Penultimate chapter guys. Thanks for the kind commentary.

53

The completion of the majority of college tours was well underway. In fact he was sure that if he had to look at another pamphlet yielding quintessential fall foliage along with it's forced representation of a "diverse student body," one more time, he was going to puke. At lunch in the cafeteria, conversations ensue regarding his and his peers' top choices regarding where they'd like to spend the next four years, which school hosted the best open house, which dorms were the most impressive, which were rumored to have the best parties.

His enthusiasm is obvious, as he talks a mile a minute about a school 4 hours north of the city, along with his scouted offer to play for their soccer team. He sees Lauren force a smile at his rambling, she's somewhat quiet for the majority of their lunch period.

He approaches her afterwards, when most of their friends have headed off to their next class.

"Did you decide if youre gonna apply there?," he asks with a morsel of hope, following up from the last time they discussed prospective universities.

"I don't know yet, I still think it's too far."

"It's not too far," he says with an almost irritated whine. "The train stops in town and sophomore year we're allowed to have cars on campus."

"You don't have a car," she reminds him with a smirk.

His eyebrows furrow, "I might have a car by sophomore year."

"Your moms aren't gonna buy you a car J, dream on."

"What're you being such a kill joy for?"

"I'm not, I just don't know if I wanna go that far away."

"So where do you wanna go?"

"I don't know yet Jamie."

"Okay,"he raises his hands apologetically for pressuring her to answer, "I'm sorry."

He doesn't press the conversation further, but instead walks her to class and lists the reasons why he's almost certain he'll be repping Orange in the Fall.

Most evenings in their home, involve mustache doodling competitions on those same university pamphlets, while Piper scolds her children as well as Alex, as there's always something of paramount importance to get done like revising admissions essays, and interpreting the financial aid documents who's original copies were were ripped up once by the brunette, in frustration, as "no reasonable person can fill this shit out without assistance. You need a degree just to fill out the effing form!"

Piper reminds her that they can't afford to send him to school unless he receives financial aid, to which in exchange she receives the daily, "I'm going to be sick" look from Alex. Piper tells her to stop making excuses to get out of figuring out the form, tells her to erase the nauseated appearance and insists she accept this and figure it out. It's a daily battle that continues, primarily behind their bedroom door that creates a barrier to drown out the noise, as Alex in her heart of hearts doesn't want him to go anywhere further than their living room but also doesn't want to deter him from picking whichever university, he decides upon.

After talking to recruitment and a couple of potential teammates, for close to two hours, he asks if they can revisit his two top choices, to stay overnight with some guys from the soccer team and attend practice to get a better idea of what it would be like. Piper revels in every campus they've managed to set foot on, finding the highlights of each university, constantly revving up her son during each tour, while Alex has caved twice, stating she liked his choice of this particular school in addition to one other. That these two campuses managed to meet her standards for him and she could see him enjoying himself there, despite the 4 and 5 hour journeys respectively. The only revisits they made were those that met his ma's approval, out of fear if he went somewhere else, it would kill her.

Harper opts out of the repeat tours and makes plans to stay overnight with a friend from school for one night, and jumps at the offer to have Nicky watch her and get her off to school the following day.

As their feet transition from the carpeted dance studio to the sidewalk, Nicky chats to herself as Harper is engrossed in her phone. When she gets a text from Jeremy, she asks to stop into the grocery store, failing to state that he's inside, picking up some items for his parents. After she walks as nonchalantly as one can while looking for a love interest, her sneaker skids in the produce section, as she makes an abrupt change in direction.

She comes from behind him and covers his eyes.

He smiles and asks her, "so if one were to select a mature chard, what would I be looking for?"

Her hands release from around his eyes, "you called me here to find you chard?"

"No I called you here because I wanted to say hi, and because I'm bored out of my skull with this chore and I needed help finding chard."

