Tuesday passed roughly in the same manner that Monday had. It was a little weird, sure, but overall, it wasn't so bad. I still got weird looks and people still whispered about me. Even a few people I'd go as far as to call aquatintces in chemistry abruptly stopped talking to me and refused to make eye contact. I wasn't too heartbroken about it. It was just the slightest bit unnerving, though.

The main thing that made Tuesday totally worth all of the awkward looks and rude whisperings was the fact that apparently Archer didn't have a problem with kissing me in public. He was perfectly at ease with leaning over and pressing his lips against mine and then heading to fifth hour after lunch. I'd been so surprised I barely had enough time to kiss him back before he was striding off with a rather satisfied smirk on his face. I wasn't so sure if I was supposed to count this as a good thing or not, but I sure as hell didn't have a problem with it.

Now it was Wednesday, I had twelve days left, and I was no closer to figuring out what I was supposed to do to help him than I had been before. Striding up to him and demanding to know if he was taking antidepressants seemed like a pretty stupid thing to do on my part.

Well, whatever the hell I was supposed to do should do me a favor and make itself known in the next few days. I was praying that I was going to make headway someway, somehow tonight, since I was scheduled for work at the coffee house. It was a bonus that I would get to see Regina, too.

I dragged myself home off the subway after school and took a hot, pounding shower for as long as possible before I had to head for work. School always made me feel dirty -you should see what part of town it's in- and I had enough time to shower and make myself look presentable for work before leaving.

My parents had arrived home sometime early Monday morning, but I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving. Which, coincidentially enough, also happened to be the time I'd yelled at them. You could say that I wasn't too stressed out about it. Call it rude or whatever you wanted, but I barely spent time with them and I barely knew them anymore. What else was I supposed to feel towards them?

My thoughts kept drifting in and out of the most random things possible on the train ride over to Mama Rosa's. This usually happened when I had too much free time on my hands, and the Lord only knew I hadn't had enough of that lately.

When I finally got to the coffee house, my teeth were chattering and it was a relief to finally step inside the warm, cinnamon scented place.

"Oh, hello, Hadley. Is it cold outside?"

I looked to the front counter and saw Regina, and God did she look horrible. Her hair might have gained a few more streaks of gray, it looked like she hadn't slept in two days, and the dark bags underneath her eyes sort of gave her the garish appearance of a raccoon.

"Just a little," I answered, forcing a smile.

"I probably should have called," Regina said, wiping down the front counter with a bit of force. "It's kind of dead in here. You shouldn't have had to come in."

Well, that was surprising to hear.

"Oh...no, that's okay," I said slowly. "It's empty at my place. I don't mind."

Regina glanced over at me as I walked behind the counter to the kitchen to drop my stuff off by the coat rack.

"How often do your parents leave you home alone?" Regina asked me as I returned with my apron on.

I shrugged. "Just when they leave on business trips. They work really long hours, so I really don't ever see them until the weekends, maybe."

I didn't know why I was babbling like an idiot, telling Regina something she probably didn't even need to know, but it sort of felt good getting that off my chest. Nobody really knew about my family life.

"Sweetie, that's awful!" Regina exclaimed, catching me completely off guard.

"Oh, no, it's okay, really, Regina -"

Regina held up a hand, cutting me off. "The next time your parents go out of town, you'll stay here. It's not right for you to be left alone so much."

Okay, that was literally the last thing I was expecting her to say. I knew she was a kind, caring person, but to the point where she was willing to house me for a few days was just the slightest bit surprising. And I wasn't so sure if staying in the Morales' house was going to end up turning into a catastrophe. For Archer or for me was the question.

"Thank you..." I trailed off, biting my lip. "I'm just...oh, I don't know...uhm...how are you?"

Regina smiled a bit in sympathy. "I'm fine, Hadley. Just fine."

That was definitely a lie. I could tell that much, and I wasn't a super intelligent genius like Archer.

I glanced around at the rest of the coffee house and sure enough, Regina was right. There were barely any patrons in here at all, and it was almost six in the evening.

It was the perfect time for a talk, right? Probably not, but it was now or never. 12 days were 12 days.

"I, uh...really liked the rest of the family," I started, hopping up to sit on the counter.

