Seth's Place

One: Cry & Cry Some More

4:27 pm

I stare at him blankly, trying to see what game he's playing. How could crying possibly help me to stop thinking about Logan, and to try and get over him. All crying has done for me so far is make me upset.

"How is crying in any way going to help me?" I just stopped crying, for goodness sake. Now he wants me to continue? My dying seal noises can't possibly be good for business.

He goes to speak, but then frowns. His eyebrows pull together and his face scrunches up, resembling a rabbit when it twitches its nose. "I just realized that I haven't even asked you for your name." He smacks his forehead in a playful manner, chuckling slightly. "What a bad employee I am."

"It's Harper," I interject. "Harper Quinn." He looks at me thoughtfully, his brown eyes scanning my face. I tap my fingers against the wood table, a habit I've had since I was eight.

"It's nice to meet you, Harper," he says, smiling finally. "I'm Seth Wright." I raise my eyebrows, and his eyes go wide for a second. "Seth the second, you could say. My grandfather owned this place, hence why it's named after him. I just happen to share the name." I nod my head. It would be pretty cool to work at a place named after yourself.

"As I was saying, step one is to cry. It's important that during a breakup you don't just-" He stops, using his hands for emphasis, "bottle up your emotions. When you do that, you turn angry, which is an ugly emotion." I watch intently at this boy in front of me, as he speaks with a pain in his voice that he's trying so hard to hide. I want to ask him if he's okay, but what is okay?

Instead, I just sit there, listening to him speak. "People always assume that you shouldn't cry. That crying is for those who are too weak to do anything else. It's okay to cry. To let it all out. Because once you cry, and I mean really cry-" He stops to take a deep breath, and I can see him visibly shudder. There's passion, and raw emotion is his deep voice, and I feel compelled to listen to everything he has to say.

"Well, it can only get better from there." He runs a hand through is chocolate brown locks, and my mind once again flashes to that classroom. The images in my head are so graphic, and my mind is replaying the images like I'm still there, standing in the doorway. My stomach sinks, and I know deep down that no matter what happens tonight, I'll still be broken tomorrow.

No matter how much Seth tries to make me feel better, no matter how much it might work, all the effort will be wasted as I walk through the doors of Riverton High in the morning. Everything will be different. And what sucks, is that I won't even have my best friend there to help me through it all. Because she hurt me, even more than Logan ever could.

Kate.

Her name once gave me comfort, but all of our memories together have been tainted with black clouds in my mind. How could she possibly do this to me. She knew how much I liked Logan. Did Logan come onto her? Or was it her idea? The latter stings even more than the first.

People will talk. People will definitely talk. They'll stare at me, and whisper through the hallways. Eventually, though I will try my best to avoid them, I will run into the two people whose names will forever taste like poison in my mouth. And they will be all smiles, holding hands through the halls, without the slightest bit of guilt. They'll probably walk right past me without even acknowledging my presence.

"Harper?" My head shoots up as I hear my name. Seth sits across from me, a worried expression on his face. "Are you okay? I called you at least five times now." His face becomes distorted, and I barely spit out a 'no', before the tears begin to fall for the second time since I've entered the cafe.

I never learned how to cry with style, like the girls on television. The ones with perfectly constructed tears running down their pale, pink cheeks. I never learned to cry with grace, silent and without leaving streaks across my face. I wish I had, because if I did, I wouldn't be so embarrassed right now, in the public where curious eyes fixate on me.