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“You’re never leaving this house again!” Tan’s mother barks when he walks into the house
“Music to my ears” Tan rolls his eyes as he drops his bags walking to his room
“Where were you?” Shiela asks
Turning around Tan stares into his mother’s eyes “do you care? Do you really care?” She thinks about the question and the answer is yes but she’s not sure enough to say it out loud. “I’m too tired for this” Tan walks away “let me know when the tyrant gets home so we can discuss my punishment” Tan slams the door and locks it.
Taking off his jacket and shoes Tan climbs in bed and slowly starts to sob as he thinks about Harris, how much he’s royally fucked up and couldn’t even beg. It’s only been an hour and Tan misses Harris so much, he misses the way Harris smells, how perfect his hair was, and his smile. It was all over, and for Tan, it was way too soon.
On Monday morning after a long and difficult weekend, Tan throws on a baggy sweater and jeans walking out of his room with his bag on his back very tired and a mess. “I’m driving you to school” his mother stops him as he’s about to walk out of the door
“For what reason? I’m perfectly capable of getting there myself”
“To make sure you actually get there, at least we’ll know where you are for once”
“And I’ll pick you up after school” his dad walks in holding his briefcase.
“I have a bus pass and friends with cars I don’t need either of you,” Tan was physically too tired to fight with his parents, but for some terrible reason the world paired up two people who live off of fighting, and those two people gave birth to him.
“There’s going to be no more of that, from now on we drop you off we pick you up” they stand firm in front of him
Tan takes it all as a joke “we’ll see how long that lasts” he walks out of the house walking to his mom’s car waiting there.
After what felt like the longest awkward car ride with his mom, Tan finally makes it to school where he knows he’s not done being yelled at. Going in he heads to his locker and he sees Lin waiting, he’s not close enough to tell yet but she’s scolding him
“Tan what the hell!” She yells at him as soon as he stops in front of his locker “why’d you lie to Erica then go missing all weekend?”
“Sorry” Tan’s too stuck in his head to worry about Lin
“You look a mess Tan”
“Thanks” shutting his locker after grabbing his books he turns to Lin “I’m gonna go find a corner to cry see you la-“
“Actually you’re coming with me” she grabs his arm and pulls him as he was finishing his sentence. Lin drags Tan to the courtyard where they have lunch to find Erica and Ronnie waiting. “Here he is” Lin stops in front of them.
“What’s going on with you Tan?” Ronnie asks as Lin forces him to sit facing them at the table
“Nothing it’s just that we’re all dead and this is hell” he replies depressed
“Nope, I’m pretty sure we’re alive and this is Chicago. We love you Tan and if something’s going on you’ve got to let us help you, not ignore and lie to us” Ronnie lectures him and Tan wants to tell them everything but he promised and he’s messed up so much already.
Instead, he bends the truth “I’m sorry I lied I just needed a getaway, my parents are driving me crazy and I don’t know how else to help myself without lying to everyone. I wanted a weekend alone but I couldn’t get that so don’t worry I’m being fully punished for being a shit son, and an inadequate best friend to you girls.”
Getting up Lin, Erica, and Ronnie group around Tan and hug him “see was that so hard?” Erica asks as they all squeeze him “we’re here for you our little gay munchkin we won’t let your crazy, mean parents kill you.” After their hug and talking they all go to class and honestly Tan felt a little better, but Harris still lingered.
Would it hurt to just text him? As a friend, just to see how his day’s going… Tan puts his phone away finding the idea crazy. All he’s wanted to do was talk to Harris but he has to stay mature and staying mature doesn’t involve text blasting the guy you want to want you. As he’s walking in the hall Tan takes his phone back out staring at Harris’s name on his screen contemplating to send him a text, Tan looks up and sees Tommy “Tommy!” He calls out and takes off running towards Tommy. Tommy stops and turns around waiting for Tan to catch up “just the varsity captain I was looking for”
“Talk fast Tan I have stuff to do” Tommy replies not even bothering to look down at Tan.
“All right umm you’re losing your full page in the yearbook, and I need to take your pictures by lunch tomorrow or you don’t get a spot in the yearbook at all. Can you do that?” Tan throws it all at him not caring how he’ll react
“Hold up! I’m losing my page?”
