Life is the Long Game

Chapter 17

*Sunday*

Enid's POV:

Farkle is really sweet, I care about him and don't want to break his heart but I have to leave, I can't deal with Harper. As I zip up my last bag, I look over at Farkle who had stayed over on the couch as 'my parents were away for the weekend' when he questioned why the apartment was empty when he dropped me off after the dance, I couldn't tell him I live alone. My thoughts are interrupted my a knock on the door. I open it, it's Harper, great.
"What do you want?" I ask bluntly.
"I won't let you leave, I'm not going to loose you again. Please I'm begging you please don't leave." She pleads.
"Leave? Enid, what's Harper doing here and why is she saying your leaving?" Damn it, Farkle is awake and just heard it.
"Harper, could you leave us for a while please?" I ask.
"I'll come back this afternoon." I nod and she leaves.
"Let's go for a walk." I suggest.
"Can I go change at home on the way?"
"Certainly."
I grab my bag and we leave.
When Farkle has changed, we go for a walk.
"Tell me everything." He demands, and we go sit on a bench.
"Harper's my mum. She had me when she had just turned 15, but her dad threatened to disown her, so she left me on my fathers doorstep. He was a crap father, his dad, my grandfather was a better father to me, but he died suddenly, and we moved to Canada. When my mum turned 18, she came looking for me, because we moved country it took her years. We tried to make it work, it lasted for a year but then it didn't work, so they fought for custody over me. Harper didn't stand a chance, my father was practically a millionaire by this point, a successful businessman, in his mid-twenties. Harper, was 21 by then and could only just afford the lawyer, she didn't have much money, and she had only just began to train as a teacher. She stood no chance. And then I ran away and a family took me in, well, three siblings in their late twenties, who lived together, they were very good to me, and they had a little cousin, our age, I can't remember her name, Izzy or Isabel or something like that, that I met once or twice, she was very clever. Anyway, then my mom came back and we lived together in Florida for about a year but we couldn't make it work. She moved away, I stayed in our apartment, she got a well payed job, so she provides for me still, bills wise. But we agreed to have to personal or emotional relations anymore, and then I moved, the siblings that I still kept in touch with, cut off contact with me after their little cousin was murdered, so I came to Nee York the summer I met you." I sighed.
"So you live alone?"
"Yes."
"And it sounds like Isodora was the cousin that died."
"Seriously?"
"I remember her telling me that her cousins took care of a girl our age. It fits the story."
"Wow."
"And Harper is your mom, and she was 14 when you were conceived?"
"Yeah, and my dad was 17, then turned 18 soon after."
He hugs me tightly.
"Thank you for telling me. Please don't leave." He whispers in my ear and we continue to hug.
"Okay." I kiss his cheek.
"Thank you, I can't loose anyone else."
"You won't."
"And you can live with me, I mean our house if definitely big enough."
I laugh a little.
"You're a really good guy Farkle Minkus. I'm sorry I treated you so badly."
"It's okay, I understand."
"It was still wrong."
"Don't worry, forget it, look to the future. Now, let's go home." He offers me his arm, I smile and accept and we slowly make our way back to his place.