“Why not?” I said, staring blankly at him. “I just lost thousands of dollars. I lost any chance of housing for yourself and possibly just made going to school impossible for you as well as myself. Why even bother?”

“Listen to me closely,” Callum gritted through clenched teeth, grabbing me by the shoulders, bringing his face closely to mine. “That money was stolen. You were no more responsible for it than I was. Stop blaming yourself, Harper Bailey! Shit happens! You know that just as well as I do but it’s because it happens to us so often that he have to fight just a little bit harder.

“One day, you and I are gonna’ wake up and be alright. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but one day. One day. I promise you.”

He brought his chest to mine and I buried my face in his neck, sobbing at the generosity of his words.

“Thank you,” I whispered into his ear.

He buried his hands into my hair and kissed my neck. “No, thank you, Harper.”

“For what?” I asked, tears staining the shoulder of his t-shirt.

“For giving me a reason to want to fight again.”

Chapter Seven

Tide is High

Callum

“So, this is where we’re staying the night, I guess?” Harper asked me.

I sighed. “Yes. I’m sorry but The Hope House ran out of cots.”

“I figured.”

Harper snuggled closely to me on the bench, a massive yawn escaped from her delicious mouth.

“Here, lay down,” I ordered her. “We have no blankets, so you’ll just have to settle for me,” I teased, making her blush the most attractive shade of pink on her soft skin.

She gave in to me and I laid down, my front to hers. We tangled our legs together and I wrapped my arms around her little torso. She sighed, content, and for a moment I didn’t feel like the care-taking failure I really was. Laying this close to her sent an oddly warm shiver through my entire body. My feet tingled and that same thread of shocking greatness traveled up my blood stream, affecting even the roots of my hair. I shivered involuntarily and Harper mistook it for my being cold, clutching me tighter, making my heart race and a crimson heat to pool in my stomach. She burrowed her face in my neck and, unable to stop myself, I inhaled the scent of her hair.

As I watched the shadows on her face from the lamp post, I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever seen anyone lovelier than Harper Bailey. She was everything I could ever want in a girl and a new fever gathered in my chest when I realized what it meant. I was falling in love with Harper Bailey. The scales were tipping fast and furious in that direction and I was slightly alarmed at how comfortable I was at the rapid descent. Falling for Harper felt like the most natural thing in the world and, God help me, I liked it. Damn the consequences.

Just as she started to drift to sleep, Harper’s eyes shot wide, making me grin. “What are we going to do now, Callum?”

“Don’t worry about that now. We’ll figure it out tomorrow. Just sleep,” I told her, wrapping her tightly against me.

She nodded and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, her breaths steadied with sleep and I felt free to spend most of the night wondering just what in the hell we were going to do. Somewhere between the fantasy of winning the lottery and desperately considering knocking over the proverbial liquor store, I fell to sleep.

“Get up!” I heard someone yelling. I realized that someone was poking me with something hard in the back. I turned around and recognized the end of a police officer’s flashlight. “Did you hear me? Wake up!” The officer said.

I stumbled up and helped a sleepy Harper sit up as well. The officer shone the bulk of his light at our faces but as we shaded our eyes from the blinding brightness, he dragged the beam toward our chests.

“What are you guys doing?” He asked. “Have too much to drink tonight?”

“No, sir,” a scratchy voiced Harper answered.

“No, we just didn’t have a place to sleep,” I offered.

The officer narrowed his eyes at us. “Why not?”

“We’re homeless,” I said and it felt so weird admitting it out loud.

“Run away?” He asked.

“No sir,” I said. “We have no home to run from.”

“Why didn’t you stay at one of the city’s night facilities?”

“We tried,” Harper said, “but they ran out of cots.”

“Have your I.D.’s?” He asked bluntly.

Harper and I pulled ours out and handed them over to him. He spoke into his sleeve radio and asked the operator to check us out. When he was satisfied we weren’t wanted criminals, he handed us back our I.D.’s.

“You guys can’t sleep out here,” he said, bringing us to our feet and escorting us from the park.

“But we have nowhere to go,” Harper said.

“That’s not my problem, kid. Should have thought about that before you ran away from mom and dad. Maybe their rules aren’t so bad now that you’re sleeping outside on a bench, are they?”

Harper began to open her mouth but I just shook my head. “Come on.”

We walked away from the park, towards the city and leaned against the nearest building. We both yawned loudly and laughed at the other.

“Bless my soul! I am so tired,” Harper said.

I yawned again when she did. “Careful, or we’ll be trading these all night,” I said.

“Where should we go?” She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. I walked to a nearby store and although it was closed, pressed my face against the glass and read the time on the register. “Cherry will be home at five a.m. She’d probably let us crash on her floor.”

