Comin' Home

For the next week, Harper tried to lay low. She hung out with Halvo and the guys a couple times, but other than that she just worked on her book, which she was getting nowhere with, and ran. What an exciting life she lived.

One night, when she was sitting on the porch with her laptop, trying to get something written for her book, her phone rang. Without even checking the caller ID because she knew who it was, she answered. “Hi Nick.”

“Hey Love, how’s the book coming along?”

She talked to him for awhile about the book and how she was getting nowhere, and then they started to talk about the promotional tour which was going great. Harper started to get bored quickly with the conversation, so she faked a yawn and told him she was exhausted and was going to try and go to sleep.

This was how all of their conversations were going lately. She was, quite frankly, sick of it.

The next night when Nick called, Harper didn’t answer. She let the phone ring and then let it go to voicemail, but she knew how Nick was so she just shut the phone off. No one else but Nick would try and get a hold of her anyways so what did it matter?

She and Halvo were sitting in the living room watching TV when this happened, so of course Halvo questioned her about it. “Why didn’t you answer?”

“Because he’s just calling to make sure I haven’t killed you or myself yet. I haven’t done either, so there, end of conversation.” Her tone was flat and unamused. She just didn’t care anymore.

“Harper—” Halvo started, but she cut him off.

“I’m going out, I’ll be back later.”

With that, she left. She felt like talking to her grandfather.

***

“Hi grandpa,” she said sadly to the tombstone. “I miss you so much.”

She sat down on the grass Indian style while she pulled pieces of grass out of the ground. “I wish I could undo all of this, starting from the very beginning. I wish I never went to Boston. I wish I would have stayed here with Kennedy, or at the very least with you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I have nothing right now, grandpa. No parents, a boyfriend who pities me, no friends, no grandparents who love me more than the air they breathe. I miss you so much it hurts.”
She realized how pitiful she sounded, but she didn’t stop. She just kept on complaining. Right as she started to complain about her father, a crack of lightning lit up the sky, the sky that had become very dark in the time Harper had been sitting there. “Shit,” she mumbled as she looked up at the sky. It was really black, and she could feel that “calm before the storm” feeling everyone talks about.

This was going to be a fun one.

“Looks like we’re going to have to cut this one short, Grandpa. I love you and—”

Right as she was going to say she would see him soon, another crack of lightning and thunder hit, causing Harper to scream. “Shit!” she yelled over the sound of the wind whipping all around.

She started to sprint out of the graveyard and down the street. She didn’t stop running until she hit the school, where she saw him standing out on the field, kicking a ball around. “That stupid, fucking soccer ball!” she yelled, quickly deviating from her course home out towards him.

“Kennedy! Kennedy, what the hell are you doing!?” she yelled over the wind and thunder. She was about ten yards from the field when it started to down pour; you could no longer hear her screams over the storm.

He didn’t stop playing; the rain didn’t faze him at all. He just kept maneuvering over the field, as if he were in high school again, as if that was all that mattered.

He didn’t stop playing until Harper was right next to him. “Kennedy!” she yelled over the pouring rain. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“Playing soccer, what does it look like?”

“You’re insane!” she screamed at him. “Now come on before we both get hit by lightning.”

“The chances of us both being hit by lightning are slim, Harp. Get out of here before your boyfriend starts to worry,” he spat at her, yelling over the sound of rain.

“Oh shut up and come on!” she screamed, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the school.

Surprisingly, he gave in. He started to sprint with her when he realized that, yes, standing out in the middle of a barren soccer field in the middle of a thunderstorm probably wasn’t a good idea.

When they reached the entrance to the middle school, where there was a large overhang that they could hide under until the storm died down a little bit, Harper started to laugh. She couldn’t help it. Everything was so completely screwed up that if she didn’t laugh, she was certain she would cry.

“Why are you laughing?” Kennedy said loudly. They still had to talk loudly over the storm.

“Because my life is so fucking screwed up right now that I can’t believe something like this,” she gestured between them and then out to the storm, “hasn’t happened sooner.”

“Harper…” he said, slightly worried for her sanity.

“No, just let me have my moment.” She continued to laugh so hard that tears were streaming down her face, but you couldn’t tell what was rain water and what were tears. She collapsed onto the ground in a heap, still laughing.

Kennedy sat down next to her and chuckled a little bit, unable to contain himself.

When her laughing died down, though, that was when everything got scary.

The tears that had previously been falling down her cheeks from laughter were now falling even harder, only this time they were definitely not happy. She was crying again; Harper realized she was a complete emotional trainwreck.

Huge sobs started to form in her throat and it was only a matter of seconds before she choked them out. That was all it took for Kennedy to step in.

He scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. When this didn’t help, he pulled her closer and let her sit on his lap while he rocked her back and forth, similar to the way Pat had held her during her other emotional breakdown. He kissed the top of her head, trying to comfort her, but it only seemed to make it worse. She just cried and cried, and soon Kennedy’s shirt was even wetter than it was before she had started to cry.

She couldn’t stop though. The tears just kept coming. The more she tried to contain herself, the worse it got. Huge sobs wreaked havoc on her whole body, shaking her more than the wind was shaking the trees outside.

