Chapter 21

Noah

"I'm being realistic. Jesus, Harper." I said a little bit too harshly. "Can you take anything in life seriously? It's going to be too late to deal with any of this shit and we're gonna be stuck with a fucking kid."

Harper's eyes widened with anger.

I took a deep breath, running my hands down my face.

I fucked up.

"Get out." Harper said instantly. "Get out of my fucking house."

I stood still for a minute before turning to storm out of the bathroom.

I wasn't going to let Harper's refusal to accept the truth affect my life.

She wasn't going to mess it up like last time.

She could find her own damn way to school if she was going to be like this.

I let the front door slam loudly behind me as I headed out to my car.

I played the music just a little bit too loud and drove just a little bit too fast on the way to school, my heart racing the entire time.

By the time I sat down in health, I was warm and angry and sweaty.

Where did Harper get off thinking she could control our lives by being so dumb?

Ignoring the problem has gone on for long enough. It was January already, dammit.

It's been four months, she's obviously pregnant.

I was squeezing my pencil so hard it snapped in half, but nobody noticed because Harper chose that moment to walk into the classroom.

She was out of breath and looked like she was in pain.

She said something quietly to Mr. Jameson and they had a quiet conversation.

Then he called someone on the phone and Harper turned and left the classroom.

Well bye?

I tried to push thoughts of Harper out of my brain but she was all that consumed my attention during the final.

I barely even focused enough to write my own name.

I didn't see her again for the rest of the time we were at school and I didn't give a flying fuck.

This girl was insane. She was irrational and irritating and selfish and God dammit she was the love of my life.

I was still fuming five hours later as I sat in the stuffy coffee shop with a mug of burnt coffee in front of me.

I was staring intently at it, my heart pounding my chest and my hands shaking against my knees.

"Noah..." My mom sighed, leaning forwards in her seat. "I didn't mean it like that..."

"Like hell you didn't." I spoke up, glancing up at her.

"I didn't say you threw your life away for her, I just said that-"

"No you'll find that that's exactly what you said. Dammit mom don't you remember what it was like when you met dad? How you'd do absolutely anything for him?"

"That's because we love each other, Noah, we're-"

"Yeah and Harper and I love each other too." I said firmly, leaning forwards in my seat. "But listen, we're having this meeting for your therapy or whatever, please don't bring Harper into it."

"Harper is everything, Noah." My dad said quietly, resting his arm across the back of my mom's chair. "And not in a negative way."

"I never doubted that your love for that girl runs deeper than we'll ever understand." My mom sighed, reaching for my hands.

I pulled back, tucking them underneath my thighs as my stomach churned.

"But you were too young. We did what we thought was best for the two of you." My dad said quietly. "And to be completely honest, I'm not so sure it was the best decision."

I froze, leaning back slightly.

Was this going where I think it was going?

"Your mother and I have been talking lately a lot about what happened." My dad sighed.

He looked at my mom, both of them staying silent for what seemed like an eternity.

"And we wanted to give you the full story." My mom added. "For closure."

I took a deep breath.

What did they know that I didn't?

"You've never met the guy, but Harper's dad isn't the nicest man out there." My dad said quietly.

Okay well now I was intrigued. Coach was twice the man my dad would ever be.

"He left Harper and her mom a while back, it was a nasty divorce, we won't go into the details. But when he found out that she was pregnant, he lost his mind. He threatened to kick her out of the house, but thank goodness Julia let her stay. She got lucky in the mother department." My dad explained.

I stayed silent. How could two renditions of the same story be so completely different?

This wasn't the life I remembered...

"Harper's dad showed up at our house one evening absolutely fuming, demanding to talk to you. Thankfully you were at Hank's house, I don't want to think about what would happen if you were there." My mom shook her head.

"We talked him down from his unacceptably angry state and sent him on his way, and we haven't heard from him since." My dad sighed. "But word on the street is that he was the driving force behind her abortion."

I flinched at the word, thinking about our argument earlier, and how I shouldn't have blamed her for what happened.

She wasn't intentionally throwing our life away...

"I don't know why you're telling me this." I said seriously, resting my elbows on the table. "It doesn't change anything, you still sent me away, you still-"

"We didn't want you getting any more involved with that family." My dad cut me off. "We were worried about you, Noah, we wanted to keep you away from that."

"Harper Lawrence is bad news, honey." My mom said quietly. "I know we didn't handle it well but in retrospect, we did the best that we could."

"It needs to be acknowledged that your life would've been so drastically worse if you stayed in her life."

"Would it?" I raised my eyebrows. "Would being happy and in love be so horrible?"

"Harper's a bad seed." My dad sighed. "Her mother kicked her out about six months ago, unable to cope with her behavior."

"Apparently she went to live with her dad, God knows where. The two of them can have each other, honestly." My mom shook her head.

"What does any of this have to do with you two fixing yourself or something?" I sighed. "It's just bringing up past shit that-"

"We paid for the abortion." My mom blurted, biting her bottom lip. "Harper and her mom didn't have proper insurance and we paid for it out of pocket."

"You said you didn't know about it until after..." I whispered.

My parents exchanged a look, taking each others hands.

"We knew, honey." My mom sighed. "We knew and we encouraged it."

"You weren't going to throw your life away."

"So you made a decision about my life? My kid?" I asked in shock. "Without even consulting me? What kind of sick parents do that."

"Noah." My dad said firmly. "You wouldn't have been able to raise a child at fifteen. Hell, you shouldn't have even been dating."

I just shook my head, feeling sick to my stomach. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Noah..."

"No, listen, now I know you paid for the abortion and shit, I just... Holy shit." I breathed, running my hands through my hair.

Did Harper know? Was she keeping this from me too?

I should just suck it up and apologize to her. I didn't mean what I said earlier...

This wasn't the ideal situation for us to be in but I was going to do it right this time.

We could make it. We were resilient. We'd just own up to our mistake and get on with it.

"Listen..." I said suddenly. "There's something you guys should know about Harper Lawrence."

My parents looked at me expectantly.

I was about to spill everything when my phone started ringing.

I quickly reached for it, a frown crossing my face.

"It's my coach..." I mumbled, sliding the bar to answer the phone. "Yeah?"

"It's Harper." Coach said quickly, his voice barely discernible among the background noise. "Meet us at the ER."

"What? What the hell happened? The game doesn't start for another forty five minutes."

"It started fifteen minutes ago, listen, Harper went down and something's not right, she passed out from what they think was the pain, just... She'll want you here."

"I'm on my way." I said seriously, hanging up the phone. "I have to go." I said to my parents, standing up. "It's an emergency."

I didn't even wait for them to reply before sprinting out to my car.

What happened to Harper?