Little Doves & Bonafide Heroes ~ Archie Cruz

We Will Roam

It had been three days since the awkward diner conversation between Taime and I, which we had thankfully had not spoken about since, and two days since running into Bret. I had yet to tell my father about about seeing him at the party, and I knew that it wasn't going to go well.

I was actually a little surprised to not have heard from Bret yet; usually after seeing me again, he would pop up all over my social media, leaving comments or messages, acting like we were still the best of friends.

"So guess who I saw at that party," I said, baiting my dad for the conversation.

"Let me guess," he said, pretending to think hard. "Could it have been Bret Von Dehl?"

"Bingo."

"Fuck, how'd that go?"

"The usual; he thinks he didn't do anything wrong still."

"Seriously? Is he that fucked up in the head?" he asked angrily.

"Well, it's more of he doesn't remember, and less of he thinks it's okay."

"Either way, he's still a jackass!"

"I know, trust me. I'm fully aware," I said tiredly.

"What did he say?"

"He went with his traditional, 'I miss you' and hit me with the 'you have a fake boyfriend' shit."

"And what did you say to that? Did you tell him about Archie?"

"Sort of... I told him that he was my boyfri-"

"No, he's not!" Taime mocked me, cutting me off.

"Whatever! It's a technicality," I snapped, rolling my eyes when he smirked, satisfied to have annoyed me. "Anyway, Bret doesn't know who he is, but he probably doesn't believe me anyway. He was all, 'can I meet him?' Like, no; he's mine. Fuck off," I huffed. "I told him that Archie was the opposite of everything he was."

"Meaning?"

"Well, I said that he was amazing, and then I said the whole 'he's big and blonde' thing."

"Yeah, Bret was a skinny little dude," Taime agreed softly. "Does he look the same as when you guys were dating? Like an asshole, I mean."

"Not really; his hair is way shorter now, and he took out his lip rings," I stated, staring at a random spot on the counter. "He actually looks a little... I don't know... I think when he had long hair he looked way less intimidating."

"How is he intimidating?"

"He's not; he just looks... tougher, I think."

"Ah. The long hair made him look wimpy?" he asked with a chuckle.

"No. The only way I can describe it is that he looked softer. Not as rough around the edges, I guess. His new band is supposedly more punk, so maybe that's it."

"Who knows, who cares?" Taime said indifferently, leaving the room.

"I used to," I mumbled sadly.

Bret and I used to have fun, but somewhere along the way, things changed. I was never sure if it was from Taime and I helping him with his band, or if it was a general falling out of love situation, but sometimes it still made me sad; I had really thought I had been in love with him, but I was wrong... I had been in love with the idea of him. His dreamy eyes and rock and roll attitude were to die for, and at that time, he was just fun. Eventually, he was rude and almost bitter towards me, which hurt like hell.

I was terrified that if Archie and I were officially dating, something similar would happen. Granted I knew that Santa Cruz was doing fine on it's own, meaning Taime and I wouldn't need to help with anything, but as I had told Archie when we met, everyone got bored of me after a while. I enjoyed spending time with him, and I didn't want to have to worry about things falling through.