Harper leant wearily on to the check out counter as she sluggishly slid the groceries over the scanner, her head lolled, and the muscles in her face relaxed as the exhaustion slowly set it. The checkout blared her eyes but she continued to gaze at the screen, though her eyes were almost closing, and eventually the first guttural snore came from her chest.

"Uhh, Harper?" She snorted herself awake and jolted violently as she nearly slipped off of the counter, she blinked her eyes to clear her vision only to see Ray chuckling to himself as he stood patiently by the counter, watching Harper rub her eyes aggressively. "Did I wake you?"

"Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night. I had a… weird dream…"

"Really? You left the party early enough, like Cinderella leaving the ball, what was your cab going to turn into a pumpkin?"

"You got me!"

"Seriously though, are you okay? You saw Max and fled, did he do something or was it something he said?"

"He didn't do or say anything! Max is a sweet kid, but it's a long story, kind of complicated too. But I'll be alright thanks."

"Good I'm glad, and I'd love to stay and listen but if I'm not back at my counter Al's going to freak plus, I'm pretty sure I seen Sal lurking by the dairy section, so I better bounce. I'm here if you need to talk though, okay?"

"Thanks Ray," Harper smiled as he sauntered off back to his checkout station, turning back to her customer Harper held her hand out as the man with the moustache handed her a twenty-dollar bill.

"You gonna pocket that Red?" A loud cackle erupted from behind her and gradually the laughs got louder as Sal stumbled over, the man with the moustache glared at Harper suspiciously whilst she placed the note in the cashier.

"She's kidding," Harper reassured him tittering nervously.

"I'm not!" Bellowed Sal launching herself on to the counter and using it as a perch, "you have a good day sir!" She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers, "bye, bye!"

The man with the moustache collected his few groceries and shuffled away whilst keeping eye contact with both Harper and Sal, his eyes burned into them and he shook his head in disappointment before disappearing out of the doors at the front of the store.

"Really?" Harper rolled her eyes and Sal burst into another spout of uncontrollable laughter, "You couldn't resist could you."

"Nope!" Sal choked during her fit of laughter, "he looked so pissed! I just couldn't help myself…"

"You know you do remind me of my friend Alex sometimes, that's something she'd do. She loved pranking and annoying people."

"Who, dead girl?"

Harper rolled her eyes, "yes dead girl."

"Speaking of dead girl, I thought you were going to honor her?"

"Honor her?"

"Yeah by going Ray's party last night and having a good time!" Sal scowled, "but what you stayed like five minutes then left?"

"It's complicated…"

"What's complicated? A hot guy hit on you then you left, who does that?"

"Hot guy?"

"Yeah! They guy Ray introduced you to, who'd say no to him!"

"Clearly not you, you wouldn't say to no to anyone but, Max wasn't hitting on me and it's too complicated to understand…"

"Well if he wasn't into you then why is he here?" Sal immediately gasped and smiled excitedly, "and he brought a friend!"

Harper's heart leaped into her throat as she fought a rising panic, she felt her stomach clench and taking a deep shaking breath she turned her head only to see Justin and Max stood at the opposite end of the checkout. They looked as nervous as she felt, Justin rolled up and fidgeted with the long sleeves on his dark grey top as he twitched nervously while Max waved gormlessly at Harper before subtly lowering his hand and pretending to scratch the back of his head. Harper felt her mouth become increasingly dry as she slowly edged over to them, with Sal watching curiously behind her, as she came closer to the brothers Harper couldn't help how pasty they both looked. The dark circles under Justin's eyes protruded on to his chiseled cheekbones and Max rubbed his bloodshot eyes while he waited for Harper to approach him.

Standing at an arm's length away from them Harper smiled sheepishly, "hi guys," she whispered, "how are you both?"

Justin took a moment to reply, Harper filled with guilt, his brows knitted and his voice was lowered into a mumble, "Okay, you?"

The butterflies in Harper's stomach swirled, it might have been a while but she knew all too well that Justin only ever went this quiet when he was disappointed. She'd seen it too many times, usually when Alex messed something up. "Okay…"

"Where'd you go?" Max interrupted, "last night at the party, I wanted to talk to you."

"I'm sorry, I just got a bit freaked out, I wasn't expecting to see you."

"Why haven't you come home?" Justin asked, "we miss you, Mom's been out of her mind worried about you."

"I know, I'm sorry but I just couldn't. It's too soon. Has Mason been around?"

"No," Justin spat, "we haven't seen him since the funeral."

"Harper, can we talk?" Max asked grasping her hand, "please we just want to talk to you…"

She looked between the two brothers, they both looked hopeless and desperately sad, did she want to add to their pain by refusing to talk? Her gut wrenched as her heart sunk, she'd been guilt tripped by another Russo. "Fine," she sighed dramatically, "follow me."

Harper led them through large heavy doors and into a cramped break room, a dull blue had been painted on the cracked walls and the room was filled with white plastic garden furniture. Harper carefully sat on a plastic lawn chair and watched intently as a small crack on the arm rest stretched wider as Harper put more weight on to it. "You have to be careful with some of these chairs," she warned, "they're kind of old." She looked at the boys and gave a weak smile, "so, how have you guys be-"

"Where have you been?" Justin interrupted, "we haven't seen you since the day you left, we haven't even had a phone call from you! What's that about, I thought you were Alex's best friend?"

"I am!" Harper felt a tinge of sadness, "I was…"

"Then where have you been? Why did you stay away?"

"It's just too hard, being there without her. Your house always felt like a home, you were all my family, but when Alex was gone it just didn't feel the same."

"But we're still your family," Max reassured her sitting down next to her and engulfing her in a hug, "we always will be. This isn't what Alex would want for you. Living god knows where and working a crappy job."

"Thanks," Harper snarked.

"It's true! You're still in that crummy little apartment right?"

Harper nodded.

"And do you like it?"

Harper shook her head and looked down in embarrassment.

"Then come home! It what everyone wants, especially Alex."

"Especially Alex?" Justin scoffed, "you're speaking in the wrong term again Max, it should be spoken 'what Alex would have wanted'.

"No it's what she wants," Max said bluntly, "I've seen her."

Harper and Justin stared at Max dumbstruck, they both moved their mouths, but no sound escaped their lips. Eventually, Justin violently shook his head and leapt from his seat exclaiming, "what are you talking about!"

"I've seen her," Max stated solemnly, "last night. She was sad, she was crying and then she screamed at me. I've been hearing voices for a while, I just thought I was going crazy." The room remained frozen, Harper and Justin stared at Max in disbelief without moving a single muscle. Max watched them uncomfortably, "I know I sound crazy," his voice croaked, "but I know what I saw. It was her."

"I believe you," Harper said clutching one of Max's hands, "because I've seen her too."

"Actually me too," Justin muttered, "but she was happy, I thought she was really there. She was teasing me, taunting me, then she just disappeared…"

"She was angry when I saw her," Harper whispered, "she blamed me for her dying…"

"Harper, that was not your fault," Justin assured her, "it was an accident."

"But I was there, and I didn't help…"

"Harper how could you? Everything happened so fast, we did all we could."

"I know but I just feel like I could have done more," Harper became teary eyed, the memories from that night came flooding back and she wasn't sure how much longer she could talk about it without breaking down.

"Well what do we do now?" Asked Max, "we've all seen Alex, who has supposedly been dead for three months. What happens next?"

"We go home," declared Justin, "all of us." He turned to Harper and smiled, "and we talk about this properly, okay?"

Harper nodded, "okay…"