Changing Harper

Chapter Seven

Riley woke up the next morning in an unfamiliar house to the sound of birds chirping loudly. She was covered by a clean gray comforter in a clean room that smelled heavily of strawberries. An off-key voice sang out from down the hallway along to a Christian song that Riley had last heard as a small child. She decided not to question because this was one of few times she hadn't woken up in a dirty house to the smell of cigarettes. It was nice. She sat up and noticed she was laying in a genuine bed, a huge difference from the hard mattress on the floor she owned. Riley pulled out her cellphone, checking the time and notifications, she had several photo messages from Luke and several unknown numbers.

UNKNOWN: Hey, this is Kyle's number if you ever wanted to chill at the mall or something. Don't worry, I know you like chicks.

Riley smirked at the message and checked the next unknown message, as she read it she felt her heart rate speed up.

UNKNOWN: Rosalie Miranda Knocker.  Child to Timothy and Rena Hart, well of course until the accident, then you became little orphan Rosie. You do remember what happened, right Rosie Posie?

Riley's eyes widened and went to check the number to find it blocked. Who could've known what happened? Who knows she was an orphan? How were they figuring this out? Riley had kept her secrets well hidden and she damn well knew she wouldn't have told anybody, even if she was drunk. It physically hurt her to retell the stories.

She typed back a message frantically. She was going to get to the bottom of this. There would be hell to pay.

RILEY: My name is Riley. Who is this? Once I find out who you are, you'll wish you were never born

At this point, Riley was alert and scanning the room for any secret cameras, microphones, or anything suspicious, but nothing caught her eye.

UNKNOWN: Ah, it's about time you responded ROSALIE. It's best we keep this between us, little lesbian. I know everything about you. Your natural hair color, it's brown. You wore glasses until you were adopted by Kimberley and Jacob Knocker. Of course, until Jacob ran away. How long did you think you could keep what happened a secret? Everybody leaves you, Rose. Now, I have a task for you, and once you finish it, this will all be over. Everything. I'm assigning you what has appeared to be the impossible. You have to change Harper White. Change her from what she is, into somebody completely different. Rose, make her more like you.

As Riley scanned the message, the door to the room opened and she jumped, accidentally throwing her phone to the floor. None other than Harper herself walked into the room, letting light in from the hallway and causing Riley's head to pound. Harper shut the door behind her softly, turning on a dim light.

"You're awake! That's great! Let me explain, because I'm sure you don't remember much, but you went to a party that I happened to be at and got extremely drunk, so I took you back to my house." Harper spoke, honestly Riley didn't care how she ended up where she did, she more wanted to know what happened when she was drunk, but at the same time, she didn't.

"Thanks," Riley said, a gentle groan. The clock on the wall motioned towards is being ten in the morning. She recalled the fact that they were supposed to be in school that day, but decided not to question the fact that Harper was still at home because as much as she's heard, Harper White never skipped school. Harper went into detail on Riley's adventures. She had gone to a party and drank too much, the obvious. It reminded her of her days in Florida with Leah. She thought back to Leah. They had memories together, tons of memories. Riley felt herself daze off as she remembered everything she had with Leah.

*FLASHBACKS*

It was halfway through the school year, Riley sat at her table alongside her friends, but a new girl sat with them. She had blue eyes, beautiful icy blue eyes that matched perfectly with her silky looking blonde hair. Riley had doubted everything before, but she knew she wanted to get close to this girl.

"Hi, I'm Leah." She introduced herself, a gentle smile on her face as she scanned the table. The table glanced at Riley, the most extroverted of the crew and Riley beamed as she moved to introduce herself. The table shifted a few knowing looks.

"Hey there, beautiful. My name's Riley." Riley introduced, shooting the girl a smile. Leah scanned her face, accepting the compliment and the pair began to dip into conversation. As they discussed, Riley slowly developed feelings for this girl. She determined it was love at first sight. It might have been stupid at the time, but after a year getting close to the girl, Riley decided it was time to make a move.

It had been a stormy day, thunder was rolling in and Riley was walking two miles through the harsh rain, loud claps of lightning, and strong winds. Leah had texted her, she needed Riley. Leah's relationship with Jamie Vance had gone downhill. Jamie had cheated, and she had stomped on Leah's fragile heart as she did. Leah needed Riley, so she would be there. She showed up at Leah's door soaking wet and shaking. She rapped on the door lightly, her brown hair soaked and dragging her down. The door opened and Leah's crying face greeted her. She engulfed her best friend into a hug and allowed her to cry onto her out in the rain. 

"It's okay, Leah. It's okay, I'm here." Riley comforted softly. Seeing Leah like that made her heart drop. Her sadness affected Riley greatly and she wished she could express it, but Leah was in no state to jump into a relationship with her. Riley ran her hands soothingly through Leah's hair until a burst of lightning caused them to jump, Leah taking sanction in Riley's arms. Riley slipped off her boots and gently lifted Leah off her feet. Leah sniffled, burying her head inside of Riley's neck. Riley smiled gently at the action, carrying Leah to her room and setting her down on her bed, sitting in front of her.

"How could Jamie do this? I-I don't understand. It hurts Rosie. I don't want to hurt."  She whimpered, her eyes pooling with tears as she looked into Riley's softened eyes. Riley hated to see Leah as vulnerable as she was, Jamie was a dead woman walking. She absolutely hated to see Leah sad and upset, especially to the point where she missed school and smashed most of the glass items in her household. Nobody would ever mess with her Leah, there was no way in hell that the Jamie bitch was getting away with this.

"Listen to me, Leahbear and listen close," Riley began, tilting Leah's head up towards her own. The feeling of Leah's soft skin sent shivers down her spine. Just the mere touch of Leah made Riley light up like a blunt. Leah nodded, examining Riley's face carefully. "Fuck Jamie. Fuck her and her whore, fuck her favorite color, fuck her clothing taste, fuck her personality. You don't need her Leah. You deserve so much better. The world is full of people, and Jamie is just one of them. She doesn't matter. You deserve somebody who will be there for you at any time, somebody who will pick up your phone calls at three in the morning, somebody who will hold you close when you cry, you need somebody who will love you for every little thing you do, somebody who appreciates for flaws, somebody who understands you."

Leah seemed to take in Riley's words and thought about them in silence for a minute. She wiped her tears and looked into Riley's eyes, a glint of emotion flickering through them. The look on her face changed drastically as she began to speak in a tone that surprised Riley.

"I need somebody who'll walk miles through the rain for me, I need somebody who calls me beautiful, even when I'm sick, I need somebody who's honest with me, I need somebody who'll sneak out of her house to be with me, I need somebody who'll smoke with me," She spoke softly, bringing her own hand to Riley's face, slowly brushing her lips with her thumb, "I want somebody with dark brown hair and beautiful amber eyes, I want somebody who knows me up and down, I want somebody who will never cheat on me, I want the girl that I've loved for eight months, I want the girl who's sitting in front of me," There was silence as Riley's face overtook a surprised expression as a blush overcame onto her face, "I want my Rosie." 

Without a minute's hesitation, Leah brought her face to Riley's and their lips met. Riley was overtaken with a flourish of emotions, the feeling of sparks rushing through her veins. They broke the kiss for a minute before Leah brought her self on top of the taken aback girl. Riley moved in close this time, and ran her hands down Leah's body. Thoughts of nothing but Leah drifted through her head that night. The feeling of her silky hair, the thought of her gorgeous smile, the happiness and relief in her ice blue eyes, everything else was nothing, everything became Leah.