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One Week Ago
"Clay said you'd be here," she said, standing in place staring at the limp body, sitting hung over on the edge of the bridge with his feet dangling. "Of course he did," Justin chuckled out loud, shaking his head. He kept his head down watching his feet dangle back and forth above the riverbed, ignoring Harley's presence beside him.
Harley's feet molded to the cement and when she realized he wasn't going to budge or give her the attention a sigh left her lips. Lifting her feet she walked towards the edge were her boyfriend said and hoisted herself upwards so she too was now sitting beside him.
"What happened?" she asked, placing her right hand on his left knee, causing Justin to tense underneath her touch. Harley felt his muscles clench underneath her hand and her shoulders slouched in defeat as hurt brushed across her face. All she wanted was to comfort him but not only had her presence but hand had subtly been brushed off.
Justin's eyes bore into Harley's hand atop of his knee cap and he sighed, guilt creeping up his neck for his attempt at distance. His head tilted upward so his eyes could meet her own gaze. Letting out a puff of air in his cheeks, Justin pulled a letter out of his jean pocket and handed it to his girlfriend.
Harley held the envelope in her hand, staring from the letter to Justin, whom gave her a nod to go ahead and read the contents inside. With care and ease, Harley pulled out the letter and unfolded it, trailing sentence to sentence with wide gleeful eyes as she read each word. A smile widening upon her face, "Justin, this-"
"I got in," he chuckled, staring out towards the ripples of water in the bank. "That's amazing, I'm proud of you."
A bitter laugh rumbled in Justin's chest and you looked at him with curiosity. He had come a long way within the last year, from using and overcoming trial and jail time. It was a long difficult journey, but he had made it through. With the support of Harley, Clay and his parents, Justin had changed dramatically; but still something was missing. Somewhere along the way he had lost himself altogether, and even though Harley didn't want to admit it, the person beside her was a different person entirely.
"I'm not going," he side as he twisted his body around and hopped off the edge so he was now on the sidewalk. You mimicked his actions and quickly caught up to his pace as he began walking away, "Justin, why not?"
Justin stopped in place just as Harley attempted reached out to grab his wrists to prevent him from walking away from her. "Because Harley," he stated with his back towards her, "I'm just not." Harley rolled her eyes at his answer and shook her head, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth in a tsking manner. "That's not a reason Justin," she said, to which her boyfriend shook his head and laughed once more, allowing his stubbornness to shine, "yes it is."
"No it's not Justin and you know it," she said, grabbing his shoulder and lightly pushing on it to turn him around so they were both facing each other nose to nose.
