The Past won't go away: Story of my life – Day 3

We try our lives away,

Then stumble to the grave,

We cry, and still we say,

The past won't go away,

Story of my life

"Morning mother" Archie announced as he entered the drawing room. "Morning dear, how are you today?" Molly asked cheerful.

"Ok" Archie replied half heartily. Molly glanced up at her son's grim expression. He had his hands in his pockets; he looked lost, like he didn't know what to do with him self. "Lexie's gone out with Max to the village" Molly commented, knowing this is what her son was wondering. "Oh has she" Archie answered, trying to sound like he wasn't bothered about it.

"Why don't you and Amber go out for a bit? I'll look after the wee ones, give you two a break, some time by yourselves" Molly suggested. Archie sighed, and then shrugged. "Thanks, I'll see if she wants to"

Well its taken me a while to see, your not so special

"Amber do you want to go down to the village for a while?" Archie asked his wife as he approached her in their bedroom. Amber was holding Sapphire up on the bed and trying to put her hair in bunches but as she did one, Sapphire pulled out the other one. "Sapphire Please!" Amber yelled at the child. Sapphire pouted and looked up at her angry mother, but Amber wasn't looking at her any longer. "Owen, leave them alone" Amber shouted at the little boy who was now sitting cross legged on the floor and pulling out things from her handbag. Amber left the bedside, throwing down the brush on the bed beside Sapphire, and went to rescue her contents of her bag. Archie smiled at his daughter and picked up the brush. He had watched Lexie do it yesterday; it didn't look that hard to do. He took her two hair elastics from Sapphire's hand and put them on his wrist as he gently brushed her hair, then parting her hair down the middle, concentrating on getting it straight. Sapphire giggled to herself as Archie spoke to her "Lets see if Daddy can give this a go"

He got one section of hair and in his best attempt scrapped it into a bunch and then got the elastic from his wrist and put it round the hair, "How does this go? Ok not that way obviously…oh I get it…right here we go…there done" Archie stepped back to observe his first attempt of putting hair up. "Right now the other one, now keep it in for daddy please Sapphy?"

It's a thought…only a thought

Archie finished the other one as he held up the mirror for Sapphire to see. She smiled back at him showing all her tiny white teeth glittering "Good daddy". Ok so they were a little wonky, and maybe not straight but they would do. "Sorry Arch what did you say?" Amber asked standing up and clutching her handbag in hand.

"Did you want to go down to the village?" Archie repeated

"YES" Amber answered immediately. Archie laughed to himself.

"Ok then, Owen come on we're going downstairs now. Sapphy come here," Archie informed, picking up Sapphire from the bed.

"I wish you wouldn't nickname her that" Amber commented, but Archie chose to ignore it and carried on downstairs.

"Ah Paul, thanks" Archie laughed as his half-brother appeared on the landing. Archie handed Sapphire to Paul and then Archie took Ambers hand as they walked down the stairs. "Archie!" Paul's voice echoed as they went out the front door.

Why do you make something so easy so complicated?

Lexie and Max sat outside the tearooms sharing a cup of tea together in the sunshine, as they relaxed from the long walk they had just had from the house. "So, are you enjoying yourself so far?" Max asked Lexie as she took a sip from her cup. Lexie swallowed her mouthful and smiled, "It's been…interesting" Lexie replied, searching for the right word.

"So you had no idea he was married"

"Max, from what I've heard of Archie in the last five years, I wouldn't have even known if he existed still"

"That bad hey?"

"I just didn't think to ask, maybe I didn't want to, I don't know"

"I'm not sure what I think of his wife though"

"Oh trust me, from what think, she's Justine and Katrina mixed into one"

"I take it you're not best of friends then"

"To tell you the truth, I haven't really spoken to her, maybe the four of us should have a drink tonight, back at the house?"

"Good idea, that way we can all get to know each other a bit better"

"Aye"

"Hey isn't that Archie's four by four just pulled up over there?"

Lexie looked across, as Archie got out of the car and Amber the other side. She wondered what they were saying as they stood on the pathway as Amber pointed in one direction and Archie shook his head and pointed the other way. Then Amber had said something, Archie sighed and then they had gone off in the direction Amber had pointed to. "Poor man" Lexie sympathised.

"So what do you want to do now we're here?" Max asked changing the subject. "Umm…" Lexie hesitated.

"Molly…help" Paul called as he entered the door.

Molly laughed at the site before her, Paul was carrying Sapphire, and Owen had hold of his hand and was attempting to swing from it.

"Saph!" Ami yelled as she slided down from Molly's lap.

Paul put down Sapphire and came and sat beside Molly. "What are you doing?" he asked as he saw a box of photos by her side and the one in her hand was off Archie and Lexie holding Champaign.

"Oh just showing Ami some pictures" Molly replied as she held up another one to show Paul. "That's Duncan dancing with Lexie, why's she in a big red dress?" Paul asked as he pointed to the picture.

Molly smiled, "Well it was the mid-summers ball, and Lexie had got this lovely red dress to wear, but well things went a bit wrong and she ended up in the kitchen all night, I went in and she was washing up some plates, I thanked her for tonight but she said Archie had just been in and done so." Molly paused, Paul still looked confused, "Then Duncan came along and tried to cheer her up, he made her go put her dress on and that's a picture of him making her dance" Molly explained.

