A/N: Here's chapter one! This chapter serves as a SUPER preface, before Harper even was married. It highlights a lot of her personality when she was younger, some of her motivations and backstory, and a good amount of Dalton's personality. This can be read without knowing the events from the stories I wrote with SigmaFang, but I think they pair together very well. (Think strawberries and bananas. They're both good on their own, but together they're even better). That being said, I hope you like it! Maybe it'll even answer some questions!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bloodlines, but I do own my OCs. Really, Bloodlines isn't in this chapter at all, this is all OCs, but whatever.
"Will you go to the prom with me?"
He shut his locker door, now the girl to his left was fully visible, not just a sliver of her left side, shoulder down. Her hands were nervously clasped together in front of her chest, her eyes wide and hopeful.
"I'm not going to the prom."
"Well, will you go with me?" She asked, moving forward to walk at his side as he slung his backpack over one of his shoulders.
"As I said, I'm not going to the prom." He said, blowing some hair out of his face, "Besides, it's not for like…three more months."
Heartbreak was clearly written all over her face, but she continued beside him, "We don't have to go as a couple. It can just be a date!"
"That doesn't even make any sense…" He said in his quiet voice, "Harper, I'm not gonna go to the prom with ya." He put a hand on her shoulder, "I gotta get back to my mom's, alright? I'll see ya around." He threw in the last part, worried she might just go home and look for a rope, gauging from the look on her face.
"Er…right…! See you, Dalton!" She waved, "Tell Jasper I said hi! And, and Miss Stone too!"
"Yeah, right." He said as he went through the doors.
Harper turned on the balls of her feet, forcing a smile on her lips as tears glazed her eyes. "One day." She promised herself softly, "One day, he'll say yes…" Her hands nervously fumbled down to the rag doll she kept in the side pouch of her backpack.
Harper Rivers was never very popular. That much could be seen from how the students jaunted past her and shoved her aside until she was standing by the freshman lockers. She wore too much mascara, lip gloss, had strange outfits, and carried around a ragdoll with her. Her notebooks were either full to the brim with notes, like she actually paid attention in class, or full of anime drawings.
And she followed around Dalton Greenfield like a shadow.
If another girl tried to talk to Dalton, Harper would hear. She would instantly intervene the conversation and quite cruelly send them packing. So, Dalton mostly had male friends. That didn't bother Harper.
As she held the doll closer to her chest, she looked up at the clock on the wall. It took Dalton about twenty minutes to walk home, while her father always came to pick her up, which only took five minutes. If she left now, she'd have time to make dinner, and then call Dalton.
She dabbed her tears away and smiled at her doll, putting it back in the pouch of her backpack before she headed out the double doors.
"What did Dalton say?" Her father turned the page in the newspaper, sitting at the table as Harper continued to stir the contents of a big silver pot over the stove.
"He…he said no." She said, but with a cheery tone, "But, there's still tomorrow!"
"When is this little dance again?"
"Two months, two weeks, two days, one hour and ten minutes from now."
Mr. Rivers paled a bit, "Uh…maybe you should ask him in two more months?"
"Well, if I ask earlier, that means we can try being an item before then! Like, like a sample before the main course!"
Her father shook his head, "Sometimes I worry about you…"
She poured the spaghetti into a colander and watched the drips of water land in the sink, "How was work today?"
"A little slow today…" He said, watching as she laid a plate out for him, "Aren't you hungry after school?"
"I'm just going to go change." She said, running up the stairs to her room, or at least, that's what he thought. She went into her father's room and sat on the edge of his bed, grabbing the landline and dialing the familiar number. It rang just twice before he heard a voice.
"Hello?"
Dammit. That's not Dalton. "Hi Jasper. Could you put Dalton on?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Though, if it's about the prom, I'm more than willing to take you."
"Oh, no, that's alright Jasper." She tried to sound as sweet as she could, "Maybe next year?"
"I look forward to it." She could practically see him smile before she heard muffled sounds that must have been the line being transferred.
"Harper? The hell do you want?" Yes, there he is.
"I don't know." She laid back on the bed, the curly phone wire sprung a bit in the air, "I just wanted to talk."
"You have a bad day er somethin'?"
"Not like I ever have a good one…"
"What, you get bullied again?"
"Not today."
A light pause filled the air, besides the static over the phone, "Maybe you should quit bringin' that doll around with you."
"But I can't…" She said, her deep blue eyes growing huge, "How would you like to show up to school naked!?"
"I feel like it's a little different…"
"I…I can't do anything without it….it's just a part of who I am…"
"Well, I mean, you're just gonna get kicked around if you carry it with you. I know it sucks, but people don't like different. Most people."
"You don't mind."
