Rule(58)

“What’s wrong?”

“The bed’s wet.”

  I just stared at him blankly.  “So?”

“So that means we didn’t use protection.  I haven’t had sex without a condom since I was a teenager and an idiot, Geez no wonder it felt so good.”

“I’m on the pill.”

“Why?”

I made a face and rolled off of him.  “Because my mother made me.  She thought I was hooking up with one or both of you Archer twins long before it ever happened.  I’ve just stayed on it because it makes my period less crazy so we should be fine.”

He pulled me back to his chest and brushed my hair away from my face.  “With my history you really wanna chance it?”

I exhaled.  “You really know how to ruin a moment Rule.”

“Hey I told you it’s my job to protect you even if that means I have to do it from myself.  We have to have clean health screens to work in the shop since we work around bodily fluids, needles and open skin and my last one was crystal clear and like I said I never ever have unsafe sex unless it’s with a high maintenance blond with killer green eyes that makes me so crazy I forget.”

I cuddled into the curve of his body and let him wrap his arms around me.  The hand that had his name inked across the knuckles ended up resting across my chest and I used my index finger to trace over the bold letters.  “I trust you and I think we’re good so I’m not going to make an issue out of it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah because like I said it’s always been you Rule, even when I really wished it wasn’t.”

“I’m starting to wish I had paid closer attention.”

I laced our fingers together.  I liked the way they looked all tangled together.  His were long and covered in brilliant designs, mine were small and tipped in boring pink polish but next to each other they were more interesting, more vital.  I fell back asleep listening to the steady inhale and exhale of his breath in my ear and thinking that even if I hadn’t been on the pill having a moment of wild, uninhibited and totally unprotected sex with him was most definitely worth any of the risks that were involved with that.  I could think of a worse fate that brining the next troublesome Archer into the world.



Chapter 11

Rule

“The first time I came home and saw you sitting in the kitchen with Remy I remember thinking what in the hell has he gotten himself into?  You were so pale and scared, your eyes were twice as big as normal and you looked like a little bird that had fallen out of the nest.  Remy had always had a soft spot for the neglected so I wasn’t surprised, but I was flabbergasted at how quickly the rest of the family took to you.  I always thought it was going to be us Archer’s against the world forever and then there was you and it all kind of broke apart and I became even more of the black sheep than I had been.  Rome adored you, mom and dad just took you and Remy as an evitable unit and I was left out in the cold as usual.  I think I just took all those feelings of separation and alienation and transferred them onto you.  Remy and I were always two parts of a whole and when you came along that went away to some extent.  I think I was jealous that he spent so much time and effort being your hero and not being my brother.”

“The first time I saw you I was terrified.  I had seen you and Remy around school and everyone always talked about the Archer twins like you were some kind of mythical creatures.  Remy was so athletic and had all the right friends and the best grades, you were always in trouble, running around with older kids and constantly getting called to the office for skipping class or whatever else you were up to.  Remy saved me and brought me home, he made me laugh when nothing in my life seemed remotely funny and he was kind when no one in my life had ever even tried to be nice before.  He sat me in the kitchen told me not to worry when his brothers came home he would keep them in line and then you and Rome came barreling through the door.  Rome looked at me and shook his head he asked Remy if I was another stray and you, you just looked right through me like I was a ghost and asked him if he still wanted to go with you and Nash for pizza.  I thought you were beautiful in such a different way than Remy.  You guys looked so much alike but you turned your looks into something so interesting I couldn’t look away.  I stared at you for a full fifteen minutes and then when you and Rome left you looked at me and said ‘Geez Rem get her a cup of tea or something she looks like Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Remy just shook his head and sat down across from me he knew then, he always knew, he told me, ‘Rule is a good guy, Shaw, the best actually.  I love him more than anything in the world but he’s also a sixteen year old guy and an Archer.  Don’t barrow heartache when you can avoid it.’  For years and years he told me over and over that I was being foolish that I shouldn’t get wound up about you when your priorities were elsewhere and then about a year before he died he changed his tune.  When you moved to Denver together suddenly he was all about me going to DU after school, all about me getting to a point where I could tell you how I had felt about you.  Suddenly he was Remy the matchmaker, it was weird and then the accident happened and I never got a chance to ask what changed his mind.”

“Well I’m glad I know now and I still think you look like Casper.”