Shine On

She sat up on the bed, leaned her back against the headboard, and pulled her legs to her chest. Rupert did the same. She took a deep breath and began. “So when I was like 15, I think, my dad left. He was my best friend. I’m not really sure of why he disappeared or where to, but I didn’t take it very well, you could say.” She bit her lip. She could feel sadness coming to her again. She breathed deeply again in hopes she wouldn’t start to cry. She waited for Rupert to say something or to change the subject, but he didn’t say a word. He continued to watch her in intently as she spoke. “Um...well...” Her voice quivered. She knew what she had to say. She had the words on the tip of her tongue, but she was scared to say them. She didn’t want her past to scare him away. She didn’t want him to think differently of her, like her mother did. “That’s the majority of it. You don’t want to know the rest. I don’t even want to know it.”

Rupert got up and sat next to her. “Why wouldn’t I want to know?”

“Because it’s not the brightest time in my life and...” She hesitated for a moment. “I don’t want it to scare you away.”

“You know, I’ve never been involved with someone for this long.” He stated out of the blue. Harper glanced over at him, he was looking down, fidgeting with his fingers. When he felt her gaze, he looked back at her. His face was serious and calm. Harper’s stomach did a flip as she stared at him. “All of my relationships have lasted for a month at the most. But this time I feel as if this is different. Oh man, I’m really bad at this.” He laughed at himself as he brushed his hand through his hair.

Harper smiled at him and kissed his cheek which caused him to blush. “No! No, you’re fine.”

He took deep breath before continuing. “When I heard your Mum ask you how you’re going to feel when I leave you here, it just really made me think of how much I don’t want to leave you. When I met you, I never thought you would mean this much to me. Normally....” He paused for a second. “I would have moved on by now.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide, she was shocked. She was surprised that he said all of those things, she was even more surprised that they were about her. Butterflies were flying around her stomach. She couldn’t find the right words to say back.

Rupert took her hand in his and intertwined their fingers. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that nothing you could say would change anything. I’m not going anywhere.”

Harper let go of his hand. She didn’t know the right words to say to explain what happened after her father left, she decided it would be best to show him. She took off her jeans and tossed them on the floor. Avoiding Rupert’s face, she looked down and brushed her fingertips over several horizontal scars on her right leg. “Like I said, I didn’t take it very well. I was...erm...put into the hospital for these....” She hesitated once in a while afraid that one word would be too much for either of them to handle. Rupert didn’t move or say a word, so she continued. “I’ve never showed anyone these before...”

Harper didn’t move her gaze from her leg, she kept tracing her scars as if they were a game of connect the dots. She could feel Rupert staring at her scars as well. Even she had a hard time looking away. Silence spread throughout the room. She must have said too much. She wouldn’t blame him for not wanting her anymore, she was a mess. Suddenly, his hand grabbed hers, interrupting her tracing. He put his pointer finger under her chin and gently lifted her face so it was looking at his. He looked anything but scared or upset, all the things Harper was afraid he would be feeling. His green blue eyes stared at her intently. She felt as if she was floating on air. All her worried thoughts escaped her mind, in fact all of her thoughts were gone. He moved her hair behind her ear; one of the many little things she loved, then leaned in to kiss her softly. When he started to pull back, Harper leaned towards him, biting his bottom lip. She knew he was only being polite by giving her a quick kiss, but she wanted anything but a quick kiss. She wanted to get lost. Both of her hands went on each side of his neck pulling him closer as she bit his lip again. As the kiss got deeper, the closer they moved towards each other. Gradually, they inched themselves lower until they were laying down again. Rupert broke off the kiss to position himself on top of her. He smiled before giving her a quick peck on the lips. He did this several times until Harper started to giggle.

“Rupe!” She laughed. “Stop!”

He stared down at her with a devilish smirk on his face. “I got you to laugh.”