"I still think it's a little weird, but…"
She stared up at the tiles on the ceiling, subconsciously counting them, "But I can't…it's supposed to bring me true happiness…"
"Huh?"
She took a deep sigh. Was she really going to tell him the story? "When I was a little girl…when I was in the orphanage…" She held the phone tighter and spoke a bit softer in case her father heard, "A little girl was sick. She had this doll…and…" She closed her eyes, "I came in one day to play with her when she was in her bed…her cot, I suppose…and I didn't know that all the beeping and flashing lights meant she was dying…" Her eyes opened, "She gave me her doll, the one we always played with…she said she blessed it with true happiness…and she said…she said I needed to take the happiness she was never able to find…and live through it with the doll…"
Another stuffy pause, "And you don't worry about losing it?"
"I do. Occasionally. But, I haven't. I can't. I'm convinced she blessed it so that…I can't lose it. It will always be part of me until I can live out that true happiness."
"Isn't it kinda subjective?"
"Hmm?"
"True happiness. That's not like…a commonplace er somethin'…it's not black and white…"
"I think everyone is born with a little hole in their hearts…" She said wistfully, "With a little space that needs to be filled…everyone's are different, but once that hole is filled, then you've reached true happiness…"
"So…what you're sayin' is, you think everyone's got a dream? I mean, I get that. So that happiness in the doll er whatever, you're trying to live out your dream?"
"Exactly."
"Huh…"
"And my dream is you."
She could practically feel him shiver, "Uh…look, I gotta go, my mom's makin' dinner—"
"Can I come?"
"Uh….yeah, see, we only got three chairs back at the house, there'd be nowhere for you to sit—"
"I can bring one."
"Harper—"
"Please?"
He took a deep sigh, "It'll be ready in half an hour." He hung up.
Harper squeaked before she flew from the bed and landed with just about one prance in her room, changing into something more comfortable before she glided down the stairs and hooked around the corner to see her father, still sitting at the table, "I'm going to Dalton's."
His chewing slowed a bit, "Have fun. Tell Miss Stone she's welcome to send him over for dinner another night."
"Uh huh!" She said before she nearly burst out of the door and ran down the street.
She wondered if her mirror was out to get her. If it was scheming of how to make her feel as miserable as possible.
The dress still didn't fit in with what everyone else wore, but it was different than her normal taste. It was just a touch more revealing, not like the conservative outfits she usually wore. Her hair was something else, meanwhile.
She loved her long hair that ran down her back, but what she didn't love was her straightening regiment. It took hours every morning to pull out and straighten every curl. She remembered what Dalton said the last time she complained about it, "How many hours of your life do you think you wasted on straightening your hair? Just cut it off or somethin' so you can get back to living."
And, that's what she did. But, she was no hairdresser.
A few inches, she thought, just enough to cut off the curls. But, then she cut it unevenly. So she cut a little more. No, more uneven. She started to panic, wondering if she'd have any hair left by the time she was done.
It came out to a lob. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't what she wanted. But that was before she showered. The second she got out from the warm sudsy water and dried herself off, her hair curled again.
All of it. Root to tip.
So, she stood in front of her mirror, wondering if it was maybe distorting her image. She hardly looked like herself! The dress, the hair, the heels, it seemed so wrong!
Was this what turning eighteen was? Was this adulthood? Not even recognizing yourself anymore? Did time just start to move so quickly, she couldn't even keep up with it?
She heard her father's voice, which started sounding more and more raspy as of late, "Harper, you'll miss the bus!"
"I'm not taking the bus!" She called back, "I'm taking the car." She told herself quieter, "Because I can drive. Because I have a license and…I'm…an adult…"
On the way to school, she wondered when she would be an actual adult. They would never know. The adoption clinic just guessed that she was born on this day, but she felt like it was true. It had to be, this day always felt so special to her. What hour, she never knew. She figured it hardly mattered, whenever she woke up in the morning marked the date for her.
When she stepped out, she didn't really realize it was raining. But, it was. And she was soaked by the time she ran from the parking lot to the school.
Her day seemed to drag on, almost uneventful. Nobody knew it was her birthday. She didn't see Dalton in any of her classes this year, so it really felt like some sort of medieval form of torture. Especially because she was taking senior classes, which were meant to be much easier than her other years.
It wasn't until the end of the day that she addressed the person on her mind. Her smile was bright as she walked over to his locker, feeling like some sort of super-star from the sounds her heels made on the tacky floors.
"Dalton, will you go to the prom with me?" It served as their greeting. And his answer varied from day to day, from either a plain 'no, Harper' to a distraction, like, 'what are you making for dinner?'. The one thing his answer never included was:
"Yes."
She paused, frozen like an ice sculpture. "…huh?"
"I'll go to the prom with you, Harper." He gave a little smile, "You gonna go into anaphylactic shock 'er somethin'?"
