Broken Bridges

Chapter 25

                          October 19th, 2020
                                    Harper

My dad always used to tell me " never go to bed angry." I always lived by that, or at least tried to. With friends, family and now Jeremiyah. "You never know what could happen." he always said. "You could wake up and the next thing you know, they aren't here to apologize to. The last memory you would have of them would be that fight, and you'd have to live with that for the rest of your life." I really wish I would have listened to my dad.
                                        ***
"Wanna go to Spencers?" Maliyah laughs. Adrienne joins her laughter.
"Sure. Why not?" I reply. The three of us are at the mall, hanging out together for the first time outside of the book club. We just ate chinese food and now we are exploring stores, just looking through them and window shopping because the only one with money is Maliyah. We head to the back of Spencers. Toys lined the walls. I feel so out of place here, but Adrienne and Maliyah look right at home.
"You should get one." Adrienne says to Maliyah. "You're the only one without a boyfriend."
"Wow thanks." Maliyah rolls her eyes but laughs. "Maybe I should." Maliyah begins examining the toys, picking boxes off the wall one by one.
"Your parents would kill you." I say, passing the handcuffs and whips section of the store. I cringe at the thought of that sort of stuff being used on me. I am not that type of person. "Adrienne, maybe you should get some of these." I joke, lifting up a pair of pink, fluffy handcuffs to show her.
"Give me those." She says, taking them from my hand. " Tucker would love to tie me up with these." She gives us a devious smile and Maliyah laughs. I choke out a fake laugh just to fit in.
"So you and Tucker...?" I stutter, afraid that my question would  make her uncomfortable. I immediately determine it didn't affect her, considering the fact she just painted an image of Tucker tying her up in our heads a few seconds earlier.
"Oh yeah of course." She grins, resembling the devil with her long, ginger locks. "We do it all the time. He is so sweet and gentle but he dominates me in the bedroom."
"Too much information." I fake a gag and pretend to throw up. Maliyah laughs as she presents us with the vibrator she picked out. The two of them walk to the counter and check out, while I exit the store and head to the Bath and Body Works that is across the hall. After a few minutes of smelling various scents, Maliyah and Adrienne tell me they are going to Victoria Secret.
"I can't shop there. They don't carry anything in my size."  I say quietly, slightly embarrassed.
" Oh well..." Maliyah hesitates. " Me and Adrienne are gonna go. Meet us at the pet shop in twenty?"
"Yeah sure." They leave and I go and sit in the hallway. Twenty minutes pass and then another thirty. After almost an hour, Adrienne and Maliyah approach me. Adrienne was carrying tons of shopping bags. Some from Victoria Secret, some from Claires and Hot Topic. Maliyah was carrying a large pretzel from Auntie Annie's.
"You guys were just supposed to go to Victoria Secret."
"We got..." Adrienne looks down at her bags. " sidetracked."
"We kind of got lost in the moment and forgot about you." Maliyah says. "Sorry Harper."
"Its okay I guess." I say. It wasn't, not at all. Maliyah and Adrienne have been getting closer lately, and the closer they get, the farther I get pushed away. I should have known this was gonna happen. Trios never work. It's just like they always say. Two's a party, three's a crowd.
My phone rings and my mom's name appears. It's very unusual for her to text me, let alone call me. I answer out of worry.
"Harper, You need to come home." A panicked voice says from the other side of the phone. The voice didn't belong to my mother. It belonged to my sister.
"What's wrong, Lena?"
"Mom is passed out in the front yard and I can't get her to wake up. I'm scared, Harper."
"It's okay Alena. Go inside. I'm coming home." I hang up and look at Adrienne.
"I need you to bring me home. Alena needs me." Adrienne is a junior and the only one with her license. 
"Is she alright?" she questions.
"Yeah. It's just my mom."
"Oh my god. Is she okay?"
"Yes." I say, rolling my eyes angrily. "Just bring me home please."
Once Adrienne dropped me off at home, she and Maliyah went out to a movie. I walk up the steps to my house and find my mother, passed out and unconscious, a tequila bottle in her hand. I attempt to lift her up but fall to the ground beside her. Tears fall from my eyes like rain. At fifteen years old, I shouldn't have to carry my drunk mother into the house on a friday night. Alena, at ten, shouldn't have to call me panicking because she comes home from her friend's house and our mother is lying in our front yard. I call Jeremiyah.
"Jere, can you please come over here and help me?" I sob.
"What's wrong, Harp?"
"It's my mom."
" I'll be there in a minute. Everything will be okay Harper. I promise."
I fall to the ground and sob as I wait for Jeremiyah. He shows up about two minutes after we hung up the call. 
"I'm so sorry for bothering but can you just help me get her into the house and on the couch please, Jere." I sniffle.
"Hey hey hey. Harper, I'm here and I'm helping you by choice. You're not bothering me." he assures me . "On the count of three lift her by her arm and drag her in. One, two, three." We lift and her body leaves the ground. As we get her to the couch. She wakes up, throwing the bottle in her hand at Jeremiyah. It barely misses him, hitting the floor a few inches away from him, not shattering due to the softness of the carpet.