"Oh," she smirks, and shoves his shoulder, "well in that case, I guess I can help you." Harper looks at his mother's list while Nicky notices the subtle flirting. She stays back to give her niece her space, pretending to look at items every now and then, picking up random vegetables and adding them to the mismatched assortment in her arms. When she drops the large spaghetti squash onto the ground, it grabs Harper's attention, redirecting her focus to where she is and who she's with. Harper glances back over her shoulder at Jeremy, and quickly pecks him on the cheek, "I gotta go."

"What're you all shy for?," he asks at her sudden awkwardness.

"She's my aunt," she mumbles at makes eyes toward Nicky.

"We're not like making out in front of her," he reminds her.

"Yeah but shell tell my moms that she saw us together and then they'll start asking me questions."

"So? Can you not... are you not allowed to date?"

She blinks quickly, "no, I.."

"Cause if you can't, I can wait. I don't wanna piss them off," he says earnestly, somewhat fearing both of her mothers after some of the things she's told him about them.

She smiles some, "it's just, I know there's some thing's that they won't love at first." He frowns some at this but nods.

"It has to be methodically approached," she confesses having had enough opportunities between herself and watching her brother, on figuring out how to get what she wants, "and my ma's already about to have a nervous breakdown with my brother leaving for college so trust me, now's not a good time for you to meet them."

"I'm done messing up," he says reassuring her that he won't do anything to displease her or any other figure of authority.

"I know that, but you're 15 and I'm 12, they're cool but they're not going to like that, and they're going to ask why you're 15 and in the same school as me."

They both already know this, she's just saying it out loud. He tilts his head back in shamed defeat, but has it passively pulled forward when Harper's hand cups behind his neck.

She looks into his eyes and tells him genuinely, "that doesn't matter to me though."

He smiles gratefully, "yeah, I know."

Nicky steps a bit closer, not sure if she should say hello.

Seeing this, he takes a step back, "I'll text you later okay?"

"Okay," Harper agrees and turns around with an exaggeratedly goofy smile when she meets her aunts raised brow. "Don't ask," she says before her aunt has a chance to comment.

"Don't ask what? Who that kid is that you're kissing next to all the organic harvests?"

"Aunt Nicky he's just tall," she says taking some of the vegetables from her aunt's full arms and starts to return them to their appropriate crates.

She hip checks her niece, "he shaves!"

"Please don't tell my moms," she begs with a pivot, "I will, I promise, just...not yet."

"I won't," she says truly, causing the wave of relief to wash over her niece.

Harper nods appeased for the moment. "What is this?," she asks lifting a yellow semi-curled squash.

"I have no fucking idea," Nicky says chucking the unknown squash into a heap of a different vegetables. "So, how do you know Shavey Shaverson?"

Harper almost rolls her eyes, but just closes them instead, she tests the water, "he goes to my school," she says and reopens her eyes hesitantly.

Her wild haired aunt, squints at her suspiciously.

"Mmmhe had to repeat 7th grade," she confesses, "he just made some shitty choices, okay?!," she says defensively.

"Alright, alright, did I say anything?"

"I know what you're thinking."

"No you don't, Nicky wants to not judge but can't help it out of protective nature. "So why him?"

"He's...he's actually really sweet. He does his own thing," she nods with confidence, realizing this is important to her. "He's kind of artsy, he plays bass in a band."

"Alright," Nicky nods equivocally. Harper can't tell if it's a nod of approval or to placate her.

"What?"

"Nothing to do with the fact that he'll make your mothers flip out?"

"That's just a bonus," she says sarcastically, trying to bring light to the situation when in actuality she's dreading the possibility of disproval. "I know now he's a little different, but I really like him."

"Mmmhmmm," she says can't help but smirk at the term that resonated true for herself with Francesca after hearing Alex describe Piper that way.

"He always asks what snack I want, he holds doors, he makes me laugh, and I don't know, he doesn't make me feel bad if I don't want to do something, you know what I mean?"

Fuck. "Mmm, what kind of something?"

"You know? Stuff. My friends have done stuff but they didn't really want to and he's not like that.

Precocious little shits! Her aunt clenches her abs, and makes an offer of availability, not just for her niece but in hopes that she'll prevent a coronary for her friends, "you can talk to me about that stuff it you want ok? I won't tell your moms."

