STRANGERS

TWENTY-THREE

talk to me, don't walk away now.

warning! this chapter is kind of sad, I wanted to explain Harper's side of the story more.

Harper walked out before anyone could stop him, one of the officers was writing something down and talking to another in the corner about how they needed to investigate more into this. Adelaide and Soleil were the first ones to try and follow Harper, but Nicklaus stopped them. He said it was best to wait out and see what happened. Their teacher had been waiting for them in front of his door, smiling when he saw Harper walking past his class. "Harper."

He continued to walk, but the teacher had seen him wipe his tears with his sleeves. "Harper." He tried again, expecting his student to walk away and ignore him, but this time, Harper listened. He walked inside the room and sat on a seat, keeping his head down. The teacher sat on the desk next to him, bringing it closer. "You don't have to talk about it right now, but I want you to know you're not alone."

"I could've saved him." Harper finally let the tears roll down his face, but he kept wiping them, frustrated with himself. "You're allowed to cry."

For a couple of minutes, the teacher let Harper cry and when he thought he was done, Harper spoke again. "I knew where Atlas was that night and what he was doing." He went silent, expecting the adult to start talking, but once he knew he would let him continue, he did.

"That night I had an argument with my father, about some exam I failed. He wasn't mad that I failed, he was mad I had lied to him about it. Talking about how we should trust each other. I went up to my room and had a message about a party, so I went without telling my dad. I was surprised when I saw Atlas sitting down as everyone danced. I never knew he went to parties or if he did, he probably rarely went."

He paused, letting the teacher talk. "Did you have a good relationship with Atlas?"

"I didn't, but the others barely knew him or did. I know Soleil and Jonathon were close to him. I wasn't."

"Well, why not?"

"We never got along."

"Did you want to get along?"

"I was willing to try. I got into a fight with my ex-boyfriend at the party, Atlas dragged me away from it seeing I was upset and we went into a room. He sat down and stayed quiet, except when he asked me if it was better for him to talk or to stay silent, I told him to be quiet, so he said it was okay. We were there for about an hour, not talking, it was just the company that mattered. He told me he'd be there with me for as long as I needed if it meant I wouldn't be so alone. At the time, I was shocked that a person who had hated me for so long could be kind."

"Did you hate him?"

He thought about it for a moment; "I figured if he hated me for no reason, I would give him a reason to hate me."

"Why didn't you ever try to become friends with him?"

"I'd rather have him hate me than like me, plus I barely knew them."

"But you don't hate these people that you're hanging with now, and you barely knew them."

"Yeah, I don't."

"What happened next?"

"He wrote me a poem, it was stupid, but we laughed about it. Then, a group of teenagers from the party came in, Atlas seemed to know them and they invited me to go out with them. He asked me if I was okay with going and I said I was, but once we were outside and Atlas was talking to them, I left. I shouldn't have left him━two of them came back around an hour later and they looked in a panic. One of them told me to not tell anyone that they went with Atlas, but I didn't realize at the time that it was serious. The other told me if something were to happen to tell someone it was my fault. They said they had a whole life ahead of them, they had a scholarship for them, a family to take care of, and they had a future ahead of them. I didn't know what they were talking about. I could've saved him."

"Don't blame yourself for his death. You had no idea what could've happened."

"I could've gone with him, he made sure I was okay but I didn't do the same. I didn't thank him."

"Don't blame yourself, Harper. Did you say it was you that killed him?"

He nodded.

"Why? Why would you lie about that?"

"Because there's enough proof. This is a small town and people will believe anything. You see how this school is, they believed we were the killers without any proof. They see us together and panic, if a person walked in here and told the cops to arrest all of us for them to give them money, they wouldn't hesitate. The only reason they hadn't is because Nicklaus is my uncle. I saw a knife in one of their bags, I figured it was put there by someone else because they wouldn't do that. So, I put my fingerprints on it and there was a shirt covered in blood in my bag. It was the same thing Atlas was wearing to the party. I put my fingerprints there too-"

"Why would you risk your future?"

"They're kids. When we were talking about our goals, I didn't have one. I don't have anything ahead for me. Gabriel wants to fix his relationship over what he did, Soleil can do whatever soleil wants to do, they can do anything. Juliet wants to pursue journalism or photography, go around the world with the people she cares about, Jonathon can do whatever he wants as well, follow Soleil and Adelaide, make new pranks, do what he's great at━the point is I want them to be happy. If I go to jail, they can live their life. My dad can take the money and help my sister out without worrying about another kid, and I'll be fine on my own."

"Harper, I think you're forgetting that you're a kid too. You deserve happiness as much as they do."

"This group has made me feel the greatest happiness I have ever felt in these past days of knowing each other. They made me feel happy about who I am. I just want the best for them."

"Well, you think they won't be upset when they realized you want to go to jail for them? For something you didn't do? Harper, you need to realize it is not your fault that Atlas died. You had no idea it was happening. You're still living, you don't need to have your goals set right now. I'm forty-two and I still don't have my goals set. You need time to think about it, your life won't get fixed overnight. What about what makes you happy? You're talking about these goals everyone has and how you want them to be happy, what about you? You deserve so much more than what I could tell you, but you cannot gain what you deserve if you go to jail."

crystal speaks !

That was the last chapter, thank you to everyone who has read this far!<33