Nick was finding it very hard to keep himself busy the next day. He really wanted to text Harper to at least say hi. But he knew he shouldn’t. Knowing she was busy today, he didn’t want to bother her. He could tell it was something important from her exchange with Ro last night. Nick thought his curiosity was going to kill him soon.
Looking at Harpers number on his phone for the millionth time this morning, he turned his phone off and put it down on the coffee table in front of him. Deciding to watch some tv he picked up the remote.
After about 15 minutes of channel surfing, nothing caught his attention enough to watch. Nick turned off the tv and put the remote down next to him. He let out a huge sigh and got up.
Nick wandered around his house for a while. Doing little things here and there in the various rooms. He eventually found himself in the storage area of his basement. Looking around his eyes fell on the box that he knew made him gravitate to this area in the first place.
It was a big storage bin that was labeled ‘Black and Blue tour’. Nick kept a box of various memorabilia and stuff from all the tours they did. No one knows he does it. He figured that guys would razz him for it.
Pulling it off the shelf, he carried it over to the lounge area of his studio that he had in the basement. Nick knew exactly why he wanted to look through that box. He was hoping to have some pictures of Harper in there somewhere.
Lifting the lid off the container, he knew so many memories were about to come flooding back to him. But he didn’t care at that moment. After staring at the contents for a moment he began to pull things out one by one. He kinda laughed at himself. Partially at the memories it brought and because he didn’t understand why he actually kept some of the stuff it that box.
Pretty soon he had half the box surrounding him. Finally, he found and album of pictures. Smiling as he began to look through photo after photo. He came to a group picture where he could see Harper in the background, well at least her head. Nick saw Harper in various picture as he kept looking.
He stopped at picture that he was a little surprised to see. It was a picture of himself standing with his arm around Harper. Nick had no recollection of this picture being taken. He was puzzled. When was this taken. Pulling the picture of the album he lifted it closer to his face. Trying to scan the whole picture for clues. When his eyes fell upon his own face, he realized why he probably didn’t remember the picture being taken.
Nick knew from the look on his own face that he had to have been hammered that night it was taken. From the looks of the background he knew they were in a club, he just didn’t know what one. A million questions started floating through his mind. When he looked at Harper’s face though, he couldn’t hear his own thoughts anymore.
She had such a radiant smile on her face. He didn’t know how she could have such a genuine smile when he knew that he had to have been acting like such an idiot when that picture was taken. Nick cringed at the thought of all the stupid stuff he could have probably said to her. Maybe that’s why she was acting the way she was around him. All she could probably think about was the dumbass she remembered his being during this time. He wasn’t at his best during the tour, but he also knew that he wasn’t at his worst.
Setting the picture down beside him, he flipped through the rest of the album. Pulling out any clear picture he found of Harper. When Nick was done with the pictures he set it down and looked into the box. He saw a stack of envelopes secured by a rubber band.
Nick had forgot all about those. Picking them up, he removed the rubber band. He pulled the paper out of the one on top. The words were all too familiar to him as he had read those letters countless times.
Harper was sitting in her car finishing her coffee she picked up this morning. She knew she was going to need it. When she saw a car pull out of a driveway she knew it was time. After the car was far enough down the road Harper pulled up to the house it came from. Parking on the road and was about to get out of her car when she saw a big black SUV back into the driveway. Harper ran out to the person getting out of the driver’s side.
“Are you ready to do this?” the person asked Harper.
“Yes, let’s go” Harper said as they both ran to the door.
The door flew open as they reached it. Kate had tears streaming down her face.
“I don’t know if I can do this” Kate cried.
“Yes, you can, you have to” Harper tried to console her friend. They could see a fresh bruise on Kate’s shoulder.
“Remember, no talking” Their friend Ian whispered.
Harper tried her best to mouth/motion the orders for Ian to help calm down Kate while Harper ran to start packing up Kates things.
About 15 minutes later Kate and Ian joined her. They were all frantically packing up as much of Kates things as they could. Harper tried as hard as she could to focus on how important this was for Kate. Not the fact that she was going to be losing two of her friends.
All three of them had come up with this plan last week. Kate needed to get away from her abusive fiancé. She knew she had to get as far away as she could or he would try to find her. We suggested going to New York but Kate was too scared to go alone. So, Ian said he would go with her. He knew he would be able to find Modeling gigs there too. Harper knew it was going to be hard to let them both go.
Knowing they had limited time to get this done they kept going, not daring to take a break. A few hours later they had the SUV packed with as much of Kates stuff that could fit. There was still stuff of Kate’s that she didn’t want to leave so they packed it in Harpers car. Deciding that she could send it to Kate when they knew it would be safe to.
After Kate had one more emotional moment, she took off her engagement ring and set it on the counter where she knew her now ex-fiancé would see it. Along with her keys and phone.
Ian drove for a little while with Harper following behind them. They wanted to say their goodbyes away from that house.
All three of them were crying and hugging each other for what seemed like an eternity.
“I hate this, but we really have to get on the road” Ian pulled away and looked at his watch. It was around noon and they all knew that time was precious right now. Kate and Ian needed to get as far away from the west coast as quickly as they could.
Harper gave each of them one more hug.
“call me when you are halfway there” harper told them, knowing that would be a couple days. It was directed more towards Ian cause Kate left her phone so her Fiancé couldn’t track her.
Harper stood there as she watched them get in the vehicle and drive off. Not wanting to break down where people could see her, Harper got in her car and took off.
Not really knowing where she was driving to, she soon found herself at the beach. Pulling in a parking spot, Harper saw that there weren’t many people there right now. She let out a sigh of relief. She got out and started walking down where it seemed more secluded. When Harper thought she was far enough away she sat down.
Nick had been so distracted, reading the secret admirer letters that he had received during the Black and Blue tour, that he didn’t notice the time until he felt his stomach grumble.
He had read through 3 of the letters. Each of them were about two pages long. After getting buried so deep in the memories, Nick had to pry himself away from it all. He knew he should eat something.
Nick decided to get out of the house. Twenty minutes later he found himself at a little sub sandwich shop. After getting his food Nick sat by the window and watched people walk by as he ate.
When he was done eating, he wasn’t in the mood to go back to his house yet. Nick found himself at the beach. It was where he did his best thinking. Of course, he could have walked out the back door of his house and the beach would have just been a few yards away. But sometimes he liked going to different beaches.
He knew this one very well. There was a bluff that he like to climb up to. It looked over most of the beach. It was a very peaceful spot. He just hoped no one was up there right know. Most of the time there wasn’t.
Nick had been walking for a few minutes when he saw someone sitting by themselves up ahead. As he got closer Nick got a strange feeling. That hair looked familiar. Getting just a little closer he realized who it was and froze.
He wasn’t sure what he should do.
Chapter End Notes:
I think we all know who it is. So, should Nick go and try to talk to her or leave her be? Lets make this a little interactive:) Let me know what you think Nick should do! Hope to hear from you all, let me know what you think of the story so far too. Thank you so much for reading!