“Yes, Erica said she’s been trying to get you to take the pictures all week but you had whatever going on so we had to give your full page away. Now you have half a page, and if we don’t take these pictures by tomorrow you get no page.” Tan stands in front of a 6’2 basketball player obviously pissed and you’d think that’d get him to lighten up a bit but he still continues “lunch, tomorrow, can you do that?”
“Yeah whatever” he walks away waving Tan off.
“Remember no show no page!”
At least one good thing comes out of today, Tan gets to go to math a class he shares with Sven whom he hasn’t seen all day. Getting in class Tan takes his seat next to Sven “guess what?” Sven turns to him excited
“We’re all sleeping and having the same nightmare about math?” Tan takes his bag off
“Yes but I’m having a party this Friday after we win the game”
“You’re having a victory party for a game you haven’t played yet?”
“We’re gonna win”
“I’m not doubting you. Am I invited to your cool jock party?”
“You’re the only person I’ve told so far”
“I’m honored”
“I was actually thinking maybe you could help me? Plan it or whatever”
“So basically you’re asking me to do all the work?”
“It’s your thing, right? I’ve heard that you love to throw parties”
“Yes, you have heard it from me because I’ve said it a bunch of times, and also I’m in. I can use something to take my mind off of my life.”
“Good, let’s hang out tonight”
“Tonight?” Tan repeats the word
“Yes” Sven chuckles
“Together?”
“Yes weirdo”
Tan stares at Sven trying to understand what just happened but before he could open his mouth to say another stupid thing the teacher says “everything off your desks, and take out a pencil.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?! A quiz?!” Tan turns to Sven completely forgetting
“Did you forget?”
“Yes, Sven I forgot” sighing Tan face plants on his desk giving up on life.
That same morning as Tan was getting yelled at by his best friends and invited to hang out with the hot guy he likes, Harris was across town dealing with hell, but she likes to be called Sarah Stiles.
“She’s here” Teagan walks into his office as Harris just started working
Sighing ready to get this over with Harris replies “send her in.”
Walking out Teagan gets Sarah and walks her back in “good morning Harry- I’m sorry Mr. Wheeler, we’re doing business” she smiles sitting down. Teagan makes a face at Harris standing behind Sarah, then she leaves and shuts the door.
“Good morning Sarah”
They begin to work and so far Harris is doing a good job keeping the meeting on task, every time Sarah would ask about something personal Harris would just change the subject. “You’ll need to hire an attorney and a good business liability agent because it says here you don’t have one, and you’re going to need both especially now that your expanding.”
“Then you be my attorney I know you’re good”
“I’m a trial attorney Sarah, but I have some friends who can help you, I can make some phone calls.”
Sarah smiles watching Harris works “wow who would’ve thunk that you’d be a big shot attorney with a nice ass office in Chicago? Do you ever miss New York?”
“No” Harris answers honestly
“Well it misses you and so do I”
“Sarah-“
“I know you’ve made yourself clear you’ve moved on,” she says for him “so are you seeing anybody? Of course, you are I mean why else wouldn’t you let me touch you” she reaches out to place her hand on top of his but he moves it.
“This is everything that you’ll need” he collects the papers and hands them to her “I will make a few phone calls and have someone reach out to you, other than that you should be all set” Harris stands up and hands her the papers
“No reason for me to ever show up here again huh?” She gets up taking the papers from him putting them in her purse.
“You got what you came for”
“Hardly.” Harris walks about to show her the way out but Sarah stands in front of him “I thought about it a lot after I saw you on Friday. Maybe I should move here and open the store that’ll give us all the time we need to get back together, or maybe he’s right he has moved on and I should go back to New York and open the new store from there.”
“The second option seems best”
“That’s the thing Harry I quit on you before and if I leave I’d be doing the same thing again.”
“You’re not quitting on me you’re leaving me alone like I asked you to”
“I have a lot more thinking to do, I’ll see you soon Harris Wheeler” she smiles putting her bag on her shoulder before leaving.
Sarah Stiles is obviously here to ruin Harris’s life.
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