My eyes flutter open but the light seeping in through the window causes me to squeeze them shut merely seconds later. I open them slightly to allow them to adjust to the light before wiping the drool off my cheek and looking around.

The events of last night start to come back to me. It doesn't take me long to remember I'm in Tyler's house with Archer. This is when I notice the hardness of my pillow. I furrow my eyebrows and sit up only to see him laying underneath me, our legs tangled together.

I must have fallen asleep next to him and then practically smothered him with my body during the night. A blush creeps onto my cheeks at the thought. Although I've got to admit, laying on his chest was comfy. It could potentially be more comfortable than my own bed.

"Why are you watching me sleep?"

My heart jumps out of my chest as his husky voice rumbles through me, causing my stomach to flutter. "I'm not."

I stand up and let my hair loose from the bun, running my fingers through the brown strands to try and tame it. I probably look terrible. But, despite my self-consciousness, Archer looks at me the way he always does. If I didn't know how bad I looked in the mornings his gaze would have convinced me I look fine.

"Whatever you say." He stretches his arms, and his shirt rises, revealing his toned stomach. My eyes are glued to his revealed skin and I can't look away. I suck my lips between my teeth. He catches me gaping at him and smirks. I've been caught red-handed.

My attention darts around the room, towards anything that isn't Archer, as I rush to think of something to say. "What time is it?"

He checks his phone before throwing it back onto the coffee table. "Almost eleven."

"That late?" I gasp.

"It's Saturday, it doesn't matter what time we wake up."

Despite his reminder, I still jump into action, grabbing the TV remote to turn it off. We must have fallen asleep with the movie still playing. "It does when we're at someone else's house. Natalie's probably been awake for hours."

He laughs as if what I said was a joke. I stare at him plainly until he explains. "She's not a morning person." He pushes himself up and thrust his hand into his hair, moving it out of his eyes. "You worry too much." He adds. It takes a while for his words to process. How does he look so good in the morning?

"You also said she wouldn't wake up last night and she did." I raise a challenging brow.

He waves his hand in dismay. "That was a one-time thing."

We continue with our back-and-forth conversation for a while until keys jingling in the door steals our attention away. The door's pushed open seconds later revealing Tyler wearing the same clothes as last night. He must have spent the night with Autumn.

I try to smooth the creases out of my clothes to make it less obvious that I just spent the night with Archer on his sofa, but he finds us before I'm successful. Amusement is written across his face. God only knows what he thinks we did.

"Well, good morning." He wiggles his eyebrows causing Archer to launch a pillow at his face. He manages to catch it before it makes contact. "Is that any way to treat your best friend?"

"You're right." He answers before proceeding to throw pillow after pillow in his direction. He doesn't manage to catch all of them this time, as they collide with his chest, falling into a pile at his feet. Tyler flips him off and leaves the room.

Archer's quick to follow him. I'm quick to follow Archer. "You better not have done anything in my bed." Tyler mumbles. Red stains my cheeks at his words.

"Shut up, Ty." Archer laughs. He clearly isn't as mortified as I am.

Tyler holds his hands up in surrender. "Hey, man. I paid good money for that bed and I don't want you two breaking the frame, that's all," I almost choke on air and he notices, leaving him smirking in triumph. "You're welcome to stay for breakfast."

Archer declines his offer, "you can't cook for shit."

I sigh in relief at his words. The last thing I need is to spend any longer here than I already have. I've had enough embarrassment for one day and I've only been awake for ten minutes. Who knows what another five could do to me?

Tyler rolls his eyes, turning to me with a frying pan in his hand. "Don't listen to him, all he eats is garbage anyway. He wouldn't know good food if it slapped him in the face."

"I can't argue with that," I agree and he grins, leaving Archer looking like a child who's been told they aren't allowed any more candy. I stifle a laugh as he pouts.

He places a hand over his heart and feigns hurt. "I'm wounded." He teases.

"You can take your wounded ass out of here but Madison's welcome to stay if she wants."

"Archer's right, we should probably go home."

He shrugs nonchalantly before grabbing two eggs, "suit yourself."

*

After we leave Tyler's, we go straight back to the house. I'm hoping Penny and Brody are still asleep from the events of last night, so I don't have to think of an excuse as to why I was out with her brother all night.

We step into the house only to see them sprawled out in the middle of the floor. I spoke too soon. "What are you doing?" I ask.

Penny props herself up on her elbows. "Waiting for you."

