FicWad

Atlanta finally calmed down enough to think clearly. Surely Archie was just being nice to an old girlfriend, right? Atlanta knew he only had eyes for her, she secretly knew that. She had never made a move for him before and this may have been her last chance, walking back from Ares' class, and she hadn't taken that chance. Now it was quite probably too late. This Sherrice was probably going to hang around for awhile, so Atlanta was just going to have to ignore her and Archie (as much it would pain her to do so) as much as she could.

I'm not strong enough to be able to ignore them. she told herself truthfully. I'm going to go see what Dani has to say. She walked down the hall and the sound of one of Dani's mixed CD's wafted from the living room. It sounded like "Looking for Someone" by one of Dani's favourite artists, Sarah Slean. Atlanta went and glanced over the top of he stairs into the section of the living room that you can see from the stairs, i.e. not much. Just the entrance pretty much.

What she saw when she looked sent agony and anger coursing through her veins. She could see two torsoes, one clad in a salmon pink polo and one in a blue hoodie. Archie's hands were on her stomach from behind and they were swaying their hips together, slowly with the music. Atlanta could see his chin on her shoulder. Sherrice delicately put her hands on his and he started to rub her stomach lightly.

Atlanta felt hurt beyond belief. She wanted to go downstairs and kill them both. She stalked back down to the end of the hall and burst into Dani's room. A similar sight met her eyes here. The only difference was that both were looking at her in surprise. Odie kissed Dani on the cheek and left, smiling at Atlanta awkwardly.

"This had better be good." Dani said sitting at her desk and swivelling the chair around to face Atlanta who had sat on her bed, Dani's quilt bunched in her tight fists.

"Bitch." was all Atlanta could say.

"That there's a strong word. Who deserves that?" Dani asked. "Hopefully not me."

"No, it's that monster downstairs." Atlanta responded through gritted teeth.

"Monster? I thought it was just you, me, Archie and Odie?" Dani responded, looking confused. "You're not mad at Odie are you? Cause no matter what he did, he doesn't deserve to be called a bitch."

"Not... Odie..." Atlanta was seeing genuine green. She was furious, and Dani could tell.

"Archie?" Atlanta shook her head.

"Sherrice," Atlanta said in the most mocking way possible.

Dani suddenly perked up. "Sherrice? Oh my god, is she here? I have to go see her!" Dani jumped upand ran to the door. With her hand on the door, she added: "Look, 'Lanta, whatever she did to ya; she didn't mean it. I know her, she wouldn't say boo to a ghost. Just get to know her a bit." With that, she bounded out the door and quietly down the stairs.

From her spot on Dani's bed Atlanta cold hear two girls sqealing. How could Dani be friends with that bitch? Bitch wasn't strong enough for this Sherrice. Slut seemed appropriate. She was allowing Archie to put his hands all over her. She was obviously desperate.

She rose from the bed and walked over to the full length mirror behind the door. She inspected her face and desided that she did, in fact, look hiddeous comparred to Sherrice. She was stunning, for sure.

She decided to suck it up and go downstairs, there was no way she was going to let Sherrice get between her hand her friends.

Down the stairs she went. She turned into the living room where the girls were chattig excitedly and Archie had turned red and was scratching the back of his neck. He saw Atlanta and quickly smacked Dani upside the head.

"Ouch! Archie, what was that..." he pointed to Atlanta, turning further red, and Dani followed his gaze. She looked like she understood immediately.

"Hey, Atlanta. You decided to come down, awesome." She sounded awkward, like she was trying to cover something up. This made Atlanta furious, Dani was supposed to be her confidante, her best friend. Now she was hiding something. Great. "Hey, look, I was about to go get some drinks for these guys, you want anything?" Dani asked.

"No, thanks." Atlanta said, trying unsuccesfully to hid her fury. She plunked herself down on the couch and crossed her arms as Dani walked into the kitchen. Sherrice was looking nervous. She sat in the arm chair adjascent the couch and looked at Archie who was looking terribly out of place.

"Um... are you sure it's okay for me to stay here? I have some money I could use for a hotel or something..." Sherrice asked in a soft voice. Atlanta was smug to hear her feeling uncomfortable with her presence.

"O-oh no! You're not staying anywhere else. You're here now, and this is where you'll stay!" He said suddenly looking alarmed.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Herry, Jay and Theresa came in the front door.

"Woah..." Herry stopped in his tracks when he saw Sherrice. Jay had been looking at Theresa, who was next to him, and he ran into Herry.

"Ouch, man why'd you stop?" Jay looked around Herry and saw Sherrice. "Oh." He looked up at Archie. "Is she with you?" Archie nodded. "Well then I think you and I need to talk." He jabed his thumb towards the stairs. Archie followed him quickly, eager to escape the awkwardness of the situation.

Meanwhile, Herry had managed his way over to Sherrice and was shaking her hand. "I'm Herry... whats, uh, you're..?"

"Sherrice. Nice to meet you, Herry."

"And I'm Theresa." Theresa had been hanging near the entrance to the living room.

"And I've got drinks!" Dani walked in carrying sodas. She tossed a green tea and ginger ale blend to Sherrice, a Coke to Herry, and a 7-Up to Theresa. She carried a green tea ginger ale for herself. "You sure, you don't want anything, Atlanta?"

"No," she lied. All she wanted was Archie.