"What if it gets cold?"

Instead of a reply, she grabs a grey cardigan from the option pile on the bed. "Good evening, Mrs. Olsen." Aren had just arrived and has obviously made his way into the kitchen. "Good evening, Aren." My aunt laughs preparing herself tea while he steals a banana from the fruit basket.

"Oh my god, Aren." Marianne sighs as she makes way past him. "Bye, mom. You behave while we're gone." She kids, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Now, Aren. Bring back my girls before midnight." She humorously and sternly tells the boy on his way to the garbage bin.

"Mhmm. I will." He replies while chewing on a banana. "Thanks, Aunt Marge." I laugh, also giving her a hug before we left. "You have fun, okay? Enjoy this, alright?" She utters both motherly and a little sorrowfully. I shoot her a smile and an eager nod.

It was inevitable.

I was about to prick my finger on a spindle of my own spinning wheel.

If you know what I mean.

"God, mom just had to ruin the mood, didn't she?" Marianne hesitantly jokes as soon as we get into Aren's Honda Civic (not sponsored). I shrug, also awkwardly laughing. Admittedly, we didn't like talking about it either. "Want to hear my new song?"

Marianne puts her hand on Aren's shoulder. "Sure, sweetie."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? You know I'm driving, right?" Aren shoots back threateningly but laughs and plays his song either way. Marianne groans, slumping back to her seat and I couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't a bad musician, really.

We arrived at the beach house within 30 minutes due to traffic, where I had to endure Marianne and Aren's bickering about ever possible thing: radio station, missing a turn, windows, pants, and whatnot. "There's so much people." I say under my breath as the car slowly scrolls through the occupied streets.

"Look, there's Jeremiah's car. Zachary has to be here." Marianne beams, pointing at the obnoxiously big wheeled pick up we pass by. "Dela Rosa?" Aren looks back at me, gasping in disbelief. I had to think quick and the best I could come up with was "What are you talking about?"

"You came here for Zachary Dela Rosa?"

"Who?"

"Never mind — look! Parking!" He easily parallel parks (a talent, he says) almost 2 blocks from the party. Marianne shoots me an apologetic look, but I know well that it was half-meant. She thinks it was rather stupid for me to be embarrassed about liking a boy like Zachary Dela Rosa. Do I like Zachary though? Do I?

The place reeked mostly of sweet vape flavors. Either it was still too early or they were really no alcohol involved in the party. I doubt it. "Hey, glad you could make it!" Rachelle greets before dispersing back into the crowd. I also doubt that she really knows who I was. I follow Marianne, who easily squeezes through the body of growing pre-adults.

"There he is." She utters victoriously, and I follow her gaze. He was wearing nothing but beach shorts as he basked in the glory of the sun like a model of a sort. "Marianne! Wait!" I gasp while being dragged across the beach. Her grip was tight and I knew I would just embarrass myself trying to break free.

"Zachary, hey!" She beams with an overflowing amount of confidence. He smiles at her and a glint of surprise washes over his face briefly when our eyes meet. I give him a small smile, receiving a playful one back. "Hey," He says, walking over to us, meeting us halfway.

"Marianne, what's up?"

"Got bored inside. What are you doing?" she casually asks like they're all friends or something. Zachary shrugs and picks up a frisbee that for some reason landed in front of him, as if on cue. "Want to play frisbee?" he chuckles but doesn't really wait for a reply and jogs a distance across us.

"You know him?" I whisper through a smile. "Forward Club." Marianne timidly answers, referring to that leadership club she was in. "He's in the Forward Club? I should've known." I say as I walk to another end, creating a triangle between us three. Zach grins and flies the frisbee towards me. Hands, don't fail me now.

They did.

I feel my cheeks burn as I take extra steps to retrieve the frisbee lying on the ground. This is just humiliating. I toss it to Marianne, who tosses it to Zach. "Wait!" I exclaim in panic. He chuckles and weakly flings the frisbee towards my direction, allowing me to actually catch it.

"I caught it."

"You got it!" He exclaims, rushing over to me and grabs my hands with Marianne to mock a victory celebration as they both jumped up and down. "Ah, fúck off." I mutter, earning a gasp. "So she swears!" Zachary teases, a grin creeping up his face.

"I'm gonna go get some drinks. You guys want some? I'll get you some, somehow." Marianne rambles on without looking back as she scurries towards the house. Did I really just let her put me on the spot? Again?

I turn to Zachary, who turns to me. To fill in the silence, I lift the frisbee up, intentionally covering my face. "You keep it." he says, pushing the plastic back down to chest level. "It's not even yours." I huff, earning yet another playful gasp of mock disbelief. "And she's funny too?!"

"Whatever."

I toss the frisbee aside, next to a group of familiar faces. It went without any saying, Zachary and I walked along the beach. "Um, look, I want you to know that I'm really sorry for not being a better person-"

"Jiana, you don't owe me anything."

"I do. And I wish things would've been different. I guess I was just scared I would mess things up." I admit, subconsciously lowering my voice in shame. "I don't know why but I was — am always afraid I would end up saying the wrong things. Even to strangers, who are supposedly easier to talk to because they don't know you."

He doesn't say anything and just listens to me. Honestly, that made it feel easier to finally open up to him and tell him things. Or maybe because deep inside, I'm convinced that I will never see him again and own up to the consequences of letting him into my life.

"I did appreciate every time you tried reaching out to me. Although, you have to admit some of them are really hard to reply to." he laughs a little bit at this and stops. "Are you leaving? Why do I feel like your leaving?"

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a|n: omg i hope you liked the first chapter!

if you read the first version, there are parts that i have excluded and will probably continue on doing throughout the rewrite.