reticent

55

• AMALIA •

Archer wraps his arm around my shoulders, tucking me closely to his side.

     "But I love you." He whispers. "So much."

     "I love you too." I respond, staring off at the unsettled sea. The waves are beginning to grow now, as though they're reflecting the agony erupting in my chest. But that's not true—because the water would be going much, much higher, reaching the clouds before slamming back down onto the water, splashing everywhere.

     He holds me closer to him, kissing my cheek this time. I close my eyes, saving the moment.

"Do you wanna go to Xander's restaurant after this?" I ask quietly.

"Sure." He replies.

I nod, though I don't know why. I reach into my pocket, grabbing my phone out when I feel ur buzz with a notification.

DAD: Is everything going okay?

ME: [thumbs up emoji]

ME: We're gonna go to Xander's restaurant.

ME: Can u tell him to save the table at the back by the toilets?

DAD: Sure, baby.

I turn my phone off. He smiles. "How have you been feeling?"

     Like shit. "Fine. You?"

     "I've been fine."

"What about Ally?" I ask. "Was she okay?"

"Yeah." He says. "She had a nightmare. She told me it was about the basement. That's part of the reason I wanna get her away from this place, so she can start somewhere else and hopefully she'll stop having nightmares."

I nod. "You don't need to keep explaining, Archer. I get why you're going. Besides, you don't owe me anything."

"What?"

"You don't need to think you have to stay because of me, or anything." I mumble. "And you don't owe me an explanation. You're doing the right thing."

He tilts his head a little, looking at me with so much sincerity that it makes my heart ache. "I owe you everything, Amalia."

I shake my head. "No, you don't."

If anything, I owe him. He's been my only sense of normalcy within the past couple days. He doesn't act tentative around me like everyone else does. Well, I suppose not everybody does, but there's something about Archer that's so refreshing and familiar. Maybe it's because we went through everything that happened with Nathan together. We experienced different aspects of his torture, but he's the only one—besides Ally—who really knows what it was like.

Everyone else tries to understand, but I don't think you can unless it happens to you.

     "I'm so glad I met you, princess." He tells me. "I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't."