Callum & Harper (Sleepless 1)

The Friday of our third week, we got into a particularly rancid argument, our nerves frayed. Harper and I never name called, never. We never really shouted either but this day, there was a lot of shouting back and forth.

“If I went out with them but promised to stay with them at all times, would you let me go then?” Harper asked.

“No! Not one of those women could handle John’s girth. I‘m six-two, a hundred eighty pounds, Harper! And I’m in damn good shape! Even I can’t handle him completely! He’s a monster!” I yelled from my position on the couch. I was drumming my thumbs nervously on my thighs.

“I know that! You don’t have to remind me, Callum!” Harper yelled back from behind her door.

She was trying to get ready to have a girl’s night with Cherry, Kelly, Sam, and Marty and I wasn’t going to let her. I was going to tie her to the radiator if I had to. I felt it was too dangerous. I saw what John’s intentions were with her and he knew where we lived. Harper didn’t know that but I thought maybe it was time she did, especially if she kept insisting that she was going out ‘whether I liked it or not’.

I sighed loudly, hoping she heard. “Harper, why can’t you just stay in until they catch him?”

She opened the door, stepping out in some dress that made my eyes want to roll into the back of my head. I almost keeled over at the pleasure of looking at her.

“No,” she said succinctly. “I can’t live my life, looking over my shoulder every five seconds and I’m going stir crazy sitting in this house all the time.” She sat beside me, the skirt of her dress, tightening around her thighs, reminding me how shapely they were. All the more reason she should stay. “Listen, I love you but I need to get out of here. I need a break.”

I sighed. “I know, Harper, but you can’t go alone. Listen, I’ll compromise with you. How about I come with you...”

“No,” she interrupted. “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s either that or you don’t go. I don’t care if I have to block the door myself. You are not going alone. Don’t you even remember that night, Harper?”

She thought for a moment, sinking further into the couch cushion. “Fine,” she conceded, “but you’re invisible, alright? I don’t want the girls to even know you’re there. I’m breaking all the rules by allowing you to attend a girl’s night. It’s, like, sacrilegious or something.”

I couldn’t keep back my snort. “You’ll never know I’m there.”

They knew I was there. It enraged Harper but when they saw me sulking in a corner, they dragged me to their table. Eventually, Harper joined in on the fun, even apologizing to me later when she’d relaxed a little bit.

The other girls had gotten up to dance, leaving Harper and I alone. She slid across the leather booth to sit next to me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello, love.” Her hand was pressed into the seat of the booth and I placed my own on top of it. I leaned into her ear. “Dance with me, Harper.”

She shook her head, glancing at the crowded dance floor. “No,” she said, hurting my feelings and wounding my pride. I started to pull my hand away but she gripped it and brought her mouth to my ear. “I would much rather sit here with you, smell your yummy smell, drink in your handsome face, hear your lovely words.”

“Wow, Harper. That was,” I cleared my throat at the surprising turn of our conversation, “sexy.”

“I know,” she teased. “Fighting you brings out a feisty side, I think.”

Note to self, fight with Harper more often.

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Do you ever think about our kiss?” I asked boldly, surprising myself. I didn’t know where I got the confidence.

I’d said it before I’d lost my nerve and from the look on her face, I immediately regretted it but then she surprised me.

“All the time,” she said, astounding me.

“Me too.”

We were quiet for an awfully long time and I had no idea what to do. I knew if we took the conversation any further that things would be revealed or not revealed and I was too frightened to find out what either would be but it was hanging out there, practically begging to come out to play.

“I’d like to try it again,” I said, possibly ruining the past two years worth of work I’d done.

The blood in my neck seeped into my face and I found myself hoping she hadn’t heard me. I turned toward her and saw that she had. I felt sick in that moment, an instantaneous headache began to pound my brain but all ceased immediately when she grabbed the vest I wore over my t-shirt and slid the wool cap off my head. She let go of my vest and ran her hands through my hair, twisting her fingers through to the end right above my shoulders.

I couldn’t believe this was going to happen to me. We both leaned into one another but I stopped abruptly, wondering something.