Needing You (12 page)

“Thanks,” I mumble. Then I proceed to open up the beer and take a long swig of it.

Mark looks at me “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings and if I did I’m sorry. You seem pretty cool Harper.” I just shake my head and down the rest of its contents.  Then reach for the other bottle and open it and take another sip.  This shit is going down like water now.

Mark continues to talk to me for what feels like eternity.  He gets me a few more beers all of which I drink pretty quickly.  As one point he asks if we can hang out, I just shrug and drink more. It‘s easier than answering the damn question.

I look at the clock on the wall and see it is almost 1 a.m. and still no Tucker. Wow, what an ass. I decide I’ve waited long enough and want to go home. I can’t call or text him because I don’t have a damn phone. Ugh, how annoying. Oh well, I’m a big girl. I can make it home by myself. I say bye to Mark telling him I am going outside for some air, he tells me he will come along but I decline, telling him to go and have fun. Then I turn away and head out the back door, because I don’t want him following me home.  I may be drunk, but I’m not stupid.

I make my way through the throng of drunks outside now. More throwing up, making out, and passed out on the lawn. I don’t feel sick, which is good, but I never throw up from drinking thank God. That’s disgusting. I feel a good buzz going on, but figure I have my pepper spray in my bag. I pull it out just so I have it if I need it on the way home.  I make my way around the house and pass more people making out, I think one couple’s even having sex, but I’m not looking long enough to find out.

I make my way down the road and head in the direction of my dorm.  About thirty minutes later I find my dorm.  I guess I am a little drunker than I thought.  I make my way inside and lock the door then go to my bedroom.  By the time my face hits the pillow, I pass the hell out.

I wake up to constant pounding, what the hell is that?  It takes me a few minutes to register that it’s my damn front door.  I get out of bed and make my way to the door; I open it to see a pissed off Tucker standing there glaring at me. What the hell? Why’s he mad at me, he left me at his party.  Since I’m still drunk and pissed off, I do the only thing that comes to mind and slam the door in his face and walk back to my bedroom.  I crawl back in bed and ignore him.  Stupid me though, I shut the door in his face but I didn’t lock it. Next thing I know I have Tucker standing over me yelling at me.

“Harper, where the fuck did you go? I fucking looked everywhere for you.” Is he serious right now? I sat in that damn living room for hours. The more he yells the more pissed off I get.

“Get the fuck out of my dorm Tuck and do not come back.” I yell back at him. He looks at me shocked and he shuts up real quick. He hasn’t moved so I yell, “NOW, get the fuck out NOW.”

“Harp, we need to talk. You had me worried sick about you,” he says trying to look worried.

Oh, how original. “Save your bullshit Tuck.  I saw you with the brunette with her tongue down your throat. So don’t you dare say you were worried about me.  I sat in the fucking living room drinking for hours. So clearly, you didn’t look that damn hard.  Now this is the last time I am going to tell you to get the fuck out.”  Tucker looked at me with a sad face but too damn bad; I am still drunk and pissed off. Before he can say anything I yell, “NOW.”

He looked at me with a sad face, but leaves my room and I do not move until I hear the front door shut.  Once it shuts, I go out and lock the door and then head back to bed and pass the hell out.

Chapter 14

The next morning I wake up and take an aspirin with a bottle of water and within the hour I feel much better.  I think about last night and get mad at the Tucker situation all over again.  How dare he take me to a party at his fraternity and then disappear, then to come here and yell at me.  Before I can get any angrier I decide I need to go for a run. I’m full of pent-up anger and running will help to calm me down. I get my gear on and head out the door.

I run and run and run until I can’t run anymore. I hit around eleven miles today. My legs burn, I’m dripping sweat, and I’m starving.  By the time I make it back to my dorm my legs feel like Jell-O, but I’m thankful for the run.

I head inside and grab a shower then eat lunch. I have to work tonight so I take the rest of the afternoon and get lost in my reading. I need something to distract me from the brown-eyed deviled asshole. I just don’t get what happened. He goes from telling me he likes me to hanging out and having fun to last night, he just disappears with another girl.  I mean yeah, we aren’t having sex or doing anything even remotely close, but have the respect to at least tell me. I deserve at least that, especially since we are friends. I don’t deserve what the hell he did to me last night.  Well I learned my lesson; I will not make the same mistake twice.

