“Jesus Christ, Harper, could you be more annoying?” Thu said.
“What?”
“No, seriously. Can you? Because you’ve been walking around with your heart outside of your chest over this boy for months, and he finally reaches out and you don’t pick up the damn phone?”
“He’s probably calling to say how he’s still mad at me! Or he’s glad he left me,” Harper said, pulling her face from Indira’s hands. “I’d deserve it if he did. And maybe I’m still mad at him for everything that happened. I don’t want to listen to that message.”
“No,” Thu said, fixing Harper with a hard stare.
“What?”
“No, you don’t get to be a scared little chicken anymore. You’re going to listen to this message right now or so help me God, I will tie you to that chair and make you listen to it.”
“Why are you so violent?” Harper said. Thu gave her a bored look.
Defeat and curiosity getting the better of her, Harper took her phone, clicking open the voice mail. She chewed at her nails as she waited for it to start.
“Hi, Harper. It’s Dan.” She wanted to melt at the sound of his voice, drown in it. She closed her eyes, tears already slipping down her cheeks.
“I know—well, obviously you don’t want to hear from me, and I get that, I guess. But I want to tell you something. Actually, there are a million things I want to tell you. An hour doesn’t go by without something reminding me of you, making me reach for the phone to call you.” He took a deep breath. “I know you don’t want a relationship with me. I won’t try to change your mind.”
Was that what she still wanted? Because the past three months had been so unbearably painful, she kicked herself daily for being an idiot.
“But I hope you know,” Dan continued as Harper’s thoughts swirled and the emotions built in her chest. “I didn’t leave because of you. I’ve never wanted to leave you. I left because I had to. I was playing pretend at someone I was never meant to be. But what you need to know…” Harper sucked in a breath, nearly choking on a sob. She heard Dan take a deep breath too, and she wanted to lean her ear against his chest, hear the air filling his lungs.
“Just because I left doesn’t mean I stopped loving you.” There was a brief pause. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving you.”
Another moment of silence filled the line, and Harper wanted to hear his voice again more than anything. She wanted to dissolve in the music of it, claw the words from her phone.
“But I’ll leave you alone. Bye, Harper. I’m so proud of you.”
And the line went dead.
Harper sucked in a shaky gasp of air, her whole world fracturing around her.
He still loved her.
He. Still. Loved. Her.
He loved her.
She dropped the phone to her lap, scrubbing at her tears. She had to do something. Anything. She didn’t want him to leave her alone. She didn’t want to hear goodbye.
Because their friend group lacked anything that even remotely resembled boundaries or privacy, Lizzie snatched up Harper’s phone. Indira and Thu crushed their faces close to Lizzie’s as they strained to listen to the message.
By the time it was finished, they all had tears pricking at their eyes as they stared at Harper—all except Alex, who was blissed out in his own drunken stupor.
“What do I do?” Harper cried, lost in how to navigate the complex map of everything she felt. All the love pulsing through her body.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Thu said, running a brisk hand across her cheeks to wipe away the tears. “We go to New York.”
CHAPTER 39
HARPER
Harper blinked at Thu. “What? No. I … When?”
“Now,” Thu said, standing from her seat and gathering her things. She tapped away at her phone for a few seconds before turning the screen to Harper. “A Megabus leaves in fifteen minutes. We can make it if we run.”
“What!” Harper said, gripping the edges of her chair like it would anchor her in the swell of the confusion. “Tonight? You think I should go tonight?”
“We are going tonight,” Thu corrected, helping Lizzie organize herself. “I just bought us five tickets. Now hurry up.”
“Why would you come?” Harper asked. Everything was happening too fast. She needed a day. Or five. Maybe a week. Just a little bit of time to process everything that was being said. Dan loved her. He was actively in love with her. And she loved him. Holy shit, did she love him.