"Good," Regina said, her voice sounding a little weary. "I'm glad."

This was clearly going nowhere.

I fell silent for a few moments, watching Regina as she went about restocking the pastries in the case. I knew she was sort of heartbroken person, but it hadn't ever been this obvious to me before. She must have been as good as hiding her emotions as Archer was.

"Look, Hadley... I don't know what to say to...to...-"

"If you're talking about what happened on Thanksgiving, then you don't need to say anything."

Regina looked up at me in surprise, her eyes widening. "Excuse me?"

I flushed bright red and immediately fixed my gaze on my shoes, but kept talking. "Archer told me what happened. I don't think it's anything you need to apologize for."

Regina sat back on the floor with a baffled look on her face, as if she couldn't really believe what I'd just said. I figured that Regina wasn't very public about what had happened to her, or her PTSD. Sure, I'd gotten the jist of everything from Archer, but a lot of these were assumptions I made on my own. I highly doubted they were wrong, however.

"I see," she finally said, sounding very weary.

I didn't know what to say to that. Was there anything I could say to comfort Regina?

"I'm sorry, Regina."

Regina barked out a laugh, her eyes bright and shining with unshed tears. "Don't apologize, Hadley. What happens happens. It's in the past, and there's not anything we can do about it."

No, I thought suddenly at her words. No, that's not true at all.

What was in the past was in the past, she was right about that. But there was nothing there that said we couldn't move on from those horrible things, change our opinons of them, to try and make life worth living. Life was always worth living, even if it didn't seem like it.

"You still have April, May, and June," I pointed out hesitantly. "And your mom and Archer."

Regina gave a watery laugh, wiping at her eyes with her shirt sleeve. "I know I do."

"I'm not trying to act like I know everything," I continued on with a sudden upsurge of confidence. I slid off the counter and sat cross legged on the floor beside Regina, folding my hands in my lap. "It's just that... I don't know. I just want to see all of you guys be happy and be successful. You all deserve if after everything you've been through. I'm probably messing this up right now, and I don't think I'm making much sense here's because I'm rambling like an idiot, but -"

Regina burst out laughing and held up a hand to stop my random string of babbling. "I know, sweetie. I know what you're getting at. And I'm honored that you'd tell me something like that. We...we don't really let people get close to this family, if you know what I mean."

I frowned, thinking about what she said. "Why not? If you don't mind my asking."

Regina sighed, her eyes glistening as she looked up at me. "Having someone murdered in the family isn't really something to be proud of. Nobody talks about it because nobody wants to accept the fact that something as bad as that actually happens. Why do you think Archer doesn't have any friends?"

My jaw dropped, nearly hitting the floor. "Because of his dad?"

Regina nodded grimly, a hand at her forehead. "God, it was awful right after it happened. It seemed like everybody knew about it and the kids at school used to pick on Archer all of the time. They'd rough him up and call him names and tell him he'd end up a murderer, just like his dad."

I sat backwards against the counter in amazement. I was scared for what Regina had to say next. Poor Archer. Poor Regina.

"How did I not even know about that?" I said aloud, more to myself than Regina. "I've been going to the same school as Archer for years."

Regina sighed, shrugging again. "Archer does a pretty good job of blending in."

I'll say he did.

Maybe all Archer needed was somebody to show some sort of kindness towards him, to let him know that what happened with his biological father reflected nothing back on him. If the idiots at school thought Archer was automatically a horrible person for what had happened to him, then clearly they were stupid. School was only temporary, and after we graduated, the chances of seeing those douches were slim to none. I sincerely hoped Archer knew that.

"Does Archer take antidepressants?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Yes," Regina answered slowly, giving me a curious look. "He does. They're mostly what keeps him at ease, I think."

Of course I had to be skeptical right away. I didn't know a thing about antidepressants, but I didn't think they were supposed to make someone so morose in behavior. There was this nagging thought in the corner of my mind that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was going to have to dig a little deeper into this whole thing, even if it wasn't going to be pleasant.

I opened my mouth to tell Regina something I thought wasn't going to be nice to hear, but the sound of an old phone ringing loudly beat me to the punch. Regina scrambled to her feet and reached over the front counter to grab the ringing phone.

