It's her own fault, what does that mean? Archer ends the call, pocketing his phone and turns in my direction. My heart stops.

I let out a slight gasp as I duck behind the wall faster than I ever thought possible, pulling my legs into my chest. I slap my hand against my mouth and squeeze my eyes shut to lower my chances of being caught. If I can't see him, he can't see me.

To my surprise, his footsteps grow distant as he walks past me without hesitation. I peel one of my eyes open. When I hear a door shutting, I rest my head against the wall in relief.

He would have definitely thought I was spying on him if he caught me listening to his phone call. I wasn't spying, I was just curious. The phrase 'curiosity killed the cat' pops into my head but I choose to ignore it.

"What took you so long?" Penny asks when I enter her room. I throw the opened bag of hot Cheetos at her and, luckily, she catches them before they spill all over her homework.

"You have a lot of snacks," I use as my excuse. "It took me a while to decide what I wanted."

Her eyebrows furrow causing me to grow anxious. Why's she looking at me like that?

"And you decided you didn't want anything?" She eyes me suspiciously.

I look down to see that I forgot to grab something for myself. I got so distracted with Archer's phone call that I didn't get what I went downstairs for.

"Um," my eyes dart around the room. "Yep." I shrug, looking more guilty than ever.

My stomach growls lowly. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to notice as she pops a hot Cheeto into her mouth, choosing to believe me. I'll just have to steal some of them later.

We spend the rest of the night finishing our homework. It takes me longer than usual because my mind keeps going elsewhere.

I can't help but wonder what Archer meant when he said she knew what she was getting into. It sounds like he uses girls for his own amusement only to leave them high and dry when he gets bored. A part of me knows that my suspicions are correct but another part of me wants to be wrong. It scares me because I have no idea why I want to be wrong.

*

"Miss Roberts." My eyes shoot open when I hear these words. I lift my head to see my teacher's eyes piercing holes into my head. "What did I just ask you?" She questions.

I sit up, wiping the drool from my cheek. My face heats up in embarrassment once I realise why everyone is staring at me. I fell asleep in the middle of class.

I look around the room to try and work out what class I'm in, but my mind is blank. "Who wrote Romeo and Juliet?" I guess, my words trailing off at the end. I cringe inwardly at myself.

"You're in Economics, not English. Please pay more attention in my class." A few people giggle around me. I shrink into my seat. It's barely ten in the morning and I've already humiliated myself.

Can this day get any worse?

"Madison,"

I gulp and rub my palms on my jeans. I already know what's coming. "Yeah," I hum trying to appear as casual as possible.

"I'll see you after school for detention." She grins evilly before returning to the front of the class. Forget what I just said, this day just officially got worse.

The school day finishes after what seems like forever. Penny and Brody thought me falling asleep in the middle of class was the funniest thing in the world. They were laughing for at least fifteen minutes straight.

I doubt I'll hear the last of it any time soon. I wouldn't be surprised if they ran up to someone random in the corridor and told them about it. They'd probably already know anyway; it doesn't take long for things to travel around here.

"Don't have too much fun in there." Penny teases me as we walk towards my doom. Brody high fives her. I look at them both blankly.

"Thanks, guys." I roll my eyes at their antics. "You're so supportive."

They exchange amused looks. "What can we say?"

"It's practically impossible for me to have fun," I pout as I look through the little window in the door, instantly getting the urge to hit my head against it when I spot Scarlett. "Especially not with her."

They follow my line of sight and Penny blows out a breath of air once she sees who I'm talking about. "Well," Brody hooks his arm in hers, "have fun with that."

He gives me a smile of encouragement before skipping out of school. It's like he's purposely trying to rub it in my face. They get to be outside in the safety of her car whereas I have to be in there with the school bully. Fun.

I mentally prepare myself to spend the next forty minutes in a room with my Economics teacher and Scarlett. She hasn't tried to talk to me since that night. I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

I huff before pushing the door open. She raises her eyebrows in mock shock and smiles once she notices me, it isn't a genuine smile though, it is one of those smiles that are designed to make someone's blood curdle.

She's sat at the front of the room, so I take a seat at the back.

Barely twenty minutes in, she saunters towards me, swaying her hips. The teacher had to leave to print something off, giving us both strict orders to stay in our seats. Of course, she took this as her chance to pounce and ignored her wish completely.

