Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 152: Because You Gave Me

Chapter 152: Because You Gave Me

She flinched at his unexpected snap. "But you are the one who said..."

"One minute," Archie interrupted her. He turned away from her, one hand pulling out his drawer and the other retrieving a few objects from within it. With each disappearance his hand made into the drawer, it reappeared with a completely different object, though all seemed kind of familiar to Avery.

Like she’d seen them once or twice over the years.

She continued to watch him as he closed the drawer, stepped forward and pulled his shirt over his head. Her eyes raked down the broad shoulders and chiseled set of abs, before she forced them back up to his annoyed face.

"Wh— What are you doing?" she stuttered, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. Though she was sure he wasn’t about to do what was on her mind, it didn’t stop heat from pooling in her lower belly.

Instead of replying with his words, Archie pointed at a spot on his upper arm where a red inked tattoo, with a shape she couldn’t quite place, sat.

"Remember this?" he raised a brow.

"Am I... expected to?" Avery asked carefully.

"Definitely," he seethed. "You pinched me, Ava. You dug your nails in my arm." Seeing the confusion creeping into her eyes, Archie continued, "Arthur’s birthday three years ago. He requested for a joint photo with everyone and you were unfortunately, I guess, positioned beside me and asked to sit right by my side. Then you did this, you pinched me to get through the time." He could see the moment her brown eyes dilated and he knew she remembered that moment.

Of course, she did. A ’once in a year’ evil doer like her would surely remember all her sins.

"I... I’m sorry but it’s been years," Avery frowned, "Shouldn’t the scar be erased by now?"

"It should," Archie deadpanned. "But I made it permanent with a tattoo."

"You did what?"

"It’s not like the red ink is fake anyway, you dug blood out with your nails already."

His blue eyes sharpening, he cut Avery off from whatever she had wanted to say and pointed at his own chest where the tattoo with the cursively inscriped Ava laid.

"Remember this one?"

Avery blinked rapidly. She wasn’t supposed to remember what caused did, but she did. Now she could only hope she was wrong.

"I... I think I do."

"You think? You’re not even sure?" Archie chuckled mirthlessly.

Her nails digging into the duvet in her hand, Avery bit down on her lips. "I should be sure but—"

"No worries," he cut her off. "I will refresh your memories. Your 20th birthday. You were drunk and wouldn’t accept any of my gifts, so Arthur asked what you wanted from me and made me promise to give you whatever it was. You know what you asked, Ava."

Avery avoided his eyes, nodding slowly.

"I wanted the permission to write something on your chest..."

"And I wasn’t supposed to clean it for as long as it didn’t erase by itself," Archie continued, "You took a marker and requested, no, you demanded that I take off my shirt, and what did you write?"

She ducked her head and didn’t reply.

"No, Angel. Don’t pretend like you forgot." Archie stepped forward, now sporting a devilish grin on his face. "Tell me what you wrote on my chest."

"Ava’s..." The word came out in a whisper.

"Ava’s what?" he probed. "We both know there’s more."

She was still whispering. "Do I really have to say it?"

"Would I waste my time waiting for your answer if you didn’t have to?"

"Okay," Avery swallowed. "Well... I wrote Ava’s dog... Woof." She took a step backwards like she was scared he would advance forward and punish her for her actions from years back.

Archie shrugged.

"There. Wasn’t so hard to do, right?" She nodded and he continued, "Before I got home that night, the ’dog’ and the ’woof’ were smeared already so I cleansed them off completely. Then I had the tattoo artist make the ’Ava’s’ permanent and it’s been there ever since. Because you gave them to me, Ava. I didn’t want it gone."

Avery fell speechless, the words caught in her throat as she struggled for an appropriate reaction to give.

Archie didn’t wait for it. He turned away and picked up one of the objects he retrieved from the drawer earlier and raised it up, dangling it in front of her face.

The object was a wooden bracelet which sent Avery’s jaws slacking as soon as she recognized it.

"This..." she ran a spare hand through her hair in exasperation. Jeez, she had really gone to ends just to annoy Archie in the past. She had thought he was doing the same at the time, but living with him these past several weeks made her understand that he had been doing the direct opposite. "What’s this..."

"Yes, this," Archie affirmed. "You sent me a wooden bracelet that smells like shit to spite me on my last birthday, but just because you said it made you think of me when you saw it, I kept it. You engraved my initials on it with messy skills but I still wished I could wear it everywhere. I would have, if it wasn’t for fear that it would disgust other people..."

His hands settled on his waist.

"And that’s because I wouldn’t hesitate to snuff the life out of them if they so much as show their disgust. You know me; I don’t really care about people, but I was sure you wouldn’t like it if they had to meet their dead ancestors sooner than fate arranged, indirectly because of you. So I kept it here and I never lost it."

"But I mistakenly lost yours," Avery whispered.

"And that’s not the problem."

She nodded, "The problem is that you don’t feel I loved the gift enough to feel bad when I lost it."

"Exactly. You were so ready to stop looking when I asked."

"I won’t stop looking then."

"No, you should." Archie grinned, "Actually, please do. I have an idea of a better anklet in my mind. Looks a lot like a cuff, big and all, but it has your initials on it. That one will be harder to lost, don’t you think?" With that, he stormed into his closet and returned a few seconds later with a towel slung over his shoulder.

His face was completely blank like they didn’t have an intense conversation before he went to the closet.

"You want to sleep here. Didn’t you say the bed was uncomfortable?"

"It’s more comfortable than mine," Avery murmured, a hint of regret in her tone.

"Then stay here for the night. I’ll have your mattress changed tomorrow."

Without a single word more, Archie bypassed her, pulled the door open and stepped out of the room. Avery turned to follow after him when her eyes caught the family photo placed on the bedside drawer on the side she slept the previous night.

Her eyes moved over the faces in the picture and she remembered their first conversation about it and how he told her his mother was dead, but didn’t tell her anything about the rest of them. Then she’d heard from Jodi that his younger brother was dead too. He had returned from the trip for more than a week now and she was yet to mention it to him.

God, she was so selfish. How come she barely knew anything about this man while he knew literally everything about her and even remembered stuffs from years ago.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

She loosened her grip on the pillow and duvet, letting them fall onto the ground as she ran out of the room. She ran along the hallway, past the gym and library and continued until she got to the door that led out into the open air poolside.

Archie was about to get into the water but he stopped, hearing the sound of her feet thumping against the tiled ground as she approached him.

"Hey," she called.

"It’s 9pm. Classes tomorrow," he pointed out without turning to face her. "You should get back to bed."

"Archie, I’m sorry. And before you can say sorry doesn’t repair shit, I know that. But I still want to say I’m sorry." She licked her lips, "As you know, I’m very, very dumb so I need to have things outlined to me before I can understand completely. I uhm... need to get some facts straight."