"Hello?" she answered breathlessly. She paused, listening to the person on the other line speaking. "Yes, this is she."

Watching the display of emotions coming over Regina's face as she listened to the caller made me realize that something very, very wrong had happened.

"Wait, what? Are you serious? Well, is he alright? What do -"

Regina broke off mid sentence and slammed the phone back on the hook, sucking in sharp breaths that made it seem like she was fighting back tears.

"Regina?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"There was an accident," she answered a moment later, her voice shaky.

Those words just about flipped my world upside down. I clutched at the counter while my head spun in dizzy circles.

"A-Archer?" I stammered out, my eyes wide.

"I don't know."

Regina walked over to the kitchen door and shouted "Mom, I have to go! Something happened with Archer!"

She didn't wait for an answer before she jumped the front counter and gestured for me to follow her, all but sprinting towards the door.

I didn't hesitate for another second. I threw myself over the counter and ran after Regina, barreling my way out the door, and then we started running. I had no idea where this "accident" had taken place, but I had a pretty good idea. And this was definitely no accident, whatever had happened.

I kept praying over and over in my mind that nobody had been hurt and that everything was going to be alright. Regina and I jogged down sidewalk after sidewalk, me huffing and puffing the entire way, shoving people out of the way. A few moments later it became perfectly clear where we were running - the little Chinese place Archer worked at.

When we rounded the last block towards the restaurant, the sight that was waiting for us was completely unexpected.

The entire street was blocked off by orange traffic cones and tape and a plethora of cop cars and fire engines were parked everywhere, pointed towards a tiny hole in the wall down the way. Thick black clouds of smoke were billowing up into the night sky, clogging my throat and making my eyes burn.

Regina didn't waste any time pushing her way down the sidewalk to the smoky, charred hole in the wall. I followed quickly after her and watched as she was almost immediately stopped by police.

"Get out of my way! That's my son!" Regina shouted, struggling against one of the burly looking NYPDs.

A second later tears were streaking down my face when I caught sight of Archer sliding his way underneath the barricades and reaching for his mom. I didn't dare step any closer than a few feet as Regina clutched at her son, holding him as tightly as possible while he hugged her back.

From what I could see at this distance, Archer didn't look that injured. He was covered in soot and the bruise on his cheek looked worse than before, but other than that, I couldn't tell.

I had to remind myself that everything was going to be alright. Archer was alive. But this was no accident.

The next time something like this happened, Archer may not be so lucky. Hell, I may not be so lucky, either.

Archer pulled away from Regina a few minutes later and then turned to me with this look on his face I didn't know how to describe.

"Come on, Jamison," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "I'm fine."

Sure, he was fine now, but what about later? If something as serious as a fire was going to happen again, I may not be there, and then what was going to happen? Was I really going to lose him?

"Hadley, stop crying," Archer sighed, bringing me back to reality. "I'm just fine."

"Archer," Regina said, gripping his forearm. "What happened?"

Thank you, Regina. At least now I had a minute to stop freaking crying.

"I don't know, Mom," Archer answered, rubbing a hand across his face. "They're saying it was a kitchen fire and that the place wasn't up to standard, which is why the place burned so fast. It seems a little shady to me."

No shit it seemed a little shady.

"Are you alright?" Regina pressed, sounding anxious.

"I'm fine, Mom," Archer said, starting to sound a little annoyed. "Seriously. Just covered in soot. That's all."

I'll probably never know what possessed me to do what I did next. I just decided to go with the moment and relish in the fact that Archer was still here.

I leaned over and grabbed Archer in a furiously tight hug, wrapping my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. Archer didn't seem to have a problem with hugging me back, even if we were right in front of his mother. He pressed his lips against the top of my head and sighed again before saying, "You're so stupid, Hadley. I'm fine."

I mumbled something into his shoulder that sounded ridiculous and extremely incoherent. It was probably going to take a few minutes for me to be able to speak properly again. It wasn't very difficult to see that I was visibly shaking against Archer and I was seconds away from bursting into tears all over again.

Archer may have said that everything was fine and that he was fine, but clearly that was a lie. Clearly everything was not going to be okay.

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