"What the fuck are you two doing to me?" she screeches, getting up from the couch but instantly falling back to the floor.
"You know what mom? I'm done with you. It's either alcohol or me and Alena. We are too young to be going through this. You aren't even home half the time, and when you are your ten year old daughter comes home to find you passed out in the yard, and your fifteen year old has to drag you inside while you're unconscious." I scream at her. "Make your decision."
She doesn't even hesitate before she responds. "I dont give a fuck about the two of you. Give me back my bottle."
I stare at her with numb eyes as my knees weaken. Jeremiah grabs me before I hit the ground, helping me back onto my feet.
"Fine. Goodbye mother." I say, throwing her bottle to her. It hits the window behind her, shattering both the window and the bottle. I go to my bedroom and Jeremiyah follows. I pack a bag and make Alena pack hers. " Come on Alena. We aren't staying here any longer."
"Where are you going?" Jeremiah asks, his green eyes filling up with worry.
"Anywhere but here." I grab mine and Alena's bags and storm down the hall with Alena and Jeremiyah behind me. I slam the door as loudly as I can.
"Go home, Jere." I say.
"No. Not until you tell me where you're going."
" I said I don't know. Now, go home, Jeremiyah." He obeys, but hesitantly. Alena and I walk for hours, having no destination in mind. Rain begins to fall and I stand there, soaked, tired and angry. We have nowhere to go, and no one to hold, besides each other.
At around three thirty in the m0rning, I decide to call Lilliana.
"I took Alena and left. We've been walking for hours. It's raining and we're cold. Can you please come pick us up?"
"Oh my god Harper. If you would have called sooner, I would have left immediately to come pick you up. Where are you?"
"74th and Washington." I tell her, looking up to see the name of the street we were on.
" I'm coming to get you." 
                                       ***
I wake up the next morning in Lilliana's bed.
"Where's Alena?" I jump up, panicked.
"My mom drove her to school. Shhh it's okay." Lilliana says. She sits on her bed next to me, stroking her fingers through my hair. Although Lilliana is only two years older, she's always been an older sister figure to me. She's so nurturing and motherly, two things my mother has never been. Even when my dad and her were together, my mom had always been the colder parent. We would never go on shopping sprees, get our nails done together or have heart to heart talks like normal mothers and daughters. Even sober my mother was never sunshine and rainbows. But she showed me love, and that's a lot more compared to what I get out of her now.
"Come on." Lilliana says, pulling her pajama shirt off over her head and slipping on a black, long sleeved crop top. She replaced her plaid, red pajama pants with thick, gray sweatpants and slid a pair of black and white air jordans on her feet. "I'm driving you to school. Get dressed." She goes over to her vanity and does her makeup in her mirror. The smallest bit of concealer, powder, bronzer, blush and highlighter make her glow effortlessly. Her blue eyes pop when she applies a thin layer of eyeliner and mascara to her already beautiful eyelashes. Her lips are plump and glossy when she applies the lavender lip oil I got her for her birthday in June. When she's done with her makeup, she brushes her fingers through her long, blonde curls to detangle them from last nights sleep. She applies oil to the ends and scrunches them to revolumize her curls. She looks away from her reflection in the mirror and over at me on the bed. "Harper May Fields. Get your ass going or I'm leaving you here."
"Okay. Okay." I say, getting out of bed. I put on a plain white t-shirt, a pair of lighwashed, denim overalls and my hightop white converse. I throw my greasy, caramel brown hair into two braids and slide my necklace over my neck. It's the necklace Jeremiyah got me on our one month anniversary. It has his name on it and he has one with mine.
Lilliana and I go downstairs and eat breakfast. Christiana has made us eggs, toast and bacon.
"Thank you so much for letting us stay here and thank you so much for breakfast."  I smile at Christina. "I appreciate everything you do for me and Lena."
"You're welcome Harper May. " I love it when Christina calls me by my first and middle name. She's the only one who does it regularly. My mom only does it when I'm in trouble. "You two girls can stay here as long as you need to."
Lilliana and I leave for school and meet up with Maliyah and Adrienne in the cafeteria. We talk until five minutes before the bell, Maliyah and Adrienne carrying most of the conversation.
"Harper, why don't you go to class? I don't really have much I want to talk to you about anymore." Maliyah tells me. Her tone wasnt snarky, but she caught me off guard.
"Okay?" I say, confused. " I guess I'll see you in choir." I walk to language arts and expect her to follow but she dont. She stays and talks to Adrienne.
Maliyah has been my best friend since fifth grade. Now, she's pushing me away slowly and ignoring me and it's all because of a snobby redhead. Maliyah and I were best friends but now, we feel like strangers.