Battle Wounds

eighteen.

The week that followed seemed to stretch on endlessly for Harper. Each day passed by in a sluggish, almost painful manner despite her best efforts to keep busy. She attended group therapy, hung out with her friends and even played mindless video games with Cole but it only distracted her for a few hours, leaving the rest of the day to drag on. It was agonizingly painful.

Every day felt incomplete, a feeling that Harper couldn't shake. She could deny it all she wanted but the truth was that she missed her morning training sessions with Hawk. But most of all she missed their friendship: their friendly banter and how she would playfully mimic him whenever he got annoyed with her and the moments when they would cut their practice short just to hangout.

She never expected for karate and Hawk to become such an integral part of her life. Now that it was gone, she felt the emptiness it left behind, the absence of a friendship that was barely given a chance to grow.

The memories that she was left with tugged at her heartstrings. It was painful and she was surrounded with too many reminders. So to make matters worse, she chose that day to walk through the park. It was a wasteland of those memories but it was the shortest point to get her from the group therapy session to the small cafe she was meeting her friends at.

With her AirPods in and a baseball cap pulled low onto her head, Harper walked at a comically brisk pace. The sooner she was out of the park, the better.

Someone fell into step beside her and grabbed her arm before she could even think to defend herself. Her heart thundering away, she looked at her attacker only to find Hawk and his stupid smile. Pausing her music, she pulled her headphones out and frowned in annoyance. "You really need to stop sneaking up on me."

"I didn't," Hawk said but was met with a blank stare. "I was calling your name for like a minute but you didn't hear me. What are you even listening to?" He tilted her phone toward himself but she pulled it out of his reach.

"Maybe I'm just ignoring you. Did you even think of that?"

"Or maybe you're just jumpy as hell."

"I'm not... you know what? Forget it. You're annoying."

Hawk grinned as if she'd just complimented him. "So, where are we going?"

"We?" She questioned, shaking her head. "No, we're not going anywhere. I'm meeting my friends for lunch so you can go away."

"Sounds horrible," he commented but she wasn't amused, especially when he continued to walk beside her. "Seriously, what were you listening to?" He tugged one Air Pod from her case and unpaused the music mid-song. A judgmental look crossed his face as he asked, "Is this Taylor Swift?"

"It's a song on a playlist."

"Right. What else do you have on here?"

Harper shook her head as he went through the playlist, silently throwing her looks of bewilderment and approval. The truth was, she didn't hate having him near her. She missed this easy going friendship between them.  And that was a problem because they were officially done. Over. She was frustrated by the situation and the feelings for him that continued to grow.

A sigh escaped her lips. "Hawk, stop!" She paused the music once more and took the AirPods back, shoving the case into her pocket. "You can't do this. We're done. We broke up-"

"No, you broke up with me. You decided for the both of us that-"

"That's how breakups work!"  Harper stopped and turned to face him. Forcing herself to swallow down those feelings and remember the why behind the breakup. "Look, I'm sorry but I can't do this. You're acting like nothing happened."