Comin' Home

With only five days left in Arizona, Harper’s time was seriously dwindling. She suddenly felt like she had a million things to take care of, but no where near enough time to do it all.

She realized that before she did anything else, she needed to go talk to her parents, civilly, and tell them everything that had been going on in her life.

As she stood in front of the door with her hand ready to knock, she felt sick to her stomach with both worry and anger. She was still angry with them, and she knew that anger wasn’t going to dissipate anytime soon, but she also knew she had to talk to them. She couldn’t shut them out forever, even if she really wanted to.

“Harper, sweetie?” her mother said, pulling Harper back to reality. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you both,” she said, her voice even. “Can I come in?”

“Of course you can, Love, come in please.” Her mother stepped aside to let her in, and suddenly Harper felt awkward. She didn’t want to be there anymore in the place where it felt more like she was in a stranger’s home than her own.

“Your father’s out I’m afraid, but we can wait if you’d like.”

Harper shook her head as she followed her mother into the kitchen where they took seats at the table. “I have a million other things to do before I go back to Boston, I just really needed to talk to you.”

Her mother nodded but didn’t speak.

“So much has been going on. I thought I was pregnant,” she started out, looking at her mom to see her reaction.

“What?” she exclaimed, shocked.

“I’m not, but I thought I was. Nick and I broke up, too.”

“Oh hunny, I’m so sorry. I thought you and Nick were so good together.”

Harper shrugged and fiddled with her necklace. “We were, once upon a time. But you know how that goes.”

Picking up on what her daughter was talking about, she said, “Have you seen Kennedy much?”

Harper shrugged, but knew she couldn’t lie. “Yeah, actually. I’m not sure what we are right now. We’re friendly, but we’re also still bitter, so it’s kind of confusing.”

Her mother nodded, but said nothing.

“I just want you to know that even though I’m still mad, I guess I forgive you both for what you did,” Harper said finally, not looking her mother in the eye. She shrugged and continued. “I don’t understand it and it still upsets me, but I know that if grandpa were here he’d want me to forgive you so I am.”

“Harper, we thought it was for your own good. We weren’t trying to hurt you. We’re your parents and we love you, we only want what’s best for you.”

Harper chose not to say anything in response.

“I have to go,” she said as she glanced up at the clock on the wall. “I have some other people I have to talk to.”

Her mother followed her to the door before reaching out to hug her tightly. “I’m sorry, Love. I really am.”

When they separated, Harper smiled and nodded. She turned to leave, but her mother stopped her again. “Don’t let something that happened years ago stop you from being happy, Love. If you want to be with Nick, then go back to him. If you want to be with Kennedy, then go to him. But please don’t let past events stop you from being happy, okay?”

Harper said nothing in response, and instead just left.

She knew she was stubborn and in some ways was hurting herself by letting her past screw with her present and future. But she couldn’t help it.

When she climbed into her car, Harper knew she had to go talk to Kennedy again, even if it was only one more time.

***

“Harper? What are you doing here?” Kennedy asked her as she stood, a bundle of nerves, in front of his parents’ house that afternoon.

She shrugged. “I need to talk to you, and not the awkward talk we had in Starbucks or anything like that. A legit talk, because so much shit has happened and I don’t have anyone to talk to anymore and I feel like I’m seconds away from breaking,” she finished while tears fell down her cheek. “Fuck,” she muttered under her breath, wiping the moisture from her face.

“Come on, come inside,” he said gently as he directed her inside and into the empty living room. “My parents are out running errands or some shit so we’ve got awhile.”

Harper nodded and took a seat on the couch. She folded her legs up under her body and exhaled slowly, trying to compose herself. When she opened her eyes, Kennedy was sitting next to her, watching her intently. “So what’s wrong?”

She shrugged. “Everything’s falling apart,” she finally choked out while the tears fell down her face. She collapsed back into the couch and brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly and resting her forehead on top of them. Moments later, she felt Kennedy’s arms wrap around her, dragging her closer to him. She crawled into his lap and let him comfort her again, just like he did the other day at the school, while she cried into his shirt.

When she finally stopped crying, Kennedy dared to ask her questions, hoping to get some answers out of her. “Harp, what happened?”

She shook her head and nuzzled closer to him. She couldn’t be close enough. She just wanted to disappear into him.

“I want to help you, Harper, because seeing you like this is breaking me heart. But I can’t if you don’t tell me what happened.”

After a few minutes of silence, she finally spoke. “I’ve screwed absolutely everything up. I lost my grandpa, I’ve lost my boyfriend, I’ve lost so many friends. I almost even lost my parents, Kenny, but I don’t know I guess I’ve fixed that kind of. And there’s no one to blame but myself. I’m such a gigantic fuck up,” she cried, nuzzling into his chest once again while the tears continued to fall.

