Unintended Consequences

Chapter 49

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"Oh my gosh, Archer look at this!" I cooed. I currently sat on the floor of my small closet surrounded by things I hadn't seen since I unpacked in September. I held up the bracelet I'd found buried under a pile of socks. 

"Sweetheart—" Archer sighed as he set down a box on my desk. "I love you, but are you planning on actually packing at any point?" 

"What are you talking about? I am packing?" I gestured to the piles of stuff I'd been organizing all morning. 

"Hmm funny how your room has become a bigger mess since we started," Archer sassed. 

"You just have to trust the process," I assured him. "Are you seriously telling me you just throw all your things in boxes and don't take the time to look at everything?" 

"I packed my whole damn room in an hour last night, and had it all in my truck by 9 am this morning." 

"Show off," I muttered as I went back to digging around my closet. 

Archer's constant whining made me pick up the pace and soon, most of my dorm was neatly packed away into boxes. I'd written my last final exam a few days ago and just like that my first year of college had come to an end. 

I thought I would be excited to go home, and a part of me was. I was excited to have some time off from school and college drama. To go back to the simple life I had in Bellmere. But another part of me felt like leaving USC, meant leaving the person I'd become here. 

I'd be spending almost four months away from Madeline and Emmett, plus everyone else I'd come to love. I would have Archer of course, but that was only for a month, then he'd be back at USC for summer training camps. 

My heart filled with melancholy as I stared at my bare room. I dropped back onto the mattress of my bed and spread my arms wide. Tears pricked my eyes as I tried to find patterns in the stucco of the ceiling. 

Archer's face popped into my vision and he smiled softly at me when he saw my wet eyes. I thought he would come to lay down with me but instead, he turned and walked out of the room. A pout pulled at my bottom lip that he hadn't comforted me, but then I heard a lighter set of footsteps. 

"Hey girl, I've been told I'm needed in here." Madeline fell onto the mattress next to me and used her forearm as a pillow. 

"I'm just being a baby," I sighed then turned on my side to face her. 

"I'm going to start loading up your car, K Sweetheart?" Archer came back into the room and grabbed my keys and a few boxes. I smiled and nodded then turned back to Mads. 

"How am I supposed to live without you?" I giggled and swiped a loose tear away. 

"You're going to be just fine, besides it's only a few months then we'll be back together." Madeline tried to maintain her calm and collected demeanour but her voice broke with emotion.  

I pursed my lips to keep them from wobbling and looked up when the door creaked open. I thought it would be Archer back again but Emmett stood in the doorway smiling at us. 

He pounced forward and landed in between us on the mattress. We both rolled away groaning and I swatted at his chest for messing up our moment. Emmett laughed and sat up slightly, wrapping an arm around each of us and pulled us back to him. 

"Well, we survived our first year of college, boys." He laughed with a wide smile. 

"Not boys, dumbass." Madeline whacked him then relaxed against his chest. I reached across him to hold her shoulder, so we'd all be connected. She smiled and did the same to me.