[sub][h3][center]Archie[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]
[i]"Okay, okay. Take a big breath... So, how about we chat over some food? I'd wait until after but I'm starving. Is that okay? It should only take a minute. Go sit, loverboy. I'll be there soon."[/i]

Archie glanced between the woman and the growing Panda Express line behind her, and nodded wordlessly. He understood the need for food more than most teenage men, given his condition and all. While he was certainly desperate, he was not selfish enough to pester someone when they absolutely owed him nothing. Especially a stranger of all things. He nodded, incredibly embarrassed that she had picked his phone up [i]for him[/i] like the child he was, and ducked away- just about scurrying over to the table she had nodded to for him to sit at. A few minutes later she rejoined him just as she said she would with a tray of Chinese food and a knowing smile on her face. Archie realized how nice she was, considering he had just about crashed her dinner. He knew a lot of people back home who wouldn't even look his way because he didn't have much in the ways of money.

[i]"So, what's your name? How long have you been aboard The Promise?"[/i]

"Oh, uh-" Archie said, looking down at his phone briefly. He had opened Natalie's profile on his phone and had been debating between trying to free-ball a message or throw his whole phone away and had spent the whole past five minutes simply staring at her number. "Sorry," he said, fumbling for the power button and turning his phone off so Nat's profile picture didn't distract him. "I'm Archie. Archie Anderson." he explained, a sheepish smile forming on his face. He extended his hand for her to shake. "I've been aboard about a month and a half. The doctors back home said I gots a condition and all."

She was pretty. And nice. Oh god was he accidentally flirting? He's sitting here bent out of shape over one girl and somehow telling jokes to another in the same breath. [i]This is why you got your ass kicked in 8th grade[/i] he thought to himself. He was an idiot. A grade A idiot with too big of a heart and mouth and too small of a mind. His mother would've probably told him that he was just like his father, which was not a good thing because his father hadn't been all that faithful. Among other reasons for why being like his dad wasn't exactly the best. Archie snapped out of his train of thought before he spaced out too much and weirded her out. "And you? It's nice to meet you."

Around the time he finished speaking, another soul joined the fray. They announced their presence suddenly from behind him, and it's so mild and civil that he actually knocks his poor phone off the table with his arm as he twists around- eyes wide in alarm in case that it's Natalie and oh god oh fuck his heart is beating out of his chest again. Archie recognized him almost as soon as he turned around as  Officer Radvi, the man who had interviewed him after his unfortunate flower collecting trip. His eyes flash to the ground where his phone still remained and he stooped over to pick it up before Eli can show him how to properly handle the device again, thanking the god above that the screen isn't cracked (somehow). "Officer Radvi, sir." He greets, pasting a smile onto his face to hide his embarrassment. As he looked up to Radvi he happened to catch a glance of Natalie's steadily approaching form and he felt his heart just about jump into his throat. Now, yes, this reaction might be fairly elementary to some- but Archie was not a man who had much if any experience when it came to dealing with emotions. His surrogate father's way of helping him get over his father's death was taking him fishing with a shotgun and his way of helping Archie get over a bad day was smacking him upside the head with a shovel for slacking off at work.

He had never really [i]cared[/i] about girls as anything more than people and perhaps that's why interacting with them up until this point had been so easy. Yet one offbeat with Natalie and it was like she was some whole new, strange, exotic, [i]beautiful[/i] species that he had never experienced before. She drew him, but he had learned from a young age that pretty colors and beautiful things oftentimes meant they were poisonous. Or was it venomous? Winky had always told him 'If I bite you and you die, Im venomous. If I bite you and I die, you're poisonous' and it had still yet to fully click with him. Fuck it, bad for his health.

If the way his heart was beating was anything to go by, Natalie was certainly not doing his heart any favors. Eli and Radvi probably heard the literal war drum that was in his chest when his eyes broke away from Natalie's approaching form and locked eyes with Eli. His mouth had a smile but his eyes were terrified. Like some gigantic monster was barreling towards him and if he ran he was dead for sure. He was [i]such[/i] a wimp, a part of him thought in a moment of clarity, as if sitting back and observing the situation unfolding. He spat back at that part of him, reminding it that Natalie could probably crush his head like a watermelon without a thought. His hidden observer stirred at that, and he was briefly left wondering if that was terrifying or sexy.

Oh, right. Eli. He was staring at Eli. Fuck. He made a noise that sounded something like a deflating whoopie cushion. "That's her." was all he could muster up, his words failing him for the umpteenth time that day.