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"So are you going to tell me where the fuck you were when I got back last night and where you've been all day?" Natalia bit as she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at her best friend, who had just gotten back to their dorm.
Harper pondered briefly how to explain what had happened, swallowing hard.
"I caught Andrew cheating. I stayed with a friend, they were trying to console me, I guess." she shrugged, figuring telling her straight was the best answer. She was well aware of the tears pricking at her eyes as she thought about it all over again, avoiding her best friend's gaze so she couldn't tell.
Natalia squinted as she mentally scrutinised Harper's excuse, "Your use of the word they and the lingering smell of cologne tells me that this friend was male. And that is not Henrie's aftershave... so explain."
Harper rolled her eyes at the fact she had focused more on the aftermath than on the fact that her best friend had literally been cheated on.
"Sure, focus on that part why don't you."
Natalia rubbed her face and sat down on her bed, her arms still crossed and her face still deep in thought as she formulated her response.
"Well I'm sorry," she scrunched her nose, "You're better off without him babe, you know that I've been telling you to get rid of him for months now."
Harper didn't say anything in reply. Natalia was something of a boy-consumed airhead and always had been, so she was unsurprised that her main concern was the potential that Harper had been with another boy following what had happened.
"We were together for three years, Nat. It wouldn't have been a case of just 'getting rid of him'. And I'm not just going to jump into someone else's arms straight away."
Natalia laughed, "Not their arms, I was more thinking... their bed."
Harper scoffed, throwing herself down on her bed and dumping her bag and books down at its side. She didn't have the energy for this conversation right now, or — quite frankly — for any conversation.
"Look, Nat, babe, I got no sleep last night—"
"I bet."
"Shut up! I'm tired and I just need some sleep, okay? I'll talk to you about all of this later just please for the love of god let me have a few hours to nap." she pleaded, hands swinging through the air to exaggerate her desperation.
Natalia gave up quickly, toying with her chipped nails and sitting herself down at the edge of her own bed. She stared inquisitively at Harper for a moment, "Fine. But you are so telling me the whole story when you wake up, Harpy."
Harper only grunted in response.
—
Harper woke up to the sound of idle conversation between Natalia and Henrie, who had been perched on Natalia's bed for nearly three hours discussing potential scenarios by which Harper had stumbled upon Andrew cheating.
"I'd prefer you to not discuss my love life while I'm asleep across the room from you, guys." she groaned, rolling over so that she faced them now instead of the wall.
Henrie sighed, pacing over to sit beside her instead and rubbing her exposed shoulder soothingly.
"You know, you could've come and got me and I'd have looked after you," he frowned, intently staring into her eyes, "The party was shit anyway, but you know you'll always come first."
Harper smiled.
She sat up a little, taking Henrie's hand as he offered it out to her. His face was twisted into an expression of concern, and Harper was incredibly grateful for his sympathy given Natalia's less than sympathetic reaction.
She knew Natalia meant well. But it had always been Henrie there to scoop her up and reassemble her broken pieces when she was sad, and it was him she knew she could truly trust with anything.
"I just— I don't know what I did wrong."
Henrie clicked his tongue disapprovingly, "You did nothing wrong. Harper, you're incredible, the boy isn't worth your time or worth you worrying about why he did it. He did it because he's a sack of shit who doesn't deserve you anyway."
She laughed a little, flashing a somewhat muted smile at Henrie's defence of her.
Sitting up fully now, she pulled him into a tight hug, resting her chin on his shoulder and relieving herself of the deep sigh it felt like she'd been holding in forever.
"You're the best, H. You know that, right?"
Henrie kissed her forehead before pulling back and nodding with a wink. Natalia sauntered over from her side of the room, jokingly muttering, "Rude." as she sat herself down at Harper's side and frowned sympathetically.
She tucked a hair behind her best friend's ear, "He's right. I know I wasn't very helpful when you told me about it, but I love you and I promise I'm always here. I am."
Harper felt her throat practically close up as tears threatened to spill once again. She couldn't find words to respond, meekly nodding and pulling Natalia into a hug now too. Henrie curled his arms around both girls, rubbing both of their backs.
"I mean, it's eight so we could order pizza and ugly cry to One Direction for the rest of the night if you want?" Natalia proposed, smiling proudly at her idea as Harper laughed, "I can even pretend I'm not desperate to find out who your knight in shining armour was last night."
Harper roller her eyes jokingly, her brain teetering on the fence about whether this was what she really wanted to do.
Truth be told, she felt as though she'd done enough whining about what Drew had done, having spent hours conversing so deeply with Luke about him, and she couldn't help but feel that it was a distraction that would benefit her more than wallowing further.
"No," she beamed confidently, forefinger sweeping across her cheek to remove the single tear that had escaped, "Let's do something. Are there any parties tonight?"
Natalia and Henrie were shocked by her suggestion, but Nat was quick to nod nevertheless.
Henrie sighed, "Are you sure--"
"Greta texted earlier, I just didn't think you'd be up for it," she shrugged, toying with her fingernails absently as her best friend seemed to perk up at this revelation, "One of Michael's best mates is throwing one. It's in dorm 63."
Of course. Dorm 63.
——— — AUTHOR'S NOTE! hello ! so i had a completely different end to this chapter initially but ... then this happened so i hope you enjoyed !! more luke action in the next chapter i promise. x