Harper nods, "I know. I kind of like that around me," she lowers her voice, "he acts like one of those old time gentlemen," she laughs shyly, "but at the same time he still looks like a bad boy!"

Nicky can't help but laugh, "not gonna lie kiddo, the bad boy thing is gonna set your ma off the handle."

Her face drops to a degree, "you think so? Not mom?"

"Well, your mom liked a bad girl, right? So I actually think she'd be more understanding. Your ma was friends with those guys."

Harper bites her lip nervously at the prospect of convincing Alex and not Piper as much.

Her aunt continues with her perspective, "I know he's different, but just ease her into it okay? Remember, bullshit like a shark smells blood."

Harper sighs, knowing all to well that her aunt is spot on.

They make it to Nicky's apartment, as she unlocks the door, Harper hangs back in the doorway.

"Uh, are you coming in?," she asks her niece not understanding why her eyes are tracking things just inside the doorway.

"Feels weird to be here."

"Why?"

"I haven't really ever been inside."

"You haven't?," she mulls it over, "no, I guess not. Well, if you lift your foot like this," she says bending her knee exaggeratedly," and lean forward like this," she leans and puts her full weight on the previously lifted foot, "you can say, you've been inside."

When Harper continues to stand and look around, Nicky looks at Alex and Piper's kid and reasons for a moment that a little weirdness is expected, but after two long minutes of being on opposite sides of the doorway, the silence breaks, "the heck's the matter with you? Get in and close the door."

"It's...it's miss Chessie's apartment too. Its ...well, it's just weird! I dunno."

"Ya face is weird!" She grabs a tacky lamp and angles it awkwardly, "do you think she'd have gorgeous decor like this? It's my apartment too now, chillax."

"I know, but she's my teacher."

"We can go to your apartment if you don't wanna stay here," she offers, seeing Harper genuinely thinking deeply about entering their place.

"No,no," she didn't want to misconstrue her feelings, she felt quite the opposite actually, intrigued by the space, wanting to walk around, opening the lids of boxes throughout the living room, look closer at the pictures mounted on the wall, see what their bedroom looked like.

She finally ushers her in, and closes the door. The girl carefully looks around, "babe, it's not a museum," she says catching Harper's eye that fixated on one item before glancing over to the next with fascination.

Harper laughs to herself, and points to a somewhat feminine clay bowl, "is this yours?"

"No,"she says, "not technically but whatever's out here you can touch," she starts prodding Harper until she loosens up. "I'm not serving you either, go in the fridge, make yourself comfortable."

Harper sifts through the bowl, reading the labels off the backs of different sample sized European creams and lotions, until she picks out a perfume that she likes and asks if Nicky thinks Francesca will have any opposition to her using it.

She makes her way into the kitchen, and starts opening and closing cabinets, extracting things here and there as she finds them.

"I need beeswax," she says looking over the assortment of supplies. "Like gossip?," Nicky questions.

"No, actual beeswax."

"Well, I definitely don't have it just lying around."

"Yeah I know," she laughs. "Would Francesca?," she asks with formal diction.

Nicky chuckles at the pronunciation, "can't say I've seen her dabbling around with any recently. Or ever."

"Do you think she'd mind picking some up?"

After inquiring to find such a supply, Francesca's put on a mission to find a product that's reliably found,regularly, in Harper's home. She comes home to both an aromatic scent, that overtakes the natural smell of their now shared space, and Nicky and Harper talking in the kitchen.

"Did you find it?," Harper asks her, seated at their table, modeling oversized rubber gloves among a random assortment of ingredients.

She smiles at the girl who she's seen grow up at the ballet bar, and pulls out the wax, "will this do?"

She nods immediately recognizing the product, "this is perfect, thanks miss Chessie."

"Harper you can call me Chessie outside the studio, okay?"

"Ooookay."

"So, what're we doing here?," she asks taking a seat and pecking Nicky on her head.

"Science fair project," Harper depicts, standing up and gathers all the things she needs that are strewn about the table. She sets a burner on, "I'll be done soon. It's pretty quick."