"Matilda." She choruses as she sits next to me, putting her feet up onto the table.

"Madison." I correct even though I know she got it wrong on purpose. I eye her boots on the table in distaste.

"Whatever," she flicks her hair over her shoulder. "I've heard you're living with Archer." She taps her nails on the wood. The sound is extremely irritating, and she knows that, so I don't say anything.

"You heard correct."

"What's it like living with him?" Curiosity dances in her eyes. Her lips smack together as she chews her gum. I bite back an insult.

How did I know she would bring him up? "It's fine." I give her a blunt answer.

What does she expect me to say? Does she expect me to tell her the exact time he gets up in the morning or what his go-to snack is? He's mysterious, I don't even think his own parents know much about him.

"Now could you please go back over there? I'm trying to do my work." I say, expecting her to get the memo and leave me alone.

She completely ignores me and instead carries on. "Has he brought any girls home yet?"

I refrain from scoffing. "Why do you care?"

My eyes flicker to the door. I find myself hoping that the teacher walks in just to see the look on Scarlett's face. I never thought I'd be hoping to see one of my teachers after school but there's a first time for everything.

"I don't." She runs her hands through her curled ginger hair, removing the non-existent knots. "It's just," she starts, and I already want to cover my ears, "he's dreamy, isn't he?" She asks completely contradicting her last statement.

"If you say so."

I'm already bored of this conversation. It turns out being around Scarlett is almost as tiring as sitting through an hour-long lecture.

"It's a shame his sister is a complete waste of space." She adds with a smirk.

My frustration with her grows. I grit my teeth to stop myself from saying something that will wipe the triumphant glint out of her eyes. Remember, this is what she wants.

She talks about Penny as if she isn't a person, as if she doesn't have feelings of her own. "You know, it makes sense." Her blue eyes stare into my brown ones.

I roll my eyes out of boredom. "What does?"

"That her only friend lives with her. You have no other choice but to talk to her, I bet you wouldn't even bat an eyelash at her if you didn't." She disregards Brody again even though I'm sure she has seen Penny with him many times before.

My frustration boils over, and I act on impulse, shoving her feet off the table. Her eyes widen slightly in shock before regaining her composure seconds later.

A sly smile makes its way onto her face. "You're wasting my time." I spit, staring her down.

She opens her mouth to say something but the teacher waltz's back in at the perfect time, ordering her to go back to her seat with a frown.

I breathe a sigh of relief and slump into mine. I pick up my pen to finish my work but don't write another word for the rest of the detention. I'm too distracted by our conversation. I knew that she'd bring him up.

"Did the devil incarnate say anything to you?" Penny asks me as I climb into her car.

Once detention ended, I ran out of there before she could continue our conversation. I doubt she would though, she seemed surprised when I put a stop to her crazy antics.

"I left before she had the chance to say anything." I lie.

Brody accepts my answer and turns the volume on the radio up before she can say anything else. He starts screaming the lyrics to a song at the top of his lungs. I'm grateful that he did. Penny doesn't need anything else to worry about.

*

I finally turn Netflix off and check the time on my phone. My eyes widen once I see that it has just gone three in the morning. I was watching it for five hours!

I rub my eyes in the hopes of it making me feel tired, but it doesn't work. Maybe I should stop watching TV before bed. I groan as I pull the blanket off of me and pad over to my door, opening it slowly.

Everyone else probably fell asleep hours ago. I don't want to risk waking them up. I slowly walk down the stairs and grab a cup so I can make hot chocolate. As I'm waiting for the milk to heat up, I stare out of the window into the darkness.

The sound of the front door opening frightens me causing me to almost jump out of my skin. I whirl around, placing my hand against my racing heart once I see who it is.

It's Archer stumbling in. His eyes are bloodshot and there's a permanent frown etched on his features. "What are you doing?" I ask him, tilting my head in confusion.

He attempts to walk towards me but doesn't make it far before nearly falling over. I jump into action and rush to his side. His breathing's heavy. The smell of alcohol on his breath stings my eyes.

"I don't need your help." He tries to push me away from him, but I stay by his side.

"Are you sure about that?" I challenge.

"Yes," he seems to want to continue but bites back the words. "Just leave me alone." He mutters but his actions betray his words as he throws his arm around my shoulders.