Battle Wounds

twelve.

"Shit," Harper muttered under her breath. "Please be here. Come on."

Her entire bedroom was in disarray. Clothes were strewn over the floor and furniture while her bedding was crumbled up, half of it hanging on the floor. The closet doors and dresser drawers were opened wide with the same chaotic nature. Nothing was in its place anymore, and yet she continued her frantic search for the third day in a row. Not ready to give up or lose hope that her bracelet was gone forever.

Because it couldn't be.

If it was then....

She moved aside piles of clothes and pillows, frantically shoving her hand into every pocket and space but coming up empty every time. Running a hand through her hair, she gave the wrecked room a panicked once over as she realized she had run out of places to look. Despite the mess, Harper knew that she'd already checked everywhere countless times over the last few days. And each time, the result was the same.

"Woah. Did we get hit by an earthquake or something?" Lucas joked as he stopped just outside her room to take in its destruction.

"What?" Harper asked in confusion, turning towards him. "Oh. No, I'm just looking for something," she said distractedly. Telling herself that she must've missed a place to look.

Because the alternative was just too painful to accept.

Lucas nodded slowly but Harper barely registered it as she continued shaking out clothes and pillows in her fruitless search.

"What's going on here?" Olivia's eyes widened at the mess when she stepped into the room.

Harper dropped the jacket she was holding. Not only did she feel defeated but she felt it, too. Her eyes burned with unshed tears as she couldn't believe she'd really lost her bracelet. The one piece of her mom she had left. The one connection she had to her. Having realized she was no longer wearing it had caused a huge panic in her that it was difficult to breathe. And now knowing that it was probably lost forever hit her with such force that it pushed those tears to spill down her cheeks.

"I can't find my bracelet. I've looked everywhere for it," she said as she brushed the tears from her face.

Olivia looked at her gently, scanning the room in an effort to locate the piece of jewelry. Though with the state of the room, it was difficult to locate the floor let alone a delicate bracelet. "You still haven't found it?"

Harper shook her head.

"Well it's gotta be around here somewhere."

"But it's not. And I never take it off so I-I don't know where it could be."

"What about downstairs? We've lost a lot of things to those couch cushions over the years," Lucas suggested.

"I already looked there," Harper said with a heavy sigh. "It's gone."

"We can buy you a new one, Harper," Lucas said, not knowing it was the wrong thing to say.

"You can't," Harper said, her voice cracking. "It was my moms." Her vision blurred from the tears that she tried to contain but failed.

Olivia frowned, trying and failing to think of something to say. Crossing the room towards her, she gently put her arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. "Don't worry, we'll keep looking for it. I'm sure it'll turn up around here somewhere."

"But I don't even know when I lost it. O-or where. It could've been here or at group therapy or in the park. Either way, it's gone."

The finality of those words brought with it a new kind of despair and anger. All of these years, she'd been so careful with it. To think that it was really lost was too hard to believe though it was a sad reality she had to accept.