"That was sweet of him, oh look Archie's there too" Paul pointed out "But he looks upset" Paul added as he pointed out Archie in the background, he looked distant minded and was staring straight forward. Molly held her glasses and peered closer "So he does," she simply said.

Somewhere deep inside, you must know that I miss you

"ARCHIE" Lexie shouted at him from a distance. Archie and Amber turned round; Lexie was waving and pulling Max along with her as she ran to catch them up. "Oh great" Amber mumbled under her breath. Archie ignored her and waved back, when Lexie and Max caught up, both slightly out of breath, Lexie laughed.

"You gaun back?"

"Yeah, you want a lift?"

"That would be great thanks"

"No problem"

On the way home in the car, Lexie tried to start conversations but the rest of the car stayed pretty silent. "I was thinking we could all have a drink tonight" Lexie announced. "That sounds good" Archie answered immediately.

"Good, ok then that's settled" Lexie smiled

"Ok Lexie…Red wine or Tequila?" Archie asked holding up the two bottles, as Lexie gave him a grin back, "Either but not mixed" she replied amused, as Archie did too. "Not anything for me thanks Arch" Amber replied.

"What Amber, you have to have a drink, come on it will be laugh" Lexie insisted. "No, I'm quite alright" Amber refused.

"Oh ok…" Lexie responded

"Red wine for me please Archie" Max replied

Archie came over with some drinks on a tray. "Lex could you move that box for me please" Archie called to her as he came near the table.

"Yeh sure" Lexie replied as she picked up the heavy box. "What's in here? It weighs a ton"

Archie put the tray down and handed out the drinks. "Um don't know, mother had it this morning, think she was planning on showing Ami something she said" Archie responded not really looking at the box.

"Aww…look its all the old pictures!" Lexie yelled

"Woah Lexie calm down" Max laughed

"Sorry…but look Arch, its me and you like seven years ago!" Lexie shrieked

"Let me see" Archie dropped down on the floor next to Lexie. "Look how young we look" he laughed.

"Yeh before we married and had the stress of kids" Lexie added.

"You haven't aged one bit" Max commented looking over Lexie's shoulder.

"Amber do you want to have a look?" Archie asked glancing over to her.

"No I'm ok, I'll look at them another time. I'm just going to check the kids" Amber informed as she got up and went out the room.

"Ok" Archie answered, too involved in looking at the photos to notice.

I look around and nothings changed but all this time has separated us. Press rewind and stop the tape, lets play it from the start and pause before we part. Replay it from the past confusing what we had, cant try it out again

"Lex look, one of you and Katrina, after she got her place on the board" Archie commented thrusting the picture into Lexie's hand.

"So that's Katrina" Max said raising his voice a bit on the word 'that's'

Both Archie and Lexie glanced up at him, "Sorry, thought to myself" Max snickered.

Archie laughed. "What?" Lexie asked.

"Just remembering the train ride home the night before" He added

"Shh…it wasn't my fault, it was the drink" Lexie implied

Archie suddenly shut up and looked towards Max. "Don't worry I know all about it" Max mentioned seeing Archie's concerned face. They all laughed again. "Alexandra got a bit drunk that night wouldn't you say?" Archie questioned.

"Yes, ok now can we be quiet?" Lexie asked, picking up another picture. "I can't remember this one being taken" Lexie commented as she showed Archie a picture of Molly and the both of them together.

"Me neither" Archie frowned as he turned over the picture. "My Family" Archie read aloud, in his mother's handwriting. Suddenly they both went silent, a sudden guiltiness ran over them.

I've learned to love, be understanding and believe in life, but you've

Got to make choices, be wrong or right, sometimes you've

Got to sacrifice the things you like

"I…I never thought about how this effected mother" Archie spoke after a while. "We were too busy thinking about our selves to notice, we were hurting her," Lexie added.

"Um…I'm just going to see if I can find Amber" Max commented, getting up sensing their need to be together.

"Lex, what have we done"

"I don't know…but I think this two weeks has something to do with it"

"Me too"

"I'm gaun to talk to Molly tomorrow, come on lets put these photos away"

"Good idea"

I'd do anything just to hold you in my arms to try and make you

Laugh, cos somehow I cant put you in the past, I'd do anything,

Just to fall asleep with you, cos I know I wont forget you

Archie and Lexie sat in stillness on the sofa. "You want another drink?" Archie asked. "Mmm please" Lexie replied.

"Here"

"Thanks"

"Lex, are you happy?"

"Happy? … Yeh suppose I am, I mean I've got a fantastic husband and a gorgeous wee girl, miss the scrambled eggs though"

Archie gave a soft laugh.

"Why aren't you?" Lexie asked

I wish I could have told you, the things I

Kept inside, but now I guess I've left it too late

Archie gazed at Lexie; this is how he had imagined them together, sitting together at night, talking.

"Don't you ever think about if it had been…you know…different" Archie questioned. "Different…" Lexie sounded out the word. "You mean…"

"Yes, if you hadn't left" Archie added.

"Sometimes" Lexie replied getting up and putting her empty glass on the tray.

"Night Arch"

"Sweet dreams Lex"