Passionate Exchange

Chapter Thirty-Eight

After we catch up about everything we've missed over the past few days, he tells me he has to go because Sadie's demanding his attention. I stay in my room for most of the night that follows, choosing to be productive and study. Does it still count as being productive if you're only doing it because you want to avoid seeing someone?

I stare at the page of information in front of me blankly. My mind is brimming with thoughts but none of them is about my classes. This goes on for a while, me flicking through pages and pages of notes trying to take it all in but failing miserably.

I groan and roll over onto my back, letting the duvet swallow me. Maybe I should just take a nap. It's not like it matters if I can't fall asleep during the night after. I don't have to wake up for school tomorrow anyway.

My eyes shoot open when my door opens. I watch intently, hoping that it's Penny but also dreading the conversation we'd have if it is. To my disappointment yet relief, in walks Archer. Concern flashes in his eyes before vanishing a split second later. If I weren't paying close attention, I would have missed it.

He sits at the end of my bed. "I heard what you did."

"If you've come to tell me that what I did was wrong then just leave." I hold my head in my hands, shielding myself from the prying eyes I know are coming.

I hear him shuffling closer to me. His hands wrap around my wrists gently as he uncovers my face. He tilts my head up so I'm looking into his eyes. The warmth that spreads from his fingertips is comforting.

"Who told you it was wrong?" He asks, looking genuinely confused.

I tell him what Penny did when I saw her at my locker. How she seemed so irritated that I had stood up for her. I tell him what Scarlett said to us and how she wanted to use Penny to get a date with him. He rolls his eyes at this, saying that she never gives up.

"She's always been like this, she used to do it when we were younger too."

I sit up when I hear this, hope managing to rummage its way inside of me. "She did?"

He chuckles softly. "All the time. I remember in kindergarten when a boy was picking on her. Mom told her that he was only doing it because he liked her, and Penny threw a tantrum in the middle of the playground."

I picture a young Penny stomping her feet on the pavement as the other parents watch her bewildered. I can't help but laugh.

"She would never do anything when he was there though. She just let him pick on her. Obviously, me being the best brother in the world, I handled it for her."

I eye him suspiciously. "What do you mean by handled it?"

"Does that really matter?" I stick my bottom lip out and muster up the best puppy eyes that I can in the hopes that he'll tell me. "What the hell are you doing with your face?" He throws his head back in laughter.

"Hey," I punch his arm playfully. "I was trying to look cute."

"You don't need to do whatever that was to look cute, Mads." My face heats up instantly. Is he saying that I look cute without even trying? Butterflies flutter in my stomach.

I clear my throat. "So, how did she react when you handled it?"

"She demanded that I made her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the next week whenever she wanted."

"Peanut butter and jelly, really?"

"Yep," he says, popping the p. "What I'm trying to say is she'll realise what you did was for her and she'll forgive you. Don't worry, she's stubborn but she's not that stubborn."