Shattered Memories, Broken Hearts: An SOSS Story

Chapter 1: How Do I Say Goodbye?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Please don't go," begged 21-year-old Griffin Campbell as he watched his girlfriend, 21-year-old Harper Dunn, lift herself off the couch they had been busying themselves on for the past ten minutes. At this point in their relationship, they had been dating for almost nine years now. And throughout these nine years, they had somehow been able to keep their relationship a secret from not only their parents, but their younger siblings as well, which was a surprising feat that they were both extremely proud of.

"I'm sorry, Griffin, but I really have to go," she told him regrettably as she looked at her watch again. As she began to pull away, Griffin pulled her back down and brought her into a long, passionate kiss. She started to pull away again, forcing herself to show some self-restraint. "As much as I'm enjoying this, I really do have to go. I'm already late for my meeting."

"You can skip the meeting," he said desperately.

Harper chuckled. "I can't do that. I'll get fired."

"Oh, come on, Lovey. Who even needs a job nowadays?"

"It's really cute that you want me to stay, but I really do have to go," Harper said as she began to button her coat.

"Please stay. Don't go," he muttered as he watched her grab her car keys and phone.

"I'm sorry, honey, but I really do need to go," she said as she placed a quick kiss to his cheek. "I'll be back tonight though, I promise."

"I'm holding you to that," he replied before he sighed. "Besides, Topher's coming over soon so him and I can look for suits for the wedding, and I don't think he'll be pleased to see you here anyways."

Harper smiled warmly. "Considering that he almost tackled that guy at Starbucks who had flirted with me, I don't think you'd live to see his reaction if he saw me here in your apartment with messy hair and only wearing one of your many t-shirts," she said with a small smirk on her face.

Griffin hummed in response. For whatever reason, Topher had always been super protective of Harper, even though he was her younger brother. And since he and Harper had been secretly dating, he'd never gotten to witness the tribulations that one of Harper's boyfriends would have to endure if they were to ever come clean about their relationship.

"You know, I was thinking," he began to say slowly. "About our relationship."

Harper cocked her head at him. "Is this some kind of ploy to get me to stay longer? Honestly, Griffin, you're so much better than that."

He shook his head as he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Harpie, we've been dating for almost ten years now, and yet, no one knows? Zoey, Wyatt, Topher...... I mean, if we want to move forward at all, we're going to have to come clean eventually."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Moving forward? Who said anything about moving forward?" she asked playfully as she got her purse out of the closet.

"Weren't you saying that you were late for your meeting?" he asked in return, quickly changing the subject.

"Fine, I'll pretend that you didn't say anything. But I do agree that we should save this conversation for later," she replied.

"Okay, fine," he agreed. "But it better be soon. I love you so much. Have a good time at your meeting," he said sweetly as he waved goodbye to her.

After giving him a peck on the cheek, Harper had raced out of his apartment, leaving Griffin alone for the rest of the day.

Topher had showed up for a visit later that day, and they went out to go look at suits for Topher's upcoming wedding to Zoey, which was going to be happening next month, before they had went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, and Griffin went back to his apartment to play his guitar since he was getting a little rusty. He had originally lived with Zoey and Topher in their two-story house in downtown New Orleans before he had decided to move out and get a place of his own so he could have some more privacy ----- especially since he and Harper were dating, and they didn't want someone to walk in on them when they were getting frisky with each other. But they had kept that piece of information to themselves.