Songs for this chapter are:

All At once- The Fray

Demons- Imagine Dragons

She is- The Fray

I have been awake for over two hours now, waiting patiently for Hardin to wake up. By the time I am showered and fully dressed, the kitchen is cleaned, and I've taken two ibuprofen to get rid of my cramps and massive headache, I make my way back to the bedroom to wake him up myself.

I gently shake his arm and whisper his name, it doesn't work.

"Hardin, wake up," I roughly grip his shoulder and recoil when the vision of my mother ripping my father's slumbering body off of the couch flashes into my mind. All morning I have avoided thoughts of my mother and the heartbreaking history lesson I was given last night. My father is still asleep, I imagine that he is worn out from her short visit as well.

"No," he grumbles sleepily.

"If you won't get up then I'll be going to your father's house alone," I say, slipping my feet into my flat shoes. I have many pair of toms, but I always find myself wearing the tan crochet pair the most. Hardin calls them "hideous moccasins" but I love the comfortable shoes.

He groans and rolls over onto his stomach, pushing himself up onto his elbows. His eyes are still closed when he turns his head to me. "No, you won't." I knew he wouldn't like that idea, that's precisely why I used it to get his behind out of the bed.

"Get up then, I have already showered and everything," I whine. I'm anxious to get to Landon's house and see him, Ken, and Karen again. It feels like ages since I've seen the sweet woman wearing the strawberry printed apron that she hardly removes.

"Damn it," he pouts, opening one eye. I stifle a giggle at the lazy expression covering his face. I'm tired too, mentally and physically drained, but the idea of getting out of this apartment for the day has perked me up tremendously.

"Come here first," he opens the other eye and reaches out for me. The moment I am beside him on the bed, he rolls his heavy body on top of mine, encasing me in his warmth. He purposely rubs his hardness rubs against me, grinding his hips until he's perfectly nestled between my thighs, his morning erection pressing torturously into me.

"Morning," he's wide awake now and I can't help but laugh. He leisurely drags his hips in a circle again, this time I try to wiggle free. He joins me in laughter but quickly silences me by covering my mouth with his. His tongue laps mine, gently caressing, hinting to the complete opposite intention of the sharp movements his hips are making. 

"Are you plugged?" He whispers, still kissing me. His hands have moved to my chest and my heart is thumping rapidly, making his sleepy voice barely audible.

"I am," I nod, only mildly cringing at the hideous nickname I have become used to. He pulls away, his eyes slowly rake over my face and his tongue swipes along his bottom lip, wetting it.

The noise of the cabinets opening and closing carry down the hallway, followed by  crash of pans against the concrete floor.

"Fucking lovely," Hardin's eyes roll. "Well, I had planned on fucking you before we left but now that he's awake," he stares down at me.

I roll my eyes as he climbs off of me and stands to his feet, taking the blanket with him. "I'll be quick in the shower," he scowls toward the door.

Hardin returns less than five minutes later just as I am tucking in the corners of the bed sheet. The only article of clothing present is the white towel draped across his waist. I force my eyes to his face while he walks over to the dresser and pulls out a signature black t-shirt. He quickly pulls it down over his head and steps into a pair of boxers.

"Last night was a fucking disaster," Hardin's eyes are focused on his busted hand as he buttons his jeans.

"Yeah," I sigh, trying to avoid any further conversation that revolves around my parents.

"Let's go," he grabs his keys and phone from the dresser and shoves them into his pockets. He pushes his wet hair back off of his forehead and opens the bedroom door. "Well?" He impatiently remarks a few moments later. What happened to the playful Hardin from only minutes ago? If his bad mood continues this way then I suspect that today will be just as bad as yesterday.

Without a word, I follow him through the door and down the hallway. The bathroom door is closed and the water is on. "Did you tell him we are leaving?" I quietly ask. I don't want to wait for my father to get out of the shower but I don't want to leave without telling him where we are going and making sure he doesn't need anything. What does he do in this apartment while he's alone? Does he think about drugs all day? Does he have people over? I shake the second thought from my head, Hardin would find out and my father sure as heck wouldn't still be here if that were the case.

