"Please don't tell me you're trying to get yourself drunk before we leave."

I slammed the empty shot glass on the counter and turned to face Hadley standing in the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

She looked like she wanted to hit me. I probably looked like I wanted to hit me. This most likely was an accurate depiction of our marriage.

"Of course not," I said unconvincingly.

Hadley let out a disgusted sigh, coming over to snatch the bottle of Jack Daniels out of my hand. "Honestly, Archer, you are so immature."

"Yeah, but you love that about me," I said, pulling a sarcastic smile.

"Only on February 29th."

"That only happens once every four years, though."

"Then there's your answer."

She slid the bottle of Jack Daniels back into the cupboard, still giving me that disapproving look I was sure she'd picked up from my mother at least some point over the past few years.

"It's a high school reunion, Archer, and you look like you're about to be put in front of a firing squad," Hadley said to me. "And besides, need I remind you that you're getting paid to go?"

"You don't need to remind me at all," I muttered, thunking my head against a cupboard door.

We'd gotten the notice of our ten-year high school reunion in the mail a few months ago, and I'd promptly chucked it right into the trash. Hadley pulled it out and stuck it to the fridge with a magnet, like a semi-permanent reminder of the worst four years of my life.

I didn't often like to be cliche, but in this case, I felt like it was appropriate - high school sucked ass. When I'd graduated I wanted to throw all my textbooks and old homework assignments into a dumpster and set it on fire to celebrate, but my mother told me that was taking it a bit too far.

It went without saying that I point blank refused to go to our high school reunion. I had no problem if Hadley went - she still kept in touch with some of her friends and got together to have lunch with them every now and then. She could have a fabulous time all on her own.

I fully intended to boycott the reunion...until I'd gotten the call from one of the school's administrators asking if I was available to photograph the evening's events. I wasn't sure how they'd even found out about my business or what they were trying to prove by hiring a photographer for a dumb high school reunion - like they weren't under-budgeted or anything.

I would have told them where to stick it if Hadley hadn't snatched the phone from my hand and told them that of course I was available for the evening and would like nothing more than to work with them.

I was furious by that point, but I couldn't exactly turn down a paycheck of that magnitude. It wasn't like we were hurting for money - not with Hadley's ridiculous trust fund or anything - but I felt like more than a failure if a steady stream of money wasn't being deposited in my bank account on a regular basis.

"I don't understand why you're so against going," Hadley continued, yanking me away from my muddled thoughts. "Won't it be nice to see - yeah, okay, I can't even finish that sentence since you hated everyone we went to school with. But you really don't need to be such a baby about it."

"Not hated," I said. "Hate, as in the present tense of the word."

Hadley rolled her eyes, heaving another sigh. "You haven't seen anybody from our graduating class in ten years, Archer. Ten years is a long time."

"Not nearly long enough."

"Fine, then. I'll just go wake Milo up and tell him his dad's too much of a wimp to do his job to get paid so he'll have to use paper towels instead of diapers this month."

"You wouldn't dare," I gasped, moving to block her way out of the kitchen. "I'm going to lose it if I have to read The Stinky Cheese Man one more time."

Our son Milo usually went to bed without a fuss, but recently he'd been moving into night-owl territory. The only sure fire way to get him to sleep was to read stories from The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, a collection of revamped children's stories given to him by my cousin Carlo last Christmas.

Thankfully tonight hadn't turned out to be one of those nights, but I had little doubt we'd have to pull out the book if Hadley made good on her promise to wake him up.

"Just suck it up, Archer!" Hadley exclaimed, poking a finger into my chest.

"You're a grown-ass man, you know, and it's just for one evening."

She was right, of course - when wasn't she right? - but I definitely wasn't happy about it. Technically, I was obligated to see the night through because I'd already signed a contract with the school, but there was no clause in it that said I had to be pleasant about it.

"Fine," I said to Hadley. "I'll do it. But only if you promise to do that thing where you - "

"Aren't you guys supposed to be heading out now?"

Hadley shot me a glare and mouthed shut up or I'll kill you at me as my mother walked into the kitchen.

"We should be, yeah," Hadley told my mother. "But your son's giving Milo a run for his money in the toddler department."

