Stealing Harper

“Do. Not. Touch me.” I glared at her, and my breathing became rougher. How could I have done something like this to Princess? “What. The hell. Happened?” When she didn’t respond right away, I yelled, “Why the fuck were you in my bed?”

“How can you do this to me, Chase? You’re going to pretend like I mean nothing to you just because your sister caught us?”

I turned to see my sister sobbing; Konrad’s nostrils were flaring as he held her tight and continued to shoot daggers my way.

“You bitch!” Brea

My eyes widened, and I turned to Trish while still cradling my head and trying to steady my breathing, so I wouldn’t vomit everywhere. “What, Trish? What’s the truth?”

She shook her head and shrugged. “Your sister’s psychotic. I don’t know what she’s even talking about.”

Before I could say anything about that, Konrad beat me to it, “You fucking whore! Say another word about her, and I swear to God, I will forget about all my views on hitting a woman. Tell him that Harper was here! That she’s the one that found you two!”

I dropped to my knees and started dry heaving. Oh God. Harper was here. She was the one that found us. Oh my God, what have I done?

“The sooner that little slut found out, the better. She was ruining Chase’s life!”

“Get out!” I yelled between heaves. “Get the fuck out of my house!”

“Chase—” Trish began again, but I cut her off.

“Get. Out!”

After another minute, the door to my room shut, and the only sound were Bree’s sobs and her repetitive words. “How could you, Chase?”

I couldn’t have. I wouldn’t have done that to Harper.

“Where’s Harper?” I groaned as I shakily got to my feet and began grabbing at my discarded clothes. “Brea

“She left with Brandon.”

All the air left my lungs at Konrad’s words, and I tripped trying to get into my shorts. Slowly, I lifted my head ’til I was looking at them. “W-what?”

“She was crying and going to leave, so Brandon took her away from here. And you should be damn thankful for that. I want to beat the shit out of you right now, but Brandon looked like he was ready to kill you.”

“Chase,” Bree cried. “Why? How? How could you do this to her? I thought you loved her.”

I dressed and looked for my phone. As soon as I found it, I tried calling Harper twice, but it went straight to voice mail. “I wouldn’t,” I finally responded. “Bree, I wouldn’t. I love her, and I would never have done anything like this to her.”

“Then why—”

“I don’t know, Brea

Konrad shook his head. “Harper said she couldn’t face your parents. I don’t know where they went.”

“I have to go find her.”

“Chase,” Konrad said roughly, as I reached my door. “Don’t do this to her. Don’t lie to her. If you love her, let her go. Don’t pretend like nothing happened.”

“I wouldn’t do this to her!” With that, I stormed out of my room and house. As soon as I was driving, I tried Harper one last time before calling Brandon.

“I warned you,” he growled in way of greeting.

“Please tell me she’s there.”

“I have her, but she needs this time to herself. She’s not in the car with me.”

“Where are you? I need to talk to her!”

“Like I said”—his voice lowered—“she needs to be by herself. Leave her alone.”

“Brandon—”

“I fucking warned you!”

A sob broke through, and I pulled off into a nearby parking lot, threw my truck into park, and hunched in on myself. “I don’t know what happened—”

“Bullshit! You told Harper to meet you at the house this morning, then this chick comes walking out? Jesus, Chase! You should’ve seen Harper when she ran to your room and saw you. You just crushed her.”

“Told her to—what? No, I just woke up to Bree yelling!”

“You don’t deserve her. All this time, and you’ve just been playing games. For what, Chase? You make our lives miserable, you get her, then you just throw all that away?”

“No, no! I don’t remember last night at all.”

Brandon remained quiet for a long time. “I told you to cherish her. To cherish them.”

“I do! I—I honestly don’t remember last night at all! Did you see me with her? With Trish?”

“I went to sleep after you and I talked.”

“We talked?” I searched my still-throbbing brain for anything. But nothing.

“Chase, don’t play dumb!”

“I don’t remember anything!” I yelled and gripped my hair with the hand that wasn’t holding the phone.

“I told you my mom and Jeremy were moving here. We talked about you and Harper! Jesus,” he hissed. “Why am I even going along with this?”

It took a few minutes before anything started coming to me, but then flickers of images flashed through my mind. “You forgave us,” I whispered.

“Up until about an hour ago, I forgave both of you. Now? I swear, Chase, if I see you anytime soon—”

“You’ll beat the shit out of me, I know. Bro, I wouldn’t do this to her.”

“Save it. I don’t want to hear it. You crushed her.” After another few silent minutes, he whispered, “She deserves so much better than you.”

I wanted to defend myself again, but what was the point? I’d just woken up to Trish. I shook my head, not understanding anything. She’s gay; she has a girlfriend! And what the hell happened last night? “I know she does,” I admitted softly.

“For a while, I thought I hated you for taking her from me. She was happy with you, though, so I couldn’t. But now, all I can think of is destroying you for hurting her. Again.”

Tears fell silently. I had destroyed her. Destroyed us. And I’d pushed her right back into Brandon’s arms. He’d never hurt her—all he ever did was take care of her. “Please . . . please bring her back to me.”

Brandon sighed heavily. “When she’s ready to see you, I will.”

“Keep her safe.”

“Always.”

I ended the call and shut my eyes as tears continued to fall.

What the hell have I done?

By the time I got to my parents’ house, Harper still wasn’t there, and I still couldn’t remember all of last night. I remembered Zach’s hitting on Trish when I walked back with fresh bottles of water until she dismissed him by saying she was happy with her girlfriend. Not that he’d let it go that easily, but by the time he walked from where Trish was leaning up against the island and I was sitting on the counter a couple feet away, everything started to blur. I vaguely recalled a fight breaking out in my living room, and Derek and Brad rushing toward the fight. But I did not remember their breaking it up, and not a thing after that.

Walking into the living room, I found Konrad and Bree on the couch opposite where my mom and dad were sitting. Bree and Mom were crying, and all of them looked like they wanted to beat my ass.

I knew the feeling.

Chapter Fourteen

“HARPER?” BREE CALLED, and rushed to the entryway.

All the air left my body, and I struggled to take in a breath. It’d been over nine hours since I had gotten off the phone with Brandon, and though Bree had been texting him most the day, I was terrified Harper wouldn’t be coming. But she did; she’d come back. Thank God. Bile rose in my throat, and I forced it back down as flashes of waking up next to Trish flew through my mind.