"Yes," his response is short, showing his growing irritation.

Hardin stays quiet during the drive to his father's house. The only assurance that today isn't a total wash is his hand resting on my upper thigh while he focuses on the road.

Hardin, as always, doesn't knock on the door of his father's house before walking inside. The sweet smell of syrup fills the house and we follow the scent to the kitchen. Karen is standing next to the oven, a spatula is one hand and the other is being waved through the air in conversation. An unfamiliar young woman is seated at one of the island stools. Her long brown hair is the only thing I see until she turns the stool around when Karen's attention is directed toward us.

"Tessa, Hardin!!" Karen nearly shrieks with joy and she carefully drops the utensil onto the counter before rushing over to wrap her arms around me. "It's been so long!" She says, holding me at arms length and then crushing me back to her body. Her warm welcome is exactly what I needed after last night.

"It's only been three weeks, Karen." Hardin rudely remarks. Her smile dims a fraction and she tucks her hair behind her ear.

"What are you making?" I distract her from her stepson's sour attitude and peer around her to the counter covered in baked goods.

"Maple cookies, maple cupcakes, maple squares, and maple muffins," Karen pulls me gently to follow her and Hardin cowers in the corner, a deep scowl set on his face. I ignore him.

I look at the young woman again, unsure how to introduce myself. "Oh!" Karen takes notice, "I'm sorry, I should have introduced you first thing," she waves her hand to the woman. "This is Sophia, her parents live just down the road." The woman smiles and reaches to shake my hand.

"Nice to meet you," she smiles. She's beautiful, very beautiful. Her eyes are bright and her smile warm, she's older than me but she can't be any older than twenty-five.

"I'm Tessa, Landon's friend." I introduce myself. Hardin coughs behind me, obviously displeased at my choice of words for my introduction. I assume she knows Landon and since Hardin and I are.. well whatever we are, it seemed easier to introduce myself as Landon's friend.

"I haven't gotten to meet Landon yet," Sophia tells me. Her voice is soft and sweet, I immediately like her.

"Oh?" I assumed she knows him since her family lives down the road.

"Sophia has just graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in New York," Karen brags for her and Sophia smiles. I don't blame her, if I had graduated from the best culinary school in the country, I would let people brag for me too.

"I'm visiting my family and I ran into Karen down the road, buying some syrup," she grins, eyeing the massive amount of maple flavored goods.

"Oh, and this is Hardin," I remember my brooding man in the background.

"Nice to meet you," she smiles at him.

"Yeah," he doesn't even look at the poor woman. I offer her a shrug and a sympathetic smile.

"Where is Landon?" I ask Karen.

Karen's eyes flicker to Hardin, then to me before she answers, "he's upstairs.. he hasn't been feeling well," she says. My stomach turns, there is something going on with my best friend, I know it.

"I'm going upstairs," Hardin turns to walk up the stairs.

"Wait, I'll go." I offer. If something is going on with Landon, the last thing he needs is Hardin taunting him.

"No." Hardin shakes his head, "I'll go. Have some syrup cakes or whatever," he grumbles and takes two stairs at a time, giving me no chance to argue.

 Karen and Sophia both look at me and I shrug. "That's Hardin, Ken's son." Karen says, despite his poor attitude today, she still smiles proudly at the mention of his name.

"Oh," Sophia nods in understanding, "he's lovely," she lies and the three of us burst into laughter.

Hardin's POV.

I push Landon's bedroom door open after a quick knock and I'm relieved that he's not rubbing one out when I open the door. He's seated in the recliner against the wall with a textbook on his lap.

"What are you doing in here?" He asks, his voice hoarse.

"You knew we were coming," I take the liberty of sitting on the edge of his bed.

"I meant in my room," he clarifies.

I choose not to answer him, I don't know why I'm in his room. I sure as hell didn't want to stay downstairs with three women obsessing over one another. "You look like shit," I tell him.

"Thanks," he looks back down at the textbook.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you up here moping around?" I look around his normally tidy room to find it sort of messy, clean to my standards, but not to his and Tessa's.

