Archer's lips move in unison with mine as his hands find my waist, pushing me against him. I groan into the kiss and instinctively wrap my arms around his neck. I feel the need to close the space between us but there's no space left to close. We're both intoxicated, trying to get as close to each other as possible. Even when there's no space at all it still feels too far away.

Electricity pulses around every inch of my body that he touches. I can't think, all I know at this moment is that I want him. He bites my lip, and my hormones go crazy. Is it possible for a person to feel this many butterflies at once?

The towel that was wrapped around me falls to the floor. I feel everything but cold. He doesn't seem to mind either as his hold on my waist tightens. I melt into him, tugging at the strands of his hair until we both have to pull away to catch our breath.

He rests his forehead on mine as our chests rise and fall in unison. Our eyes find each other as if they've been doing it all our lives and I bite my lip involuntarily. The corners of his turn up into a smile.

"Was that so scary?" I ask breathlessly and he chuckles.

*

It's the next day which means another seven hours of torture. Fun. I'm staring at the blank piece of paper on my desk cluelessly. How does anyone understand this? My eyes bounce around the room and, of course, everyone else is writing away, even Brody.

I huff and cross my legs. I've never been the smartest in my class, but I usually understand what the teacher's telling me. Now, his words go in one ear and out the other. What happened with Archer in the garden last night keeps replaying in my mind. I've been trying to distract myself by thinking of anything else since the lesson started. As you can tell, it's not working.

I feel my phone vibrate against my leg and dig my hand into my pocket. Once I see that the teacher is fixated on the computer screen and pressing keys furiously on the keyboard, I allow myself to look at it.

There's a message from Penny. It isn't like her usual messages. Usually, she sends me paragraphs of gossip about what happened in her lesson or who she saw smacking lips in the corridors. Instead, this one simply says meet me in the toilets after this period. The message is short, too short.

"Miss Roberts, are we boring you?" My heart drops.

I look up even though it's the last thing I want to do and see a grumpy Mr Farmer staring at me accusingly as if I'd just robbed a bank. I cautiously shake my head. One wrong move could push him over the edge. Who knows what he would do?

"Would you care to enlighten me why you're on your phone then?"

I bite my lip anxiously. An image of me biting my lip after I'd just kissed Archer flashes in front of me and I do my best to wipe it away. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." I apologise.

"It better not or you'll find yourself on the road to detention." He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose before returning to his desk. I let out a breath in relief. I'm off the hook.

When the lesson finishes and I've written five sentences I jump out of my seat, bursting out of the door. I weave through the crowd of people and ignore their snide comments until I'm in the safety of the girl's bathroom.

The scent of bleach fills my nose and I cringe. At least I know they're clean. Penny's pacing in front of the sinks, her nerve-filled eyes darting around the room.

"Are you okay?" My voice breaks her out of her train of thought as she notices me standing there.

I search her face for some sort of clue as to why we're in here but all I see are nerves. I want to ask her why she's so nervous, but I let her speak. "I had to talk to you alone because I'm not sure I'm ready to tell Brody," she starts.

"What are you talking about?"

"There's not really anything to tell, it's not a big deal. You probably don't even-"

I cut her off. "You can tell me."

She gives me a tight-lipped smile. Her breath comes out shaky. I can see just how much this scares her to tell me. I squeeze her hand reassuringly, reminding her that I'm her best friend. If there's something she has to tell me she shouldn't be scared. I'm here for her.

I can't help but feel like a hypocrite. I'm reassuring her she can tell me anything when I'm the one hiding things from her. Despite this, I still can't bring myself to admit what's going on between me and Archer.

She takes a deep breath. "Okay, for a few months now I've-" and that's when she stops talking.

The spawn of Satan, more commonly known as Scarlett, pushes the door to the bathroom open, talking obnoxiously loud with her phone pressed to her ear.

Her eyes discard us as if we're toilet paper on her shoe as she ends the call. She stands in front of the mirror and runs her fingers through her already perfectly straight hair. If she weren't so mean I would say I was jealous of her auburn locks.

"Am I interrupting something?" She looks between us. "Because if I am you can go back to whatever you were doing when I leave, I'll only be a second."

"Oh yeah, and what would that be?" Penny dares to ask her. She raises a challenging eyebrow, her hands balling into fists at her sides.

Scarlett shrugs nonchalantly. "I don't know what you two freaks do behind closed doors."

This irritates Penny and I jump to protect her. My eyes narrow. "It's been a second, Scarlett. You're only wasting your precious time standing here with us freaks." I use air quotes around the word 'freak'. Her petty name-calling doesn't bother me, but I can see it bothers Penny.

"That's true," she considers, only looking at me through the mirror. "But I do enjoy getting under Penelope's skin."

"Fine, if you're not going to leave then we will." I take Penny's arm in mine and try to leave but she doesn't budge.

"Go to hell, Scarlett." She spits before letting me lead her outside.

The last thing we hear before the door creaks shut is Scarlett shouting, "tell Archer he can pick me up at seven." This gets under my skin more than it does Penny, but I don't let her see that. Instead, I continue to lead her outside where the fresh air can clear our minds. Mainly, so I can get rid of the sudden urge to go back in there and slap the smirk that I'm sure she's wearing off of her face.

"Who does she think she is?" I ask without expecting an answer. "She can't just get away with that!"

Penny seems defeated as she sinks to the floor, her back resting against the cold bricks. I take a seat next to her. "Just forget about it." She sighs.

"How long has she been doing this?" I ask.

"Doing what?"

"Bullying you!" I say like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Scarlett's a bully, there's no doubt in my mind about that. She preys on other's weaknesses for her own satisfaction, knowing that they won't fight back.

"It started a couple of years back," she trails off. Shame dances behind her eyes at how long this has gone on. I want nothing more than to pull her into a tight embrace, but my rage stops me. All I can think about is what Scarlett said. He can pick me up at seven...

"God, I hate that girl so much. We need to do something; she can't keep pulling this crap and getting away with it."

"Seriously, Madison, it's okay. I can deal with it." Her voice is lower than usual, and her gaze isn't meeting mine. I can't just stand by and watch Scarlett talk to her like that anymore. It's not right.

For now, I don't say anything else about it. "What were you going to tell me?" I ask, choosing to focus our attention on something other than what just happened.

She brushes my question off. "It's not important."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll see you at lunch." She walks back into the school, not bothering to look back at me. I can see how Scarlett's words affect her. I wasn't exactly the most popular back in London. I was no stranger to people's harsh comments. I understand how it makes you feel like you're not good enough. I don't want her to feel like that, I don't want anyone to feel like that.

I stay sitting on the floor outside the school entrance for a while. A few people walk by and give me weird looks, but I don't pay them any attention. That is until the boy who I ripped Archer off at the party walks by.

There's only a faint bruise on his right cheekbone left from that day. It's a pale shade of green. I doubt anyone would notice if they weren't actively searching for it. Seen as I was the one who stopped Archer from doing any further damage to his face, I know what to look for.

"Levi!" He raises his head and starts over towards the boy who shouted. That must be his name. He meets up with him and I watch them walk away until they're out of sight.

His bruise reminds me of the events of that night. I never found out why they were fighting. Archer looked angry, not the sort of anger you feel when someone has spilt their drink down you. It was more than that. It had to be capable of making him lose control. I'm determined to find out what that was.