Stupid fucking hormones. Harper wanted to kick the toilet in front of her as another round of heavy sobs escaped her lips.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop crying. And she knew most of it was PMS getting the better of her… But it was combined with a bunch of other things too.

Like how much she wished she could be at home with Phoenix, and share in some of the milestones she was missing out on. Her parents had brought him to visit her a few days ago, and showed her video of him crawling around with Tomato on the living room floor. It was amazing.

But I should be there to see it in person… It’s not fair! Harper rubbed her fists against her eyes. Damn it, there I go again! I’m such a whiny bitch.

She was wrong, wasn’t she? It was fair. She deserved to be in here. She deserved to be away from her little boy, after the horrible way she’d treated everyone. Especially her Oma…

The thought of Jocelyne just made her cry harder. Harper’s twenty-first birthday was next week… The day after what would have been her grandmother’s eighty-fourth. Every year, ever since she was a little girl, Harper and her grandmother always celebrated their birthdays together.

But now they never would again.

“Alright, whoever the hell you are, can you shut the fuck up with all that blubbering?!” A shrill cry from a few stalls over made Harper jump. Though it was coming from her bad side, the voice was still loud enough for her to hear. “Christ, can’t I take a goddamn shit in piece?”

Her tears subsided almost immediately. Shit… Tim. Harper had hoped hiding in the bathroom for a few minutes would allow her time to shed her tears in peace. Of all the people to walk in on me… GREAT.

Harper took a moment to compose herself, then hastily opened the stall door. As she did so, she heard the sound of a toilet flushing off to her left. As she’d feared, Tim stepped out, smiling as she finished buttoning up the top of her jumpsuit.

“Oh, it’s you.” Tim chuckled to herself as she headed to the sink. “Figured it was Elly sobbing over her precious Sam again… So many fucking crybabies around here.” She paused, rolling her eyes. “But uh, speaking of crybabies, you seen that girlfriend of yours around?”

Harper eyed her uncertainly. “Girlfriend?”

“Don’t play dumb. I see the way you two eye-fuck each other all the damn time.” Tim smirked for a moment as she dried her hands on her pant legs. “Anyway, you might wanna keep an eye on her… And tell her to watch where the fuck she’s looking.” Her voice hardened. “I heard she’s been checking out my girl again.”

Somehow, the answer finally clicked in Harper’s brain. It had been only a few months ago that Tim had made a very similar accusation… “Oh, you mean Ivy?” Harper felt her cheeks warm slightly, though she could not quite explain why. “You’ve got it all wrong. Sh-she’s not my girlfr–”

“Look, I don’t care what the fuck she is or isn’t, okay?” Tim took a step toward Harper as she spoke. “She needs to stay away from my girl! Now are you gonna pass along my message or not?!”

Before she had a chance to reply, Harper noticed the sound of yet another voice echoing off the bathroom walls. But this one lacked the shrillness or harshness of Tim’s. This voice was soft and gentle. Almost musical. “Harper?”

Oh shit.

“Heh. Guess I get to pass it along myself.” Tim smiled and turned her attention to Ivy as she finally rounded the corner. “What a coincidence… Your girlfriend and I were just talking about you.”

“Huh? What are you –”

“I’m pretty fucking sure she doesn’t appreciate you checking out other girls… And neither do I.” Tim’s eyes narrowed.

Ivy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Checking out…?” She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I –”

“Hey!” Harper grabbed for Tim’s arm as she spoke. “Calm the fuck down, okay?! She didn’t do it!”

“Bullshit. She’s been eyeing Kelly since the day she got in here…” She spat, still pressing Ivy firmly against the wall. “You think you’re better than me, huh?! You think my Kelly would ever leave me for some stupid bitch like you?!” The pain and insecurity behind Tim’s words was almost enough to make Harper feel bad for her.

Almost.

“Do you even fucking hear yourself?!” Harper knew she was a complete idiot for pushing like this… But she also knew there’d be no talking Tim down from this one. What else could she do? “You love calling the rest of us crybabies all the time, but look at you! You’re so goddamn insecure… And then you take it out on everyone else! You’re like a three-year old throwing a fucking tantrum! You –”

For a few moments, Harper was quite literally seeing stars. Her head had hit hard against the cold bathroom floor. She had to blink a few times before she was able to regain her normal vision. She thought she might have heard Tim mutter something, but she was unable to make out any of the words. Just the sound of her heavy footfalls leaving the bathroom.

As Tim’s footsteps faded, Ivy muttered something Harper could not hear.

“Huh?” She winced in pain as she spoke. “W-what?”

“Your nose.” Ivy repeated.

My nose? Harper suddenly realized that she tasted iron. And smelled it too.

Then she felt the soft wetness of a towel against her face. Harper reached up then, placing her hand over Ivy’s. Though the fabric of the towel separated them, Ivy’s hand still felt so warm. “Thanks.” She said softly, her voice muffled slightly by the cloth.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Ivy said softly, finally pulling the blood-soaked towel away. “You knew she was gonna do something like this… Didn’t you?”

