For the record? Archer and I weren't dating. To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure what it was going on between us. I think we were both under the impression that there weren't any labels on this thing. I wasn't his girlfriend and he wasn't my boyfriend. We sort of just started....kissing more. Like, a lot more.

True to my speculations earlier, by the time I arrived in the cafeteria for lunch later that day, all eyes were on me as I made my way for the food line. There were even a few people muttering behind their hands as I passed, which in my opinion was totally cliched. But the best part of this was that I found I didn't care whatsoever. Let them stare for all I cared.

I bought a sandwich and some lemonade, giving the lunch lady a wide smile, before I headed over to the table Archer and I shared. He was already there, slouched in his seat, as I dropped into the seat across from him, throwing my food onto the table.

Archer glanced up at me and gave a crooked grin. "Regretting kissing me in that hallway already, Hadley?"

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Hardly. I could care less what anybody else thinks."

Archer raised an eyebrow, not looking convinced at all. "Oh, really? Since when?"

I shrugged, paying more attention to my sandwich than him. "Beats me."

"Right, right," Archer replied, rolling his eyes.

We ate in silence for the next couple of minutes, our attention fixed on our lunch. I could feel the entire cafeteria's gaze boring into the back of my head as I ate, which wasn't all that comfortable, believe it or not.

I just hoped Archer was going to be left alone after everything that had happened in the hallway earlier, because I had a feeling I wasn't going to be.

"Ohmigod, Hadley!"

I barely had enough time to look around before I saw Taelor sprinting her way over to our table, lunch in hand, a maniacal look in her yes.

"Did you say something to her?" Archer hissed, leaning forward towards me.

"No!" I yelped, throwing my hands in the air. "I haven't seen her since this morning!"

"Well, it sure seems like -"

Archer was cut off by Taelor throwing her food onto the table and sitting down beside me.

"You've sure got a lot of explaining to do," Taelor babbled the second she sat down next to me. "I didn't know you two were dating!"

Arched and I exchanged looks.

"We're not," Archer said dryly.

"But-"

"We just kissed, that's all," I said loudly, cutting her off.

"That's not what I heard," Taelor said, her voice full of suggestions.

"Well, it's not any of their business, is it?" Archer said, rolling his eyes.

He did have a point.

Taelor shrugged nonchalantly in response, a clear sign that she had no come back.

"I'm going to class," Archer said abruptly, getting to his feet. "I'll see you later, Hadley."

I was a little surprised at his words, but nodded anyways. He gathered his things together and left the cafeteria, but not before tossing a trademark smirk over his shoulder towards me. I had to fight back a girlh laugh at that, which was super stupid.

Taelor immediately turned to me the second Archer was out of earshot and opened her mouth to start firing questions, but thankfully the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

"Sorry, gotta go," I said quickly, getting to my feet. "See you later."

And that was that.

The day was still pretty weird after that, but not too much. Sure, I still got weird looks and people were no doubt whispering about me, but that was only to be expected. I wasn't so sure what was going to happen tomorrow, but I figured it was going to be roughly the same.

And apart from the fact that I was tripped up in the middle of English and whacked my head on a textbook as I hit the floor, I suppose the day was alright.

I wanted to think that the rest of my classmates were just being stupid and immature about my thing with Archer, and maybe that was true, but I had a feeling there was something else going on. Like, as in an otherworldly involvement.

So when the last bell of the day rang, I let out a huge sigh of relief as I gathered my things together and trudged my way from American Government. I wasn't scheduled to work at the coffee house today, so I was looking forward to another fabuious train ride home with Taelor, where she would no doubt pester me with more insanely stupid questions about Archer.

Joy.

I was really rather disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to see Regina today. But from what I'd seen of Regina and the breakdown she had on Thanksgiving, I didn't think she had rightly recovered from it just yet. I was well aware of just how awful PTSD could be, and after everything that had happened to the poor woman, it was a miracle she still managed to get out of bed every day. Even though my main focus was supposed to be Archer right now, I still wanted to talk to Regina.

"Hadley, what're you doing here?"

I gave a little jerk of surprise and blinked profusely, trying to pull myself back to reality. Somehow my feet had carried me of their own accord towards Archer's locker, and now I was standing in front of him, clutching at my school things like an idiot.

"I just sort of - what the hell happened to you?"

I let out a gasp of shock and dropped my things, my hands flying to my face as I stared up at Archer. There was a huge, rather ghastly looking bruise that had blossomed across his left cheekbone, making his eye look puffy and his face exceptionally sallow.

"Nothing happened," Archer mutter, averting his eyes as he slammed his locker shut.

"Oh, don't bullshit me, Archer Morales!" I snapped, my voice pitching. "Tell me what happened."

"I got into a fight with one of the douches in my gym class," Archer sighed, looking highly embarrassed. "Big whoop. Are you going to pick your crap up now?"

I bent down and scooped my school things up into my arms, still glaring daggers up at Archer as I did.

"Why the hell would you have gotten into a fight?" I demanded as we both started walking down the hallway.

"People get into fights all the time, Hadley," Archer commented dryly. "It's not a big deal."

Yeah, right. It may have not seemed like a big deal to him, but I knew otherwise. I wasn't stupid enough to think that he'd never gotten into fights before, but there was definitely something different about this time. Call it paranoia or whatever the hell you wanted; I knew this was most certainly Havoc's doing.

That bruise on Archer's face looked like it seriously hurt. He hadn't gotten a black eye, but it sure looked like he had.

"Who?"

"What?" Archer glanced over at me in confusion as he stepped down the stairs.

"Who did you get into a fight with?" I clarified, my eyes narrowing.

Archer rolled his eyes and gave a scoff. "Ty Ritter. The guy's an asshole and fights with everybody."

Ty Ritter was JFK's golden boy - quaterback and captain of the football team, student council president, shoe-in for prom king this year. Ty was definitely a douche, but why was he picking a fight with Archer? The rest of the "in crowd" probably would have called that slumming - you know, interacting with people below their social class. This was just another reason to add to the suspicion that Havoc had been involved with this.

"Will you be alright?" I asked him as we stepped outside into the brisk December afternoon.

"I'll be fine, Hadley," Archer sighed, looking cross now. "You don't need to freak out about me all the time."

Well, he was right about that one. I wasn't going to stop freaking out about him, though. It wasn't like I even could.

"Fine," I answered as coolly as possible. "I'm justing making sure."

"Well, it's not like you need to," Archer muttered.

"Okay, well..." I trailed off awkwardly. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

Archer pursed his lips and gave a shrug. "I suppose you will."

I resisted the urge to punch him and instead leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek before heading off in the opposite direction for the subway.

I wasn't really what anybody could call a religious person. Despite this fact, I was starting to keep praying that everything was going to go alright, that nothing bad was going to happen to Archer. Now I was praying that he wasn't going to get maimed anymore than he had today.

If the growing bump on my head from my fall and Archer's rather horrific looking bruise were anything to go by, this was just a taste of what Havoc could offer, and I wasn't so sure I liked what I was beginning to see.

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Okay, so this was a very short chapter, which I do apologize for, but I sort of had writers block on it, and that's why it took me longer than usual to update. :/ but hopefully even if it's just a short blipit in the story, it's still alright. Soo....let me know what you guys think! :D your thoughts on how the story is going and everything right now would be super awesome. And hey, while you're leaving a comment (and if you do, thanks very much!) you could even, like, vote for the chapter, too. You know, if you want to. It'd be super cool if you did. :D