All the way home in the taxi, she barely moved, her head lay against the side window, her hands tightly pushed between her legs, when her eyes couldn't keep up with the city that whizzed by any longer, she simply C losed them, each time with a soft sigh. How did he feel? Angry?Disappointed? Livid? Crazy about her? Lost? All of the above? Yeah,he could definitely tick all the boxes, he didn't even mind her silence, he needed to acclimatize as well, get adjusted and push aside the jetlag for a little longer. A few minutes later, she pushed open the cardoor and staggered to the frontdoor without looking back,she felt sick, deep breaths, swallowing hard she started rummaging through her pockets for her key, the cold icy wind brushing against the naked patches of skin made her aware of her ripped shirt and the abuse she had been subjected to back at that club. Jared took the key out of her hands and quickly opened the door "let's get you inside and warm, quick" just when he wanted to put his arm on her back,she flinched and jumped inside, stomping and swaying up the stairs in a drunk fury. "Heyhey..hey, calm down, I'll do it" he took
the other key out of her hands as well, this time she almost fell inside once the door opened, he caught her just in time before she tumbled to the ground but she immediately started kicking and hitting his hands hard. "Get your hands off me, don't you dare touch me" she yelled but his arms only locked tighter around her, she kept bucking and kicking like a wild cat while he kept whispering "it's ok,Harper, I'm not gonna hurt you, it's ok, shhhh" until her tense body slowly stilled. "Fuck you, fuck every..man, fuck all of you"she hiccupped through clenched teeth, a tsunami of tears was building but she'd be damned if she let him see, not him, not anyone "let go of me" but he knew she could barely keep standing, so he gently scooped her up and carried her over to her bed. "There.." he put her down, fluffing up a few pillows so she could sit up a little "do you want to take this.." he pointed at her ripped shirt "off?",but she only clutched it tighter, shaking her head. "Ok" he bit his lip, please look at me, look at me Harper...but she only slid down and slowly turned her back to him, ok two can play that game,first coffee, this night wasn't over, not yet.
When she opened her eyes, he was still there, sitting up in the empty spot next to her sipping his hot coffee "you ok?" he asked with a soft smile while he put his cup down to pick up her glass of water "here, drink this, it'll make you feel a little better". Instead she ignored him, "fine.." he put the glass back down again "are you gonna ignore me forever? I didn't fly half across the world to be ignored",don't lose your cool, keep calm, you love her more than life itself,you just need to talk this through. "I didn't ask you to fly over here, so don't blame this on me, you started this mess, you could have stayed with..them" she nearly puked the last word "I bet they've already drawn up your adoption papers by now".Count to ten before you open your mouth, she's just trying to provoke you "Ok, you're talking, now we're getting somewhere..listen to me Harper, I don't want to be with anyone but you, I came here for YOU,alright? I don't know where you get those crazy ideas from? You just assume things that are completely wrong and then storm off like you did..all I wanted to do was help..why won't you understand that?"he rattled, unable to hold back any longer. "Oh you helped alright,I'll give you that! You made me see that I'm just a nobody without a career or even a smidge of talent" she huffed as she pushed herself up again, oyoy she was feeling so sick. Her throwing his own words back at him took his breath away, shellshocked he watched her get up and plod over to the huge painting, snatching a carving knife from the kitchen counter, what the.."Harper?.." he jumped off the bed and followed her. In her drunk haze she crawled up the scaffolding,put one hand against the canvas and lifted the other and planted the knife right in the middle of it, the cracking sound of the canvas was sickening. She pulled the knife back out but when she wanted to strike again, his hand locked around her wrist "the fuck are you doing?" his breath wheezed in his throat, "what does it look like I'm doing? You were right, I have no career and definitely no talent"she giggled like a maniac. "Stop it! Harper! Just stop!" he pulled her hand back and wiggled the knife out of her hand "you're drunk" he tried to reason with her, but she just kept trying to reach for the knife, "will you stop?" he had enough and for the first time he was actually forceful with her. "Awww, what are you doing?" she squealed under his painful squeeze, "what am I doing?What are you doing? Do you actually care about any of this, do you actually care about me? You break up with me and leave in the middle of the night to fly home, without a word or a sign of life?" he couldn't hold back his anger and frustration any longer"I was so worried and you didn't even bother to answer my calls or answer my mails..and when I finally find you, you're just partying and drinking?". Too close, too damn close, Harper jumped back, no,no way, she wasn't gonna let him put the blame on her for everything that happened, so she jumped back down again, Jared in hot pursuit after her. "Go ahead, run, that's what you do best, isn't it?"she heard him shout, goddammit why did she live in a loft? She so wanted to slam some door right now, "what do you want, Harper? Huh?Tell me?" just shut the hell up Jared. "I don't know" she mumbled, that was a too difficult question right now, "not good enough, I'll tell you, you just want to go partying and hook up with some random guy, you never wanted a real relationship with me now did you?".
