A/N: Thank you so much to Thisisme98 for the cover!!
--
“It’s him…It’s him…”
I ran a hand through my hair and closed my eyes, inhaling a deep breath as I felt more desperate now than I had all night. I couldn’t watch Alex anymore. I couldn’t watch him break like this anymore.
As soon as melt face disappeared, his screaming and shouting got worse. He kept insisting that the man behind the mask was his tormentor. He was so adamant about the fact that it was Roger there was no talking to him. I think even if we agreed with him he still wouldn’t have heard us because he was back there.
He was back in a world where Roger was alive.
Archie tried to restrain him, tried to pin his arms down and calm down his frantic yelling and eventually it worked. He managed to get him to stop shouting; he even managed to get him to move.
However, not very far. It was such a struggle to get Alex out of the hallway as he couldn’t take his eyes off of the theatre room door that melt face had walked into, we could only make it to the nearest classroom.
We knew it wasn’t safe just staying in the hallway and this was the closest room with a lock, a luxury that we did not have in the hall.
Unfortunately for Jaden and his bullet wounded leg, we did not have the luxury of a sofa in this room. We all piled into the room, Frankie immediately moved two tables together in order for us to place Jaden on. He sat on it and lifted his leg up, taking very deep breaths to go along with the rainbow of curses that came out as he did.
I locked the door of the classroom, turning and taking in the surroundings finally.
I think apart from Alex and Archie who had other issues to deal with, we all noticed the room that we were in. The English room, the first door on the left as you walk through the front door. The room with the windows to the outside world that we could not escape to.
Mr Cook’s room.
It was quite shocked by the sadness I felt as I looked around. I walked to his desk, running my fingers over the edge as I took in what was on it. A few notepads, clearly not packed away even though school had ended for summer over a month ago. There were pens sprawled over it, a rubix cube that was unsolved and there was a small picture frame.
I leaned my head in to look at the photo. It was him, another man and an elderly woman. They were all sitting on a sofa with Christmas cracker hats on. The woman was very old, maybe in her seventies' or something. The other man looked a little older than Mr Cook, but practically identical. Hot basically.
I found a faint smile turning at my lips as I realised I was having a peek at Mr Cook’s Christmas. I was able to take a glimpse at his family in that photo, who I’m guessing was his mother and brother. He was happy, and he deserved to be. He was a good man and the way he kicked out was not what he deserved.
I didn’t even realise tears had started falling until they hit my neck, and I quickly wiped them away.
“It’s him…It’s him…” Alex’s faint whispering was still echoing around the room and even Archie looked lost on what to do. His brother was now on the floor, his back against the wall as he stared straight ahead. He wasn’t with us right now. I don’t know where he was, but it sure as hell wasn’t somewhere close enough where we could reach him.
Archie ran a hand through his hair looking desperate as he glanced down at his brother. His eyes looked up at me, as if begging for me to help. I think he was asking for me to confirm that it was not Roger.
However, I couldn’t do that. I knew Roger was dead but I just couldn’t say it.
Why did melt face sing that song? Why was he suddenly concentrating purely on Alex?
At the beginning it was our parents that were the suspects, but why would they sing that song?
I mean it still made sense, especially if Tom Henderson knew about what Roger did to his son. He had been told and did nothing, but why do this? Why put him through this?
Did he hate his own son that much that he not only turned his back on him, but he was now planting the knife directly into Alex’s?
“I don’t know what to do, what the hell do I do?!” Archie said through gritted teeth, his hand still in his hair. I’ve never seen him look so helpless.
Frankie ran her hands over her mouth, pressing them there as she stared on trying to find something to do. She shook her head faintly, her eyes turning blood shot as she looked at Alex and had no answer. Gavin walked next to her, placing an arm over her shoulder and pulling her to him.
I guess he didn’t know what to do about Alex, but he knew how to comfort Frankie.
My eyes darted back to Mr Cook’s desk, and I don’t know why I did it but I reached over and grabbed the rubix cube. I looked at it in my hands, before turning to Alex and walking to him. I lowered myself down to the ground next to him, even as I did that he didn’t look at me.
