how depressed Archer was, right? It’d stop me from hating myself because I couldn’t do anything to make him feel better. It had to.
And if it didn’t… well, let’s just say Archer probably wasn’t the only one who wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight.
My eyes glazed over as I stared down at my math homework. I had a calculator nearby, a pencil in my hand, graph paper beneath my wrist, and yet my mind was elsewhere.
How would I act if it was my mom’s funeral tomorrow? I couldn’t blame him for acting like he was, couldn’t be upset with him for shutting down and hardly being himself. He adored his mother, he loved her so much he was willing to go through hell to keep her safe and with her nurse.
God, Midpark held no punches when it came to tragedy.
I hated this place, I realized. I hated this place with all of my heart and soul, along with most of the people in it. There were a few who obviously didn’t fit with my hate, but everyone else could go fuck themselves.
Groaning, I leaned my head down on my textbook and closed my eyes. Why couldn’t things be simple? Why was everything so frigging hard? I bet any other eighteen year old didn’t have to deal with shit like this and worry about living until graduation. I bet all they had to worry about was the typical boyfriend drama or the acceptance or rejection from their colleges of choice.
But life wasn’t fair, and I was old enough to know that by now. Cutting off my old life, saying goodbye to my old friends without really saying goodbye… dropping everything and moving here had been the hardest thing I’d ever had to do in my life, or so I thought. This, trying to stay afloat and survive Midpark, was even more difficult.
Even though the last thing I was was tired—exhausted to my bones, yes, but tired? No—the next time I lifted my head off my textbook, I found I’d been drooling.
Whoops.
I wiped my mouth off, glancing through the curtains nearby to see that night had fallen. A quick look at my phone told me it was after one in the morning. Ugh. Falling asleep while trying to do homework to distract myself was not something I was proud of. In fact, I wasn’t sure what that said about me.
My eyes weren’t adjusted to light, so I fumbled as I walked to the light switch on the other side of the room, turning it off. I still wore my regular clothes, and I practically fell over as I tried to get out of them, switching into my loose pajamas. My jeans, my socks, my bra and my shirt were on the floor; the only thing I kept on as I switched was my underwear.
I thought I’d be too freaked out to sleep, but as it turned out, being so mentally drained was tiring beyond belief. Who would’ve known?
My plan was to just crawl into bed, but then I remembered the whole teeth brushing thing everyone’s supposed to do before bed. With a yawn, I shuffle out of my room and to the bathroom across the hall. Archer had been using a different one, so none of my stuff was touched.
The house was eerily silent, and I took my time in brushing my teeth in the darkness. Turning on a light would be too blinding. When I was done, I headed into the hall, turning to return to my room.
Only, something stopped me. A large shadow standing in front of my semi-open door.
My feet were silent on the carpet below as I inched closer, and I squinted to try to see who it was. They had their back to me, but judging from the shoulder length and the muscles under the shirt, it could only be one person.
“Archer?” I whispered. Had to be quiet, lest we wake my mom down the hall.
He turned toward me, and I saw that’s exactly who it was. Before he could say anything, I went to hold a hand in front of his mouth, stopping him, and I dragged him into my room and closed the door. Any midnight chat in the hallway was asking for trouble.
Through the darkness, I could hardly see his expression. “What’s wrong?” A lot was wrong, I knew, but I meant what was wrong in this exact moment.
“I can’t sleep,” he spoke quietly. “I heard you get up, and I…” Before Archer