Page 58 of My Ex's Roommates
The first sketchy guy I spotted close to the house I didn’t think twice about. It was a college campus and those guys weren’t too uncommon. I was too busy exploding inside myself anyway. The second strange looking guy made me sit up. When we pulled into the driveway and saw two men arguing next to the front door, though, I knew. The message had given Harper’s address,ouraddress, and offered her up on a silver platter. There were men showing up at our fucking home to have a chance with her.
Silas put it together a second before I did and he was out of the truck, charging the two guys at our door with murder in his eyes. He grabbed one of them while the other scrambled away. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“She wasn’t answering her phone! We just came to see if it was for real!” The smell of the guys’ piss was too much. Silas screamed at him to get the fuck away from our house and to never come back or he’d kill him.
I couldn’t stop shaking. Anger filled me so violently that I started to chase after the guy, wanting to beat the life out of him, but Silas grabbed me.
“Harper first.”
As soon as we stepped inside, I knew she was gone. The normal warmth and life that filled the house was missing. Still, we called her name and searched for her. I ran up the stairs and barged into her room, hoping I was wrong, hoping she’d be sitting in bed, glaring at me for scaring her. She wasn’t.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, I held my head in my hands. “She’s gone. She left.”
Silas came in and looked around. After opening her closet door, he swore and slammed it shut. “We can’t even call her. Her phone’s off and the fucking voicemail is already full of god knows what. Call Casey. They were together.”
I dialed my sister’s number and waited impatiently for her to answer. When her voicemail picked up I called right back. Iwas desperate and I needed something, anything to show that Harper was okay. The sixth time I called, Casey answered.
“What? Did my not answering not clue you in that I’m busy?” I knew my sister well enough to know something was wrong. The words were the same she would’ve said no matter what she was feeling but there was an edge to her voice that wasn’t typical.
“Is Harper with you?”
After a second of hesitation, Casey answered. “No.”
“You can’t fucking lie to me, Casey, I’m your twin brother. I know your tells. We’re coming.” I stood up and motioned to Silas and Dylan. Casey’s was just a five minute drive. We’d have Harper back in less than ten minutes.
“Don’t come here.” Casey lowered her voice. “I love you, Carter, but you guys fucked up. She doesn’t want to see you right now and that’s her right. Leave her alone. She’s safe here since no one knows she’s here and if you three come banging on my door, all the assholes who’ve been calling and texting her will know where she is.”
My throat tightened and my fingertips went numb. “We have to see her.”
“Too bad. You can’t.” Casey growled under her breath. “Goddammit, Carter. What were you thinking? One of you justhadto send that picture to Jake to rub it in, didn’t you? Well, I hope the three of you are proud of yourselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if Harper never wants to speak to any of you again.”
I stared down at my phone after Casey hung up on me and shook my head. I didn’t accept that answer. Harper wasn’t walking away from us that easily. She couldn’t. Not when she had my heart in her fucking hands.
Dylan ran his hands over his head and backed out of the room. “It’s my fault. I’ll… I’ll figure it out. I’ll find a way to tell her it was my fault and that neither of you had anything to do with it.”
Silas let out a bitter laugh. “Just because you accidentally hit the button doesn’t mean we weren’t all sitting there feeling great about ourselves, wanting to send that picture. Any of us could’ve done it. We were being fucking assholes. We should’ve fucking known better.”
My phone buzzed with a notification and I looked down to see a message from my parents telling me how proud they were of me for winning the game against USC. I dug my palms into my eye sockets and let out a frustrated shout. “I can’t just sit here. I have to do something.”
52.
***Harper***
Casey hung up on Carter and turned back to face me with a frown on her face. She sighed. “I don’t think that’s going to stop them from coming here, Harper. Carter sounded panicked. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sound like that before…”
Guilt mixed into the rest of the emotions tearing through my brain. “This is putting you in a weird position, Case. I shouldn’t have come here. He’s your brother.”
She joined me on her bed and grabbed both of my hands. “Yeah, and he was an idiot. We’re best friends, right?”
So far I’d managed to hold my tears in but there was something about that question that cracked the dam. “Of course, we’re best friends.”
“Then youshouldbe here.” She searched my face. “It’s going to be okay, Harper. I’m going to metaphorically murder Jakeand people will forget about this. We’ll change your number. You can-”
“My phone number! I have to turn my phone back on. What if my brothers need me? What if something happens and they can’t reach me and my voicemail is full and- I think I’m going to throw up.” I ran to her bathroom and collapsed in front of her toilet, violently vomiting.
“You can’t turn your phone back on, babe. Those calls were…vile. You can’t listen to those.” Casey pressed a cool wash rag to the back of my neck and stroked my back. “Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll turn your phone on long enough to get the phone number of that guard and I’ll send him a text from my phone, telling him to have your brothers use my number until we get you a new phone. Okay? That takes care of one problem.”
I flushed the toilet and sank back against the side of her tub. “Why would they do this?”