I scooted up until my side was pressed up against his, pulling my knees up and turning my head to look at him. I didn’t say anything, but I placed the rubix cube in the palm of his hand. I don’t know if it was the sudden contact, but he finally stopped the repetitive whispering. Slowly, he looked down at his hand, staring at the cube for a few minutes before pulling his eyes away and connecting them with mine.
My heart broke. As I made eye contact with him, I saw nothing but sadness. I saw a broken five year old boy who had no one to protect him. I saw a scared little kid who had never quite grown into a man. His body had, but his mind would always be that scared kid. As sad as it was for me to admit, I don’t think he will ever not be that kid.
“He never finished it.” My voice was quiet, and I knew I didn’t have to explain. He blinked at me a few times; no expression was on his face. He looked lost.
Without saying a word, he turned his eyes back to his hand and slowly started to turn the rubix cube. He didn’t need to say anything, and neither did I. With that sentence we were at an understanding. Mr Cook was a good man.
Without evening meaning to, without even being alive, he was helping.
“I’ll finish it.” Alex whispered so low I knew he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to himself.
I looked up at Archie, who was stood frozen as he had witnessed the interaction between Alex and me. I didn’t know if he seemed more relieved that his brother was now calm, grateful or just plain stunned. I smiled faintly at him, happy myself now that he was no longer fretting about Alex.
“I’ll finish it.” Alex muttered again, moving his hands and twisting the cube.
As I relaxed slightly, placing my head on my knees and watching the movement of Alex’s hands as he mixed the colours together on the cube, I realised I didn’t know if he was talking about the task at hand or not.
--
For a second, I completely forgot the situation we were in as I walked towards the door to unlock it.
“Where are you going?” Frankie asked, and all of a sudden I remembered that wondering off on my own was not acceptable right now.
I rubbed my hand over my nose “Sorry I forgot about nut job boy out there. I wanted a drink.”
Frankie sighed “How the hell could that slip your mind?”
I shrugged “Quite easily apparently. Like when you forget to take your pill.”
I have never seen someone’s head snap up so fast than Gavin’s in that precise moment. Frankie’s glare was instantly on me knowing full well that was purely to wind them up. Judging from the look on Gavin’s eyes, he was already sweating on the idea of how he was going to pay for a crib.
“You said you took your pill.” Gavin uttered, and his voice actually trembled. I think this was the most frightened I had seen him all night ironically.
“I lied to trap you and take all your millions.” As you could see, Frankie did not get embarrassed easily.
Fear was still twinkling in Gavin’s eyes. That was until he realised he didn’t have a tenner to his name, let alone millions. He breathed a sigh of relief as he picked up on the sarcasm, placing a hand over his heart and looking up at the ceiling in a silent prayer.
“Oh thank f*ck for that, I thought I was going to pass out then.” He breathed in relief, glaring at me “Never do that to me again you prick.”
I gave him a quick toothy smile, telling him he was welcome.
“Jesus Christ can you imagine if these two had a baby?” Jaden actually laughed before pointing at Frankie “He would just want to see how fast the breast milk came out and if it travelled a distance.”
I actually let out a laugh because as sad as it may be to admit, I can easily see that happening.
“We could start a game. A race between her left boob and her right.” Gavin thought about the idea, nodding along “We could name it the tit milk Olympics.”
The most worrying thing about this, as I looked at Frankie she raised her brows as if she was curious herself as to which one would win, left or right.
Archie shook his head, rolling his eyes but clearly finding it amusing. He pushed himself up from the table he was sitting on and walked towards me.
“Come on I’ll come with you.” He said as he pointed at the door.
I furrowed my brows confused “Where?”
He mirrored my action, only he was less confused and more judgemental with it “To get you a drink?”
“Oh yeah!” It all came rushing back to me. I turned and unlocked the door “Come on Pretty Boy.”
I didn’t miss the quick glance at Alex before he left the room. We must have been in this room for the last hour and Alex had not moved from the spot on the ground trying to solve the rubix cube.
I know many of you will be thinking ‘it’s taken him an hour to do a rubix cube?’ but I feel for the boy, those things are not a piece of cake. When I was little it took me weeks to try and solve one, and in the end I most probably just peeled the stickers off and placed them back in the correct order.