"Hey!" I protested. "I take offense to that!"

My mother laughed, shaking her head at the two of us. "I promise you it'll be fine. It's your high school reunion. You'll regret it if you don't go."

"I sincerely doubt that," I said as Hadley gave me a nudge to the back, forcing me out of the kitchen.

"Go get your camera bag and let's go. I already called for a cab."

I would've stomped up the stairs like a petulant child if that wouldn't have woken Milo up. I slipped into my office and grabbed my already-packed camera bag off the desk, hiking it up over my shoulder.

I peeked into Milo's room down the hallway as I made for the stairs, and I was relieved to see that he was fast asleep. His room was dimly lit by his Iron Man nightlight, and I could see that he was missing the bottoms to the pajamas Hadley put him in earlier, but hey - I wasn't complaining if he was sleeping.

"You two will have a wonderful night," my mother was saying as I joined her and Hadley at the front door.

"Thanks again for watching Milo," Hadley said as my mom hugged her.

"Of course! Like I would ever pass up an opportunity to spend time with my grandson."

"Yeah, but Milo is asleep, mom," I said.

"Well, if he wakes up, he'll be happy that his nonna is here," my mom replied, like that was all that mattered.

 Milo could be comforted by anyone and loved to be affectionate, but we all knew he was a total mamma's boy.

Hadley and I were ushered out the front door by my mother and climbed into the cab already waiting at the curb for us.

"See?" Hadley said after we buckled ourselves in and the cab pulled out into traffic. "This isn't so bad."

"Sure," I said. "Not bad at all. At least mom gets to have a good time at home with Milo while we're going to a damn high school reunion."

"We're lucky your mom even offered to babysit tonight," Hadley reminded me. "You couldn't have backed out of the job this late, so we probably would have ended up bringing Milo with us."

"Well, we always could've asked his dear godfather to babysit."

Hadley was cracking up laughing before I'd even finished speaking.

I had to admit the thought was rather humorous. Milo's godfather would be the last person in the world I could imagine agreeing to a babysitting job. Milo's godfather also happened to be some otherworldly, supernatural being named Death, so he was probably off vanquishing demons or whatever the hell it was he did on a Saturday night. How would he ever have the time to babysit?

"Yeah, right." Hadley sighed, a hand at her chest. "Death, babysitting? Please. I know he loves Milo and everything, but I swear he breaks out in hives if he spends more than five minutes with him."

This was also true. It was also probably the reason Death only visited with Milo on Christmas and his birthdays - the only two he'd had, that is.

"Too bad for Death," I said, "because Milo adores him."

That statement sounded so weird out of context, but weird was a good adjective to describe my and Hadley's life together.

Due to unforeseen, wacky, and unfortunate circumstances, our son's godfather was Death, and Milo happened to love him. Somehow I'd never gotten to my camera quick enough whenever Milo climbed in Death's lap during his few short visits, and Death looked like he was about to have a brain hemorrhage as Milo jabbered away at him, poking at the tattoos all over his hands.

I could feel my stomach twisting into knots the longer we sat in the cab, on the way to JFK. I knew we were almost there when the urge to repeatedly bang my head against the window became overpowering.

The reunion was being held in the cramped, smelly old gym, and its doors were thrown wide open as the cab came to a stop at the curb.

There was one of those huge "WELCOME!" signs tacked up above the doors, and a folding table was set up right inside, and someone was seated there with a bunch of clipboards.

"Archer, quit groaning," Hadley said as she paid the fare. "You're being pathetic."

I was groaning? I hadn't even noticed.

"Pathetic is my middle name," I grumbled as I shoved open the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

Hadley gripped my arm when she'd walked around the cab and pulled me off to the side, away from the gym's entrance.

"You remember prom, right?"

"Prom? Not particularly. I remember what happened after prom, though."

Even though the light from the gym wasn't reaching us where we stood, I could see that Hadley's cheeks were flushed, and she was glaring daggers again.

"What?" I said defensively. "I'm just being honest with you."

"Passing over what happened after prom," she said through gritted teeth. "Remember how you were dragging your feet about going and it ended up being a really fun night?"