“Hey now, you aren’t a fuck up. You’ve still got me, yeah? And you may have lost Nick but that’s his loss. He’ll hate himself when he realizes what an amazing thing he once had is now gone.”

“That’s just it!” she cried, pulling back to look him in the eyes. “I broke up with him! I cheated on him, then I had the pregnancy scare that wasn’t real, and then I crushed him by breaking up with him right after I told him I cheated on him! I’m worse than the scum on the bottom of a fucking pond, Kennedy. I don’t even know why you want to help me right now.”

He hugged her again, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I want to help you because I love you, Harp. You’re still my friend, even if we broke each other’s hearts so many years ago. Alright?”

This just made her cry even harder. “Why do you do that?” she exclaimed, still crying. “Why are you nice to me? You have a cute girlfriend, who seems to make you happy and you’ve moved on. I haven’t done anything but fuck things up since I got back, and yet you’re still nice to me! Why?”

“Harper,” he pulled back, looking her dead in the eyes. “I don’t have a girlfriend. That girl you saw me with is just a friend that John was trying to set me up with.”

Her jaw dropped and she scrambled off of his lap. She stood in front of him, still shocked. “Why did you lie to me?” she demanded.

“I didn’t lie to you, Harper. I mean, I did but it was for your own good.”

“You’re fucking kidding me!” she screamed, reaching out to punch him in the arm. He stood up and grabbed her wrist to stop her. She was furious. “Who was the person you said ‘I love you’ to when we were making out, huh? Or do you say that to everyone?” she spat, the venom dripping from every single word.

“It was one of the guys, but they had hung up before I said I love you, thankfully. We were supposed to have practice, but I took a detour and went to the school instead. I said it was my girlfriend because I didn’t want you to feel guilty. I was trying to—”

“I swear to fucking God, if you say protect me, I will punch you,” she growled. Her eyes were dry now, but they were dark and full of rage.

“Fine, I won’t say it. But it’s true.” He shrugged. “Why are you so angry, Harper? You may not admit it, but it was for your own good.”

“How?!” she screamed at him. “How was it for my own good? You’ve been playing mind games with me, you fucking asshole. The whole time I’ve been here it has been nothing but a fucking mindgame!” she screamed, hitting him in the chest with each word.

He grabbed her wrists to stop her, but she fought against him. She was weak from crying though, and she couldn’t continue. He pulled her close and looked her in the eyes. “Nothing was a mind game, Harper. I just said I had a girlfriend. Nothings changed.”

“You’ve moved on?” she challenged him, glaring at him square in the eyes.

“Have you?” he challenged right back.

The two were quiet for a while. Nothing could be heard but their heavy breathing from fighting and crying.

Looking at Kennedy in the eyes, Harper was brought back to when they were together and happy. She was overwhelmed by past feelings she used to have, and suddenly she felt she had to be near him. Pulling her wrists from his grasp, she quickly reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, landing a kiss square on his lips.

It was sloppy and rushed and heated and full of tension, but it was what they needed.

Harper wrapped her legs around his waist while he supported her with his hands under her thighs. “Bedroom,” she breathed against his lips while she trailed kisses from his mouth to his neck. She nibbled gently on his neck when she felt her back collide with the door of the basement where she knew his bedroom was located.

“Fucking stairs,” he muttered, setting her down on the ground. She frowned and grabbed his hand, flying down the stairs at record speed.

When they got to the bed, she clawed at his t-shirt, not bothering to separate their lips for an instant. “Shirt," he mumbled against her lips and she groaned, but separated nonetheless.
While he took his shirt off, she ripped her own white v-neck off in record timing. In seconds, they were together again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair while he wrapped his arms around heh waist. He picked her up quickly and set her on the bed. She laid back and with her arms still around his neck, pulled him down to her. He trailed kisses from her mouth to her neck where he continued to nibbled gently, driving her wild.

Maybe it was the fact that we were in the basement, or the fact that they were too wrapped up in each other to hear anything but the sounds of their own labored breathing. Whatever it was, they didn’t hear the front door open or the calls that echoed throughout the house, asking where Kennedy was.

Right as Kennedy had his hands behind her back and he was unclasping her bra, the door to the basement opened and with it followed four sets of boys hurrying down the steps into the basement.

“Holy shit!” Garret.

“Oh fuck!” John.

“Just great.” Pat.

“What the hell?” Jared.

They separated instantly. “Way to fucking knock!” Kennedy burst out in frustration at his friends.

Harper smacked her hand to her forehead. Her luck really was just about as fantastic as it gets.

This was going to be fun.