The rest of my afternoon goes by and before I know it, it’s time to head into work.  Tucker hasn’t come by today so hopefully he got my message loud and clear this morning.  I make my way into PowerTrip’s; King Dread is set to play tonight so it’s going to be a busy night.  I’m looking forward to it though.  I say hey to everyone and get set up behind the bar with Natalie and Marcus.  I see Parker when he comes up to the bar to get a drink before the band starts.  We have a small conversation and I wish him luck before he takes the stage.

Parker is a nice guy, unlike the other asshole I know.  I see Tuck at the bar but he doesn’t come up and say anything to me.  Unfortunately, I can feel his eyes bore into me throughout the night.  I just ignore him and continue doing my job.  When the guys are on a break the bar gets swamped and we are getting drink after drink for our crazy drunken crowd.  After the line goes down I take my break.  I head outside for the fresh air and run into Parker again.  He’s having a cigarette. 

“Hey Harp, how have you been?” He asks sincerely.

“I’m pretty good, how about you?”  I state because tonight is going great.

“I’m good, really good,” he says with a sexy smile on his face.

“Oh yeah, well that’s great Parker! Any special news you want to share?” I ask smiling at him.

“Well it’s always great to see your beautiful face,” he says with a smile, but then continues and says, “We got signed to a recording label earlier today,” his smile is huge.

“Holy shit that’s awesome! Congratulations Parker!” I walk over and give him a big hug. “That’s great news!” I have a big smile on my face. I am so happy for them, they deserve a contract for all of their hard work and their music is amazing. 

“Yeah, we’re going to celebrate afterwards tonight. You are more than welcome to come along,” he says looking excitedly at me.

As much as I would like to celebrate their news, last night with one sexy man didn’t go well, I better not push it with a different sexy man tonight. Last thing I need is a repeat of last night.

“Thanks, but I’ll probably just head home.  I can’t get into places anyway since I’m underage.”  I say this hoping he buys my excuse. 

“You don’t have to worry about that, we’re going to Eddie’s house.  He won’t care; he looks at you like family.  Plus if it makes you feel better, I can make sure you get home if you don’t want to stay at Eddie’s house,” Parker says sweetly.  Before I can say anything Parker continues, “Come on Harper, it’ll be fun.”

“What the hell! Why not? I’ll come,” I say with a smile on my face!

“Great, well I better get back in before the crowd gets too crazy,” he says with a sexy smile on his face.

I follow him in and head back to the bar to help with the crazy lines that have formed.  The rest of the night goes by quickly. I still feel eyes burning into my every now and then, but I control myself to not look for Tucker. After the band is over we restock the coolers and I stay back and talk to Eddie about coming over to his house.

He tells me I am more than welcome to stay in one of the guest bedrooms if I want and he will make sure I get home tomorrow, but we will see how it goes. After the bar is closed we hang out for about twenty minutes before making our way out the doors to head to Eddie’s house.

I see Tucker the moment I walk out and head in the opposite direction of him, hoping that Parker is parked somewhere on this side.  I don’t make it too far before Parker says he’s parked on the other side.  So I turn around and walk in the direction of Parker’s car, same direction as Tucker. 

Tucker comes up to me, “Harp can I talk to you a minute please?” His eyes look sad, but I know it’s a lie.

“Tucker you can save it, there’s nothing you can say that can make up for what the hell you did last night,” I snapped at him.

“What the hell happened last night?” Parker asks looking pissed.  Shit, I forgot he was right behind me.

Before I can respond, Tucker pipes up and says, “A misunderstanding, that’s all Park, relax.”

Parker looks between me and Tuck, “Harper it’s up to you, I’ll be in the car.” Then he heads to the car.

I look at Tucker for a minute before saying anything.  When I’m ready I finally speak up, “Tucker seriously, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say; a misunderstanding my ass.  You made a decision to go screw some chick and left me with a bunch of drunken idiots.  If you don’t mind, you can save your bullshit for someone else,” I say with irritation flying off of me.

