He continues walking to the car so casually as if he hadn't just said what he did. I stare at the side of his face, tilting my head slightly as I do. My eyes travel down the curve of his nose, over the freckle at the side of his lips, and across the slight stubble growing on his chin. I obviously know what he looks like, but do I actually know him?

His words repeat over and over again in my head. I don't let jerks like him get to me. I don't know what it is about him calling Archer a jerk, but something just isn't sitting right with me. He claimed he was a gentleman, but no gentleman would blatantly disrespect someone like that, right?

I try to push it to the back of my mind, but I can't. My feet stop on their own accord as I unhook my arm from his. He notices the loss of contact instantly and whirls around to face me. I bite my lip anxiously, deciding whether I'm making the right decision or not.

"What's wrong?" Concern is dancing in his eyes which makes my anxiety grow.

To hell with it. "This was a mistake." We haven't even made it to his car yet and I'm already backing out.

His eyes widen slightly but he recovers within seconds. "Wait," he scoffs, I find my eyes narrowing. "Is this because I called your brother a jerk?" He seems amused by the idea.

"My brother," I copy his scoff, "he isn't my brother," I say in disgust that he even thought he was. "But you're right. That's one of the reasons."

What was I thinking? I know nothing about him, yet he knows where I work and where I live. This man could be a gangster for all I know. That would explain the wealth that he appears to have at such a young age. A rich, classy gangster. Maybe he has a gun sitting in his waistband right now. Who knows what he's carrying around with him?

"I'm sorry, sometimes the truth is hard to hear." He shrugs nonchalantly before carrying on walking to his car. He seems to be expecting me to follow him. When he notices that I'm not, he turns around again.

"I'm not coming with you," I say, my features blank.

"Sure." He chuckles with a roll of his eyes. My jaw hangs open at the size of his ego. Does he think I'd ignore his terrible personality and go out with him just to be near him? His ego is even bigger than Archer's. I didn't think that was possible.

With that, I spin on my heels and storm back up the garden.

"Madison, you're joking, right?"

"No, Adrian," I turn around to look at him one more time. The smirk is now wiped off his face completely. "I don't joke," is the last thing I say before I shut the door.

Once I'm inside, I rest my forehead against it with a whine. My luck with guys is non-existent. No one was ever interested in me back in London. It looks like I'm going to be alone in Portland too. The curse has followed me thousands of miles away, there's no getting rid of it.

"What are you doing back already, was you so quick to scare him away?" Archer strolls past, not granting me a single look.

"Something like that." He sits on the sofa and I can't help but throw myself onto it too. Some romantic movie is playing on the TV. He looks disgusted by it and instantly turns it off.

"What happened?" He asks. I see what he's doing, he's trying to get me to tell him how I couldn't even go through with it so he can see how much of a failure my love life is.

I answer him anyway. "I didn't like something he said."

"And that is?" He waits for me to answer.

I grab one of the pillows off the sofa and pull it up to my chest. "He called you a jerk."

Now I'm saying it out loud my reasoning to cancel our date sounds stupid. My inner voice tells me that wasn't the only reason I backed out. I choose to ignore it to protect my pride.

"So?" His eyebrows furrow. He doesn't seem phased by Adrian's insult. If anything, he seems amused by it. Judging by the number of people who avoid him daily at school he probably gets insulted a lot. I guess he must be used to it by now.

"I don't want to go on a date with someone who disrespects people like that." You mean you don't want to go on a date with someone who disrespects Archer like that. I cover my face with the pillow and let out a muffled groan.

Picking up the remote, I play a random channel to drown out my thoughts. We sit together awkwardly, the only sound being the hum of the woman on the screen, our gazes locked on it. Despite looking at the TV, I'm not watching it. If you asked me what happened in the last five minutes, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Another twenty minutes go by before I can't stand sitting here feeling sorry for myself any longer. "You know what, I'm going to take myself out on a date." I jump up off the sofa and march over to the door. I slip my trusty white trainers on and pull on my leather jacket over the top of my jumper.

I made the effort to look nice so I shouldn't let it go to waste. Most of the time I look like I've slept ten hours in my clothes, got caught in a rainstorm, and then turned up at school. This is the first time in a while that I didn't just grab something random from my closet and throw it on. I'm going to take advantage of that.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

I shrug. "Wherever my feet take me." I open the door. The cold air almost makes me change my mind. Almost.

"It's freezing outside, you can't walk."

"Watch me." I step out of the house again and am submerged in what feels like an ice-cold lake. I wrap my jacket around me tighter, willing my feet to start moving.

