Archie spotted Reggie in the hallway getting things from his locker and approached him.
"Hey, man. What's up?" Archie greeted.
Reggie shot Archie an 'are you serious' look, then focused his attention back on getting textbooks from his locker.
"Come on, Reg. It's been days since that happened. You're still mad?"
"What do you think?" said Reggie before slamming his locker and starting to walk down the hall toward his next class.
Archie quickly followed behind.
"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry, man? I was just trying to help," Archie explained.
"Yeah, well, do you know what your help did? All it did was make my dad even more angry than usual, so thanks so much for your 'help', Archie."
Archie grabbed Reggie's muscular arm just as he was about to enter the classroom and Reggie looked down at Archie's hand as if he wanted to cut it off, then he looked up at Archie with an irritated expression.
"I'm sorry," Archie said sincerely, looking into Reggie's soulful eyes.
"Whatever, man. It's cool, alright? I'll get over it. I'm just still pissed, for now," said Reggie, then snatched away from Archie's grasp and entered the classroom.
Archie sulked for a moment, before realizing that he was about to be late for his class, then darting off toward it.
He made it just before the bell and took a seat in his desk beside Cheryl.
"Looking a little out of breath there, Archiekins. Between-class rendezvous with Veronica have you almost late to class, again?" Cheryl spoke candidly, as usual.
"No, I was with Reggie, actually."
"Now there's an unexpected pairing. Do tell," Cheryl beckoned.
"Well, its no secret that Reggie's father is abusive-," Archie started.
"Yes, the tribulations of the innocent, I regret," Cheryl spoke in her signature poetic fashion.
"Yeah, well, I hadn't seen it with my own eyes 'til his dad was laying into him at one of our practices, so I couldn't help but say something, but all I did was piss Reggie off."
"Archie the Brave, at it again. Look, Archiekins: as someone who's experienced years of parental torment, I can see how what you did would actually do the opposite of help the situation, but once Reggie thinks a little deeper and focuses on your intention, I promise he'll come around. Of course, you could always employ my personal favorite method of mental manipulation to hurry things along," Cheryl said with her mischievous red-lipped smile.
"Anything, Cheryl. The guy won't even talk to me."
"Happy to assist. It's quite simple, really: show Reggie how much you care about him and he'll promptly begin to associate what you did with caring."
"But how do I show 'how much I care'?"
"Now that aspect, Archie, I have the utmost confidence you'll be able to navigate on your own. Caring is sort of your specialty."