I wrack my mind for an answer to his question. Why would he need to know where my room is? It's a justified question to ask. He doesn't need to know where I'm going to be sleeping for the next few nights. Why would he? We'll be spending the day downstairs and then he'll be sleeping there with Penny. It's not like he's going to be coming to my room...

Archer stands up to his full height. I have to tilt my head to meet his gaze. "Is this your way of inviting me here in the night?" Amusement dances in his rich brown eyes as a smirk settles on his face.

My heart jumps out of my chest as a pink flush crawls up my neck, settling on my cheeks. It does sound like that, doesn't it? Am I inviting him here? It would be risky and probably not a good idea. I wouldn't mind him sneaking into my room though. Of course, I would never admit that to him.

"I thought I'd tell you just in case you needed anything." I try to play it off, shrugging to make my lie more believable. His eyes pour into mine for a beat too long causing me to shift on my bed. My hands find their way into my sleeves.

"I need a lot of things," he grins, stepping closer to me. I gulp as he leans down. His lips brush across mine causing my heart to race. It pounds in my ears so loud that I'm sure he can hear it too. He doesn't kiss me though and it takes all my willpower to not close the distance.

"I'll be sure to come if I need anything you can help me with." He whispers, his smirk growing. My throat instantly dries.

And then, as if nothing happened, he walks away. He starts looking at the light grey walls again. How does he do that? I need time to recover from his attack. I can't go back to normal after that. My eyes widen as I gulp in as much air as possible. His presence alone drives me crazy.

"So, this is your room. It's not what I was expecting." He reveals plainly. His words do nothing to make me feel better. Does he have to be so serious all the time? Can he not simply tell me everything at once instead of making me wait.

Once my breathing has returned to a somewhat normal pace, I respond. "What were you expecting?"

His gaze moves to mine before returning to the walls. That's enough to send my heart into overdrive before I've even managed to fully recover from the last time. "Maybe more posters."

"I had posters before, a lot of them. They were the covers of movies that Leonardo DiCaprio had been in." I admit and my cheeks heat up again.

"Of course, they were."

"Now all I've got is this," I take the board of photographs off of the wall and lay it on my lap. He sits next to me to get a better look at it. I try to focus on the photographs rather than his hot breath fanning across my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

"Is this your mum?" He points to her.

I nod. That's my mum, Hayley. I always looked up to her, I still do. She was so beautiful. When she would pick me up from school, I used to walk out of there thinking that all the other parents were jealous of her beauty. Her chocolate brown hair was never styled but always looked perfect. It was soft to the touch. Whenever she would hug me, I would be enveloped by the scent of her coconut shampoo.

Her eyes were hazel and kind looking. People say that the eyes are windows to your soul which was definitely true for her. You could always see the happiness dancing around in them, even when she was having a bad day. She was the happiest woman I knew.

I always loved her clothes too. She never really progressed from the nineties when it came to fashion. She wore a lot of denim and plaid shirts. I have some of her shirts hanging in my closet still. I wear them when I want to remind myself of her. I wish I had even half of the confidence that she had, wearing the plaid shirts convinces me that I do for a while.

"You look like her," he tells me. My eyes begin to water at the memory of her. I'm thankful when he points to another photo and changes the conversation. It's a photograph of me, Sadie, and my dad in front of a waterfall.

"I still remember everything about this day. It took us hours to drive to this place because it was so far away. By the time we actually got there, it was almost closing time. It's a waterfall trail with, I think, five waterfalls. My dad made us take a photograph in front of all of them, but this was the only one that turned out okay. Sadie had her eyes closed in all the others. It took us forever to get around it. By the time we finished our legs felt like they were going to drop off. We felt so bad because the place had to stay open two hours after they were supposed to close for us." A giggle emits from my lips as I remember that day.

"You look happy." He smiles. I can't help but copy his expression.

"I was."

We stare into each other's eyes and an emotion that I can't decipher flashes in his. I wait for it to show again but it doesn't. His eyes aren't windows to his soul when he doesn't want them to be. If they were, they'd be boarded up with wood.

The food arrives not long later so we go downstairs. Penny and Sadie are laughing about something no one else understands but they don't care to enlighten us. It seems Penny was able to get through to her. She's always been shy of new people but she's quick to warm up to them when they give her the chance.

I sit on the sofa with my plate of food. Penny and Archer sit on either side of me. We only have one sofa, so my dad sits on the chair to the left of us and Sadie sits on the stool to the right. There's a reality TV show playing but no one's paying any attention to it. We're all too busy stuffing our faces. It's surprising how hungry flying makes you.

"You have Chinese food in America, right?" My dad asks as he shovels another forkful of noodles into his mouth. Some of the sauce remains on his lips. His tongue darts out to lick it away when he realises.

"Yes, they have Chinese food." I roll my eyes at his ridiculous question.

America's not all that different from England. Of course, the weather's a lot nicer over there, but I knew it would be. He seems to think of it as an entirely different world simply because he's never been there. It's hard to imagine what a place is like when you've never seen it with your own eyes.

"So, have you guys ever been to London before?" His constant attempt to make conversation melts my heart. He always tries to make everyone feel comfortable. I've always loved that about him.

To my surprise, Archer answers instead of Penny. He shakes his head, "I haven't had a reason to visit until now." He looks down at me, our eyes locking instinctively. I can't help but blush. I wasn't expecting him to say that. His eyes, now open, tell me I'm the reason.

I go back to eating my fried rice, trying to conceal the smile threatening to show itself, until my dad says, "you didn't tell us you had a boyfriend, Madison." He looks at Archer and then back to me. I nearly choke on my food.

What made him think we were dating? Did Archer tell him we were? Are we making it too obvious that something's going on between us? What is going on between us? Is our relationship progressing? Was bringing Archer here a bad idea? A million questions swimming around my head makes me dizzy.

"They're not together," Penny replies curtly. She looks over to me as if to say 'right?' and I simply nod. Guilt washes over me even though it's the truth. We're not together.

"Your daughter's an amazing girl but we're just friends." I start to calm down at Archer's words. He seems to accept his answer which causes me to relax further.

The conversation shifts to Sadie's new crush at school which I'm thankful for. His words keep replaying over and over in my head. We're just friends. Are we just friends? It doesn't feel like we're just friends. But am I just getting the wrong idea?

*

After dinner, I go into the garden with Archer. Penny's watching a show that Sadie wanted to show her. I'm happy they're getting along. It means I can sneak away with Archer and not have to worry about Penny wondering where we are.

There's a little bench with a shadow cast over it from the trees above. It's too dark outside to see us so if anyone were to look out the kitchen window you wouldn't know we were there. We sit on the bench as the cold winter air envelopes us.

"I'm sorry about my dad," I apologise for the second time today. "He can be intrusive sometimes."

He intertwines our hands, stroking the back of mine with his thumb. His touch leaves shivers travelling up my arm in its wake. "It was nothing." He reassures me.

We're submerged in silence after that. The question I'm desperate to ask continues to eat away at me. I know that if I don't ask it'll continue until I can't hold it in any longer, resulting in me asking him at the worst possible time. This is a perfect time. I take a deep breath and prepare myself.

"Did you mean it when you said we were just friends?" The question comes out so fast that I'm not entirely sure he understands what I'm asking. His prolonged silence that comes after raises my suspicions.

His hand rests on my thigh as our eyes connect. "Did you want me to mean it?" His eyebrows raise slightly.

He stares into my eyessearching for an answer. No words come out of my mouth. It's like my brainwon't let them. I can only hope that he can see whether I want him to mean itin my eyes. At this moment, I hope that my eyes are windows to my soul.