Fourteen

He left me there, in the living room, alone, with a thousand unanswered questions of my own. I didn't expect more from him and I was glad that this would be the last encounter we would have with each other.

I turned around to see Sam and Nat standing in the doorway of the living room, looking expectantly at me.

"You were listening through the keyhole, weren't you?" I asked softly, afraid of their answer. Did they hear about the dreams that I had been having? 

They frantically shook their heads and I smiled at the sight.

I sighed and moved towards one of the couches. I sat down and pulled my knees to my chest, waiting for the both of them to sit down.

They both walked in and took their seats in front of me.

"What happened?" Sam asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Honestly, I don't know." There were too many unanswered questions and theories for me to comprehend. "What did he tell you when he came here?"

They looked at each other and shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"It's a little hard to explain," Nat whispered.

I groaned and flopped back on the couch, my back hitting the padded cushion. "Harper came in the bakery today." 

Both of them looked at me, giving me their full attention, silently urging me to continue.

What was I supposed to tell them now? I had not told them about my dreams and I wasn't planning to, either. Honestly, it didn't even come to my mind, now that I think about it. 

The dreams that I had and the message that I was supposed to give to Harper had been the center of my life these past few days. All my actions and unnecessary anxiety were to be blamed on those very dreams. It was all I could focus on.

I wasn't exactly dependent on my friends but it was unlike me to hide things from them, however small and inconsequential they may be. And it wasn't like I didn't want to tell them, I just couldn't.

I couldn't explain it exactly, but I felt the need to keep this secret with me. It wasn't even a secret; it was just a dream. There was nothing special about it, I reminded myself.

I could fool myself all day into believing that I kept all of this a secret because it all sounded insane and straight out of a mystery or a fiction novel. I didn't tell them about it because of something... Something more, which I didn't know about. Yet.

Ironically, everything came out of my mouth the second Harper asked me about it. Well, when he asked nicely. The reasons which sounded plausible to me at that moment sounded ridiculous to me now, because they were. I didn't trust him. And it bothered me that I could tell him the truth without any sort of hesitation, whereas I couldn't tell my friends who have been with me for as long as I could remember.

"I said something and he took it the wrong way. He thought I was, um, desperate for his attention." The words left a poisonous tinge on my tongue. My hand subconsciously cradled my elbow where Harper had manhandled me. It now showcased dark angry purple bruises and it wasn't hard to decipher that these were imprints of someone's hands. I briefly wondered how I would explain these marks to my parents.

I was never an attention seeker and had never been labeled as one. I had never been called desperate and clingy, and Harper had used all those words to describe me on the same day. I felt insulted and hurt. Nobody liked to hear such words and it didn't matter where these words came from.

I felt my throat closing and a tear slipped down my cheek.

No, I didn't feel insulted. I felt humiliated. And that was probably the first time in my life that I had felt this way.

Both of them got up and moved to sit beside me and engulfed me in a group hug. Their thoughtfulness brought a smile to my face. 

"How did he end up coming here?" I looked from Nat to Sam and back to Nat again.

"He just got the idea that you knew something that you shouldn't and he thought that we told you something about it," Sam said looking anywhere but me.

I didn't understand a single word she said but I didn't need to, because it simply didn't matter anymore. Harper was gone and he would remain that way, hopefully.

I wiped my cheeks and sighed. "Well, everything is done now. I won't be hearing from Harper again." The thought brought instant relief to me.

"What do you mean?" Nat asked me curiously.

"We made a deal. He told me he would never bother me again." My lips curled into a smile at the thought. 

I never knew I could despise a person so much that the simple thought of them never talking to me again would be welcomed by me.

"Wow, that's great." Nat beamed at me and I felt my lips form a full grin.

"You know what this calls for, right?" Sam piped up.

Oh, God! No way!

"Let's watch The Notebook, in hopes of finding our true love." She dramatically sighed at the end. 

"Hell to the no!" Nat yelled at Sam. "We are not watching that movie again."

I burst into giggles at the scene in front of me. Whatever may come, I know that these two will always be with me. They were my constants.

P.S. We ended up watching The Notebook again.

The tension dissolved as the night progressed and I slept with a smile on my face.

***

The three of us climbed into Nat's car to get to school early in the morning. None of us wanted to go to school because we had spent the night talking till the early hours of the morning, joking and having fun. But I had promised my dad that I would go to school and I meant to keep my promise to him, much to the dismay of my friends.