“What time is it?”

“Four.”

“Should we start walking toward her place?” Harper asked.

“Why not.”

We arrived at Cherry’s apartment, at four fifteen and sat outside her door. We must have fallen asleep because I woke to Cherry kicking my toe. Harper stayed asleep on my shoulder.

“Dude, what’s up?” She asked, her eyes full of concern.

“We got kicked out of Central Park,” I whispered, careful not to wake Harper.

“When?”

“Around four,” I said, unsure.

Cherry leaned her face towards mine. “Were you both sleeping there? What happened to your apartment?”

I shook my head. “We had five g’s stolen on the subway. Lost all our money.”

Cherry placed her hand on the top of her head and exhales loudly, like she can’t believe our luck and it accidentally wakes Harper. “Crap,” she said, but I’m not sure if she meant that about waking Harper or about the money, probably a little of both. “You two just can’t catch a break, can you?”

Harper funnily agreed, completely unaware of our topic but immediately laid her head back onto my shoulder and fell back to sleep.

“Come on,” Cherry said, opening the door. “You can take the carpet underneath my coffee table. I don’t have anything softer, I’m sorry.”

Cherry lived in a little studio and her fold out sofa is her bed. She had a small kitchen that doubled as her laundry and a small bathroom with a stand-up shower. It was cheap but she somehow made it look like the Taj Mahal because she was crafty like that. I balanced Harper’s head against the wall and stood before picking her up and carrying her into Cherry’s.

“Lay your girl down here,” she said, removing the coffee table and sliding the rug nearer to the kitchen. I started to lay her down but Cherry stopped me. “Wait, let me get an old sleeping bag in my closet.” She left and returned with a maroon sleeping bag, unzipping the sides as she walked. She laid it flat over the carpet and I laid Harper on top. I immediately crashed on top. “Tired?” Cherry asked the room but got no answer.

She snorted and I could hear her toss two of her sofa pillows at us. A light quilt cascaded on top of us.

“I love you, Cherry bomb.”

“I love you too, Callum. Good night, baby.”

Cherry turned out the lights and I was asleep before the light bulb cooled.

Later that morning, while Cherry still slept, Harper and I folded her blanket and rolled up her sleeping bag. We both took showers and because I had taken a hundred out of our stash to keep in my wallet, Thank God, I went to get breakfast for all of us while Harper dried her hair.

As I stood in line, trying to figure out if they had real cream for Harper’s tea or not, I heard a tiny voice creep into my ear.

“What are you doing here?”

I turned around to see Sam standing directly behind me. Oh, dear God.

“Oh, yeah,” I absently remarked. “You live in Cherry’s building. I must have forgotten.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. You’ve been in love with me for two years, Callum Tate. You knew I lived here.”

I was taken aback by her truthfulness. In fact, I had remembered that she lived in that building. I just thought she’d be at Charlie’s and didn’t think more beyond that.

“So, you knew,” I said, staring directly ahead.

The person in front of me moved up and I followed suit as did Sam.

“Of course I knew. Everyone knew, including Charlie.” That stung a little bit to hear.

“Why aren’t you at Charlie’s?” I asked, evading.

“He and I...Well, we’ve decided to see other people.”

I laughed loudly but stopped and clear my throat. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I feel it’s for the best. I like to keep my options open.”

“Is that what they call being dumped now? Keeping your options open?”

“Charlie didn’t dump me, Callum,” she scoffed. “I dumped him. He was too old for me anyway. I’ve got a taste for something younger now.”

I almost choked on my own spit when I heard that. “Okay.”

“Next,” I heard. Saved.

“Hi, I need three bagels, toasted. Uh, cream cheese. You know,” I said to more to myself, “she likes strawberries. Let me have some strawberry jam as well. Let’s do two coffees and a tea.”

“Is that it?”

“Yup,” I said.

I paid my total and picked up a few things of cream and sugar at the side stand. I started to walk off but forgot that Harper wouldn’t eat the strawberries without a little bit of sugar and threw an extra few packets in my bag. I walked outside and remembered that Harper liked lemon with her tea and debated whether or not it was worth having to brave seeing Sam again. It was worth it. I walked back in and grabbed a plastic ramekin full of lemons. I tried to get away before Sam was done but got no such luck. She only just caught my arm when I tried to burrow my way out the large glass door again.

“I think I’ll walk with you, maybe visit Cherry.”

“You’re going to see Cherry in a few hours. Why bother?”

“Callum, what is wrong with you?” She asked, keeping step with me.

“Nothing. I’m just not sure what’s wrong with you, to be perfectly honest.”

“Nothing’s wrong with me. I’m perfect.”