“Too Close”

*Harper*

The night felt colder than it should’ve been.

It wasn’t the weather. It was the way the wind moved, like it was warning me. I shook my head pushing that thought away, thinking I was imagining things already.

I walked along the cracked sidewalk toward the bus stop, bag slung over one shoulder, the glow of streetlights flickering overhead. The campus was quiet now, the kind of silence that made you aware of every footstep, every car in the distance.

And then one slowed behind me.

I didn’t turn around at first. I just kept walking, one foot in front of the other, keeping my pace steady. The car crawled to a stop at the curb.

“Harper!” Lance’s voice, fake-warm, poured out of the rolled-down passenger window. “Need a lift?”

I stopped walking and turned around to see him. He looked different again. Clean and well-dressed. He was wearing a blazer, and too much cologne.

I kept my distance. “Lance? What are you doing here?”

He smiled like we were old friends meeting by chance. “Heading to your place. Sophia asked me over. Thought I’d offer you a ride.”

“No, thanks,” I said with a forced smile, already turning away.

“Oh come on,” he said, easing the car forward to match my steps. “It’s dark. Let me drive you. You don’t have to be weird about it.”

I didn’t answer nor did I speed up. I just kept walking.

The sidewalk narrowed near the alley, and I could hear his tires rolling beside me, slow and deliberate.

“I’m trying here, Harper,” he said. “I said I was sorry. You don’t have to punish me for it.”

“I’m not punishing you,” I said softly. “I just want to take the bus Lance.”

He laughed, a little too loud. “You’re being kind of silly, don’t you think?”

I stopped, looked him straight in the eye through the open passenger window. “Lance… After what you tried to do to me, I would avoid making those comments, please.”

He didn’t move, not at first, then finally, he sighed and turned forward. “Fine. Your loss. I was trying to show you what a gentleman does, not like your Rowan, leaving you to walk at night…”

He sped up and disappeared around the corner just as the bus pulled into the stop.

I boarded silently and took a seat near the back, watching the dark through the window as the city slipped by. Why was he here?

He kept bringing up Rowan, the man I thought I would never again see. I started to wonder, if he knew I wasn’t with him, would he really be leaving me to be?

If he was so interested in Sophia now, why was he still circling me? Was it about pride? Control? Or was I just another game he couldn’t stop playing?

Just in case, I looked behind through the window, and I felt relieved he was not behind the bus. It was a bit crazy, but he had surpassed any weird behavior I had seen. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

When I finally made it home, I noticed it was quiet. Too quiet.

Then I stepped inside, and I heard music playing softly from the kitchen. My foster parents were curled up on the couch, sipping wine like it was a holiday evening.

Helen looked up, her eyes lighting up. “Oh, Harper. You just missed him.”

“Who?” I asked, already knowing.

“Sophia’s friend,” she said, waving her hand vaguely. “Such a lovely young man. Very well-mannered. Said hello to both of us. You know, you could bring someone around once in a while too.”

Cole chuckled. “Yeah, someone like that. Handsome. Seems like he really likes your sister.”

My stomach turned. Not out of fear, but out of something colder. Lance didn’t sit well with me, and even though my sister was not my favorite person in the world, I felt his interest in her was really wrong.

I forced a smile. “Sophia is my older sister, so I am waiting for her to lead by example…”

Both Helen and Cole turned to look at me, tight smiles but no words about it.

The fact that he was already here when I got home made me shudder. He knew I was walking here, he offered to bring me here, and then he came and took Sophie out. I frowned, not understanding his intentions.

“I’m tired,” I said. “I’m going to head to my room.”

“Sure, sweetie,” Helen said, distracted.

I climbed the stairs slowly, every footstep louder in my ears than it should’ve been. In my room, I closed the door behind me and locked it, then I sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at nothing for a long time.

Lance wasn’t done. And this time… it wasn’t just annoying. It was calculated. I just knew he was planning something, or perhaps he wasn’t, but he had shifted his target to Sophia, and that was only more dangerous.