"What are you making?," Francesca asks her as Harper expertly starts measuring out her first ingredient.

"Lotion," she says dumping a blob of coconut oil into a pot from a small measuring spoon.

"But you already know how to make lotion," Nicky says to her, not really caring what her niece was planning on doing with all this stuff until now. "You're supposed to come up with something new aren't you?

"Yeah but they don't know that I do this all the time."

"Don't cheat kid," her aunt says with just a wisp of disappointment.

Her mouth opens up to dispute, when Nicky gives her that all knowing glare.

"Dammit," Harper says looking over at her easy project. "Well fine, do you still want a lotion? I was gonna use this?," she asks showing Francesca the sample she took from the bowl.

"Yeah, if you can."

"If I can," she scoffs with playful presumption, "I do it all the time, it's really easy."

"Ya have a list of other projects you can choose from?," Nicky asks her looking into the pot.

"There isn't a list, it's just supposed to be something you can make from simple supplies."

"Okay well, why don't you try this?," she suggests pointing out a homemade battery after scrolling through some DIY science experiments online.

"Sure, but only if you stand next to it when I'm done, so they think the power behind my battery made your hair like that," she says pointing to her aunt's head.

Nicky shoves her, "smartass. I see how it is, now because yours is tamer, there's no pride?" She calms her laughter, "I'm just kidding, but it would kind of be a cool photo."

Francesca runs a hand over Nicky's poof of hair and excuses herself to take a shower. Harper watches Nicky's eyes track her dance teacher as she walks out.

"Can I ask you something?," she asks stirring the contents with a wooden spoon.

"Don't ask if you can ask, just do it."

Harper nods, "how do know the difference between love and lust?"

She waits patiently for her aunt to answer, she uses the back of her arm, to rub the sweat off her forehead. Nicky looks at her, she looks so young, with the oversized gloves, the messy hair from dancing school, with a forehead coated in sweat, and yet the image of her flirting with a boy who looks like he's been around, sits firmly in the forefront of her brain.

"Well, lust is more of a physical attraction."

"Like you want them sexually?"

"Geez kid, go easy on me alright?"

She nods, "sorry."

"It's more shallow, but there's chemistry. Love...," she stops to pause and Harper fights her smile some.

"Yeah?"

"Love makes you crazy kid. Sometimes you do stuff that doesn't make sense. You care about that person, usually more than yourself. You'd do anything for em because you want the best for em, wanna see em do well. And out of that comes this passionate feeling of want, affection and eventually...well you know the rest, yeah?"

She smirks, "yeah."

"Good, thank God. So we're done?"

"Almost. So the way Jeremy treats me, do you think he loves me?"

Her mouth opens, she shakes her head, "I don't know. It seems like he might."

"How long does it take to know?"

"Well I don't think there's an answer for that. Some people believe you could love someone from the second you lay eyes on them, others can know each other for years before those deeper feelings develop. It took me a few months to realize I loved Chessie."

Harper leans around the doorway, she can hear the shower running.

"On our first date, we flirted a little, but we mostly talked and I think the fact that she still wanted to know me after knowing I had some things about my past that I was less than proud of, is what made me want to invest myself into getting to know her."

Harper smiles, "he has some stuff that he wishes he hadn't done too, but you have to have people to help you move forward from that right?"

"Yeah definitely kid. He's lucky to have you."

"Well I'm lucky to have him too." She talks softly, "so on your first date you didn't kiss or anything?"

"Hey a lady doesn't share that kind of stuff!"

"Aunt Nicky."

"Yes we kissed, but only because we both felt that it was right in that moment."

"I didn't let him kiss me the first time we hung out."

Nicky laughs, "good," good girl, "you wait til it feels right, and then wait some more! A good guy, one who loves you, he'll wait for you."

Harper's eyes widen, she bites her lip into a smile, "okay."

Harper tries talking to Piper about Jeremy, she's a little reluctant about the age but overall after her daughter goes on and on about this kid, she comes around and has her show her a couple of pictures on his profile.

