10

Yay for Hadley.

When fourth period chemistry finally ended, I grabbed my things, shoved them into my bag, and left the classroom with a bit of dread in my walk. My heart was pouning against my chest in a disjointed rythm, which was stupid because there wasn't anything I needed to be getting nervous over.

Who cared if anybody saw me talking to Archer?

It shouldn't even matter, because his life was literally resting on my shoulders.

I rubbed unconsciously at the grisly looking "27" mark on my wrist as I joined the throng of students rushing towards the cafeteria. That was more than just a silent reminder of everything I had to do.

God, I needed to stop freaking out. This wasn't the time to be acting like an emotionally confused teenaged girl. Hell, I had to be an adult about this.

I pushed my way through the crowded lunch line and eventually managed to snag a safe looking roast beef sandwich, some steak fries, and a bottle of water. Honestly, just standing in the line took up about half of the lunch period all together.

After paying for my food, I stood awkwardly off to the side in the cafeteria, standing on my tiptoes, trying my hardest to spot Archer's recognizably touseled dark hair. This was easier said than done, considering how many freaking kids went to this school. It was downright ridiculous.

"Hey, Hadley. You coming?"

I tried not to jump out of shock as Taelor stood next to me, holding her usual lunch that consisted of a measly salad and a bottle of water. Taelor and I normally sat with another group of Junior girls - Kat, Jamie, Nora, and Brea - on the opposite side of the cafeteria. The other girls were nice and pretty friendly, but they were just as gossip prone as Taelor was, which could get just the slightest bit annoying.

"Uh, I'll be along in a minute," I muttered, dropping my gaze to my feet. "There's something I've gotta go do."

Taelor looked very confused at my words and looked like she was about to say something in response, but that was at the exact moment I managed to spot Archer out of the huge mass of students eating lunch.

He was sitting towards the far end of the cafeteria, his things strewn about the small table in a disorderly manner, almost as if he was trying to given an offputting air so nobody would approach him. He was slouched forward slightly in his chair and it looked as if he had seen better days.

Well, here went nothing. Literally.

I threw a quick "See you later!" over my shoulder towards Taelor and all but marched my way across the cafeteria, heading in Archer's direction. The closer I got the more it became just the slightest bit difficult to breathe, but I forced myself to get over it. It wouldn't do me any good if I couldn't breathe around him for the next 27 days.

Archer whipped his head up and stared at me incredulously as I dropped into the seat across from him, throwing my jacket and bag on the chair beside me.

"Oh, God," he groaned, a hand flying to his forehead. "Not you again."

I tried to not take that personally as my eyes narrowed in his direction.

"Yes, me again," I sighed, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. "You should've been expecting it."

"I thought the whole 'I'll see you tomorrow' thing was just a cliche people say instead of goodbye," Archer commented, just the slightest bit annoyed. "I didn't think you were actually serious."

"Of course I was serious!" I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "I'm supposed to be getting to know you, Archer Morales."

"And why would you want to do that?"

The underlying layer of emotion in Archer's voice made a sliver of fear slip down my spine. There was this look in his eyes that clearly said he wasn't about to take anything less than the truth as an answer.

"Because," I said shakily after a moment, swallowing hard. "You seem like a very interesting person that I'd like to get to know better."

Archer made a thoughtful noise as he grabbed one of my steak fries and took a bite of it, his brows pulled down in a way that made it seem as if he were deep in thought.

"That seems like an acceptable answer," he said after a moment. "Except I don't believe you. You never talked to me before last night. Has your opinion changed of me that fast?"

Well, yeah, I thought with a mental eye roll. I had no idea you could be so rude.

I was going to have to put that behind me, however.

"Well, you did wake me up at that Chinese restaurant instead of just leaving me there," I pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "That seems like a merit in itself, right?"

"Don't remind me of last night," Archer muttered, shuddering slightly. "That was so stepping out of my comfort zone, being nice to you. You might as well mark that one down in the books, because it's not going to happen again."

I snorted out a laugh, rolling my eyes again. He was probably dead on about that one.

I watched Archer for a few moments in silence while he grabbed my plate of fries and started eating them for himself, wondering why on Earth he was being so antisocial. I was being nice, wasn't I?

Or maybe it was just me?

"Look, Archer," I said, ignoring my grumbling stomach. "Why are you so opposed to the idea of being friends?"

Archer made a ridiculous face while he munched my fries, staring up at the ceiling as if he were deep in thought.

"You're a popular, rich, ignorant little brat that doesn't know a damn thing about anything," he finaly said, just the slightest bit blunt. "That's probably why I'm so opposed to the idea of being friends."

The way he sneered out the word "friends" made me irrationally angered and I had to resist the urge to throw the plate of fries at him.

"First of all," I ground out through clenched teeth. "I am not popular. And my parents are rich, not me. Plus, I do too know things! I'm about as far from ignorant as you can get!"

Archer raised an elegant dark eyebrow, not looking convinced at all. "Oh, really?"

"Really!"

"I don't believe you."

"You don't even know me, Archer! Why are you being so thickheaded?"

"You don't know me either, Hadley."

This entire time I had no idea that we'd been unconsciously leaning across the table towards each other, our eyes locked in a furious glaring match. And he'd nearly finished all of my fries, darn him.

But I wasn't going to be the one to back down so easily from this. Oh, hell no.

"Can you please just give us being friends a shot, Archer?" I asked quietly, trying hard to keep from blushing.

Archer's fathomless dark eyes traveled over my face, almost like if he were searching for answers there, before he let out an aggravated sigh, leaning back in his chair as far away from me as possible.

"Fine," he griped, sounding very unhappy. "We'll give being friends a shot. But just so you know, you're annoying and you get on my nerves easily. I'm not so sure I like you."

That, for some odd reason, made me burst out laughing.

"All right, Archer," I said, just the slightest bit sarcastically. "If you think I'm annoying now, just wait until we get to know each other more. Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet."

At that moment the bell rang loudly, signaling the end of the lunch hour and the start of fifth period.

Hn. Lucky for Archer.

"Here, go ahead and have the rest of my fries," I said, shoving the plate further towards him. "You've already eaten most of them anyway."

"Thanks," he retorted sarcastically. "I'll be sure to steal your food more often."

I stood up and grabbed my things off the chair beside me, tucking my sandwich into my bag. I'd probably just end up eating the thing on the subway home.

"Well, this marks the first day of our being friends," I said to Archer as I stood awkwardly beside the table.

Archer remained sitting at the table, munching happily on a fry. "Lucky me."

I gave him a withering look but held out my hand for him to shake anyways.

He stared at my hand as if was covered in leeches or something but reached out and shook my hand anyways. If we were going to be shaking hands often, I was just going to have to get used to the warm, electrifying feeling I got whenever he touched me.

Oh, joy.

"See you later, Archer," I trilled in an annoying voice. "Stay out of trouble!"

Archer murtered something I couldn't hear - and I wasn't so sure I wanted to hear what he'd said, anyways - and I quickly turned and joined the jumble of students leaving the cafeteria for class.

"Well," I sighed to myself, my gaze fixed on my feet. "One day down, twenty six more to go."

I sure hoped Death knew what he'd gotten himself into, asking me to save Archer.

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