Archer and Jason are never apart – part 3 continues….
Things were amazing with Archer after the first date. He took me to a local burger place and we talked for a few hours while enjoying the food and shakes. Once we got back into the car, we drove around until we stopped near one of the Canyon’s. When we parked, Archer turned toward me with a smile, bringing his hand up to run along my jawline before pulling me forward to kiss me.
His hands felt so good as they ran along my arms and slightly up my shirt. They were hot and it felt electrifying every time he touched my bare skin. I wanted his hands everywhere on me, but especially my ass and dick. Archer was respectful though, so while he skirted the line a little, like running his hands around the waist of my boxers and jeans, he didn’t go much lower than that. Ever the damn gentleman. It didn’t stop me from wanting him though.
The Winter Formal came upon us much faster than I expected, and we did end up with it as a gig. We weren’t the only band performing, since both bands were high schoolers who attended the school, so it was to give us a chance to enjoy the dance too. My formal wear was still at my parents’ house, and I wasn’t getting any sort of money from much other than gigs, which we mostly put back into the band, but my bandmates decided to pool their cash together to get me an outfit for the dance.
So I was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, making sure I looked good. I stood in black dress pants that had been modified to be thin and have a leather strip down each side, giving it a bit of edge, a black dress shirt whose arms were make of black lace, dressy combat boots, and a vest made of black and red brocade that had flowers all through it. My friends had bedazzled the lapel of the vest with metal studs.
I added a choker with a round dark red pendant instead of a tie, and then put on eyeliner, a little dark red eyeshadow, and some black lipstick mostly in the middle of my lips that faded as it went out. I liked to wear makeup on stage because it stood out. I thought I looked really good as I stood there, but it occurred to me that someone like Archer might not like it so much, and I was debating whether I should do something else when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Archer was wearing a black tuxedo with a red vest that was a little lighter than mine, but they matched well. His crisp shirt was white and he had on a black jacket. He looked phenomenal, and I felt like one of those cartoon characters who had their eyes fall out of their head as I looked at him.
He was followed by his two sisters. Harper was wearing a classy silk dress that flowed down to the floor in a beautiful blue color, and Evie was wearing a ball gown that was covered in emerald green sparkles. I just knew that if I spent too much time even standing next to her, I’d be covered in glitter by the end of the night.
Archer stopped at the bottom of the stairs as he took me in, his eyes running from my feet all the way up to my face slowly, and then he smiled like he’d just won the lottery. I thought my heart was going to stop.
“You look amazing,” he finally said, and came up to me, kissing me on the cheek so as not to mess up any of my makeup. “I’ve seen you get dolled up for a gig, but damn.”
“You’re just sweet talking to me now,” I said slyly. “Hoping I’ll fall into bed or something.”
Archer grinned at that. “Eventually, yes.”
Varick was right. I was in love with him, and I would happily fall into bed with him right this second if I didn’t have a gig, dance be damned. Archer telling me that I needed to get going was a stark reminder that I couldn’t do that though, so I kissed him quickly before I went out the basement door to wait for Zach to pick me up.
We got to the dance before everyone else. Both bands were there, with us setting up first while the other band, called Paradox, set up their equipment to wait in the wings. Paradox told us good luck, and we went to make sure everything was set up how we wanted it. They had a curtain over the stage here, and I was peeking out, looking to see when Archer would show up.
Varick came up behind me, making me hunch over so he could look out too. “Gus is here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not surprising. He is the vice president.”
“Why is he here with Audrey?” Zach asked after he crawled under our legs to peek out himself.
I looked down at him with a look that said he was ridiculous and then looked out to see Audrey Whitlocke, head cheerleader, was indeed his date. Gus mostly liked men, though he had admitted that some women were okay to fuck, as he put it. I shook my head at that. I knew Audrey was hoping to snag up Archer, but I couldn’t imagine why she was there with Gus.
No one knew Archer and I were dating yet, as we barely saw each other at school due to our conflicting schedules and he didn’t want to cause problems. Tonight would be the first time our schoolmates would see us together.
“It’s likely she asked Archer and he said no,” I finally said. “So either Gus is a good second place, or she’s trying to make Archer jealous.”
“I bet Gus is trying to get your attention too,” Nigel said from behind us, though he wasn’t trying to look out at the people coming in.
I shuddered at that idea. I had seen him watching me at school, and trying to get my attention. I didn’t like it. I wanted nothing to do with him, and pointedly ignored him every single time. I would prefer for him to find someone else to obsess over.
I knew Nigel was probably right though. I wasn’t going to allow him to bother me tonight though. I smiled when I finally saw Archer and his sisters come into the venue. He was smiling and making his way around saying hello to people. Archer had friends in almost every clique you could find in the school. He had such a charming personality that just about everyone loved him. It was nice to see and I enjoyed watching him so at ease as he laughed with people.
“He’s so hot,” I whispered, but my friends heard me and chuckled.
“You’ve got it bad,” Varick said.
I nodded, not even bothering to argue with him about it. “Yes, I do, but this time, I actually have him. He’s mine, and I’m his.”
“Focus on that tonight, after the music,” Varick said with a grin. “Also, I was thinking. We’ve been working on the Archer song for a while…”
“It’s called ‘Mismatched Romance’ thank you very much,” I grumbled. They had been calling it the Archer song for a while. They weren’t wrong that I wrote it because of him, but I didn’t like them saying it out loud.
The song was about being in love with someone but being in stark contrasting lives that keep us apart. It’s how I had always viewed Archer. Out of my reach, a dream of what I wish I could have but knowing that we were always out of sync and never really meant to match together. Of course, now we were together, but the song still held some truth. It was more a ballad than pop punk like we normally did, but it was a great slow song.
“I think we should play it tonight,” Varick continued. “Give it its debut! It would be perfect to dance to!”
Normally, we only performed songs that were originally written by me. Sometimes Varick helped me write them. For venues like this though, we did covers of other songs. Rock, pop, and alternative, usually. We had plenty of dance songs and slow songs for tonight, but he was right that it would be a good slow song for people. I nodded slowly at him, agreeing to play it, even though I was nervous. I wasn’t sure if Archer would figure out it was for him, but if he did, I hoped he’d like it.
Once it was time for the dance to start, Tormented Accord was announced, and we went on to the students cheering for us. I worked the crowd to get them going, asking them if they’re ready to rock, and when they all screamed that they were, I gave the signal to Varick and we started our set.
We had a great time performing. While I wasn’t very popular in the school, our band was. They loved us, and we kept them dancing for our entire set. I caught Archer’s eyes when I played the song for him, and I saw some recognition as he leaned against the wall watching me. He’d had a few people ask him to dance during it, but it looked like he turned them down. He was watching me play and sing, a smile on his face, taking in the lyrics as he tapped his foot to the beat.
We got asked to do an encore once we were done, so we came back out and did a couple more of our original songs before we finally handed off to Paradox. They played pop music while we broke down our set up and Paradox got theirs in place. It was while we were starting to get our stuff into the van that the drummer for Paradox came up to us outside.
“You guys sounded amazing!” he said with a smile. “Your group is going to join the Battle of the Bands, right?”
“The what?” I asked, and he pulled out a flier for it and handed it to me.
“It’s got two stages,” he told me. “You audition, get in, and then there is the local battle which decides which bands go on to Salt Lake. Then in summer, the big battle happens. They have some amazing prizes, including a record deal.”