The sun had just begun to set as Liam and I walked home from school like we usually did, it had become a routine of sorts for us since sophomore year; get ice cream at Tilly's, buy meaningless trinkets we don't need from the corner store, throw breadcrumbs at the seagulls and walk home.
School was always exhausting for me and you'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now, the constant attention, the people who pretend to want to be my friends just to get close to my family, the dozens of high school boyfriends who I found out were using me to get an autograph from my dad. Yeah, I've known it all, but that's the life of growing up being the daughter of one of the most wealthy men in the world right now.
Liam and I were what you'd call wallflowers, born to blend into the scene and never truly be a part of it, and we liked it that way. We became friends the very second we realized we shared the same hatred for this perfect paper town full of plastic paper people living pitiful paper lives.
"All it takes is one truthful match to ignite the truth behind them all." Liam recites taking the lighter from his pocket and setting fire to his usual Marlboro gold cigarette.
"Yeah, and we'd only burn as collateral damage too." I remind him and he smirks offering me the lighter but instead, I take the cigarette from between his pursed lips and take a long swig, feeling the smoke coat my lungs in a thick cloud that makes its way out my nose and lips.
We all have a vice, and it this moment that was mine.
"I would, you'd come out unscathed." He says as though it should be common knowledge, "come on Aspen you're an Archer you always land on your feet,"
"True." I laugh and he places an arm over my shoulder and I lean into him and immediately recognize the fabric of the blue sweater I'd knitted for his birthday last March, I can't believe he still wears it. "Being Aspen Quinn Archer is a blessing and a curse believe me."
"And I'm sure that curse is that thousand dollar purse you're carrying, no- maybe it's those two thousand dollar earrings your mom got you because she was late to pick you up from school once?" Liam chides and I shove him playfully,
"Hey don't be a jerk." I laugh, "sometimes I wish that I could just tell someone my last name without them making assumptions about my character before they even get to know me you know?"
"Go on..." Liam encourages and I sigh searching for the words,
"Some days as great as being an Archer is I wish that I could be a Jones, or a Brown or even a Liam," I express, "I wish I could be me without my name carrying so much weight."
"Some people are born to stand out Aspen." Liam tells me, "people like you are born to do stuff outside the borders of this shitty paper town, you could change your last name and you'd still be thé brightest goddamn wallflower on the planet."
I smile silently at that, it's nice of him to think that.
When we arrive closer to my house which is located in Greenwood Gated community I stop in my tracks, this is where Liam and I must part ways. He goes down south to Maybridge to be with his normal family; his mom Isabelle who makes the best banana bread in town, his dad Sam who owns the local auto repair company, and his golden retriever Todo who greets everyone he meets with big sloppy kisses. He goes to a home.
I arrive at my three-story brick mansion built way before my parents were even born, it's beautiful it really is and I am beyond grateful for everything I have don't ever get me wrong, it's just that sometimes just like everyone else, I yearn to write a different story for myself. I walk past the vineyard where I remembered my father would take me to pick the Granny Smith apples in spring, when he lifted me up in his arms I felt like that was the highest place in the world.
I make my way inside my house, not my home. There were no baby photos decorating the walls as a roadmap to my childhood, there were no fresh flowers in the pots nor is there any family dog to greet me when I arrive, there is nothing but the subtle reminder even though I'm surrounded by people I am in fact alone.
"Welcome home Aspen." Mom greets gesturing for me to plant a kiss on her cheek, she's typing away at the kitchen counter in her laptop, busy as per usual, she barely makes eye contact with me. "How was school?"
"Tolerable," I reply with a shrug kissing her cheek, and she adjusts her share framed purple glasses,
"Hmmm, Monday it was insufferable, Tuesday it was suffocating, Wednesday it was repetitive and today it's tolerable so I'm guessing there's an improvement no?" She analyzes, that's just the psychologist in her trying to make sense of me yet again.
She often says that she's sorted out even the most stubborn of patients but I, her own daughter am by far her most complex ongoing case study. I wish she would try to understand me instead of psychoanalysing me, I'm a seventeen-year-old girl it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the only thing I'm missing is her.
"Where is father?" I ask and she quirks an eyebrow,
"No lo molestes mija, he's in a very important meeting with an old friend." don't disturb him, Mom warns and now I'm curious, father doesn't have many friends.
"I'd do no such thing," I reply batting my eyes innocently before making my go grab a tray and make some coffee. "I'm only being a good daughter and taking this up to him no?"
"me das dolores de cabeza." She groans, you give me headaches . And I grin knowingly.
I learned at a very young age that the only way to know anything that's going on in this house is to find out for yourself.
I make my way upstairs to the press room where father usually has his meetings with the tray and knock on the door before opening it, I present a wide smile before placing the tray on the table. Father is seated opposite a lighter haired man with brown eyes that seemed oddly familiar, I remembered him he's-
"Well I'll be damned Luciano, is little Penny?" He asks band I clench my teeth, no one calls me that anymore.
"It's always a pleasure Mr. Hacker," I reply confidently,
"You've grown since the last time we were in town, how're you're studies going?" He asks,
"Well thank you, I'm graduating this Friday as valedictorian," I tell him, of course, I am, I'm Aspen Quinn Archer I always come out on top.
"She's going to Harvard this fall, she's going be a lawyer just like her grandmother." Father professed and I narrowed my eyes at him, I wish he'd stop pushing his dreams down my throat. "But enough about that, back to Business, are you sure he has what it takes?"
"I'm sure, my son is the best out there, I've been training him myself since he was a kid." Mr Hacker states placing a contract on the table in front of my father, "all I'm asking is for you to take a chance on him, with your men training him they'll never see it coming by championships."
"Little Vincent Hacker wants to fight with the big dogs now huh?" Father chuckles deeply, and I drop the coffee mug.
I knew that name all too well and it was still a shock to hear it slip past someone else's lips after all these years. There was no way he was coming back to town, Vincent...Vinny...my Vinny.
The boy who vowed to be both the light of my daydreams and the wickedness of my nightmares, the past I swore I'd forget, the torment of my childhood- my bully.
A U T H O R S N O T E
After much inspiration from my TikTok fyp I decided to take the liberty of writing my own Vinnie Hacker FanFiction that I know you've all been waiting for. My writing isn't perfect and this is only the first of many chapters to come but I hope you enjoy!
All my love,
Violette <33