9 months ago

Harper walked through the streets aimlessly looking for an open place that served coffee. It was around 10 o’clock at night and she had just finished her internship for the day. She was exhausted and her feet hurt from being on them all day. Her boss, who wasn’t the nicest person she met since she arrived in London that week, wanted her to finish developing several rolls of film before leaving for the day. It didn’t take as short as Harper had hoped it would and she was in desperate need of some coffee and some comfort food. She knew she wouldn’t be able to find some at her hotel and she figured there had got to be a twenty four hour pub around. She wasn’t having any luck finding one though.

She found herself walking down an empty and dark alley way. How the hell did she end up here? Of course it was her luck this would happen to her. Her paced picked up as she made her way to the end of the alley. She spun around when she thought she heard a bang behind her. She stood silently waiting for someone to pop out; nothing happened. She proceeded to walk backwards just in case someone decided to jump out at her while she was walking. Just as she was about to turn around again, someone bumped into her causing her to trip back a couple of steps and yelp. Her heart started to race. This was the end, she was sure she was going to get killed.

“Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” She heard a man’s voice say in the darkness. He was obviously from England. She squinted her eyes to see if she could see anything, but all she saw was a silhouette. His voice sounded kind and harmless, but he could be pulling her into a trap. The guy lit up his cell phone and held it up so the both of them could see each other. He looked tall and built, he had short red hair from what she could see. He looked strangely familiar; as if she’s seen him a lot, but didn’t know him personally. He smiled at her kindly. “Are you all right?”

“Uh...yeah. There’s no need for you to apologize, I was the one walking...uh...backwards.” She answered suddenly feeling bad. “I’m really sorry about that.”

“No, it’s cool. May I ask why you’re walking backwards in an alleyway at night?” He asked.

“Not to sound like a stupid tourist, but I’m kind of lost. Well actually, not kind of, I’m totally lost. I just got out of work and I had a horrible day and I was looking for some place that serves coffee at this time of night but apparently you guys don’t have any. It’s just making my day worse and I don’t know why I’m telling a complete stranger this. You probably think I’m nuts. I’m not, I promise. I’m sorry. I ramble when I’m upset.” She replied feeling even worse then she did when she ran into him.

The guy held out his hand. “I’m Rupert.”

A lightbulb went on in her head when he said his name. It was Rupert Grint, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter’s best friend! Her initial reaction was to jump up and down and hug him. Luckily she was too tired to do any jumping and she figured he got enough of that already. She took a deep breath to keep her composure. She shook his hand casually. “I’m Harper.”

“We’re not strangers anymore.” He replied with a smile. “How about I make your day less shitty and take you to a place I know that’s opened?” Harper gave him a suspicious look. “You probably think I’m mental as well. I promise I’m not. I just thought...”

“If we are crazy, then that’s okay.” Harper interrupted. For some odd reason, she wasn’t starstruck. She felt compelled by him. She wanted to go with him, not because he was a pretty well-known actor, but because he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. The fact that he basically saved her from having a horrible night helped as well. “All the best people are a little looney. At least that’s what Alice told me in Wonderland.” He laughed at her response. “Wait! What are you doing in an alleyway at night?”

“I was just taking a shortcut to my car. My story isn’t half as entertaining as yours was.”

“I’m so glad you’re entertained by it.” Harper replied sarcastically.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry!” He said sounding truly remorseful.

Harper laughed. “It’s okay! If we’re going to be getting coffee together, you should know I’m really sarcastic.”

Rupert brought Harper to a quiet and secluded pub. He must have gone there a lot since the people who worked there acted as if they had known him forever. They sat in a booth in the back. They spent the rest of the night drinking coffee together and talking. Harper did most of the talking while Rupert asked questions here and there and listened. He seemed thoroughly interested in what she had to say. Once in a while, he would pop out a humorous one liner that had them laughing so hard Harper’s stomach would hurt. It wasn’t until they realized it was almost three in the morning that Rupert brought her back to her hotel. After she gave him her number and they said their goodbyes, Harper watched as he drove away. She had a strange feeling that that wasn’t the only time he would make her day better.