Harper

Chapter One: A Fateful Decision

* I advise starting with Alberta if you haven't already, and working your way through the series in order*

As follows;
• Alberta
•Willa
•Harper
•Teddy
•Morgan
•Wren

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

***
"Harper Jameson to planet earth... Harper Jameson to planet earth... do you read me" came the mocking voice of my room mate Lilah before a scatter cushion came flying into my peripheral.

"Ouch" I squeak as it hits the back of my head and bounces into the small space between our single beds.

"Delilah" I curse "what do you want now... I told you I'm not going to this party"

"Harps..." Lilah pouts "do me a solid and take me to this party... dance with me, judge the available gals and boys as a potential partner for me. You can hold my drinks so I avoid being drugged and most importantly keep me from predators all the way home where you shall tuck me in and bid me a goodnight with a kiss. Perhaps if I am lucky you will spoon me too."

"As enticing as that sounds....no" I deadpan and turn onto my stomach to check my social media. Willa had just uploaded a photo of her and my Mama out at a concert and I have a pang of homesickness.

"I have the biggest crush on your aunt Willa" Lilah says peeking over my shoulder.

I nudge her away and shut off the phone "Lilah" I scold "That is my mamas wife ... and my aunty to boot so keep your sapphic thoughts to yourself" I say shooing her away where she falls onto her bed with a wicked grin.

"Come on, please come Harps, you've spent the last two years studying like it was a paying job, you've been to one party that entire time... this is a celebration... our finals are done. Come with me and let's go out with a bang... do it for me please" she begged with her lips protruded.

I looked back at the warm brown eyes that fluttered at me and her tanned cheeks lifted up,  her beautiful long, dark , tight corkscrew curled hair sprung out vibrantly taking a life of its own with caramel tones that ran through it, her full lips pouting, the pink of her lip more vibrant with the chocolate caramel of her skin. Delilah called herself the Amazonian princess, she was half Brazilian and half African American, her Brazilian father had handed down his freckled nose and cheeks and it made Lilah seem adorable but deep inside those warm brown eyes was a devilish glint. Fun is what you would use to describe Lilah, gorgeous and fun rolled up in one. The self proclaimed "Bi Amazonian princess" I have lost count of the girls and boys that have wondered through this room since we began sharing at eighteen, two years ago, and none of them mine, some lasting months and others a bit of fun. I envied her freedom, she was sexually awakened and completely comfortable with her curvaceous figure, in all of the right places, she oozed confidence and I admired her for it. I on the other hand was the more conservative room mate, who coming from a sheltered life in Utah stuck out most obviously and it hadn't taken others long to work out what my religion was. I didn't drink and I didn't do drugs, even far from home I tried to be modest with what I wore but I didn't stick to modesty garments, I just covered up and didn't wear low cut anything or short skirts. My father was insistent I be aware of what I wore and how I held myself if I was to attend college out of state and his watchful eyes. I had to his heartache decided upon college on the east coast, I wanted to be nearer my Mama once she had moved and my dad had a new young family now, two under four and a wife who could keep him most busy without me.

The thing about sticking out in college was it drew attention and not always the type you desired. I was apparently very pretty according to Delilah, too pretty not to venture out into the dating scene but I didn't want that kind of attention, and I didn't look for it but it came looking all the same. Without me knowing there had been a running competition with some of the sorority boys about who could take this pretty little thing from Utah's virginity. Luckily the competition for my virginity had failed at every attempt because I hadn't had a drink to disarm me and I hadn't attended any parties to fall for their serpent like charms.I was about to accept a most terribly timed invitation to a final party though, and I had no idea that the one guy I had liked the entire year, the good guy, whose charm had warmed me up and made me fall slightly giddily in puppy love, with one smile, he wasn't good at all... he was most wicked in the worst way and he would take something from me I could never get back.

My first brush with romance was about to end in heartache after only one night.

"Harper Jameson do not let me down" Delilah begged.

"Okay" I finally agreed letting out a sigh "since it's the last party.... And Max will be there... okay"

"Ooh Max... are you finally going to let him make his move... have we moved on from kissing" she asks me teasingly.

"What exactly are you asking" I ask her turning onto my side as she mirrors me on her bed opposite.

"Has he felt the girls" she says squeezing her large breasts over her t shirt and wiggling her eyebrows.

"Brushed by perhaps but not full on groping no... and I don't want too either." I say throwing her a look "Delilah I could quite happily be picked up Monday morning and go home having never even been groped my entire college life"

"Oh Harper" Delilah eye rolls disappointedly "you only live once, just enjoy your body, it is yours after all to do with whatever you wish"

"I wish to hold onto it for myself for now" I return with a smile that irks her.

"Okay" she says holding up her hands in defeat "but I know this is about that girl"

"What girl" I return with a frown.

"The one you fell for when you were at camp... the older one...the super sexy baller who I am not allowed to name out loud for fear of you suffocating me in my sleep, your words not mine" she returns.

"Delilah I was seventeen and it was a crush, nothing more, and she never even knew about it"

"She knew about it when we saw her last year at her birthday party in the city... didn't you guys like... kiss"

"Delilah" I curse "it was not like that"

"It sounded it to me" she returns sitting and putting on some music.

"Well it was nothing... and I've not thought about her in a long time"

Lies

"Sure keep telling yourself that Harps... now let's get you a sexy little number out to woo Max with" she says throwing open her wardrobe.

"No" I beg, but it falls on deaf ears.

Why did I go to that party?! A question I would ask myself every night for nine months....

Why didn't I see the devil under his mask?! until after all was lost, and his mask slipped off completely.

Consensual if a bit tipsy, lulled into a false sense of security with no idea who this man really was... oh yes you can scream consensual all you want but if the entire thing was a lie, if you yourself were a lie... and I, a deer, you the hunter with the rifle... tell me is that something I would have ever consented to if I had known?! But it was too late, and I had my first drink of alcohol, which I would find out later, I was allergic to. It all led to what happened. I was evidently not myself that night and as my guard lowered, the devil, he was ready, and he did spring into action.

But as aunt Willa always reminds me, from bad came good, and good will always outweigh the bad.

She was of course right, because you are anything but bad, and this was the journey, the journey to you.