The hum that vibrated from within Harper’s hatchback had settled deep in Alex's chest. They had been on a smooth ride since they left the motel that early morning. He smiled to himself when the city of Manchester flashed by in front of him in a blur of colors and chilling air.
It was finally November.
Harper turned up the heat higher and gave him a glance for a split second before her eyes went back on the road. Her hands closed tight along the steering wheel. Alex released a sigh from his lips. His mind was practically grasping at straws with what it was that suddenly turned her sour mood up a notch.
When they left Manchester and entered another city, Alex’s hesitant eyes flickered up to Harper’s features that were a hard mask of concentration. Without wanting to start an argument by simply asking what was going on with her, he just opted to adjusted himself against his leather seat and slid his legs apart. But he was too tall, and there was just not enough legroom for him.
But he didn’t complain as he couldn't be sure how what she could be thinking at that moment. So, he kept his focus on the road with only glimpses in her direction to try to gauge what was on her mind — forgetting all together how much he wanted to ask where they were going and whether they would be stopping anytime soon so he could at least stretch his legs.
After driving through what seemed to be an empty, vast and endless road, they finally turned, and soon enough, Alex saw trees again. And after nearly half an hour of nothing but trees on sight, a sign on the road had finally told Alex where they were.
*Welcome to Clearwater Crossing!*
“Are we visiting some relatives?” he finally asked.
“Sort of,” was all Harper said.
Roughly another half-hour later, the hatchback had pulled up in front of a two-story white house with casement windows.
"Are your parents here?" Alex muttered, startling as he climbed out of the car. “Nice house.”
Harper walked up to the door and knocked. Alex joined her slowly with their bags in his hands. It was already half past six in the evening, and they’d been on the road since morning. They were exhausted.
The door opened to reveal a younger woman with flowing green and blue-dyed hair. "Damn! You’re finally here!"
Harper nodded, flashing a smile as her stomach twist itself into uncomfortable knots. “Yeah.”
“Is this him?”
“Yeah. This is Alex,” Harper said awkwardly, not wanting to draw this out for much longer, “Alex, this is Kendal…”
“Nice to meet you, Kendal,” Alex said, his hand outstretched towards Kendal.
Kendal’s eyes widened in awe. She held Alex's hand for a shake. “Oh my! I guess you forgot to tell me how hot he is,” she said, eyeing Alex from head to foot. “Pleasures all mine, Alex! Come on in!”
They entered into a hallway with a staircase on the right. Alex set their bags on the floor when they were soon joined by an older woman and an older man.
“Gramps and Grams, this is my college friend, Harper,” Kendal introduced before smiling at Alex. “And this Alex, her fiancé.”
“Hello,” Harper smiled politely.
Alex, on the other hand, reached out to Kendal’s grandmother. “Good evening…”
“Just call me Nan, and this old man right here is Pat,” Kendal’s grandma told Alex. She welcomed him for a quick embrace, and Alex gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
"Welcome to Clearwater Crossing, Harper and Alex,” Pat said with his most pleasant smile.
“Thank you,” Alex and Harper replied, shyly, in unison.
Their coyness caused a smile to come suddenly to Nan’s face.
Then Alex cleared his throat and went on to add, “I really hope you and Pat are okay having me and my fiancée stay here, Nan.”
“Absolutely! You two look lovely. Adorable even. Now you don’t have to be shy around us. When Kendal broke the news about her close friends coming over, Pat and I are more than delighted. We haven’t had any visitors for a long time. Well, except for relatives coming over for the holidays. And Kendal’s parents when they do remember,” Nan sweetly replied.
“Oh, Nan,” Kendal groaned, then she looked at Harper. “She loves having people in the house.”
“We have four rooms in the house, dear. It gets really lonely sometimes,” Nan replied. “So who wouldn’t?”
Alex gave her a weak smile. "I totally get you, Nan. Harper and I are just glad that you and Pat are…glad.”
Nan and Pat both let out a light chuckle.
“Oh, it’s raining," Harper suddenly stated, glancing outside, where rain was starting to pelt softly on the porch.
"You and your fiancée must be tired. Kendal, dear, why don’t you show them to their room so they can rest first. Dinner will be served soon." Nan smiled at Alex, her face wrinkling.
"Oh, wow. I can smell the soup from here already!" Alex said, a massive smile on his face.
“You can smell that all the way from the kitchen, dear?” Nan asked.
Alex nodded.
“Good for you! I shall go ahead and hurry with the chicken soup!”
Kendal smiled and led Harper and Alex up the stairs to their room.
“Your room,” Kendal pushed the door to a massive bedroom with a queen-sized bed in the middle.
“No two single beds?” Harper whispered to her while carefully eyeing Alex, who immediately walked in carrying their bags.
Kendal shook her head. “You like this room, don’t you, Alex?”
Alex turned to her, smiling. “Yeah! This is quite nice, actually.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Then she walked inside and sat on the bed.
"Thank you so much for offering your house to us, Kendal,” Alex's tone was sincere.
Suddenly, Harper felt his chin on her shoulder. She glanced at him close to her and realized just how tall he really was. "Yes, thanks, Kendal."
"Didn’t you listen to what Nan said?" Kendal smiled at them. "We are more than happy to have you both here. Aside from the fact that it gets lonely, it gets boring pretty fast too. You’re both lucky you have each other.”
Harper felt Alex tense from behind her as his fingers suddenly bit into her arm. She gave him a small smile. "What do you mean?"