Harper nodded slowly. It had been a stupid move, but at least it got Tim to let Ivy go. “Better me than you though, right?” She said with a shrug, finally finding the strength to push herself off the ground. Ivy helped her the rest of the way to her feet. “Hopefully that keeps her satisfied for a while.” She continued with a joking smile. “I don’t think I have it in me to be a full-time punching bag.”

Ivy, however, wasn’t laughing. “You shouldn’t joke about that.” She seemed to examine Harper’s face for a moment. “You’re lucky your nose isn’t broken, or that you managed to keep all your teeth… Shit, Harper. She could’ve really hurt you!”

“It’s fine.” She assured her, still smiling. “And it’s not like I didn’t have it coming anyway… I probably could’ve used a good punch in the face a long time ago.”

Harper couldn’t quite explain why she was so amused by all this. Jesus, am I going crazy? Just a few minutes ago, she’d been bawling her eyes out in one of the bathroom stalls. Now she was standing here practically laughing while her nose throbbed in pain and a gorgeous woman fretted over her.

“You’re being so ridiculous.” Ivy shook her head slowly. “How hard did you hit your head, exactly?” At last, she cracked a small smile.

“Um… Pretty freaking hard.” Harper confessed. “But I’ll be okay.”

“Well thank you… This isn’t the first time you’ve saved my ass from Tim since I got here.” Ivy said seriously. “And I still haven’t gotten to repay you for it.”

“Are you kidding? You’ve done plenty for me the past few months… We’re totally even.” Harper assured her.

Ivy’s smile sent a rush of warmth to Harper’s cheeks. “If you say so.” She said softly, shrugging. “What the heck were you doing in here anyway? And don’t say you were actually going to the bathroom… Katie told me you looked really upset earlier.”

Harper’s smile finally faded. “I guess I was kinda… Having a ‘moment’. Freaking out a little.” It felt so easy to tell Ivy the truth. She wasn’t even embarrassed. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Oh? Like what?”

She shrugged. “Phoenix. My Oma. My ex. What a terrible fucking person I am… You know, the usual.” Harper’s smile was much more forced than before.

“Oh, come on… You’re not terrible, Harper.” Ivy insisted.

God, she doesn’t know how wrong she is. Still though, it was adorable how kind and sweet Ivy always was to her. Even when I don’t deserve it.

“I am though.” She replied at last. “I mean, are you free for the next couple of hours? Because that’s probably how long it’ll take to explain all the reasons why…”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “Fine. Maybe you used to be, then.” The other girl conceded. “But… Weren’t all of us terrible before we got here? I mean, we wouldn’t be in here if we weren’t.”

For a moment, Harper wanted to argue. You’re not terrible. You never were. She wanted to say. You’re amazing. But she didn’t.

“Yeah, and look at Tim… Some of us are still terrible.” Harper shook her head as she spoke.

“Hey, don’t you ever let me catch you comparing yourself to Tim again.” Ivy’s musical voice was soft but firm. “Seriously. You’re not as terrible as you think you are. You aren’t a bad person.”

A soft sigh of frustration passed Harper’s lips. “Well then, what am I?! Because I’m sure as hell not a good one either… And I wanna be. Like, so fucking bad.” The words spilled from her lips much easier than she was expecting them to. “And I’m trying. But I just…” She hung her head for a moment. “I’m not there yet.”

Ivy’s hand was on her shoulder then. Soft and gentle and warm. “But hey, it’s like you said… You’re trying, aren’t you?” She asked softly. “You want to make a change. That’s proof enough that you’re not terrible, Harper.”

She took a moment to consider Ivy’s words. Could she be right? Harper certainly hoped so.

“You really think I’m not?” Her voice was small as she finally opened her mouth to speak.

She shook her head. “Definitely not. Trust me.” Ivy smiled gently at her as she spoke. “I wouldn’t like you so much if you were.”

Harper noticed that the other girls’ hand was no longer on her shoulder… It was on her cheek. Ivy’s thumb stroked her face gently. How long had she been standing that close to her, Harper wondered? And her eyes… Had they always been so blue? Her lips so soft and full?

Harper stepped backward, instantly breaking the spell. “Well… I’m glad you’re okay. And th-thanks for, um…” She gestured vaguely toward her still-throbbing nose as she spoke.

Ivy took a step toward her then, muttering something.

But Harper turned away before she could hear what it was.

————————————————————-

Hey guys! My friend AudreyFld had suggested that I try doing that OC Tag that’s going around (It’s basically a little survey of questions that you answer in-character as a character from your story. Kinda silly questions like their favorite foods, what animal they’d want to be and why, etc). And I think it’s super cute and fun, so I’d love to do it!

Now, the problem is, there are like 75 million A2A characters and I would feel so tempted to do one for EVERYBODY (even non-heirs lol), which is totally not even possible haha So I decided to make a little poll to find out which characters people would most like to hear from. You can only vote once, and can pick up to 3 (including “other” and the opportunity to type in your answer)

I’ll leave the poll up til this weekend, and then do the OC tag post for the top 3-5 characters (depending). I might even do more than that… But it all depends on how I feel and who gets voted for too! Click here if you’d like to answer the poll! Thanks 😀