She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “Sort of, but it’s only a trial placement.”
“Can’t you request to remain there until you're eighteen?” I knew Harper would need to be eighteen to be allowed to live independently.
“I don’t know. Ma only took me in as a favour. For whom, I have no idea. She knows tons of people at the agency. But she’s only ever fostered boys before.”
I wondered if Phoenix had anything to do with it, but didn’t put that suggestion out there. I knew she wouldn’t have appreciated that. Harper had it in her head that she hated him now.
“Anyways. You can’t get too close. And I have my backup plans. Iwon’tbe waiting to emancipate when I’m eighteen. If I’m fucked over again, when I have enough money, I’m off. I don’t need a mother or a father. It’s easier on your own.”
Harper was clearly screwed up if she thought she could live as a runaway but I didn’t say anything. I just listened.
When we got to a fork in the road, Harper stopped.
“Well, this is me, so I guess I’ll see you at school.”
“Great.”
She then turned slowly towards me, her eyes scanning my face. Her next words almost choked me up as I didn’t expect them.
“I’m sorry, Molly, about your mother. I heard you talking to Nick’s brother, Xander, about it that night in the lot at Langs.”
“Thank you.”
“No one has any clue, you know. When the news circulated that the principal’s kid was starting at school, the hot gossip was that your mother ditched you. I don’t thinkanyoneknew that she’d passed away.”
So, rumour had it that my motherabandonedus? Well, that explained the lack of sympathy.
“It’s fine. I don’t really want everyone knowing my business. I’m quite a private person.”
“Me too,” she said, her expression turning grave.
“Do you know what happened to Hudson’s parents?”
Her nose scrunched as she thought about it. “I only know stuff I’ve heard from the rumour mill. His mum’s dead, I think, and his dad is in prison, but I don’t know why. And the rest of the Sawyer boys' stories are a bit vague. Boys don’t talk, they keep that shit inside.”
I found it hard to compute so many tragic cases living under one roof. “And here I thought I had problems.”
She placed a hand on my shoulder. “Your Mom died. That’s life changing shit too.”
Smiling, I batted back. “So did yours,andyour father.”
Harper dropped her hand and inspected her nails. I noticed they were chewed down to the skin. “It feels like such a long time ago now. I don’t think about it. Anyways, you want my number? We can hang out sometime.”
“I’d like that,” I choked out, pulling myself together. Hudson’s warning to stay away from Harper was pushed to the back of my mind.
After a short, uncomfortable silence, Harper’s demeanour shifted, and she grinned.
“What did you think about Xander?”
“He’s OK.”
Harper nodded her head in understanding. “Well, his brother, Nick, is taking me to Nash Straker’s party on Saturday. You and Xander could chat in the car on the way over there. They’re picking me up. You could get to know each other?”
“Storm Summers also mentioned it,” I explained. “I’m not sure it’s me.”
“Please don’t tell me you’ll go with that plastic not-so-fantastic?” Harper’s face was screwed up in disgust. I didn’t explain that Storm had apologised for the pool incident.
“I feel that she isn’t like the rest of them. The mean girls, I mean. And I’m not sure which bits are plastic?”