I'd only agreed to go to prom because she'd really wanted to go, but with the impression that it would be the shittiest of all nights. Truth to be told, it really hadn't been all that bad. Prom was years ago, but I'd never forgotten how gorgeous Hadley looked that night. She was the best thing about it, and by the time it was over, I was almost regretting that there weren't other dances for us to go to.

"You're saying this reunion is going to wind up being a good time like prom was?" I said.

Hadley shrugged. "You never know, do you? But going into it with the expectation that it'll be shit definitely won't help."

"I do that with almost everything, though," I pointed out. "And if you were really trying to make me feel better, you could've at least worn those heels you got for prom tonight."

"I got rid of those shoes years ago, Archer."

"Really? Damn shame."

"Just...just put on a happy face, okay? I promise you'll be fine. And you are getting paid for this, you know." Hadley stepped closer, leaning up on her tiptoes to hold my face in her hands. "If we're really lucky, maybe there'll be booze here."

"Always something to look forward to," I said before kissing her.

If I had it my way - which I never really did - I would've happily made out with Hadley there on the sidewalk, like we were back in high school, for the remainder of the reunion, but she caught on pretty quickly and pulled away.

"Nice try."

"Hmph."

Hadley laced her fingers through mine and tugged me back towards the gym. I could tell she was excited by the little skip in her step. I had to stop to tell myself that as long as she was enjoying herself, then maybe the night wouldn't be so bad.

And I was getting paid after all.

"Hi there," the woman seated behind the table right inside said to us as we approached. She had shocking red hair and was wearing a dress perhaps a little too skimpy for a high school reunion, but she looked vaguely familiar. Seeing as I'd done my best to forget everything about JFK and my classmates, I had no idea what the hell her name was. "Can I get your names?"

When Hadley gave our names, the woman looked up from the clipboard with wide eyes, choking on a breath of air. "You're Archer?"

"Uh." I looked around, wondering if there was anyone else standing by us that the woman could be talking to. "Yes?"

I mean, last time I checked, my name was Archer.

"Oh." There was something funny about her voice when she spoke, and it was only because I'd grown so adept at reading Hadley over the years that I saw her jaw set and her eyes narrow just the slightest bit.

A reaction from Hadley like that could only mean one thing.

"I'm Brittany Evans," the woman said, smiling at me. "We had Anatomy and Physiology together junior year."

Anatomy and Physiology with Mr. Mendoza had been a bit of an intense class from my recollection. No wonder I didn't remember the girl - I'd always had my head buried in a textbook more often than not.

"Right," I said, trying to keep the awkwardness from creeping into my voice.

"Do you think we could get our name-tags now?" Hadley said, and the tone of her voice was far too pleasant to actually be pleasant. "We're holding up the line."

"Oh, of course!" Brittany Evans gave a girlish laugh as she quickly wrote out our names on some of those "Hi! My name is..." stickers and passed them over to us. "I'll see you later."

Somehow I had the thought that the see you later was more for me than the both of us.

"That was disturbing," I muttered as Hadley and I left the table behind.

"Disturbing? Pathetic is more like it," Hadley said with a scoff.

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smirking, feeling oddly pleased with myself. "Sweetheart. Don't tell me you're jealous."

"Jealous? I am not jealous," Hadley snapped, but she certainly wasn't convincing me of that. "I don't get jealous."

"You are so jealous."

"Okay, so maybe I get a little annoyed when some dumb broad makes eyes at my husband like that. Especially someone we used to go to high school with."

I supposed I could see her reasoning - I definitely wouldn't have been happy if someone guy was coming on to my wife - but it was hard not to see the humor in the situation.

I actually kind of liked seeing Hadley jealous like this.

"Dumb broad?" It was all I could do to swallow back the laughter threatening to escape. "Don't be like that, bambolina. You know you're the only one for me."

Except Hadley's attention was now fixed elsewhere, and a smirk was breaking out across her face.

That couldn't be a good sign.

"What?" I demanded.

"Promise not to get mad?"

"Mad?"

She gripped my shoulders and spun me around so I was facing the opposite direction.