"See, and he likes music," she says pointing to a picture of him and his friends, posing with his bass like a bad album cover.

Piper tries to suppress her laughs, "you mean he has a band?"

Harper smiles shyly, "he's not bad either, oh and he wants to come to my recital," she goes on excitedly, "can we get him a ticket?"

"I'd have to talk it over with mom."

Harper nods nervously but musters an "okay."

Alex's hand is tangled in her hair reading over Jamie's 4th revision of the same admission essay, the red ink markings are hers, Piper's are blue.

Piper reads her wife's feedback over her shoulder momentarily before gauging her wife's attentiveness level, "so, the boy...," she pauses, "he's a little... alternative."

"Meaning?," Alex asks not raising her head from the paper.

"He might be a little rough around the edges is all. It sounds like he had a rough patch but it's behind him."

"Alright?," she says brushing it off as everyone's had a rough patch now and again. She traces a finger over the next line of text, "how does she know him?"

"From school. She asked me if she could invite him to her dance recital."

"Can we meet him first before I have to sit next to the kid for 3 hours?"

"Yeah, she was just a little nervous to ask you."

This gets her full attention, her head tilts upward, "what for?"

Piper's lips fold onto one another, she bites down from within, until they're barely visible.

"He can just come over for dinner or lunch or something, get to know him a little so it's not awkward. I don't understand why she'd be nervous to ask me about anything."

Piper just nods a little.

"What am I missing?," the brunette asks, reading through the silence of her wife.

"He's a little older than her."

"That's okay," she reasons, not loving that her daughter likes an older boy, but she's now overly sensitive to the fact that her potential reaction invoked fear in her daughter. If she knows him from school they could only be so far apart in age, she sweeps it under the rug.

"Okay well she'll be glad to hear that."

Harper waits in line beside Jeremy and his friends at the movies. Having never been to this theater, her eyes wander the space, checking out the games, what they have at the snack bar, the different crowds of people. She watches a couple a few people ahead of them, the guy slips his arm behind the small of the girl's back, caressing the space just above her jeans when her eyes pull higher, recognizing Lauren's voice. Her lips part, and her eyes harden, she hears Jeremy say her name, but she can't stop staring, as the guy is not her brother.

"Harper," he says again louder, causing a few people to irritatedly look at the loud beckoner, including the girl she's looked up to for more than five years. The girl who talked to her like she was one of her friends and never her boyfriend's baby sister, the girl who's now swatting this new guy's hand away as she realizes it's the Harper she was hoping it wasn't.

Harpers eyes widen, her foot stumbles for a second, before she makes her way closer to her brothers's girlfriend, as Lauren takes a step away from, what appears like, her date.

Harper's lips come together about to ask exactly what the fuck is going on, when Lauren cuts her off.

"Hey Harper," she says happily, trying not to let her anxiety show through.

Harper's eyes look over to this other guy and then look sternly back at Lauren.

"Can we talk over here?," she asks Harper, bringing her thumb a few feet away. She doesn't wait for Harper to agree before stepping away, hoping the person she's with doesn't hear them.

Harper pivots and takes a few steps to meet her, "who is that?"

"He's just a friend who...,"

The younger blonde sucks her teeth not willing to hear the convoluted lies, "who had his hand above your butt," she spits, not making any effort to downplay the ornery demeanor. She swallows and waits for Lauren, she shakes her head in disbelief, "did you guys break up?," she then asks awed, figuring it's the only explanation as to how this would be okay.

"No!." she says rapidly and shakes her head, "we're not broken up. Harper, he's just a friend, there would be no reason..."

"A friend!," she scoffs, "you're on a date with him" she says at a hiss.

"It's not technically a date, we're just seeing a movie with some friends."

"Does Jamie know you're here? With another guy who feels comfortable enough to put his hands on you like that?!"

"Harper, stop!," she whispers loudly, fearing the boy on the line will be able to pick up a few key words.

"I don't understand... Jamie loves you. If you don't love him back, you should have the decency to tell him!"

"Harper I do love him! Don't say that. You're making this into something bigger than it is."

