Unidentified

Chapter Thirteen

ALYSSA

The moment I see him sitting there, I wish that I didn't came inside. Harper told me that she wouldn't come alone, but she could have at least told me that it was Tristan who was coming along. Harper doesn't know what happened between him and me, I even wish that I could forget about it... Knowing that I have no other choice, I man myself up and walk towards them.

"Hi," I mumble to the both of them. "Hey, glad you could make it," Harper says with a small smile. Like I expected, Tristan shortly greets me, before looking away from me. "What is going on between you two?" Harper suddenly asks and Tristan snaps a look at me. Well, I am not going to be the one to explain it...

"Nothing," Tristan mumbles to his friend. "Yes, there is," Harper retorts. Tristan then looks at me before saying: "Alyssa can I talk with you for a moment?" I want to protest, but before I know it, Tristan is already dragging me towards God knows where...

"What do you want?" I groan, when we're somewhere near the girls' bathroom. "What are you doing here?" he asks me and I huff. 'Well, I'm not so glad to see you either..." He just gives me a glare and I roll my eyes at him. "Let's just get along for Harper," I suggest and to my surprise, he seems to be okay with that. "Fine," he mumbles, before going back where we were, me being right after him.

"Okay, let's do this," I say, trying to sound as excited as possible. "Harper, you and me against Tristan over here," I say, giving my oh so good friend a challenging look. "That's not fair there's two of you," he argues. "Aw, scared to lose against two girls?" I mock him and he huffs. "Whatever, choose your balls," he says, before putting on a pair of bowling shoes and going towards the bowling alley.

. . .

After our little afternoon bowling, Harper asked me to stay at her apartment for a while. I know that she doesn't really like to be alone, especially with everything that is going on with Connor. I'm worried about her; one minute she's smiling and the next, she's trying to keep herself from crying. It happened mostly when she checked her phone... But I didn't understand what could sadden her so much.

The minute she excuses herself to go to the bathroom, I take her phone and now, everything is clear. Her background is a picture of her and Connor...

My heart ached for her, but I kind of know how to make her feel a little better. I unlock her phone to change her background picture and while searching for a picture of her alone, it is clear why she wouldn't want to change it. She probably preferred to have no picture of her alone than to have to look for one between a millions of pictures of her and Connor. After a while, I stop looking and just take a random picture with a landscape on it where a quote is written on it.

"You have to be strong enough to suppress your pride, because it can be a real obstacle between you and the truth."

It's like that quote came down from heaven. It is simply perfect. Harper is strong. She isn't acting like she doesn't care about him anymore, even when he broke up with her. She is strong enough to let the pain in. She isn't trying to walk away from the hurtful truth.

The second I change her background, I hear a door open and act like 'the one who wasn't doing anything'. Due to my lack of subtlety, I took the most natural pose (which wasn't that natural) and coughed while avoiding her questioning look.

She takes place next to me and to my luck, her phone vibrates. "That should be my mom," she mumbles, before taking her phone and unlocking it. I wait for her reaction and see that she's almost chocked at what she sees...

The next moment, she simply opens her text like nothing happens and then suddenly hugs me. "You're adorable, Alyssa, thank you," she whispers and I hold her tighter. "But I have to go. My mom wants to meet and I don't want her to see me like this, all sloppy with puffy baby eyes," she chuckles and I do the same. "Yeah, cool, I have to go anyway," I say. We both get out of her apartment and she is already ahead of me, saying that she is really late. The moment I want to continue my way, I bump into, wait for it... Tristan...