When I Sleep | ✓

[six] where home sweet home is

sunday update! song to the side is "monsters" by timeflies and it's absoultely fitting in archie and elle's situation. ignore weird mistakes and typos, enjoy :) xx

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8:28 am

I stretched sleepily across the bed with a yawn and a moan. It took a moment to blink away the drowsiness from my vision and for me to comprehend the entirely different setting I was in. We were up at the lake, renting out a cabin for a couple of days. Upon my arrival, Joan thought that she needed to give me a hand with the clearing of my head. Now with an additional setting change, I had a vast amount of nature to help with my thinking.

And I have been taking advantage of it. Daytime hours were spent swimming down at the lake with Riley and catching up with the family. They, too, understood my predicament with Archie and never pried for any juicy details. I often would sneak out at night and sit by the lake alone for a while.

I wrapped myself in a spare blanket and made my way downstairs. Joan and Tony were still asleep, but I found Riley already awake, sitting on a stool in the kitchen with her phone in hand. Tony's contribution to this whole lake trip was no technology unless completely necessary.

I stopped under the doorway and cleared my throat. She jumped, looking up at me with wide eyes and smiling sheepishly as I gave her a pointed look.

"Sorry," she muttered, putting her phone down and shoving it away.

I rolled my eyes at her and smiled. "Nineteen and addicted," I tsked. "And here I thought you graduated high school, so why are you still acting like your phone is your life line?"

"It is if you wake up before everyone else and there's nothing else to do around here," Riley replied with a dramatic sigh.

My smile turned into a guilty one. "Look, I'm sorry if you were forced to come down to the lake. I needed a change of setting and all, but I wasn't expecting your parents to go this far. I didn't want to seem ungrateful."

"No, it's fine," she answered, shaking her head. "I know it must suck that Archie keeps pushing you away. Ari's death was sad and all, but I wish he would just move on."

"I don't really blame him. That much, anyway." I collapsed onto the stool next to her and rested my face in my hands. It was my stupid and reckless mistake that lead to his twin sister's death. It was the price I had to pay, but ten months later and I'm not sure how long I could hold the blame on my shoulders without collapsing under all the guilt.

"He's tried contacting you, y'know," Riley informed, nodding her head towards my phone. "Called this morning and left a voicemail.

My heart skipped in my chest. "Really?"

She nodded and handed me my phone. Several notifications flashed onto the screen with the lack of use and a handful of those text messages and phone calls were from Archie. I resisted the urge to check the voicemail that he left and handed the phone back to Riley with a forced, sunny smile.

"So, how about breakfast?"

5:00 pm

The afternoon sun warmed my face as I emerged from the cool water. I brushed my wet hair away from my face and casted a glance backwards, scanning the lake for Riley. We were out for a swim again and have been for the last couple of hours. She came up from the water a few seconds later and scrunched her face at me when she realized how far I was.

Words couldn't explain how grateful I was for the time that Riley was spending with me. We took the short trip down to the lake every day and wouldn't come back until the sun was setting.