Page 56 of Your Side of the Offense

"Peach, is there anything you want?" Arch asks her in all his gentleness as she removes his linen.

I stay rooted in place. I don't know why, but I just want to watch her. It's been a minute, and this is probably going to be one of only times I have a valid excuse to.

"Fruit salad if you can, please. For us both," she says.

Caleb nods, stopping at the door.

"None of you coming to help?" He looks at me and Jaden.

Jaden is sitting on the desk, on his phone. He only raises his eyes to glare his 'no.' I don't answer and Caleb rolls his eyes and disappears.

Me and Arch watch Summer as she changes his sheets and duvet and his pillows and fluffs them for him. She gives Jaden the old linen and he jumps off the desk and heads out to take it to the laundry room. Pulling Arch, she takes him to the bed. I don't even want to breathe loudly as I watch them exist naturally around each other.

"Don't you have a few classes? You don't have to be here with me, they will look after me." Arch says softly as they sit next to each other.

"No, I…I want to stay. At least until you sleep." She places her hand on his and he visibly calms.

The scene heats up my chest and I find my feet moving straight to the door. I am done looking at this.

"You can say you are leaving, asshole. No need to be rude." Archer says from behind me, and I stop.

"Thanks for coming, D. Have a great day."

I leave.

I don't even have it in me to be smart right now. My chest heats worse as I head to my room. Grabbing my laptop bag, I head downstairs.

I need to be out of here with them two and their bubble of… I don't even fucking know what it is, but I know it's a promise of something we aren't getting back. I don't want to be around for it to take me back to what I lost.

What we all lost.

"Whoa, aren't you going to have lunch?” Caleb says behind me. “I'm making—"

But I don't stop. I need to be out of here.

17

BIG BABY

Summer

"We haven't talked, how are your courses treating you?" Arch asks once we are alone. My hand is still on his, and honestly, I don't know why I haven't moved it yet.

"Econ modules are mostly fine, but I am having a little trouble with Stats and Math, sometimes it throws me off and I am lost."

I get it a lot of the time but sometimes I get thrown off because the numbers just don't make sense to me, they are just numbers with no story behind them. Of course, there's logic in math but it's hard for it to stick with me sometimes because it has no soul.

It has no story, just an almost soulless pile of numbers. Unlike Econometrics, it has a story, a purpose, it makes sense to me.

He chuckles.

"You should have talked to me sooner; you know that's my jam," he says, and I lift my eyes to meet his.

His face falls before he nods. "Right. But if you need help you know where I am, right?"

I nod.

Where I excelled in theory, they were better at numbers, and we always balanced each other. And even though Caleb is a Mathematics major, Arch is a Psych major, I know he took one of his electives in math because he loves it and is really good at it.

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