I'm an independent woman who doesn't need a man to take her out. I can take myself out. This attitude gets me to the end of the driveway before Penny's car pulls up beside me. The black-out window slowly rolls down to reveal Archer. "Get in."

My lips fall open at the sight, my eyebrows raising and challenging his demand. "Did you not hear the part where I said I'm taking myself?"

"And did you not hear the part where I said get in?" His elbow rests on the opened window, his eyes narrowing.

I scoff, involuntarily slugging myself over to the door. I can be an independent woman with him driving me, right? I rip the door open, sliding into the passenger seat with a huff. I buckle up my seatbelt and we set off to wherever the road takes us.

"You didn't have to come, you know?"

His eyes are focused on the road. "It's too cold to walk." That's the only answer I get. If I got too cold, I would have called a taxi, but he doesn't need to know that. I'll let him consider himself a hero. Unless his ego gets too large, then I'll tell him.

"How did you get Penny to let you use her car?" I slide my hands across the leather seats.

"We used it before, what's the problem with using it again?"

I send Penny a quick text anyway to tell her that we're borrowing it. She replies almost instantly saying that it's okay because she's using my laptop right now. A smile fights its way onto my cheeks. I swear we're practically the same person.

*

After being on the road for the next hour I finally see something worth stopping for. I tell Archer to pull over and he does just that. We park up outside of a little pizzeria. My stomach rumbles at the thought of food.

"Thanks for driving me here. You don't have to wait; I can call a taxi to take me back."

He takes no notice of me as he unbuckles his seatbelt. "I didn't drive all this way just to drive back again." He states simply before going inside. I don't question him and follow his retreating form.

We sit at a booth towards the back and order our food. He offered to share a pizza with me, but I refused. There's no way that I'm sharing, I'm way too hungry for that. Plus, I think I deserve to have my own.

I take a sip of my Sprite that I ordered and close my eyes as I savour the taste. Why is Sprite so good? They must put some special ingredient in it that makes it ten times better than any other beverage. Could it be the bubbles? Sprite is always extra bubbly.

I watch them as they float to the top of my drink. I become too engrossed in that to notice Archer's unease.

"We should leave," he says out of nowhere.

We haven't even gotten our food yet and he wants to leave, what's wrong with him? His cold stare is focused on something in the distance, and I follow his gaze. My eyes meet a group of people standing at the front waiting to be seated. They look familiar, maybe I've seen them around school before.

"Who are they?" I ask. He doesn't get to answer as it's already too late. They notice us sitting here and start walking towards us. Archer's form tenses the closer they get. He's virtually a statue when they reach our table, the only thing giving away that he isn't in his eyes.

"Archer." A black-haired boy greets.

He gives him a slight nod. Archer copies his action. I suddenly realise that these are his friends. When I say friends, I mean people who he spends time with at school and then ignores after. Penny told me that they're all assholes. From their expressions, I wouldn't disagree.

To them, Archer might seem normal, but I can see otherwise. He's sat pin-straight, and the corner of his lips are slightly downturned into a snarl, but only slightly. It's easy to see how someone could overlook this. I know I don't know him very well, but I clearly know him more than they do.

"Who's this?"

The black-haired boy's eyes linger on my chest for longer than necessary. I narrow my eyes at him, but he doesn't seem to notice. This guy doesn't notice anything. I'm sure his ego is considerably blocking his vision.

"She's no one." Archer gives the same answer as he did to the oil-covered man at the repair shop. I want to interrupt just to spite him, but something tells me to keep my mouth shut.

"Let the girl speak for herself."

Archer's jaw tenses and I already know what he's thinking. She better not mess this up for me. It's written all over his face.

"I'm Madison."

"It's great to meet you, Madison. I'm Riley, that's Beatrice," he points to the girl hanging off of his arm. "Cameron," then to the guy standing behind him preoccupied with some other girl who I find out is named Francesca. "Archer didn't tell us he had a new chick."

"She's just one of Penny's friends." He denies.

Those words hit me harder than expected. I'm just Penny's friend. That's all I am and it's all I'll ever be to him. I'll always be someone on the side-lines to him, someone unimportant.

Riley's satisfied with his answer and leaves us alone. The other three of his friends follow him like a pack of wolves following their alpha. "Thank god that they're gone." Archer visibly relaxes. Our pizzas come seconds later, and his attention is focused on them. He doesn't notice me glaring daggers at him from across the table.

"Is that all I am to you?" I can't keep the hurt out of my voice. He picks up a slice of pizza before taking a bite out of it, tilting his head at me slightly. "I'm just Penny's friend?"

I wait for him to tell me that I'm more than that but, it never comes. All I get instead is "why would you be anything else" and that's all it takes for me to storm out of the pizzeria, my hunger gone.