Living Next Door To Alice

4/ Three Year Anniversary

The last thing he wanted was to break down in front of this amazing girl when he felt like he had earned another friend.  He sat down onto the ground and leaned against the wall that he hadn't painted yet and sighed a little.

"I didn't know that. I'm so sorry, Archie." Betty sat down next to him, a sad frown forming on her face.

If she had known today was a hard day for him she wouldn't have asked him to help her out.

"Do you miss her?" She asked carefully, not sure how to open up a conversation over something so sensitive like this.

"More than I can put into words." Archie said quietly, staring at an invisible spot on the wall across off him.

He wasn't aware of the eyes of the blonde girl next to him that were trying to catch his.

"Don't get me wrong, my Dad has been my rock ever since. He's amazing... I just wish she was still here, too." He confessed silently, feeling his heart ache at the thought of his mother.

Archie swallowed away his tears and gave Betty a warm smile, who was working up the courage to continue their conversation about his mother.

"What happened to her?" She dared to ask, hoping that he was in the right mind space to talk about this to someone he wasn't close with yet. Not that she would mind if he wouldn't, but it looked like he needed someone to share his thoughts with.

Archie looked at her, and saw a kind of calm and serenity in her eyes that he needed so badly. He rarely spoke about his Mom with other people besides his Dad, which he tried to avoid in case it got him upset. Having someone to share her memory with felt good.

"She lost her battle against cancer. But believe me, she was a fighter. A tough one." Archie smiled a little as he recalled how positive she had stayed during her whole illness and how no matter what happened there always stayed a spark of hope in her eyes, even when he felt like the one who should have given that hope to her instead of vice versa.

"You know what's even the worst part?" He looked at her, and Betty told him with her eyes for him to continue.

"My Mom was a good person, the kindest spirit you'd ever meet. And still they took her." Archie chocked a little on his words.

At this point he couldn't stop the tears that were trying so hard to escape. He didn't even recall ever saying those words out loud, knowing that if he would, it'd hurt even more.

"Maybe they needed her up there." Betty said quietly and placed her hand on his bicep to slowly stroke it up and down, hoping to calm him down a little.

She wasn't sure how to be there for someone she didn't know that well, but he seemed to relax a little under her touch.

"I need her here, too! It's not fair that they have her and I don't!" Suddenly Archie raised his voice, as if the anger that had been building up the past three years had come to the surface.

But then he saw the look on Betty's face and realized that he crossed a line. He didn't want to scare her in any way, even though he couldn't help it but get overwhelmed with his mother's passing every now and then.

"Sorry, I-- I am still not sure how to deal with this." Archie stuttered a little and quickly wiped away the tears from his face.

He stood up, as if that could break this awful aching feeling in his chest. But it didn't. It never did.

"That's okay. I am always here to listen." Betty stood up too, and shot him a warm smile, telling him that she understood why he had reacted this way.