Robin Wasserman - Pride

“There’s nothing to admit!” she exclaimed.

“I can’t-” He started to turn away, then stopped. He couldn’t keep doing this to himself. He couldn’t start the year off like this. It wasn’t fair-to anyone. “Look, I didn’t come out here to start a fight with you,” he said softly, turning back around.

“I don’t want to fight anymore either,” she admitted, the tension visibly leaching out of her body.

“Can we call a truce?” he asked hopefully. “Agree to disagree?”

She nodded. “I’d like that.”

They stood facing each other in silence for a moment, and then Adam broke the wall of distance with a hug, sweeping her into his arms. Her hair still smelled like lilacs, fresh and sweet. It felt so right to hold her, to remember the way her body had fit snugly against his. And she clung to him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder, and he could feel her crying-but when she finally looked up at him, her eyes were dry.

“Remember last New Year’s?” she asked, her arms still wrapped loosely around him, his arms lightly encircling her waist. When Adam was with Harper, pushing Beth out of his mind seemed so easy. But now, facing her, holding her, the past seemed more real than the present.

He nodded ruefully. “This isn’t the way I thought things would end up.”

She sighed. “I know. I guess I thought we would…”

“So did I,” he said softly, brushing a tear from her cheek. Her skin was like silk. It would be so easy to lean forward just a bit, to close his eyes and forget where he was and what had happened between them, just to feel the tender touch of her lips again. He caught his breath for a moment, and all he could see were her lips, glossy and slightly parted, and all he could feel was his desperate need-

“We should really get back inside,” she said awkwardly, breaking away from him.

He dropped his hands to his sides abruptly. What the hell had he been thinking?

“I should-go find Harper,” he stammered.

“And Kane.” She sighed. “I guess I should…” She shook her head. “Let s just go back inside.” They threaded their way back toward the sliding-glass door to the living room, but before they stepped through, Adam stopped her.

“I’m glad we talked,” he told her, leaning close. “I really want things to be better between us.”

“They will,” she promised, and took his hand.

They stood at the threshold, and Adam knew he had to step inside, rejoin the party, find Harper. But Beth’s hand was still tightly wrapped around his, comforting and warm.

And he really didn’t want to let go.

“I can’t believe you let him out of your sight,” Kane taunted her. “You really think that’s safe?”

“Would you just shut up?” Harper snapped irritably. She was so sick of Kane’s overblown ego, his superiority complex-as if he were really so much better than the rest of them. “Adam loves me,” she maintained. “ I’ve got nothing to worry about. You, on the other hand…”

She turned away to join Kaia, who was lying low and flipping through CDs in the back corner, obviously trying to stay out of the line of fire, but too curious to slip out of the room.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Kane asked, flinging himself onto a small leather couch pressed against the wall. “Beth and I are just fine.”

Harper just snorted.

“Got something you want to share with the rest of the class, Grace?”

“You and Beth are a walking disaster,” she informed him. “A ticking time bomb, a train wreck, a-oh, pick whatever tired cliché you want. The whole relationship is a joke.”

“I’m not laughing,” he said in a dangerous voice.

“But everyone else is,” Harper countered. “It’s so obvious she’d never be with you if Adam hadn’t broken up with her. She never would have even looked at you.”

“What about you?” Kane asked, rising from the sofa and striding toward her. “Like Adam would ever have dropped Beth for the town slut? ”

“You can insult me all you want,” Harper said, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Sticks and stones may break your bones-but names seeped inside and killed you slowly from within. Not that she’d ever admit it. “But I know the truth,” she insisted. “Adam wants to be with me.”

“Only because he thinks Beth cheated on him,” Kane pointed out.

“So?”

“So? So she didn’t -or have you forgotten that little detail? In this delusional world you’ve created for yourself, have you forgotten that we just made him think she cheated on him?” He grabbed Harper by the shoulders and gave her a rough shake. “Snap out of it. He’s not with you because he wants to be. He’s with you because you tricked him. You lied to him.”

“ We lied,” Harper corrected him. “And it doesn’t matter.” She pulled herself away and turned her back on him, hugging herself in an effort to hold it together. “He would have come to me eventually. We just sped things up a little.”

“No, Beth would have come to me eventually,” Kane countered. “They always do. You, on the other hand, would still be alone.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” Harper asked in a tight and muffled voice.

“Why are you trying to pretend you’re so much better than me, that your relationship with Adam is oh-so-perfect, while Beth and I are-” He turned Harper around to face him, and she met his gaze fiercely. “We’re the same, you and I.”

“We are not, ” she insisted.

She glared at Kane, at his smug, superior face. He didn’t care about anyone, about whom he lied to, whom he hurt. That wasn’t her, she assured herself. She only did what she did because she had to. It wasn’t her fault. That person, cold and calculating, heartless-she could act the part, but it wasn’t real. It wasn’t her .

“We are, Harper,” he pressed on. “Looking at you, it’s like looking in a mirror. Why don’t you just admit it? For once in your life, why don’t you just tell the truth?”

“She doesn’t know how.”

Kane glanced up at the sound of the cold, thin voice-but Harper didn’t need to. She’d recognized it. She’d know his voice anywhere. But finally she couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to turn around, had to see his face-and Adam was frozen in the doorway, Beth by his side.

The world went dark for a moment, and Harper thought she would pass out-longed for unconsciousness. But then everything swam back into focus, and it was real. He was there. And from the look on his face, she could tell.

He’d heard everything.

At first, their angry voices hadn’t really registered. Adam hadn’t processed what they were saying, what it meant. It was only when Beth, standing beside him just outside the doorway of the small study, issued a quiet moan, that he had understood.

He had blundered in here looking for Harper, and he’d found her, he realized. The real Harper.

The four of them stood frozen in silence for a moment, just staring at one another in disbelief. Beth broke first.

“How could you?” she cried, her eyes whipping back and forth from Harper to Kane. “Did you really think you’d get away with this?”

Kane shrugged his shoulders and flopped down on the couch. “Sure, I did,” he admitted, his hands propped casually behind his head. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised.”

“I-I-” Beth stopped stuttering and burst into tears, fleeing the room. Adam wanted to chase after her, but it was as if his feet were stuck to the floor. He couldn’t move-couldn’t take his eyes off Harper.