Kendal smiled teasingly. “Oh, you know what I mean. Clearwater Crossing happens to be one of the ultimate destinations in New Hampshire for newlyweds…and newly engaged couple.”
Alex pulled away and went to start unpacking, a half-smile on his face. "What do you usually do to pass the time. Do you have a job here?" he asked Kendal, trying to save Harper from further blushing.
"I don’t work. I’m only here to…” Kendal eyed Harper. “To…to keep my mind off some things.”
“What things?”
“Alex,” Harper interrupted. “I don’t think Kendal wants to talk about it. She wants to keep her mind off it…”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Alex told Kendal apologetically. He opened his mouth again to say something, but Harper quickly cut in. "Shall we join Nan and Pat at the kitchen?"
“Yeah. Let’s see what my grandparents are preparing for dinner. Nan’s a sucker for praises, by the way.”
Alex smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * *
It was already well past midnight when a biting wind crept up Alex’s spine. His eyes snapped open. He shuddered, then pulled the blankets up and reached out for Harper. He immediately sat up to find her spot on the bed empty. He looked around and listened. When there was nothing but silence, he decided to look for her and rolled out of bed in nothing but his boxers.
He walked out of their room and crept out into the dim-lit hallway. He went on to look for Harper in the bathroom first, only to see it empty. He then made his way down the stairs and walked over to the kitchen to stop short near the small bathroom located right before the kitchen.
He silently stopped at the bathroom that stood ajar. When he heard soft, muffled sobs coming through, slowly and gently, he pushed the door all the way through with his fingers.
“Harper?” His heart clenched at the sight of Harper sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees.
Harper had her face buried in her arms, shoulders visibly shaking.
“Harper, what’s wrong?”
Harper immediately stood up and looked up at him with tear-stricken eyes. And before she could even tell Alex to leave her alone, her face twisted in heartache.
Alex wasted no time and closed the space between them before taking her into his arms. He slowly and gently led her to sit on the freezing tiled floor with him.
"I’m here now, Harper,” he whispered. "I've got you. It’s okay. I’m here now."
Harper’s breathing became erratic as she sobbed. “It’s all my fault,” she managed to say before burying her face into Alex’s bare chest.
Alex could sense how she was trying so hard to get her emotions under control. "I’m here for you, Harper.”
Harper pushed her face further into his chest, determined not to show her crying face to him. “If only I hadn’t left them. It’s all my fault,” she said in a muffled voice.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it’s not your fault." Alex scowled. He might not have any idea what was going on with her right now, but he sure didn’t want her blaming herself for whatever it was.
Then, Harper sniffed loudly, pulled away, and looked up at him through her fogged glasses. “It is. If I hadn’t left them, they would probably still be together.”
Alex knew right then that she was talking about her parents. And after a brief moment of thinking, he was able to connect all the dots—no wonder why Harper suddenly changed their course. No wonder, all of a sudden, she didn’t want to see her parents.
“I don’t think their decision not to be together anymore is your fault, Harper. It’s their decision.”
“But why can’t they stay together? They’ve already gone through a lot. Why throw it all out the window? Why couldn’t they try and patch things up?” Harper’s voice got higher and higher until it croaked, and the second that happened, Alex pulled her back in for an embrace.
“Maybe they tried, and maybe they only ended up arguing some more until they could no longer stay in the same room together.”
“How could they hate each other that much?” Harper cried.
“I don’t think hate is the reason why they decided to go on their separate ways, Harper.”
“What then?”
“Well, people change… I guess. We continue to change as we grow older. Some people grow together, and some just grow apart,” Alex said gently. He stroked her hair then, wanting to do more, he carefully lifted her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
"I hope this is okay with you," Alex murmured into her ear. But Harper was just too worked up to speak or make any protest. "You might still be a stranger to me…" he whispered, rubbing her back lightly until her sobs grew faintly by the second.
“What?” Harper asked.
“What do you mean what?”
“I might still be a stranger to you, but…what?"
Alex sighed then replied, “But…I guess…you’re my stranger.”
“Whatever does that mean…”
“I don’t know.” He chuckled feebly. “I may not be in the right position to say this to you, Harper, and you might hate me for saying this to you, but…maybe it’s for the best.”
Small whimpers quickly escaped from the back of Harper’s throat. She wanted to disagree and tell him to leave her alone, but somehow deep within her, a small voice was telling her Alex was actually right.
She had known both of her parents to be reasonable people. So maybe it was really in their best interest that they break up.
“I just can’t help but blame myself, you know. Maybe if I just agreed not to leave home after college, maybe I could have helped patch things up whatever it was that separated them.” Harper shook her head and her face twisted in silent torment, fresh tears threatening to spill over. She took a deep breath.
“Harper…”
“And I just hate them so much right now for keeping this from me. I mean, when are they planning on telling me?”
“I know it sucks. But I’m sure they have their reasons. We all do have reasons why we do the things we do.”
“Wow. For someone whose entire memories got wiped out, you sure do know a lot.” Harper reached up to wipe her face, trying to ground herself.
“Not really. I guess you don’t really completely forget things like sense and reasons and practical matters.” Alex stood, lifting her easily into his arms. “Let’s get you to bed. Better you cry in that thick and comfortable blanket upstairs than down here.”
"I can walk," Harper murmured.
"Okay then, Miss I’m-too-cool-to-be-carried-around," he kidded then carefully set her down on the floor. “Let’s go.”