"I think I might…" She swallowed hard.
He gently hugged her, "Happy birthday."
She didn't hug him back, she just stiffly rested against his chest, "Is this an April Fool's joke?"
"It's September…"
She felt her eyes glaze over with tears before she squeezed him back, "I love you, Dalton…"
His dark eyes widened, but he just patted the back of her head before breaking the hug, "The prom ain't for a long time, alright, so don't go blowing this up like it's some…huge event, alright? I don't wanna see posters of the both of us as little wax figures on a wedding cake tomorrow."
"Of course you wouldn't." She reassured, "Because tomorrow's Saturday." She beamed before she turned and walked home with a skip in her step. She didn't notice that her doll was missing, but with the fire in her heart, she didn't bother checking for it.
"I don't get it, you seem so distracted."
"It's my doll." She admitted, looking up into his onyx gaze, "It's still missing."
"Everyone knows what it looks like. It's bound to turn up soon, alright?" He reassured, squeezing her hand tighter, "Just focus on tonight. Cause I know you're gonna complain that you missed it later."
Her heart skipped a beat, unsure whether it was due to his implications of staying together past the prom, or the realization that they were indeed slow dancing together, and he was indeed very, very good at it.
He smiled as soon as he saw her cheeks flush, then paused just for a second to adjust his bowtie, "This damn thing is choking me…"
"Do you want me to help? Did you tie it right?"
"Yeah, Jasper tied it."
"Oh, is he good at that?" She asked as she took his hand again, feeling her face heat up as he placed his hand on the small of her back and tugged her in a bit.
"Good enough." He said, "He thinks if he can tie fancy bows and play piano, he can make up for his lack of personality and get a girlfriend."
"Well…it's not that he doesn't have a personality…" She scrambled for an answer, "He's just a little…"
"He's a brat."
"…a tad…a tad bratty, I would say…"
"That's half the reason I said yes in the first place." He said with a smug grin, "He mentioned some garbage about asking you out this year, but I told him you were mine."
Her cheeks flushed even brighter before she leaned in to kiss his lips. The kiss was chaste and rather painful for Dalton, at least, who wasn't expecting it, but it was perfect for Harper. She smiled and felt her heart pound afterward.
Dalton's eyes flickered around to the people staring at them, "Hmm."
"They're just jealous." She assured, which really did nothing to calm his nerves, "I do feel bad for Jasper…"
"Why? He's here with friends, somewhere."
"I know, but…" She shook her head, "He'll find the right person."
"Uh huh." He slowed to a stop as the song ended and changed to a more fast-paced piece, "Did you want me to grab you some punch?"
"No, I don't drink alcohol."
"Uh…it's just punch, right?"
She raised a brow.
"Alright, you make a good point…" He muttered, "You're a lot more street-smart than I am, huh?"
She laughed, "It's okay, I'm sure there are many people who have made the same mistake." She looked around at the other kids, "Besides, I want to dance with you."
"To this song?"
"What, you wouldn't be able to keep up?"
"I was worried about you." He said.
She crossed her arms with determination, "Let's see who falls first."
He grinned and took her hands, beginning to dance to the upbeat song, and the next one after that, and the next one after that.
The pair lasted quite a while, even attracting some attention from onlookers until Harper had to stand back and simply watch Dalton. Her smile was raw and exhausted, yet brighter than the sun. Dalton laughed as he kept dancing before he finally danced her way and gently embraced her, kissing her lips. This time, he urged her to open her lips, to which she happily obliged.
Something about him was even more attractive to her than before, something about the way he rolled his sleeves up, the way his dark hair was stringy with sweat, the way his bowtie was untied and slung around his collar. It was a look that would disgust her on anyone else, but on Dalton, she was completely enamored.
Something about her was different. She wasn't his best friend, she wasn't the girl who called him every night. Something about the way he could see her eyeliner dripping down her cheeks, the way her lip gloss tasted, the flyaways in her hair, the chipped nails, it was something he never bothered to look at. She was just Harper, but now, she was a woman, and she was his.
She met his gaze afterward, absolutely breathless. He gently brushed her hair out of her face and said softly, "You got a haircut."
She blinked a few times, "Y-Yes…I did….quite some time ago…my birthday, I believe…"
"Why?"
"Because…" She said softly, "It was in the way…and…it was childish…I became an adult…so…I needed a physical change, too…"
He gave a little smile, "I like it."
"I know." She smirked and kissed him again, "Dalton, I love you…" He could feel her nails through the back of his suit.
"Yeah…" He closed his eyes and hugged her back, "Damn it, Harper, I think I love you too."
A/N: Well, what'd you think? Feel free to let me know what you thought with a review! The next chapter will begin to integrate the World of Darkness :) Thanks for reading!