Bad Boy's Game

[30] Him

B A D
B O Y ' S
G A M E

***Archer's pov***

I love the way my lips feel against hers.

Love.

I can't say that I'm not scared of the word I describe the feeling as, it is an extremely daunting word that I didn't think I would be saying in a million years.

And yet I am, and yet it is nearly what I feel for her.

I don't quite love her, I just don't. Love takes time and it's a new concept to me.  I really like her though, love's just a whole different story though. I don't know if she likes me the same way that I like her or if she's still just trying to win the game.

I wasn't still just playing a game anymore. I haven't been just playing a game for quite a bit of time.

Today I would come clean about the whole Ryder situation and perhaps even tell her how I feel. Today at the coffee shop at ten in the morning, just her and I.

Ten in the morning.

It's about nine thirty and I'm over at my aunt's house. My aunt now is heavily pregnant and beyond ready to have baby number two. Sofia's also ready to be a big sister, she'll definitely make a great one.

I'm sitting on the couch next to my little cousin, her favorite program on the television. Sofia has her head leaned on my side and one of my arms is around her little shoulders.

"Archer!" I hear my aunt yell from her room a split second later.

I move Sofia and stand myself up, making my way to my aunt as quickly as I can.

"Archer, my water just broke," she says, a hand on her stomach.

I don't say anything, my face says it all. I'm both surprised and confused on as to what I should do, this was, in fact, the last thing I expected to occur today.

My uncle, Rich, is at work at the moment with a commute of an hour. He can't possibly make it here in a timely manner and take her to the hospital, he just can't.

But, I can.

I can at nine forty-five a.m.

I can, I should, I have to.

Even if it meant missing her, missing her at ten.

I exhale and say to my aunt, "Let's get you to the hospital. I'll call Uncle Rich on the way and watch Sofia until he arrives."

She nods and grabs her hospital bag, I get Sofia.

It's a ten-minute drive to the hospital, the entire way my fingers are drumming against the steering wheel.

Once we arrive I help my aunt and Sofia out of the car, a nurse helping my aunt along the way to the entrance.

It's five minutes before she gets placed into her room, leaving me to sit in the waiting room with Sofia.

It's then that I decide to call my uncle and alert him, it's also then that I realize that my phone is nowhere in sight. I must have left my phone back at my aunts.

I sigh and walk up to the front desk in order to ask if I can borrow their phone. They allow me to use their phone and I proceed in dialing Uncle Rich's number. Uncle Rich is one of the few people who I have a phone number memorized for, after all, Uncle Rich is the closest thing I have to a father. I tell him the news after he picks up the phone in return he tells me that he'll be here as soon as possible.

In forty-five minutes.

It's a long forty-five minutes, Sofia tries to make me smile many times throughout the forty-five minutes, telling me fragmented stories and jokes. But, my mind is elsewhere.

I'm really happy and excited for a new cousin, but also I'm really upset about standing Grey up.

I don't even get the chance to call or text and explain, her number one in which isn't memorized yet. I hope she's willing to forgive me for yet another thing.

I can only hope so.

Time passes with every waking second, the seconds turn to forty-five minutes, the forty-five minutes turn into two hours.

Two hours of the nervous cracking of knuckles and shaking of legs.

Uncle Rich finally arrives at twelve, apparently, there was terrible traffic.

I say a quick goodbye to my aunt, uncle, and Sofia. I rush to the car in an attempt at fixing the problem I've come across.

My aunt and uncle have gotten their future, now I have to see if Grey is in mine.

It's not like luck is on my side though, it's like her and I aren't supposed to make it. We're getting all the wrong signs, the world doesn't seem to be on our side.

The moment I'm seated in the car I feel the nerves kick back in, my head fills with aimless worries.

The nervousness lasts throughout the twenty-minute car ride to the coffee shop, my hand thumping against the steering wheel to the beat of silence.

She couldn't still be at the coffee shop, she shouldn't still be there.

She had to have left, it's been nearly two and a half hours. She had to have left, but I still have to check.

I'm biting down hard on my bottom lip when the coffee shop comes into view, parking horrendously once I'm in the lot.

I walk at an irregularly fast pace into the shop, the sound of music fills my ears the moment I step in.

The music calms me down a bit and I look for her. No, I search for her as if my life depends on it. I don't care if people think I'm insane due to my semi-frantic actions, I just want to find her.

The sight of her fills my eyes, she's seated at a corner table with a probably now cold cup of coffee.

I walk up to her and just stand, not saying anything at all. She looks up at me and gives a wholehearted smile.

It's twelve in the afternoon.

"You took your time, West."

Wise men say only fools rush in
but I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
some things are meant to be
take my hand, take my whole life too
for I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
some things are meant to be
take my hand, take my whole life too
for I can't help falling in love with you
for I can't help falling in love with you