"So, if you saw him placing his hand on a girl's back the way that boy just did, you'd be okay with it?"

Lauren frowns some, knowing she would be devastated.

"You're gonna tell him," she says to Lauren frankly.

"Harper I'll go, okay? I'll tell him I have to go, before anything even has a chance to start alright? I shouldn't have come," she reasons, confirming she agrees that Harper's right.

"And you're gonna tell him," she shrugs, "or I will."

She walks backwards some before turning around to stand near Jeremy again who's curious as to what just happened. He places his arm around her shoulder, in comfort as he can tell she's really upset. She sees Lauren, keeping a foot of distance between herself and her date while explaining that she has to leave, before walking passed Harper with averted eyes, and leaves the theater.

Hours later when Alex picks her up from the movies that night, she spots her among the crowd of loud punk dressed teenagers, chatting with a boy that vaguely matches the fore-warning she received from Piper. Her daughter removes the oversized hoodie draped across her shoulders and hands it to the boy and starts walking to her car.

He stays back and pulls his sweatshirt on, when Harper waves him over toward the car, he leans down, adjusting his sweatshirt all the while as Alex rolls down the window and Harper gets in.

"Jeremy, this is my mom. Mom, Jeremy."

She looks at her mother with pleading eyes, not to be upset.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Vauseman. Thanks for inviting me over for dinner tomorrow night."

She can't be bothered with the name correction as her eyes are fixated on his tattooed forearm. When she feels Harper pinch her thigh, her eyes come up to meet his, she forces a nod, "nice to meet you too, I'll see you then."

Harper waves goodbye to him subtly.

"Put your seatbelt on," she grits through her teeth.

"Mom," she starts, while Alex rolls up the window.

"How old is he?"

"Mom, he's 15 but..."

"Years old?! You want to go out with a boy, I'm sorry, a man who's 15 years old?," she seethes. "I thought he went to school with you?"

"Mom, he does."

"How?"

"Ma..."

Alex closes her eyes, "Harper Nicole I swear to all things good and holy..."

She interrupts, " he struggled with school a couple of years ago but he's improved now."

"So he got left back?," she barks.

"Mom."

"Does your mother know he's 15?"

"Yes?," she says hesitantly, not wanting to throw Piper under the bus.

She exhales loudly and taps the wheel, talking under her breath trying to compose herself, "I don't like him."

"Well you're not dating him."

Her head snaps around toward the young blonde at her sass, "neither are you."

Her head lifts from the headrest and snaps back, "you can't tell me who I can date."

"He is three years older than you!"

"You're 6 years older than mom!," she justifies.

"That's neither here nor there, I was older when I met your mother."

"And eventually we'll be older too and it wont matter as much."

"Well right now your ages do matter."

"What's so bad about him?"

"The way...," she exhales, "the type of kids he's friends with, aren't people your mother and I want you around."

Her eyes widen at the dislike based on physicality. "You haven't even met them! And don't speak for mom, she doesn't have a problem with him."

"His face is pierced."

"His ear is pierced."

She points to her lip, "you can tell he's mutilated himself with other piercings Harper."

"He used to have a lip ring but I told him he'd look better without it and he took it out."

The brunette exhales, "and he has a tattoo."

"So that makes him a bad person? You have like 5 tattoos!"

"I'm an adult!," she barks, "he doesn't know who he is yet, to be making permanent decisions like that. Her mouth hangs open, her eyes stay fixed on the road ahead of her, forcing herself to stay focused on something before she loses her mind.

"Weren't you 16 when you got your first one?"

Her mouth closes, as she turns to glance at her daughter, speechless, as shes never mentioned that.

"Mom told me, so don't act like you didn't." She hasn't back-talked much, she doesn't like fighting with her mother, always preferring her to be on her side."I thought I'd have a harder time with mom not you. He's not a bad person. And let's just say he's done some things that you wouldn't be okay with, that doesn't mean that I would do them, or that he'll ever do them again."

An isolated breath releases from her nose, "he doesn't care enough about school."

"How do you know?"

"Harper, he failed a grade!"

