Comin' Home

“I feel like I should warn you or something, but I hardly know what’s going on myself. So it’s a little hard,” Harper babbled as she and Nick sat in her father’s BMW in the driveway outside her house.

“Harp, it’s fine. I can handle people; I do it on a daily basis,” he joked with her, rubbing her knee.

She sighed. She wasn’t going to be able to explain the weirdness that she felt as soon as she stepped foot in the house, so why bother? “Let’s go,” the brunette mumbled, climbing out of the car while her boyfriend followed.

Before they reached the front door, Nick grabbed her hand to stop her. “Hey,” he caught her attention. “It’ll be fine, alright? I’m just coming in to meet them and then we’ll head over to Halvo’s or Justin’s. Ok?”

She smiled and nodded. Quick and easy, she kept reminding herself. Quick and easy. She walked up to the front door and slipped her hand over the cool metal and pushed it open. “Dad? You here?”

“Living room, love,” he called back. Hearing him say love made her cringe. She had always been Harper, never anything else. Not princess, not sweetie—just Harper.

Harper took a deep breath and led Nick into the living room where her father was waiting. When he noticed there was more than just his daughter in his company, he faced them. “Oh, hello,” he smiled, standing up from the couch. “You must be Harper’s—”

“Boyfriend,” she interjected, not wanting to cause any tension between her and the redhead. “Dad, this is Nick Santino, my boyfriend,” she told him slowly. She waited as he processed the information, but his exterior never faltered.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you Mr. Santino,” Mr. Houston smiled at Nick. Harper searched for any change in his attitude, but there was nothing. He seemed generally pleased to be meeting his daughter’s boyfriend, unlike previous meetings Harper had been forced to endure.

”So, you’re in a band?” Mr. Houston grilled the brunette sitting in front of him at the kitchen table. The sneer on his face was evident to only Harper, and she knew exactly what his tone was saying as he spit the word “band” out: he was completely and utterly disgusted with the boy sitting in front of him.

“Yes sir,” he responded smoothly. Harper wondered if he recognized the tone too, or if it was just her. She really hoped it was the latter.

“And how exactly is that going for you? You must be busy with college things right now, what with it being the summer before your senior year.”

Harper felt like she was going to vomit. Hearing her father’s condescending tone as he asked questions he knew the answers to was making her angry. She was a jumble of emotions that she felt like she couldn’t control even if she wanted to. She knew if she spoke up during this interrogation, she would do nothing but make it worse.

“Actually, I don’t plan on going to college, at least not full time. I might take a few classes at the community college or something.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “We really plan on going places with this band, though.”

“Harper tells me your previous band didn’t quite work out, correct?”

He nodded in response. “Yeah, that’s right. But it was a mutual decision to end it, and now the band I’m in now, well…” he trailed off, trying to find the words. He glanced at Harper and smiled. “We’re going in the right direction.”

Mr. Houston sighed, folding his hands together and setting them on the kitchen table in front of him. “I’m going to be honest with you boy, I don’t think your speculations on this band of yours are good enough. You need a solid future. Harper here has a solid future, and if she’s going to be with some boy, he too needs a solid plan for his future. Do you understand?”

Harper couldn’t even believe the words coming out of her father’s mouth. “Dad,” she finally spoke up, grabbing her boyfriend’s hand under the table. “You don’t know anything about them or their band, and you don’t know if they’re going to be a huge success or not. But right now, this is his plan. And neither of us really care if you approve or not.” She stood up from the table with her boy still in tow and said, “Now, you’ve met, you’ve judged, and I think we’re done here.” With that, the couple left.

Harper was snatched back to reality at the sound of Nick’s voice. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Houston. Harper always speaks very highly of you,” he lied flawlessly. Harper was very proud. “I’m also very sorry to hear about your father.”

“Ah, thank you son. But he’s in a better place.”

Nick nodded and smiled. “Well dad,” Harper interjected, “I have to get Nick to his friend’s house that he’s staying at unless mom’s home? I want her to meet him too.”

