I shook my head and leaned against the door, “Do you realize how all over the place you are? A week ago you were telling me not to go on a date with him, and now you're defending him?”
“I'm not doing it for his benefit, trust me. I don't want you with him, that hasn't changed; I just hate seeing you hurt like this.”
We sat there for another minute before I reluctantly took my hand from his and opened the door, “Thanks for the ride Chase.”
“Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to stay with you?”
“I'll be fine, I'm tougher than you think.” I flashed an unconvincing smile, “Go to work, I'll see you around.”
He frowned, but didn't say anything else. After I got upstairs, I took a shower and put on clean pajamas before falling into bed. My eyes burned from crying so much and I desperately wished I had some eye drops. A knock sounded on my door but I didn't move. I had a feeling it would be Brandon and though I was surprised it took him so long to come here, I wasn't ready to face him. My heart hurt too much. After another soft knock, a key turned the lock and the door slowly pushed open.
“Sweetheart?”
I didn't answer, I just stared at his darkened figure through blurred eyes. He flipped on a lamp and I watched his shoulders slump when he finally saw me.
“Harper.” His deep voice was thick with emotion.
“Did Bree give you her key?”
His brow furrowed as he slowly nodded.
“Traitor.” Wasn't she supposed to be on my side?
“You have got to let me explain, I swear it's not how it looked.”
“I doubt that and it was all pretty self-explanatory, so don't bother.”
Brandon took a step toward me, but dropped his outstretched arm when I flinched away, “There is nothing happening with Amanda. She's just trying to get us to break up.”
“Well, it looks like she's getting what she wanted.”
A horrified expression passed over his face, “No. Don't – don't say that. Please Harper.”
“Just go Brandon, I'm not going to do this with you.” I turned to face the wall so he couldn't see how much this was killing me. First boyfriend, first kiss, I fell too hard too fast, and now I'm getting hurt. Him being here was just dragging it out. “Go home Brandon. We’re done. Goodbye.”
“God, please don’t say that.” He said softly to himself. Leaning over onto the bed, he ran his fingers down my arm, and continued to my back when I flinched away, “I can't leave until you hear me out. She's mad that I kept turning her down, she's seen me with you this week and she told me this morning that she would make sure I ended up with her. Right after lunch I started getting these pictures, she's just been sending the same messages over and over all day.”
“And you didn't see any reason to tell me this?” I asked the wall since I still wouldn't look at him.
“I thought she was going to stop, I saw her after my last class and told her to drop it because I wasn't going to leave you.”
“Is that why you were in a bad mood?”
“Yes. She knew you were staying with me this weekend, I was afraid she was going to do something else.”
“Meaning?”
He blew out a deep breath and moved his hand back up to my arm, “She said she'd stop the texts, and told us to have a good weekend together. The way she said it and stressed the word ‘together’, I just knew something was going to happen.”
I sighed and rolled back to face him, his face fell when he saw my heartbroken expression.
“Harper I'm so sorry, I should have just told you earlier.” He cupped my face, and though I flinched once again, he kept his hands there.
“Are you cheating on me with anyone? Not just Amanda.”
“No. I only want you.”
I searched his face carefully for any sign that he was lying, but didn't find any. He had been painfully honest with me from the beginning and I knew he was telling the truth now. Because of that I couldn't stay mad at him, no matter how much I'd wanted to. It had worried me how hurt I was when I'd first gotten those messages. I'd already fallen for this guy, and while it surprised me how fast I'd come to care for him, it was completely blowing my mind how much he seemed to care for me as well. Before I could tell him I believed him, his phone started repeatedly chiming and we sat silently watching each other until it stopped. I held out my hand and was surprised when he handed it over without even checking it. Opening up his messages I saw the exact same five messages Amanda had sent earlier. I typed back a response and hit send before handing it back to him.
Brandon - 'This is Brandon's girlfriend, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but I'd really appreciate it if you stopped sending him pictures of yourself. He doesn't want you, and desperation isn't cute. So back off bitch.'
Brandon read it quickly and managed a laugh before dropping his phone to the ground and sweeping me up in a big hug. “I'm sorry I hurt you.”
“You didn't, I should have just asked you before running off.”
“I really wish you would have, but I don't blame you sweetheart.” He kissed both cheeks and my lips, then leaned away to look in my eyes again, “Can you tell me one thing though? Why'd you run off to Chase?”
“I didn't, how did you know I'd been with him?”
“He called to tell me where you were.”
Chase defending Brandon was weird enough, but I for sure hadn't expected him to do that. “I didn't run off to him, I left and he saw me walking back here. He gave me a ride.”