When Kennedy could finally talk in a normal tone again because the storm had died down, he took his opportunity. “What’s wrong Harper? Why are you really home? And why do I keep seeing you walking by the school?”

She didn’t even bother with hiding it anymore. She just couldn’t. “My grandfather,” she choked out, still crying.

“Is he sick?”

“No!”

“Is he…?” Kennedy trailed off, afraid to make the situation any worse than it already was.

“Dead!” This started a while new round of sobs wracking her whole, fragile body.

“Shh, Harper, you’re going to make yourself sick. You have to try and stop crying.”

He was right of course. She hadn’t eaten anything all day though, so she just dry-heaved, which made her feel even worse. Kennedy continued to hold her close, stroking her hair and mumbling soft things into her ear, but it didn’t help. Nothing could help.

Harper had officially broken.

***

When the crying finally stopped, Harper said nothing. She just sat on Kennedy’s lap, curled into a ball as small as she could make herself. He kept rocking her, whispering things into her ear to try and make her feel better. After twenty minutes of doing this, Harper stood up, continued her mute act, and held her hand out for Kennedy to take. He did and she helped him up.

“Halvo’s probably spazzing out,” she mused aloud as she and Kennedy stood under the overhang, still afraid to venture back out into the rain.

“Why?”

“Turned my phone off and left it at his place.”

“Ah,” he said, as if he understood. The truth was Kennedy had no idea what was going on with Harper.

“I should probably head back while the rain has let up a little.”

“Yeah, probably,” he agreed. The two of them walked out from the overhang and towards the road.

“Did you drive?” she asked him, and he nodded. “Be careful,” she said as she turned away from him and started to walk towards Halvo’s house.

Kennedy nodded and he too started walking in the opposite direction towards the parking lot and his car, but stopped to watch Harper walk away.

She could feel his gaze. She stopped and turned around, squinting at him through the rainfall.

Harper wasn’t sure what came over her; maybe it was the fact that she had seen one too many romantic movies, or maybe she just felt like she had to, like she physically had to be near Kennedy, especially after the way he had just cared for her. Regardless, Harper wasn’t sure what made her do it. But right then as she was looking at Kennedy, she felt this pull towards him. He felt it too, or else he wouldn’t have started walking towards her.
The walking turned to a jog, which then quickly turned into a sprint. Soon, Harper was leaping into his arms, kissing him passionately. Her hands dug through his soaking wet hair while he clung to her drenched tank top. They couldn’t be close enough, and the rain was making it nearly impossible to hold onto one another, especially with Harper having her legs wrapped around his waist, clinging to him like her life depended on it.

He set her down, knowing he couldn’t walk them both the twenty or so yards they had to go to get to his car. The two sprinted over, not saying a word. They climbed into the back seat and it was as if nothing had happened, as if no time had passed whatsoever.

Harper clung to Kennedy while Kennedy kissed her, starting at her mouth and going down her jaw line to her neck, which caused her to arch her back. She pulled his face back to connect her lips with his own, but she couldn’t get enough. She kept giving him small kisses that lead all over his face, down his neck, to his collarbone, and back. She couldn’t stop.

As she was clawing at his t-shirt, trying to pull the soaked material from his skin, all while he nibbled her neck, a phone started ringing.
“Shit,” he muttered, pulling away from Harper to shut it off. But then he saw who it was, and his face became very pale. “Hello?” he answered, putting his finger to Harper’s mouth to shut her up and stop her from asking who.
“Yeah, I got stuck at the fields. I didn’t want to try and drive home in this crap, so I just waited it out, but then my piece of shit car wouldn’t start,” he lied smoothly. He paused, listening to whoever it was on the other line. “No, I’m okay now. I was just pulling out of the parking lot when you called. Yeah, I’ll be home in like ten minutes. Alright, yeah. Love you too, bye.” Then he hung up, rubbing his face furiously.

“Love you? Please tell me that was your mom,” Harper mumbled, scooting away from Kennedy so she could sit up.

“We both moved on, Harp,” was all he said. It was all he had to say. Harper saw him at the restaurant the other day with the new girl. She knew he was with someone else. What else was she supposed to expect? That Kennedy swore off girls when she left? She was memorable, but she sure as hell wasn’t that memorable.

“I can’t believe I just threw myself at you like that,” she said all of a sudden, disgusted with herself. “I have to go,” she said quickly, climbing out of the car.

Kennedy followed her. “Harper, stop,” he demanded, grabbing her arm. “We got caught up, alright? It’s been a long time, and we thought we could pick back up where we left off. Nothing happened though,” he stressed. He was trying to calm her down. She had a boyfriend, after all.

“I know, I mean… god I’m such a slut,” she mumbled, rubbing her face furiously. She couldn’t believe she just did what she did.

“Don’t, stop that Harper. It takes two. We were both wrong here. But, nothing happened alright? Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Harper nodded, not comforted by what he said at all. “Alright. I’m going to go. I’ll… see you around, I guess.”

“Bye Love,” he said quietly.

As Harper walked away, trying to tell her self that nothing had happened, she realized Kennedy was right. Nothing physical happened, not really anyways. It could have been a lot worse. In reality, they had only kissed.

But what just happened in that car? Harper thought to herself, We just changed everything.