Brody hasn't moved yet; his eyes are still sealed shut. I'm not sure if he's passed out, asleep, or simply laying there for the fun of it. Each option seems likely.

"Oh," I chew on my lip. "Well, I'm here," I respond sheepishly.

Archer doesn't move from my side and go to his room like I expected him to. He stays next to me with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Penny only now notices his presence. Her eyes dart from me to him suspiciously. I step away from him, so we aren't as close.

"How was it?"

"Penny had a lot of fun." Brody slurs, his body going limp again right after.

Her eyes narrow at him. "Where were you two all night?" She asks. Part of me thinks it's to distract us from what Brody just said but, whatever the reason is, it works.

I wrack my brain for something to say. I can't admit that I woke up lying on top of her brother! My mind goes blank but, luckily, Archer saves me just in time. "She needed me to take her somewhere." He answers plainly. I glance at his slouched frame, clearly not bothered by his lie.

His gaze locks onto mine and confusion is written all over my face. Why did he lie for me? Regret settles in when I don't testify but I know that lying to her is better than admitting I did the exact opposite to what she told me to do. Her relationship with her brother is already strained. I don't want to be the one to make that worse.

"All night?"

"It was late when we got there so we stayed in a hotel," is all I can manage to say as an excuse. "In separate rooms," I add with a gulp, hoping that she believes me.

I try to be as convincing as possible by holding eye contact with her. She seems to accept my answer, the crease between her eyebrows seeping away, and I hurriedly think of something else to say.

"Is Brody alive?"

Brody groans and raises his arm only to drop it seconds later. "I'm surprised he's alive after the embarrassment he suffered last night." She snorts. He covers his face with his hands.

I ask her what happened, suddenly becoming aware of everything that I'm missing by getting distracted by Archer. At this rate, I'll be spending more time with him than them.

"He's had a huge crush on Sydney, the popular girl in school, since forever and he finally grew the balls to say something to her."

"Let me guess, it was the alcohol talking."

"Bingo."

Brody mumbles something that I can't make out as his hands muffle his voice. I lower mine, cupping my hands around my mouth to avoid him hearing. "It didn't go as planned, did it?"

He finally moves his hands away from his face before Penny has the chance to answer me. "I don't have a crush on her. I was drunk." He excuses himself but I can see from the blush on his cheeks that he's lying.

Penny giggles. "You had a sip of alcohol."

He waves his hand in dismay.

I should have been there with them last night, watching Brody embarrass himself. Homecoming's something you're meant to experience with your friends and instead, I let old habits get the best of me and backed out of it. Maybe if I were there, I could have talked Brody out of talking to her and saved him the embarrassment. Or maybe I could have helped Penny handle the consequences instead. I can't help but feel like a bad friend.

"I'm going to go change," I announce. Penny hums before laying back on the floor.

I go into my room and close the door behind me, needing to get out of these clothes. I'm mid-way through pulling my shirt over my head when the door opens. I scramble to pull it down to cover my chest when I see Archer standing there. He raises his eyebrows; he definitely saw something but chooses not to mention it.

"I thought you would have told her the truth."

I give him an 'are you serious?' look. "It's not exactly easy to tell her I like her brother."

A slight smile graces his features, but it's gone moments later. His face turns blank. I suddenly realise what I said. Is that the first time I've admitted that? I think it's been clear to him for a while, but this is the first time I've actually told him. I push down my embarrassment.

He walks further into my room and hovers in front of me. I peer up at him, into his eyes, and allow the regret and stress that comes with lying to your best friend to seep away. "I'm glad you didn't tell her."

"You are?"

He rips his eyes away from mine, his jaw tensing as he nods. "There's nothing to tell anyway." He leaves without another word.

I can't help the ache that grows in my heart at his words. There's nothing to tell. But I realise that he's right. Nothing has happened between us other than a few kisses. That doesn't mean anything is going on between us. The ache grows. What if I want something to be going on?

I keep telling myself that I'm going to tell her eventually but then when the perfect time to tell her presents itself I back out of it, insisting to myself that it's better if she doesn't know. Now that Archer's said what he has, it makes me want to tell her even less. If he doesn't think that anything is going on, then why should she? Why should I?

I'm too scared to risk our friendship by telling her. How would she react? How do you tell your best friend that you went against her advice by not only not staying away from her brother but are now growing feelings for him too?

More importantly, how do you convince yourself that there isn't anything to tell?