“Harper that’s not true, I did not go screw any chick. Would you hear me out please?”  He says looking at me with sad eyes. 

“I’m not going to play games with you, I know what the hell happened, and I was there last night. I know what I saw and I know you disappeared without saying one word to me.  Honestly, right now I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.  Now my ride is waiting. Have a good night Tucker,” I spit out and then walked away and got into Parker’s car.

Tucker

Shit.  How the hell do I explain what happened last night to Harper?  She already doesn’t believe me and I can’t say I blame her. I didn’t realize how long I’d been gone, but shit, clearly it was a lot longer than it felt.

Yes, Scarlett came up and kissed me, but I didn’t kiss her drunk ass back, I pushed her away. Obviously Harper didn’t see that part.  Ugh, I’m a damn idiot sometimes.  After I walked away from Scarlett, my phone vibrated in my pocket.  Never in my wildest imagination would I think it would be my baby sister. She hasn’t called me in months and I knew something was wrong because she only calls when something’s wrong. I couldn’t not answer her call and God I’m so thankful I did.

My sister is the only family I have that I talk to, I can’t lose her and I almost have numerous times. I’m the only one that can talk her down from falling off the cliff. All I did was go to my room and shut the door and talk to my sister, trying to calm her down and talk some sense into her.  My whole family is messed up, but my sister tends to make crazy decisions that are life-and-death and I can’t lose her. So I did what any good brother would do, I talked to her, calmed her down, and talked about how the good ol’ days were.  

I hadn’t realized how long I’d been on the phone with her till we hung up. I went to call Harper but she doesn’t have a damn phone so I headed down the stairs and searched everywhere for her. I knew by the time on the clock that she’d be pissed. I never thought she’d fucking leave though. She knows how I feel about her walking home late at night by herself. By the time I couldn’t find her, after looking everywhere, I stormed over to her dorm and pounded on the door for a solid five minutes.  The panic started to settle in when she wouldn’t answer the door.  The thought of something happening to her and it being my fault would have killed me.  I continued to pound on her door begging that she was in there. 

Finally, when she opened that door I wanted to fucking hug her, but clearly by the look on her face that wouldn’t have been a good choice.  Before I could even say anything, she slammed the door in my face.  I can’t say I blame her, but damn.  I tried knocking but she wouldn’t open up the damn door and yeah I was wrong for walking into her apartment and into her bedroom, but I’d do it again if I had to.

I was way out of line for yelling at her when all I wanted to do was hug her and tell her how glad I am that she’s okay.  But she turned to me and was so pissed, and I must say she looks sexy when she’s pissed off, but I could see that I hurt her and God I didn’t mean too.  I should have dragged her into my bedroom while I talked to my sister, but I didn’t think it would take so long.  Plus, we haven’t discussed our pasts so telling her all about my messed-up family and screwed-up sister wouldn’t help the situation. So instead, I left like she requested and now I watch her leave with Park. Damn it, it should have been me she was leaving with.

Chapter 15

On the way to Eddie’s house, Parker and I are pretty quiet.  I’m sure he has questions but I don’t feel like talking about Tuck right now.  The situation between us is confusing and dumb.  Maybe I am overreacting, but I feel you invite someone to a party, you shouldn’t disappear on them; so no, no, I am not overreacting.  He was a dickhead and left me alone in a house full of complete strangers to do God knows what.  I have every right to be angry. 

As the silence continues to take over, Parker is the first to break the ice. “Hey Harper, are you okay?” he asks with a worried look on his face.

“Yeah sure, why wouldn’t I be?” I lie because it’s easier than telling the truth right now.

“Well, because of Tucker,” he states.

“No, I’m just fine,” I say hoping he will drop the subject.

“Harper, I want to let you know that Tuck wasn’t always a bad guy, but he can’t do relationships, so if that’s what you’re looking for then you’re looking in the wrong place,” he says with a solemn look.

Wow, where did that come from?  “I thought you said Tucker was bad news,” I ask curiously now.

Looking a bit frustrated, Parker continues, “Look, I’m not sure what all you two talk about but I know Tuck, we grew up together and knowing him, I can tell you that he’s not the guy for you.”