My jaw dropped, and somehow I heard Hadley's laughter in the background, but I was honestly too stunned to speak.

Placed intermittently across the wall beneath the high windows were several large, blown up photos of our graduating class' favorites, like most athletic and most likely to succeed, and sure enough -

"Look at us, the cutest couple!" Hadley slid her arms around me from behind, leaning up on her tiptoes to rest her chin on my shoulder. I could feel her silent laughter. "We were so adorable then."

I really had to disagree with that.

When one of the guys from the yearbook staff approached us and informed us that we'd been voted "cutest couple" I'd wanted to throw up. It wasn't that I was ashamed of my relationship with Hadley or anything of the sort, but more along the lines that it was weird and uncomfortable people actually paid enough attention to us to even think that we were a cute couple.

And the picture taken for the yearbook wound up being downright stupid.

Hadley had jumped on my back at the last second, and I remember having immediately grabbed at her thighs to keep her from falling off. The shock and annoyance was clearly evident on my face in the photo, and I was even trying to glare at her, but she had a deliriously happy smile on her face, like she'd jumped on me just to piss me off - which she had.

I'd demanded that the girl take another photo, but she said no, that it was just fine, and that it would look cute in the yearbook.

"Why in the hell would somebody blow up these photos and hang them up?" I asked furiously. "We look ridiculous."

"We look cute!" Hadley disagreed. "Don't be such a spoilsport."

"I'm not being a spoilsport! It's just stupid that somebody would - "

"There you are, Mr. Morales! It's so wonderful that you could make it out for tonight."

Our bickering was cut short by the arrival of a squat, paunchy little guy with a receding hair line and glasses. Unless my memory severed me faulty, this was Mr. McAdams, one of the assistant principals. How old was this guy now?

"Mr. McAdams," I said, shaking the hand he extended. "Nice to see you again."

I was lying through my teeth, of course, but I'd learned a long time ago it was best to at least be pleasant when speaking with the person that hired you.

"You're Hadley, yes?" Mr. McAdams continued, turning to Hadley next.

"Yes, I am," she said, smiling politely.

"And are you two married?"

"That we are," Hadley said, giving me an indulgent smile, squeezing my side.

Knowing her, I was a little worried she might start pinching my cheek and gush about how happy we were together just to annoy me, so I told her to shut up in Italian.

"Coraggio!" She thumped me on the back, giving me a little shake. "Sorry," she said to Mr. McAdams, laughing. "Archer is just so excited to see his old classmates."

Mr. McAdams clearly wasn't able to tell that I most assuredly did not want to see my old classmates as he nodded energetically, rubbing his hands together. "Of course, of course! Reunions are always enjoyable."

Like hell, I thought.

"Sei fortunato ti amo," I said to Hadley before Mr. McAdams led me off to the coach's office so I could drop off my camera bag.

"Love you, too!" Hadley called after me, waving.

I rolled my eyes, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from reminding her she so owed me when we got home later that night.

Mr. McAdams was chuckling as we made our way towards the office. "Have you two been married long?"

"Four years this month," I answered.

"Any children?"

"We have a son, yeah."

"How wonderful."

"It's definitely an adventure."

That was a bit of an understatement 

Mr. McAdams unlocked the door to the coach's office and ushered me inside.

I set my bag on the desk and pulled out my camera, double checked that I had enough space on my memory card and the appropriate lenses. Mr. McAdams was explaining what particular moments the administration felt needed to be captured - mostly, every living, breathing thing inside the gym. 

Well, I thought when Mr. McAdams finally left me to my own devices. Time to enter the seventh circle of hell.

Was I being too dramatic about this whole thing? Probably. But I was just waiting with baited breath for someone to come along and remind me why I hated high school with a burning passion. 

I started out by taking a few shots of the gym, not focusing on anyone or anything in particular. I supposed the administration had gone all out with decorating for the reunion with balloons and streamers and signs about how it was good to visit the past every now and then. 

It was actually kind of depressing - but as I used to equate high school with being depressed, this didn't come as too much of a surprise.

As I made my way through the gym, doing my job with gritted teeth, I realized I didn't recognize too many people that were present. 