I had borrowed a full-sleeved silk blouse from Nat so that I could hide the ugly purple bruise. Seriously, how strong was Harper that he managed to leave such a bruise on me? Damn him to hell!

We hopped in Nat's car with Nat on the wheel, Sam in the passenger seat, and me in the back. 'Closer' by The Chainsmokers was blasting on the radio. We still listened to the song; we loved it that much. We often put it on repeat on our sleepovers together and we had it on repeat for the fifteen-minute drive to school.

We reached school in precisely fifteen minutes. Nat parked the car in the school parking lot and we got out of the car.

We got weird looks from people, probably because of the sound we were blaring. It was as if we were the most popular girls in the school. All eyes in the parking lot zoomed in on us, giving us weird looks.

Nat was in her element as if she didn't notice anything and if she did, she didn't say anything. Samantha seemed oblivious to all the stares too. I tried to maintain a neutral face and a calm facade.

We were fifteen minutes early and had enough time before the first period would start. So, we first went to Nat's locker and then to Sam's locker together and then made our way to mine.

People were milling about in front of my locker, snapping photos and whispering to each other. As soon as they saw me, the chatter ceased and the crowd dispersed to let me reach my locker.

Ok, so, everyone in the parking lot wasn't staring at us, they were staring at me and they had a very good reason. That much was clear from what I saw.

The hall was silent despite the number of people crowding it. They were waiting for my reaction, I suppose, and all I could do was just stare at my locker, with my mouth open.

The theme colors of our school were blue and gold. The mascot of the school was a tiger dressed in a hideous blue and gold outfit, every club and sports team had their uniforms designed in blue and gold and all of our lockers were painted blue (probably because gold would have been too much, thank God for that).

Well, except mine.

My locker, which yesterday, like any other locker was blue, was now painted in a vivid red color. The only locker in the whole damn school which had any other color than blue. No wonder people were staring at me. 

And that's not it. Oh, no.

There were balloons taped to it. Heart-shaped balloons. Red, heart-shaped balloons. Exactly twenty in number. 

The balloons took up so much space that my neighbors weren't able to use their lockers and were giving me stink eyes. Romance was good, but only if it didn't interfere with anyone else's life.

Oh, God!

I flushed in embarrassment at the sight. People were still staring at me. They probably had their cameras at the ready to capture a video of me, gushing and squealing like the silly teenager I was, and running in the arms of my man. 

Well, I sure hope that some boy did this. I wouldn't know what to do if it was a girl. Not that I know what to do now.

If they hoped to get my attention, they had it now. Mine and the attention of every other pupil in the school. Count the teachers too and we can't forget the janitor.

I hastily walked ahead and stripped all the balloons that were taped to my locker. When I was done, I looked like I was in the balloon-selling business. Those balloons were huge and I felt as if I would just float away because of the excess helium in the balloons.

I looked around to see that the crowd had dispersed, sensing that there wasn't going to be any romantic drama in the hallway. My locker neighbors gave me grateful glances and I smiled back at them.

I looked around to see Nat and Sam still standing there, with shocked expressions. I sighed. "Help me with the balloons?"

They snapped out of their trances and nodded. They quickly walked towards me and took some of the balloons from my hands. 

You know what was the biggest problem with the balloons? They were so hard to dispose of. 

I had a limited amount of time to take care of them before my class started and I had no idea what to do.

I tried stuffing them into trash cans in the halls, but they just floated back up, earning me weird glances from my peers in the hall and sniggers from the girls in the cheerleading squad!

Couldn't this guy just get me a bouquet or something?! They were comparatively easier to carry. And get rid of it.

In the end, the three of us just stuffed all the balloons in an empty classroom that hadn't been used in years and smelt like mold. If we were lucky, no one would find those balloons and they would deflate on their own.

With a few minutes to spare, I hugged my best friends and thanked them for helping me. They just flipped me off, in return. They still hadn't said anything about the balloons. They were probably too shocked, like me. 

You don't thank your best friends for any sort of help.

I giggled at the gesture and ran towards my first class.

I was on time and breathed a sigh of relief. The teacher stood just outside the classroom discussing some projects with two sophomore girls. I was on time, thank God!

I didn't want any more surprises and neither did I expect them. Just like I didn't expect the surprise at the locker!

But my eyes popped out of my sockets when I entered the class.