Girls of Portland

Chapter 11: Harper

I continued walking down the street, looking into various shop windows and doors. I came across a local grocery store and decided it might be nice to make Juniper dinner, I mean, she was letting me use her house and all.

I walked into the shop as the bell rang above the door. I made my way over to the vegetable aisle and grabbed some bell peppers and broccoli. I then bought some pasta, and Parmesan cheese. I wasn't much of a chef, but it's fun to try. As I was walking to the next register, I bumped into someone and the stuff in my basket went flying everywhere.

"Oh Harper, hey! Sorry about that".

I looked up, it was Wes. I groaned.

"Hi Wes" I said grouping together my food on the floor and transferring it to the basket. "What are you doing here?".

"Just getting familiar with Portland, I guess". He said scratching his head.

"What bout you?"

"Just getting dinner" I said, picking up my basket. I stood up, "I'm trying to make pasta".

"I love pasta!" he grinned. He looked at me like he was waiting for me to say something. His eyes were a really blue, blue. Almost ominously blue. I hadn't noticed that before.

"Do you wanna come over to have dinner?" I asked hesitantly. His face relaxed like he was waiting for me to say that the whole time.

"Sure" he said, smiling. We proceeded to check out at the register, then I walked Wes to Juniper's apartment. I walked into Juniper and some other guy talking really quiet at the kitchen table. I swear I had seen that guy before, but I couldn't place him. Juniper looked up from the guy at me. Her face drained.

"Oh hi Harper, this is um" she gulped "this is Edward". Edward looked at me.

"Hey" I said, placing the groceries on the counter. "This is Wes, I brought him over for dinner".

After I prepared dinner. Juniper, Wes, Edward and I all sat around the kitchen table and ate. Edward looked at me and then back at Juniper several times throughout the dinner. I got really suspicious. I knew him, but how.

After dinner we all watched a movie together, then Wes and Edward left. I walked over to Juniper and grabbed her hand.

"What did you tell him Juniper" I yelled.

"Who?" She said, pulling away.

"You perfectly know who" I said glaring into her eyes. "Edward. He knows something's up".

Juniper's eyes filled with hot tears. "You have to stop this Harper, getting mad and all this, I didn't tell him anything, he already knew".

"That we-" my voice trailed off.

"Not we, Harper, you. He's suspicious".

"I swear to God Juniper if you tell him it was me, you know well enough you were apart of it as much as I was". Juniper's face turned red.

"You know Harper, if it wasn't for you, it wouldn't have happened. If you hadn't moved in that day across the street, If your mother hadn't made you play with me every, single day-. If you hadn't gone to our school, or been in Girl Scouts with me, or choir, or, or, -". Tears flowed down her face. She said in between tears-"I might still have my mother". Juniper ran to her room, and I heard the door slam.

My head started throbbing again. I couldn't handle all this. I had held in all my emotions for six months. Since the incident. They had taken over my mind and they punched against my brain. They tore it apart. I finally let my my fists uncurl and I collapsed on the sofa. I started rapidly breathing. And then finally, a single tear fell from my eye. I kept crying into the leather sofa. My face pressed against it. It felt good to let it out.

So I did.