"Because he didn't try, not because he isn't intelligent! If you talk to him, and just give him a chance, I think you'd like him."

"I just don't understand why you cant find someone who's a little more..."

"Lame?

"Compliant."

The petite blonde scoffs, "I can't believe you're saying this."

Her daughter's tone forces her to reflect on herself, the image she conveys to others, and what her own realities are. Her daughter's voice brings her back.

"I mean what exactly are you trying to say? That I should find some robotic goodie goodie? I like him, he's nice to me, why should anything else matter?"

"Because...it matters how he presents himself , how he conducts himself. Like Lauren..."

Harper cuts her off immediately, "Lauren's not so innocent," she says with strong defense.

She looks at her daughter shocked, "why do you say that?"

"Ask Jamie. I'm my own person, I'm going to pick who I want to be with. People deserve...second chances. I don't see why you dont trust my judgment."

She looks at her daughter, she sees Piper's sass and imagines this is what should've been like had she been allowed to be herself from a young age. She can't help but admit she's somewhat distracted by the way her daughter's just implied that Lauren has her own faults.

The car is quiet, as she thinks about the time she got her first tattoo, feeling the need to mark her body with something permanent,that something that was missing. Far too aware of a teenager's need to explore and experiment, she understands aspects of her daughter's love interests curiosity, she just hopes he's more secure now, and doesn't influence her daughter negatively.

"I will...," she swallows, "try to give him a chance alright?"

Her daughter nods.

"Ugh," she says gripping the wheel as Harper smirks proud of her defense.

"Thank you," she tells her mother as she kisses her on the cheek. Alex glares out the side of her eye, trying to ignore the churning that's occurring in her stomach. Her children had their fair share of similarities but while some things were easy with Jamie, she could tell with the inevitable attitude that accompanied the teenage years, her insistently stubborn daughter would pose more of a challenge. Jamie was cheeky, he'd snuck around her trying to explore, foolishly thinking he'd succeed without his mothers discovering what he was upto. He'd dance around truths to make something sound more appealing, making them work to get him to spill emotions, which sometimes took forever. They'd joked when he'd take his time to reveal the slightest smidgen of information, Piper would draw the parallel and play the "longest labor ever" card, but all the while knowing that in his own time, things he'd eventually come around. But his natural sarcasm always gave him and Alex common ground to push off of to eventually get down the roots of what was going on. If reprimanded, he didn't try to negotiate, he wasn't defiant. He always knew he was wrong and had simply tried to get around it.

Harper on the other hand, was a spitfire, naturally joyous and always straight forward, unafraid to hold back. Unlike her brother, she excitedly, flailed into the world, jazz hands and all, not waiting for anyone. She'd state what she wanted, never feeling as though her desires weren't conducive to what her parents wanted. If for whatever reason, they didn't meet eye to eye, negotiations were immediate, and her blatant sweetness, and humorous charm were put on the table until she got what she wanted. Her methods of manipulation had always been direct and confident, and while she was somewhat self aware, she still evoked a childlike innocence, literally choosing "honesty is the best policy" as a way to live and conduct herself, and she expected parental support in return.

It just proved that her trust in her mothers was strong, and though the method of how information was obtained was very different, Alex felt as though she was equally close to both of her children. And while she preferred not to have to hunt for puzzle pieces of her children's lives, sometimes the blunt honesty that her daughter felt so comfortable with, was too strong, and made it hard for her to swallow.

Despite it being more difficult for her, she preferred her daughter's openness, knowing she'd readily come to her for help, releasing the fear that she had for Jamie, that he'd go off on his own, and get hurt before he learned a better way.

And as a mother, the one thing she wanted most was to protect her children from any harm or hurt and now she couldn't rid the feeling that something happened between her son and his girlfriend. The way her daughter scoffed at her name when she usually lit up, she asks for clarification, "I thought you liked Lauren?"

"I did," she says and shakes her head.

"Harper, what happened?"

She shakes her head no.

Her mothers eyebrows furrow, now you decide to clam up? "Harps?"

"Ask Jamie."