BORDERLINE
[BOOK ONE OF FIVE] ✧
Harper Verum agreed to help her best friends find a dead body a little too willingly the night before their first day of sophomore year. If she had known the consequences of sneaking out into the preserve, she would h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
c h a p t e r f o u r t e e n bitten
Stiles had went after Harper as soon as Harper had left the school, begging her to forgive him. He went as far as to drive his jeep alongside her as she walked home in the dark, but she pretended that he wasn't there. Once Harper got back to her house, she rushed up the driveway as he jumped out of his car, slamming the front door before he could even come inside.
"Oh dear." Her grandma stood in the doorway of the kitchen, drying her hands on a patterned tea towel with a frown on her face. "Have you and Stiles had a falling out?"
Rolling her eyes, Harper nodded. "You could call it that." She muttered, her back against the door as Stiles yelled her name from the other side, knocking.
The old woman in front of her sighed. "Darling, you can't go through life holding grudges. Whatever he said couldn't have been that bad." She spoke so softly that it got on Harper's nerves.
"Harper?" Stiles called. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You know that I'd never say anything like that to you in purpose. I was hurt and it was in the heat of the moment. Please answer the door."
"Go upstairs." Rose narrowed her eyes at her granddaughter. "I'll answer the door."
Nodding, Harper jogged up the stairs, sitting at the very top but out of the way so that they couldn't see her. She listened as her grandma opened the door.
"Sweetheart, you need to give her time. You know how Harper gets when somebody she loves hurts her. She really cares about you, so she won't be mad for long." Harper could hear her grandma tell him sweetly.
Stiles sighed loudly. "Please just tell her that I was wrong."
Harper left after that, going upstairs and slamming the door behind her. For some reason, no tears fell. Normally, due to how mentally and physically weak she was, she would be bawling into her pillow by now, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
It was as if Harper was empty from all emotions.
☹☻
It was cold in the cemetery, and nobody was around. It was a habit of Harper's that every time she was upset she would go and visit her parents grave.
She sat down on the dewy grass, her fingers skimming through the blades, occasionally plucking one out of the hard soil. Harper didn't say anything for the first ten minutes, she just sat there.
Eventually, her eyes flickered up to the familiar head stones placed right next to each other.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF MONICA KATE VERUM 1971 — 2008 LOVING MOTHER, DAUGHTER, AND WIFE
Harper's gaze moved towards her father's head stone, about to read from it when she heard a twig snap from behind her. Harper whirled around, her heartbeat calming down when she saw the familiar figure of Isaac Lahey stood there.
