For as long as he could remember, there was something about her presence that Archie found intoxicating. Magnetic. Thrilling.

He'd been sitting in his room the first time he truly succumbed to it. It was the day after the beach when Theresa nearly died; Archie had been sitting at his desk, trying to desperately to distract himself from every one of the stupid thoughts that pranced around his head when his door had given a shy creak. A light footstep pressed into the carpet, and something told Archie it was her.

His body had gravitated to the door, and her face reminded Archie of someone standing on the edge of an abyss- her tears were desperately clinging to her luminous eyes, her lips pinched as if holding in a sob. Archie didn't even need to mumble "Come in" before her ghostly pale form had stumbled in, turning around and shoving Archie's door closed. Archie remembered the way her head leant against the wooden door, how her limbs draped as if being sucked into the pits of the earth. He remembered how she'd scrunched her eyes shut, and how tightly her feeble fist was clenched.

"You need to talk?"

"I can't."

It was then that a tiny beaded tear had slipped down her cheek, and she seemed to crumble as she let her body slide to the ground and sat, back against the door now. It felt only natural when Archie found himself sitting beside her, his long, thin hand squeezing hers. There was something completely and utterly right about the way she leant into him, her strawberry-lavender aroma saturating Archie's world. It felt so familiar as his hand ran up and down her tousled hair, as his body absorbed her shudders as her breath heaved.

"I t-told him it was too much. And he kept pushing me…" She finally mumbled, her voice like honey, but choked up with tears. "It can't be my fault…" Her voice was scarcely a whisper now, a gentle hiss as she buried her face in Archie's shoulder, warm tears soaking his t-shirt.

"It's okay, Theresa." Archie assured her, squeezing her hand. His eyes glanced nervously to his door. "We all make mistakes."