Anyway, Archie and I left the room, calling for one of the guys to lock it behind us. We didn’t have to walk far to the hall; it was basically like walking across the hall. This is how frantic Alex was, we couldn’t get him to move that extra ten feet to get him back to the hall. Our original camp-site should I say. The room where the sofa, food and drinks were.
Archie did the usual drill of placing me behind him as he made sure it was all clear to go in. It was quite sweet and reassuring at first, now it was a little agitating. I think I had proved more than a few times in the last 24 hours that I was not a damsel who needed a knight to relieve her of her distress.
I let him do it though, mostly because I knew he was still raw after what his brother had told him.
I basically ran towards the drinks table, and to my utter shock there was water. Amongst the bottles of beer and vodka, there was water. I had no idea who brought this, but I was internally thanking them as I gulped it down. I told myself to remember to bring some back to the English room for the others. Thinking about it, I couldn’t recall the last time we had a drink that didn’t have a percentage volume on the bottle.
I actually gasped like I was resurfacing from the ocean once I stopped drinking. Archie breathed a laugh, but it wasn’t Archie. It just had no life behind it.
“You okay?” I asked, trying really hard not to do the sympathetic head tilt. There was nothing worse than when people did that, and I refused to be one of those assh*les.
He thought about the question for a while before finally replying “Not really.”
It was hard trying to find something to say. What do you say to someone in a situation like this?
“You couldn’t stop it Archie.” I knew that was what he was thinking. He had looked after Alex since he was old enough to throw a punch. Unfortunately he still felt guilty for even before his motor skills would allow him to.
“Someone else could have though.” I knew he meant his dad, and I couldn’t comfort him on that. I thought his father was a scumbag for what he did, and I wasn’t even going to try and defend him. Judging from the look on Archie’s face, he didn’t want me to.
His next question startled me a little, mostly because it was so out of the blue. It was like he had been waiting to ask it and he finally got the courage to blurt it out.
“He never…He never did…that to you did he?” Archie asked, finding it hard to put such disgusting acts into words. I was stunned by the question, but I wasn’t going to lie I had been wondering the same thing about Bradley and Archie.
I shook my head “Never.”
“Me neither.” Archie almost said to himself, getting lost in his own thoughts again “Just Alex then.”
“You don’t know that.” I told him, suggesting that we didn’t know what Bradley went through.
He shook his head “No, Brad was never…he was too happy. Judging from what it did to Alex, shit like that leaves a mark.”
I scoffed, thinking of the irony in that statement “Evil always leaves a mark.”
Neither of us spoke for a while, both reflecting on how true that was. The marks it had left in not only Alex’s life, but in Archie’s as well. It is amazing how one person’s actions can set a path for someone’s entire future.
“Do you think it’s him?” Archie asked the question we had both been thinking.
I wanted to put his mind at rest, as well as Alex’s, but I just couldn’t.
I shrugged “I have no idea what to think anymore Archie.”
He nodded once slowly, looking up at the ceiling. I don’t know if he was annoyed at me for the answer, or whether or not he had just heard out loud his own thoughts.
I took another drink out of the bottle of water in my hand.
“Thank you by the way.” He spoke again, and I looked at him confused to the sudden gratitude.
“For what?” I asked once I swallowed. If it wasn’t such a serious situation, I would laugh at how that sounded.
“For the rubix cube thing. You calmed him down when I couldn’t.” Archie explained, and I felt a warm smile appear on my mouth “Just thanks for the way you are with him in general.”
I shrugged nonchalant, waving a hand dismissively “No worries, he’s the Henderson brother I can actually stand remember?”
He smiled “We both know that’s a lie.”
I raised my brows, trying hard to wipe the smile off my face as I saw a little bit of life back on his face “Oh is it now?”
He nodded with a smug smile “It is. You love me.”
I let out one quick burst of laughter “Love? Holy crap that’s a little above our pay grade isn’t it Pretty Boy, don’t even know the meaning of that god awful word.”
He didn’t smirk; he didn’t come back with a witty sarcastic reply to keep this back and forth we had. Instead the smile was still on his face as he never broke the eye contact.
“I’m starting to.”
If there were ever words that were enough to render you speechless, those were it.
I don’t know if it was the fact I had stopped talking or the fact I had frozen in the spot I was standing. I don’t know if it was the fact I had not blinked, or that my mouth was hanging open so far that I swear my chin just touched the top of my tit. I don’t know if it was any of those things, but he clearly found something so funny that he couldn’t help the laughter that escaped.
