Invisible String (w|w high school romance)

When Tragedy Strikes

Harper POV:

To say that I was beyond pissed would be an understatement. When I got home from practice I practically threw  my soccer bag into the garage. Before I went to shower I plopped down on my bed and pulled out my phone. I clicked on Riley's contact and started angrily typing out a message.

"I can't believe you ditched me to go on a date with Josh. So much for being 'just friends'. Don't talk to me ever again." Without hesitation I sent out the text. Before I could even close out of the conversation, my text switched to read. The three dots popped up on the bottom left of my screen indicating that Riley was typing.

I was so pissed at her that I wanted to close out the conversation and ignore whatever she had to say, but something stopped me. When she finally sent her text it said two simple words, "I'm sorry."

With that I scoffed and shut off my phone. That's all she can say is 'I'm sorry'? No explanation? I stomped off to go shower. I decided that I was officially done with Riley Sader.

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Harper POV:

The next day at school I plopped down in my seat in calc. Too bad this class was full, otherwise I definitely wouldn't still be sitting next to Riley. Just like the day before, I could hear Josh's posse gossiping and laughing.

"Yo Josh where's your girlfriend at?" one of them snickered.

My curiosity betrayed me, causing me to look over at the group. I was shocked to see that Josh's face wasn't full of amusement like theirs was. His eyes were narrowed and he had this stone cold expression on his face.

"She's not my girlfriend so stop talking about her." he spat angrily.

The group of boys laughed. 'Aww poor Josh. Did she reject you again?"

In a flash Josh was standing and holding the kid by the collar of his shirt. Josh's face shone with pure anger. That kid wasn't laughing anymore.

"I said drop it." he said, anger lacing his words. He looked around the group of boys before addressing them all. "If I hear any of you gossiping about her again I'll beat the shit out of you." he stated.

The smiles were wiped from their faces as they nodded. With that Josh plastered a fake smile on his face and let go of the kid's shirt. He roughly patted him on the shoulder before returning to his desk. The conversation from that group never resumed.

When the bell rang I looked towards the door expecting to see Riley come waltzing in. Instead, our teacher walked in and closed the door behind himself. I didn't notice yesterday, but as he was taking attendance he skipped over Riley's name. My anger towards Riley slowly dissipated into worry. Where is she?

When Riley didn't show up to practice that day or to class again on Wednesday is when I really started to worry. Why wasn't she in school? If she doesn't come to school or practice tomorrow then she can't play in our game Friday. I couldn't even begin to imagine what would happen if she wasn't playing. I had tried texting her asking where she was but all my messages were left on read.

The second the final bell rang I practically sprinted to the locker room. When I got there I found Kylie laughing and talking with some of our teammates. I quickly walked up to her and asked "Hey Kylie can I talk to you?" She stopped whatever she was saying and nodded. She shooed away the girls surrounding her and turned towards me.

"Hey Harper. What's up?" she asked.

I took a deep breath before speaking quietly. "Do you know where Riley is? She hasn't been in school or at practice and everybody seems to be ignoring the fact that she isn't here. I need to know whats going on." I pleaded.