I didn't know if that was because I always purposely went out of my way to ignore the people I went to school with, or because I actually succeeded in forgetting everything about high school. I wondered what it said about me as a person that I thought this was a good thing. 

"No way. Morales?"

I looked away from my camera at the sound of my last name and was surprised to see a tall, kind of chubby guy standing in front of me, wearing a leather jacket much better suited for winter rather than summer. It took a moment of thought before the guy's name came to mind.

"Wow," I said. "Ty Ritter."

He looked pretty damn awkward as he took a swig of his drink in one of those red plastic cups, and I was surprised I wasn't suddenly overcome with the urge to deck him in the face.

Ritter had made my life a living hell - at least the few times he'd decided I would benefit from a good roughing up, and I'd responded with a few choice Italian hand gestures.

 I was not sorry to see that he looked like he frequented bars far more often than he should, but I noticed that he was wearing a wedding band, so his wife - or husband - most likely found that attractive.

"What's it been? Ten years?"Ritter said as he lowered his cup. 

"This is our ten year reunion, so, yeah, that sounds about right," I said.

"Right, right." 

I wanted to say you look well, but I didn't think I could get the words out without cracking up laughing. I decided to take the high road, as Hadley called it, and said, "How's life been treating you, man? Ten years is a long time."

Ritter awkwardly cleared his throat as he nodded. "Uh, okay, I guess. Got injured playing college ball, so I wound majoring in accounting. Got married. Had two kids."

I didn't know you could do math was what I almost said instead of, "Sounds great."

"Uh." He cleared his throat again, and there it was, the overwhelming urge to punch him. "What about you, man?" He gestured to my camera. "You a photographer?"

No, I carry this around for shits and giggles.

"Yeah, I have my own business now," I answered. "And Hadley and I - you remember Hadley, right? - we're married. Our son, Milo, is just great. Gotta tell you, things have been going pretty great."

Was I bragging? Nah. I didn't think so.

 It was a good feeling, knowing I was actually speaking the genuine truth. 

"That...sounds great," Ritter said, eyes fixed on his feet. "Good for you."

I wasn't so sure if he really meant that, but it sure was a good feeling hearing him eat his words like that. Unfortunately, it seemed like things weren't going well for him, given how much it looked like he was moping, which meant that my small sliver of a conscious wouldn't let me verbally beat him up like I wanted to. 

Look at you, Archer, I thought. Maybe you really have grown up after all.

"Archer! Hey!" 

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Hadley heading my way, waving. She didn't seem all that surprised to see Ritter, and she had her pretty, professional smile on when she stood next to me, reaching out to lace her fingers through mine.

"Hey, Ty. Haven't seen you in awhile. How's Aimee doing?" 

Ritter turned a weird pink color when Hadley spoke, and he cleared his throat again. "She's good."

"Good," Hadley said, and she actually sounded like she meant that, too. "Sorry, but I need to steal my husband for a second. I think Ms. Greene was looking for you." 

"Oh, okay. Yeah."

I barely managed a wave in Ritter's direction before Hadley was pulling me away, across the gym floor. 

"Don't tell me he married Aimee Carter," I said to Hadley. "That annoying girl who always said you know after ever sentence?"

"That would be the one."

I cracked up laughing at this, because Ritter being married to Aimee Carter was definitely just deserts.

"Dare I say you might actually be enjoying yourself?" Hadley said, grinning up at me.

I took a quick shot of her smile just because I could. "Kind of. I'm suddenly feeling a whole lot better. But did Ms. Greene really want to see me?"

"Who? Oh. No. Mr. McAdams said she retired, like, seven years ago," Hadley said. "I lied just to get you away from Ty."

"Now why would you do that?"

"I figured I could show you off while you work." 

"You serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious. Plus, I figured I should be there to calm you down when you hear we were picked as our favorite favorites from the yearbook. Apparently the fact we're married is, like, the cutest thing ever."

"Seriously?"

_____________________________________________

Alright, guys, I've gotta say, this was so much fun to write. Like, a total blast. :D I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

In other words, thanks so much for sticking with Hadley and Archer's story for so long. It really means the world to me. You all are unbelievably amazing! :) 

- Ally