"I'm not moping,"

"If something is wrong, tell me." I coax him.

"Why would I tell you anything? So you can laugh at me?" He slams the book shut and stares at me.

"No. I wouldn't," I tell him. I probably would, I had actually been planning on him telling me some stupid shit about getting a bad grade, so I could take my frustrations out on him but now that he's here, in front of me looking all pitiful, making him miserable doesn't appeal to me as much.

"Just tell me, maybe I can help," I offer. I have no fucking idea why I just offered to help him. We both know I'm shit at helping anyone. Look at what a fucking disaster last night turned out to be. Richard's words have been eating away at me all morning.

"Help me?" Landon gapes, obviously wary of my offer.

"Oh come on, don't make me beat it out of you," I lay back on his bed and watch the blades of the ceiling fan spin round and round.

I hear his light chuckle and the sound of the book being placed on the desk beside him. "Dakota and I have ended things," he softly admits.

What the fuck?

"What?" I quickly sit up. That was the last thing I imagined would come from his mouth.

"Yeah, we've been trying to make it work.." he frowns, his eyes glossing over. If he fucking cries, I'm out of here.

"Oh," I look away from him.

"I think she's been wanting to end it for a while," he admits. I glance at him again, not wanting to put too much focus on his sad features. He really is like a puppy, especially right now. I don't like puppies though, except this one, maybe..

"Why do you think that?" My sudden animosity toward the curly haired girl is high.

"I don't know," he shrugs. "She didn't say that, it's just.. she's been so busy lately and she never returns my calls. It's like the closer it got to me coming to New York, the more distant she became."

"She's probably fucking someone else," I tell him and he noticeably flinches.

"No! She isn't like that," he defends her. I probably shouldn't have said that.

"Sorry," I shrug.

"She's not that type of girl at all," he tells me. Neither was Tessa but I had her shaking and moaning my name while she was still seeing Noah. I'll keep that statement to myself.

"Okay," I agree for his sake.

"I've been dating her so long that I can't even remember what life was like before her," his voice is quiet and so full of sadness that it makes my chest tight. It's an odd feeling.

"I know what you mean," I agree. Life before Tessa was nothing, only sloshed memories and darkness, that's exactly what it would be like after her too.

"Yeah but at least you won't have to find out what it would be like after,"

"What makes you so sure?" I ask, noting that I'm taking away from his breakup announcement but I must know the answer.

"I can't imagine anything would tear you two apart, nothing has so far," he says like it's the most obvious answer in the world. Maybe it is to him, I wish it were that obvious to me.

"So what now? Are you still going to New York? You're supposed to be leaving in what, two weeks?"

"Yeah, and I don't know. I have done so much to get into NYU, and I've already enrolled in my classes and everything. It just seems like a waste not to go, but it seems pointless to go." His fingers rub circles over his temples. "I don't know what to do."

"You shouldn't go, that would be really awkward." I tell him.

"It's a big city, we are likely to never run into each other and besides, we will still be friends."

"Sure, the whole 'friends' thing," I can't help but roll my eyes. "Why didn't you tell Tessa what was going on?" I ask him. She's going to be heartbroken for him.

"Tess has-" he begins.

"Tessa," I correct him.

He rolls his eyes, "has enough on her plate, I don't want her worrying for me."

"You want me to keep this from her, don't you?" I ask him. I can tell by his guilty expression that he does.

"Only for now, until she catches a break. She is too stressed lately and I'm afraid one of these days something will tip her over the edge." His concern for my Tessa is strong and slightly irritating but I decide against my better judgment and keep my mouth closed.  

"She'll kill me for this, you know that." I groan. I don't want to tell her either. He's right, she has enough going on and I'm too blame for ninety percent of it.

"There's more.." he begins. Of course there is.

"It's my mom, she-" a light knock at the door silences him.

"Landon? Hardin?" Tessa's voice sounds through the wood.

"Come in," Landon calls. He looks at me with pleading eyes to reaffirm my promise of keeping his breakup from Tessa.