He still look worried, and I thought about the already countless times he'd asked if there was something going on between Chase and I.
Taking a deep breath in, I put a hand against his cheek and smiled softly at him. “If I can believe you about a girl that keeps sending nak*d pictures of herself to your phone, then you should believe me when it comes to a guy that does nothing but piss me off.”
He kissed my palm and placed his hand over mine, “You're right, I just wish I would have been there for you, not him. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here.”
“Don't be sorry, you're here now, that's all that matters.”
He smiled and lightly pressed his lips to mine, cradling me against his chest. After a few minutes he finally spoke again, “Do you need more time alone, or can I take you back to the house?”
“You can take me back, if you promise me something first.”
“Anything.” He said without missing a beat.
I raised an eyebrow and smirked at him.
He nudged me playfully, “Anything reasonable.”
I huffed but winked so he knew I was kidding, “If something like this happens again, you need to tell me right away. My heart broke when I saw that, I don't want to go through that again.”
“Done. I didn't mean to break your heart.” He kissed me thoroughly before murmuring against my lips, “Anything else?”
“Yeah, I want it to just be you and me tonight.”
“It will be.”
“Like lock the door, stay wrapped up in each other’s arms and forget about everyone else kind of night. Do you think you can handle that?”
A sexy grin spread across his face, “I'm sure I can manage.”
5
“Bree, are you ready?”
“Freaking Konrad hid my bag.”
“Okay?” I drew out the word.
“He didn’t want me to be able to get dressed.”
I laughed, “Nice. Check in the washer or dryer.” I wasn’t surprised that she’d replaced Ryan with Konrad at some point last night.
Bree ran through the kitchen in only a thong. Good thing all the guys had gone surfing this morning. She came back holding her bag, her eyes narrowed, “You knew he put this there?”
“Was it really there?” I laughed louder and shook my head, “No I had no idea, but a few times the guys on base would do that if someone was in the shower. Take not only the clothes they had to put on, but all the other ones in their locker and hide them in the laundry room. I saw way too many butts that way.” I thought of Carter and pulled out my phone.
Me - ‘Miss you :(’
J. Carter - ‘;-)’
I waited to see if he’d say anything else, but he didn’t. I went back to putting the blankets and food in the car while Bree changed for the beach. Brandon had made good on his promise last night. When we got back from the dorm he’d taken me into his room, not saying anything to anyone. He turned both our phones off, locked the door and curled around me on the bed. I wanted to spend time talking to and kissing him, but I’d been so exhausted from crying, I’d fallen asleep soon after. We were woken up early this morning by Brad banging on the door so they could go surfing, and although Brandon started to tell him we were having time to ourselves, I’d kicked him out of the bed and told him to have fun. Bree and I decided to go down to the beach later to surprise them, figuring we could eat lunch and relax for a few hours. I’d made dozens of sandwiches, grabbed numerous large bags of chips and drinks and loaded them all into the coolers while Bree had been looking for her clothes.
We got to the beach and were glad to see the guys still out in the water. After setting up the blankets and towels, we sat down to watch them.
“So…Ryan?”
“Pfft, that guy was way too into himself. I need my guy to be more into me.”
“And did Konrad know he was your replacement last night?”
She shrugged, “Obviously he didn’t mind.”
“Obviously. Have you decided if you’re going to date him?”
“I think I am.” Bree smiled, Konrad had asked her to be his girlfriend, and she told him she’d think about it…while they were in the middle of hav**g s*x. I swear I didn’t get her. “I really think I like him Harper. I’m used to guys getting bored after we hook up, but he’s not like that. It’s like we just can’t stop going back to each other.”
“Then why are you making him wait?”
She rolled onto her stomach, facing away from the water, and I followed, “I don’t know. I mean I’ve had boyfriends before, but I just started college. I don’t know if I want to be tied down right away. I’d like to explore my options.”
I only sort of understood that, I hadn’t come to San Diego even looking for a guy, let alone a boyfriend. But there was no denying whatever was going on between Brandon and me. With him around, I couldn’t see myself not being with him. My phone chimed and I had to dig through the huge bags we’d brought things in to find it.
J. Carter - ‘Where are you?’
Me - ‘At the beach’
J. Carter - ‘Ditching classes then?’
Me - ‘I don’t have classes on Fridays. What are you up to?’
J. Carter - ‘What beach?’
I don’t know why that mattered to him, there were tons of beaches in the area. He wouldn’t know the difference.
Me - ‘It’s just a beach that’s literally all the way down the street from the school.’
“Why are you frowning?”
I looked up at Bree and put my phone away, “Carter’s been weird the last few days.”