My eyes search the back garden for Archer but he's nowhere in sight. "Do you know where Archer is?" I ask Penny, feeling the need to be close to him right now.

"I didn't realise he left." She shrugs nonchalantly before focusing her attention back on the people around us.

"I'm going to go find him," I announce.

"Can't you stay with me for a little bit? I feel like I haven't seen you all night. I'm sure he probably just went to the bathroom or something. He'll be back soon."

I think over what she said until I finally give in and agree to stay with her until he gets back. Over half an hour passes but he still hasn't returned. I decide that I can't wait any longer and head back inside to find him without telling Penny.

I look in the bathroom, the bedrooms, even the garage. I still don't find him. The last place I think to look is the front garden, but relief washes over me when I find him sitting on the grass alone in front of the house.

I take a seat next to him. "Hi," I start, a lazy smile settling on my lips at our proximity.

He doesn't respond. I notice the cup in his hands, and, from the colour of the liquid, it definitely doesn't have lemonade in it. I lean forward slightly, and my suspicions are confirmed. His eyes are bloodshot from drinking alcohol.

"I thought you weren't going to drink."

He shrugs and continues to stare into the cup blankly. "I changed my mind."

He brings it up to his lips and downs the rest of it, closing his eyes as it burns his throat. He almost looks relieved. Before I can say anything, he stands up and stumbles slightly as he starts walking towards the door. "I'm going to get another one."

I stand up too, worry etched across my features. "I don't think that's a good idea."

I place my hand on top of his. His eyes jump from our connected hands back to my face. They're filled with hatred causing me to recoil from him.

"Since when do you get to tell me what to do?" He spits.

I tilt my head in confusion at his sudden change in mood. His words hit me like daggers, all piercing my heart, but I conceal my hurt. He's drunk, he doesn't mean it.

"You're drunk. Wait here and I'll go get Penny to drive us home."

His next words shocked me beyond words. "I didn't pin you to be a whore." He states plainly.

My jaw hangs open. My nostrils flare ever so slightly as I almost forget that he's intoxicated. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard." He mutters.

I study the man in front of me. He looks like Archer. His down-turned eyes are the same. The bridge of his nose is the same. The way his brown hair falls into his eyes is the same. The curve of his chin is the same. Everything is the same. I'm looking at Archer, but I don't feel like I'm talking to him, not the Archer I know anyway.

"Listen," I step closer to him wearily. "I have no idea why you're being like this but if you just come with me, we can go home and talk about this when you're sober." My pleading eyes meet his.

He scoffs. "You know exactly what I'm talking about." His scrutinising gaze makes me feel small, but I do my best to appear strong. I have to remind myself again, he's just drunk, he doesn't mean anything.

"Please enlighten me because I honestly have no idea why you're acting like this."

His jaw clenches and unclenches in anger. "Fucking Levi, you kissed that piece of shit." He balls his hand up into a fist, crumbling the red solo cup before throwing it at the nearest wall. The sudden movement causes me to flinch slightly. He doesn't notice.

My heart races. He saw Levi kiss me. Why didn't I notice him if he was watching us? I think back to being in the kitchen and mutter a string of curse words. I wasn't the one looking out into the crowd of people, Levi was. He must have seen him. He must have kissed me to get back at him for what he did. I'm going to kill him. That asshole set this up. This was what he wanted, and I played straight into his trap. I feel sick.

"You seriously think I'd kiss him?" My voice raises along with my frustration. Him seeing us is one thing but him believing that I wanted it is a whole other story.

He laughs as if I'm a joke to him causing me to narrow my eyes. "I watched you do it, Madison. Don't fucking lie to me."

The harshness of his words is dampened by the anger that I feel. He doesn't trust me and yet I'd take his word over anyone. I scoff. "Did you also watch me push him away too?"

"Bullshit." He seethes.

I stare at him, really stare at him. Am I only now seeing him for the first time? Were all the other times a fake version of him? Is this the real him? After all this time I thought he was starting to trust me but it's clear that he isn't. He saw Levi and me and jumped to the conclusion that I wanted to kiss him. He didn't think that maybe the kiss was one-sided. He didn't do anything to try to stop Levi.

"Wow, Archer, just wow." I turn around, needing to get away from his suffocating presence.

"Where are you going?" He asks as if he has the right to know. Not anymore.

"Far away from you," I shout back to him before storming through the house and back into the garden to find Penny.

Of course, when I get there, she's nowhere to be found. This is just great. If I don't find her, I'm stuck at a party that I don't know the way back from which means being stuck with Archer. I don't have the energy to fight with him right now. He chose not to believe me. He didn't even give me time to explain what actually happened. Tears well up in my eyes but I push them back.

I walk up to the closest person which happens to be Kiera. "Do you know where Penny is?" I ask, trying my best to make it look like I'm not an emotional wreck right now.

"I haven't seen her. Why, are you okay?"

"I just need to leave," I tell her, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"Well, I can drive you if you want. I haven't touched any alcohol yet tonight, I promise." I ponder over her offer for a few moments. Eventually, I accept because I know the awkward silence that we're going to have when we're in the car together is better than whatever will come with Archer if I stay.

She drives me back to the house in silence and I'm glad that she doesn't try to talk to me. I don't feel like talking right now. All I want to do is get back and lock myself in my room for the rest of eternity.

When she finally pulls up at the house after what feels like forever she asks, "Is there something going on between you and Archer?"

My breath hitches in my throat. Yes, something was going on between me and Archer. He practically begged me to give him another chance and kidnapped me from class to get the chance to talk to me. I gave him another chance and up until ten minutes ago I thought it was the best decision that I'd ever made but tonight proved me wrong. He's not the type of person I thought he was.

I have given him no reason to not trust me. I at least expected him to hear me out. It's clear that he already decided what to believe and nothing I said would have changed his mind. He believes that I kissed Levi.

I can't help but laugh to myself. "Me and him," I laugh to hold back the tears. "Definitely not."

She doesn't seem to believe me which irritates me more than it should. "I saw the way he was looking at you."

"What?"

"He was looking at you like his entire world was right in front of him, as if you were his source of happiness."

The tears become harder to keep back and one manages to escape, rolling down my cheek. I wipe it away before she notices but the concern in her eyes shows me that I was too late. "Nothing's going on between us, there never has been and there never will be."

I get out of the car before my resolve crumbles. "If you see Penny could you tell her that I left early?"

Kiera nods. I turn around, not bothering to say bye, and walk towards the house. My legs feel like they're going to buckle at any second, but I know that once I'm inside, I can stop fighting the sadness that I feel. I won't let myself crumble when I know someone's watching.

I finally get inside and shut the door behind me. Seconds later, I collapse to the ground as the tears fall down my cheeks in waves. There's nothing I can do to stop them. I just sit on the floor and wrap my arms around myself as I cry.

This is my fault that this happened. It's my fault that I let him in. If I just listened to Penny and stayed away from him, I wouldn't be crying right now. I'd be enjoying the party and feeling lucky to be in Portland. Instead, I'm sobbing on the floor of a house that isn't mine and wanting more than anything to be held by my parents.

I allow myself this time to let it all out. If I get it all out now there'll be no more tears to come after. Then, I can go on as if none of this happened. I can act like everything's okay. No one will even notice. Archer can get on with his life without me and I can get on with mine. With this in mind, I let the rest of the tears fall.