"I know," I assure him as the door opens and Tessa steps inside carrying a plate and the thick smell of syrup with her.

"Karen wanted you two to try these," she rests the platter on the desk and looks at me before quickly turning to Landon with a smile.  "Try the squares first, Sophia taught us how to properly ice them, see the little flowers," her small finger points to the bundles of icing piled onto the brown crust. "She taught us how to make those, she's so lovely."

"Who?" Landon asks, his brow raised. He must have been hiding out in his room all morning.

"Sophia, she just left to go back to her parent's house down the road. Your mother really went crazy getting tons of baking secrets from her," Tessa smiles and brings a square to her mouth. I knew she would like that Sarah girl, I could tell instantly that the three of them would squeal over one another in the kitchen, that's why I bolted.

"Oh," Landon shrugs his shoulders and grabs for a square. Tessa apprehensively holds the plate out to me and I shake my head, declining. Her shoulders slump but she doesn't say anything.

"I'll have a square," I mumble, wanting her frown to go away. I've been an asshole all morning.

She perks up and hands me one. The so called flowers on this one look like globs of yellow snot. "You must have iced this one," I tease her, pulling her by the wrist to sit on my lap.

"That was a practice one," she defends with her chin lifted. I can tell she is confused by my sudden shift in mood, so am I.

"Sure, baby." I grin and she flicks a piece of the yellow icing onto my shirt.

"I'm no chef, okay?" She pouts. I look at Landon, who has his mouth full of cupcake while he stares at the ground. I dip my finger onto my shirt to gather the icing and before Tessa can stop me, I wipe my finger across her nose, smearing the hideous yellow across it.

"Hardin!" She tries to wipe it off but I gather her hands in mine, the pastries falling to Landon's floor.

"Oh come on guys!" Landon shakes his head at us. "My room is already a mess," he scolds us. I ignore him and resume licking the icing from Tessa's scrunched nose.

"I'll help you clean the room!" She laughs as my tongue runs along her cheek.

"You know, I miss the days when you wouldn't even hold her hand in front of me," Landon complains. He bends down to gather the broken squares from his floor.

I sure as hell don't miss those days and I hope Tessa doesn't either.

..

"Did you like the cookies, Hardin?" Karen asks while pulling a ham from the oven. She probably covered the damn thing in syrup too.

"They were okay," I shrug my shoulders. Tessa shoots me a glare from the seat next to me and I backtrack. "They were good," I correct myself, earning a smile from my girl. I've finally begun to realize that the tiniest things make her smile, it's weird as hell but it works so I'm going with it.

"How is your graduation packet coming along?" My father turns to me. He lifts his glass of water and takes a sip.  He looks much better than he did when I saw him in his office last week.

"Good, it's completed. I'm not going to walk remember?" I know he remembers, he's just hoping  that I have changed my mind.

"What do you mean you're not going to walk?" Tessa interrupts. Fucking hell.

"I'm not walking in that graduation, I'm having my diploma mailed," I sternly reply. This isn't going to turn into a trample Hardin and change his mind thing.

"Why not?" Tessa frowns. My father looks pleased. That asshole planned this, I know he did.

"I don't want to," I look at Landon for aide but he is avoiding my stare. So much for our bonding shit earlier, it's clear that he's back on Team Tessa. "Don't push it right now, I'm not walking and I won't be changing my mind." I say to her, loud enough that everyone will hear me so there won't be any mistake in my intention.

"We will talk about it later," she threatens with flushed cheeks. Sure Tess, sure.

"Your mum said you have decided to go to England," my father says. He doesn't seem uncomfortable speaking on the topic in front of Karen. I suppose they have been together long enough that this isn't awkward.

"Yes," I give him a one word answer and take a bite of my dinner as I sign that I am done with the table-chat.

"You're going too, right Tessa?" He asks her.

"Yes, I have to finalize my passport but I'm going," the smile on her face knocks my irritation down a little.

"It will be an amazing experience for you, I know you told me how much you love England. I hate to break that for you, but modern London isn't quite like the London in your novels," he grins at her and she laughs.