“No, she’s still out dealing with some things for the funeral for me. She’ll be home in a little while, but I understand if Nick wants to go rest.” The three said their quick goodbyes and then her father added, “We’ll have dinner sometime, all four of us!” to which Nick happily agreed.

As the couple was walking out of the house, Harper started laughing to herself. When Nick asked her why, she shook her head. “I just don’t get any of this. I understand death can change people, but not to this extent. He was like… generally happy to meet you. He’s never happy to meet any of the guys in my life, especially when they’re in bands and shit. It doesn’t make sense,” she mused.

They climbed into the car again and Nick shrugged. “Maybe you shouldn’t question it so much, babe. Just roll with it and enjoy it.”

That was easy for him to say; Nick had never experienced her parents before, so he didn’t know what they were really like. For all he knew, she was over-exaggerating. “So where am I headed?” she asked, suddenly changing the subject.

As Harper drove, the pair was relatively quiet. As she was leaving her neighborhood, Harper passed his house. She wouldn’t have even given it a second glance, but their van was outside, a sure signal they were either home on break or just getting ready to leave again. They were always either just coming or just going.

Nick noticed her sudden quietness and lack of attention to the road when they passed the white van littered with random kids’ graffiti. He reached over and grabbed her knee, trying to get her attention back. “You should stop, Love,” he said, calling her by her middle name. Ever since they first met and she told him her middle name, he often called her love; he thought it was the best thing ever.

She shook her head. “No, they’re probably busy. Maybe tomorrow.”

Nick didn’t push her, and then they were quiet again. After about a ten minute ride, they reached Justin’s house, also known as Nick’s home for the next week. Harper was excited to see Nick’s bandmates again; it had been awhile since she had seen the boys and they had become some of her closest friends.

“Love harp!” someone called out. Harper smiled. Love harp had become her nickname ever since she had first met the boys. They thought they were so clever when they thought of it; what they didn’t know was that that had been Harper’s nickname when she was in third grade.

“Hey mouth breather,” she called out affectionately.

Soon Justin emerged from the house while Halvo ran up and hugged her. “How you been?”

She shrugged and hugged Justin too. “I’m ok, I guess. How are you guys?”

“Good, good. It’s been boring around here though.” After the guys all greeted each other, they went inside. “Drinks?” Justin called out as he went to the fridge and Nick, Halvo, and Harper went into the living room.

“Yes!” they all called back.

Once they were all situated in the living room, the catching up began. “So how’s Boston?” Justin asked first.

Harper smiled. “It’s wonderful, although it’s hard to adjust to Arizona once you’re used to living on the east coast.”

“How’s the book going?” Halvo asked.

She sighed and shrugged. She didn’t want to talk about the stupid book that was going nowhere. Ever since graduation, she had lost all the creativity she had once had. She told the boys this and they were full of their own suggestions. As they fired help at her, she tuned them out and let their voices drift away; everyone always liked to help her, but no one really did.

”You’re being stubborn,” he told her, frowning.

And maybe she was, but Harper hated having people tell her what to do. If she was going to do something, it would be because she wanted to do it or because it was her idea, not because someone told her to do it. “No I’m not.”

“Harper. Why are you going all the way to Boston? Just because your parents said you wouldn’t? Are you trying to prove a point?”

She smirked and sipped her smoothie. “Maybe I am, so what? I like challenges.”

“You’re being really immature, Harp.”

She rolled her eyes and poked around the pink drink in front of her with her straw. “I am not, I’m just being real. I don’t want to stay here. I’ve never wanted to stay here, you know that.”

He shook his head. Harper had told him from the very beginning that she wanted to get out of Arizona as soon as possible. “You’re ridiculous.”

She shrugged this off. She didn’t care what he thought; she was going to get out of here if it killed her.

She shook the memory away. It wasn’t a huge one or anything very significant even, it just hurt. She didn’t want to think about him yet; she would cross that bridge when she got to it.