He looked up at the ceiling with shaking shoulders as he laughed at me.
Well, at least he was in a better mood.
“Relax Summer, it wasn’t quite those three words so no need to start freaking out.” Archie told me, clearly noticing that I was in a little shock at that tiny sentence. Once he had composed himself, the smile was back on his face “Not quite there yet to tackle the big three word hurdle.”
I knew he meant the big one. The big L word that was followed by ‘you’ and surpassed ‘I’.
I swear my ass started sweating just from the mention of it.
I barely noticed he had stepped forward “Who knew you were such a commitment phobic.”
“When did the word commitment get thrown into this?” My voice came out so high pitched I sounded like I was about to attempt singing ‘Cry Me a River’. The smile on his face twitched wider as he didn’t miss that. He was still taking steps forward.
“What about relationship? How are you with that one?” He humoured, and a part of me knew he was now doing it because he knew I was getting freaked out. However the louder and stronger part of me was still giving him the satisfaction of biting the hook by laughing awkwardly and mumbling something along the lines of ‘no, I'm busy.’ He was in front of me now, looking down at my face with that humour still in his eyes. He lifted his hand and brushed my hair away from my forehead as he thought something over “What about babies? That’s a big one…or Nuptials.”
I swear my knees gave away. I didn’t even know I was this much of a freak when it came to this type of stuff. You learn something new every day I guess.
His hand now brushed the hair away from my forehead and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“No?” He questioned when I didn’t answer, then the smile on his face turned into one that I was familiar with. It turned into the famous Archie smirk “Nah I’m not massive on those either. I prefer words like ‘sex’ and ‘I’m going to make you come like a steam train.’ How are you with those?”
I found my mouth turning into a smile as a laugh threatened to escape my mouth. My mind had finally wrapped its head around the fact that Archie was screwing with me. Judging from the look in eyes though, it dawned on me that ‘screwing’ might be a dangerous word to say to him right now.
“A lot better with those ones, they don’t make my moustache area sweat.”
“You take talking dirty to a whole new level.” He pointed out, and I cocked my head realising he had a point. My mother always told me I would never find a husband if I acted like a man.
I internally rolled my eyes. Now I’m the one using words like husband.
The hand that was in my hair suddenly travelled south, slowly trailing down my neck, past my breast with a slight pause before reaching the top of my shorts. Easily, he untucked my t-shirt from my shorts and before I knew it, his warm hands were on my stomach.
He ran his fingertips over the waistband of my shorts, making my breath hitch as I felt him on my skin. His other hand joined in on the action, and once it had he trailed both hands to my back, pulling me closer to him.
“I’m not even going to lie; a part of me really wishes I was the man to introduce you to womanhood.” His voice was low and husky, and his eyes were planted on my mouth.
My breathing had increased rapidly in a very short space of time, and it didn’t help when one of his hands ran down my back, cupping my ass as he pushed me against him in all the right places. I couldn’t stop the tiny moan at the back of my throat, and he couldn’t stop the smile that caused him.
“You probably still could.” I breathed, my eyes flickering between his eyes and his mouth waiting to see if he would make a move “No offence I know Harry is your BFF, but it wasn’t everything I imagined.”
“And what did you imagine?” He leaned his face in and nipped my bottom lip before pulling back, much to the protest of my body.
“Not like candles and fireworks. Just a bed and maybe an orgasm.” I didn’t even know where the honesty was coming from, but his hand on my ass was like being injected with truth serum.
He removed his hand from my behind and instantly tangled it into the side of my hair. In the same movement he lowered his head and breathed the words “The second thing I can definitely help out with.”
He barely had enough time to say his last word before his mouth was on mine with so much force and passion I actually whimpered. I whimpered because I was so turned on. Holy crap.
A part of me knew full well this was Archie’s method of coping. He was using me to take his mind off the current situation. To the guilt he felt about his brother and to the fact he could do nothing to help him. I knew that he was doing this to take his mind off it, but as his lips moved against mine and his hips pushed forward against me whilst he groaned softly against my mouth, I honestly didn’t care. It was his version of therapy.
If this was his method of release, then I’m Dr fucking Phil.
--