Battle Wounds

seventeen.

Harper fought the urge to sigh as her phone buzzed with an incoming text. The fifth one of the morning and it was only just after eight. Because she was morbidly curious, she glanced at the screen and was unsurprised to see that it was from Hawk. Another one to add to the collection of texts she'd ignore. She didn't have the desire nor the stomach to read the messages let alone reply. Because from what she gathered, they were all the same. Confused apologies that did nothing to undo the shit show that was last night.

Because it was over. They were over. Their friendship, whatever they had been, was null and void. Undone in the span of a few minutes.

Even when the emotional knife twisted itself into her heart, she convinced herself that it was for the best. That their relationship had been a delusional fantasy that would've failed either way. Rather than face her feelings, Harper slapped a bandaid over her heart. It was a temporary fix that she'd likely bleed through but it was the only solution she had.

Harper watched as the phone screen faded to black and only then did she let herself breathe. The sudden urge to pick her phone up and reply to all of his messages was strong but she fought against it. Her traitorous heart would have her do something stupid so she left her phone on the kitchen counter before joining her family for breakfast.

"You're not hungry? You've barely touched your breakfast," Olivia commented while sipping her coffee.

Harper looked up from the scrambled mess she'd made of her food before putting her fork down with a sigh. "I don't really have an appetite," she said and pushed her plate away. "Demetri and I kinda ate our body weight in pizza last night. I guess I'm still full from that."

"How come we never get pizza?" Cole asked with a frown.

"We had pizza three nights ago," Lucas reminded him.

"Yeah, but we never go out for pizza. Everyone knows pizza tastes a thousand times better when you don't get it delivered," Cole said.

Lucas subtly rolled his eyes. "We'll do that next time, buddy."

"Promise? Because you guys kinda always say we will and then we don't," Cole said through a mouthful of food, his words more mumbled than coherent.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Olivia told him, shaking her head at his lack of table manners.

Cole quickly chewed his food and swallowed theatrically. "You didn't answer my question."

Lucas chuckled. "We'll all go out for pizza next week, how does that sound?"

Cole nodded once with a satisfied smile. "Great," he said in between bites of food.

Olivia wrinkled her nose before she shook her head in disapproval. Sighing, she looked towards Harper, a concerned look crossing her face at her quietness. "You're really quiet this morning. What's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," Harper said with a forced smile.

"No, she's not. She broke up with her boyfriend last night," Cole said.

"Cole," Harper hissed but the damage was already done.

"What?" Lucas choked out in between coughs. "Liv, did you know about this? Since when does she have a boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend. I just told you that they broke up like a minute ago. You always say that I don't listen but neither do you," Cole said with a sigh. "But he keeps texting her. Like a lot. He sent like ten texts in a row saying that he was sorry for something or other."

"You went through my phone?"

"No, he texted you when you weren't in the room. It's not like I was snooping. Maybe you shouldn't leave your phone lying around everywhere if you're that worried about people seeing your texts."