"Thank you for the warning, I'm aware that Dickens's London fog was actually smog, " she beams at him. Tessa fits in so well with my father and his new family, much better than I do. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be speaking to any of them.

"Have Hardin take you down to Chawton, it's less than two hours from Hampstead, where Anne lives." My father suggests.

I had planned on taking her there anyway, thanks.

"That would be lovely," Tessa turns to me, her hand moves under the table and she squeezes my thigh. I know she wants me to be a good sport throughout this dinner but my father is making it difficult.

"I've heard a lot about Hampstead," Tessa adds.

"It's changed a lot over the years, it's not the small, quite village it was when I lived there. Real Estate has skyrocketed," he tells her. Like she gives a fuck about the real estate in my hometown.

"There are plenty of places to see while you're there, how long will you be staying?" He asks.

"Three days," Tessa answers for the both of us. I don't plan on taking her anywhere except Chawton, I thoroughly plan to keep her locked away so her weekend won't be ruined by any of my ghosts.

"I was thinking," my father presses a cloth napkin to his mouth, "I called around to a few places this morning and I found a really nice facility for your father,"

Tessa's fork falls from her hand and clatters onto the porcelain plate. Landon, Karen, and my father are all staring at her, waiting for her to speak. "What?" I break the silence so she doesn't have to.

"I found a really nice treatment facility, they offer a three month program for recovering-"

Tessa whimpers next to me, it's such a low sound that no one else heard it but it resonates through my entire body. How dare him bring this shit up to her in front of an audience at the dinner table!

"They are the best in Washington, we could look elsewhere too if you'd like." His voice is soft and not a hint of judgment in present, but her cheeks are flushed in embarrassment and I want to rip his fucking head clear off.

"This isn't the time to bring this shit up to her," I warn him. She jerks slightly from my harsh tone.

"It's okay, Hardin," her eyes plead with mine. "I'm just a little caught off guard," she politely says.

"No Tessa, it's not. How did you even know that her father is a junkie anyway?" She flinches again, I don't know why this time.

"Landon and I talked about it last night and we both thought that discussing a rehabilitation plan with Tessa would be a good idea, it's very hard for addicts to get clean on their own." He says.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" The words are out before I can think them through.

"Yes, as a recovered alcoholic, I would know." He states. My words didn't have the intended effect on him but when I look over to his wife, sadness is clear in her eyes.

"How much is it?" I ask him, I make enough money to fully support myself, and her, but rehab may have to wait until I graduate, my salary will nearly double.

"I would cover it," my father calmly answers.

"Hell no," I try to stand from the table but Tessa's grip on my arm is strong. I sit back down, "you aren't paying for it."

"Hardin, I am more than willing to pay for it,"

"The two of you should talk about this in the other room," Landon suggests. What he's really saying is, don't talk about it in front of Tessa.

Her grip on my arm lets up and my father stands to his feet at the same time that I do. She doesn't look up from her plate as we leave the room.

"I'm sorry," I hear Landon say to her just before I pin my father against the wall.

He pushes me off with more force than usual, "why wouldn't you bring this up to me before throwing it in her face at the fucking dinner table?" I shout at him, squeezing my fists tight to my sides.

"I think she should have some say in it and I knew you wouldn't allow me to pay for it," his voice is calm, unlike mine. I'm pissed the hell off and my blood is boiling. I'm reminded of the many times I stormed out of family dinners at the Scott' residence. It may as well be a damn tradition.

"You're damn right I wouldn't, you don't need to be throwing your fucking money around to us, we don't need it."

"That's not my intention here, I just want to  help you in any way that I can,"

"How is sending her fuckup of a father to rehab going to help me?" I ask, even though I know the answer.

"Because if he's well, then she is well. She's the only way to help you, I know that and so do you," he sighs.

I let out a deep breath, not even arguing back because he's right this time.

(Don't forget to vote<3 and yes, I know that Hardin (real Hardin) is from Holmes Chapel but After Hardin isn't:) I can't believe we are so close to the end of this book! I love you all, After 2 reached 100 million reads!! It's so insane, thank you all<3