Chapter 1

Richie jogged, feeling the burn, and was eager to make it contagious. The Cowie home, his girlfriend’s family home, was a quarter kilometer down his morning run. She needed to run. It was healthy. It was fun. It was something they did together. Harper really could lose some weight. He smiled, pumped his legs harder, and cut across her driveway and lawn to reach the front door.

Lilith, Harper’s little sister, looked so much like his girlfriend, minus the excess weight. She was Richie’s hope, because Lilith shared a great big cup size with Harper. Cowie DNA suggested that the weight would come off where it wasn’t appreciated. Hips, ass, and titties with a slim waist: the dream was real. Lilith had big blue eyes and thick warm lips. They were rimmed with bags and shivering respectively. Her dark hair was tied up in the half-assedest ponytail Richie had ever seen. He liked it. She wore slippers and a robe thick enough to stop bullets; it reached the floor.

“Hello Lovely’s sister!” Richie said with a great big smile. “You look like hell warmed over. Enjoy your birthday?”

“I’m told I did,” Lilith yawned. She leaned on the door jamb sipped from a clear teacup with the bag string dangling over her pale fingers. “You guys ditched early.”

Richie tutted. “We’re college adults, can’t be living that high school kid life anymore.”

“So you went back to your place for sex?” Lilith asked.

“Lily!” her mom shouted, “Close the door!”

“In a minute!” Lilith said. “Richard’s here!”

“Then tell him and close the door!”

“God, I wish I had someone to take me to bed that night,” Lilith said, sweetly. She blew on her tea before she took another sip.

“I had my hands full,” Richie smirked. Lilith laughed and looked over her shoulder. She shushed Richie and shook her head.

“I would’ve in heartbeat but shh! What if Harper hears you?” Lilith hissed quietly, but took the compliment well.

Richie sighed. “That’s who I’m here for. Get her running, fit, full of fresh air and confidence. Life is good and we can make it better. Like I said, we’re not kids. Nineteen years is enough time to go without taking things seriously.”

“You’re still 18 like me. Harper’s the one who had to buy our beer,” Lilith said, nitpicking.

“And that was a lot a lot of beer. Happy birthday!” Richie said, with his smarmiest smile. “In case you forgot me saying it.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I didn’t. I’d hug you, but the tea is warmer.”

“I know where I get my hugs from. So where’s Harp?” Richie asked. “Gotta get moving. Beautiful morning.”

“There’s frost on the fucking lawn,” Lilith said. “I wouldn’t go out in that. They have treadmills indoors now.”

“Yeah, but they’re at gyms,” Richie said. “Can you imagine having to talk Harper up for the long drive before the workout? This way we can get going as soon as I see my girl.”

“I don’t think you’re going to see her. She’s back in bed,” Lilith said. “She’s angry at you.”

“What?” Richie asked. “Why? Things were great yesterday morning.”

“How great?” Lilith asked, brightly smiling.

“None-of-your-business great,” Richie said.

“So, a 3, maybe a 4?” Lilith said. “Not bragworthy?”

“Lil!” Shouted her mom again. “It’s freezing!”

Richie and Lilith ignored Mary.

“Hardly. So Harp’s angry? Did she tell you why?” Richie worried.

“No, but I can guess,” Lilith gossiped. “You’re here to make her run off her big butt and she’s pissed at you because her big butt isn’t disappearing fast enough. Oh, and for checking out Perla’s smaller perkier ass.”

“Perla?” I frowned. “I haven’t seen her since prom.” Which was the only time Richie had ever seen Perla and Harper act cordial to each other. If there was anyone Harper hated it was the former cheerleader. Perla had mocked girls who couldn’t score a date and Prom was the first time Harper had ever had a date. Richie too, for that matter. Though, if Perla had mocked him in high school, he hadn’t noticed.

“She crashed the party,” Lilith said. “And you looked at her from behind.”

“I look at a lot of girls from behind,” Richie frowned. “Harper’ll point them out from time to time. She pointed out your butt to me before.”

“Mine? OK, that’s kinda sweet, but she wouldn’t do that when it’s far too early in the morning and she’s feeling gross,” Lilith said. “I wouldn’t push her.”

“I push her and she pushes me,” Richie complained. “Let me go get her.”

“Mom’s not going to let you go unsupervised into Harper’s room,” Lilith said.

“She knows we...?” Richie gestured expressively with his eyes.

“Oh, she knows,” Lilith laughed.

“Well, good,” Richie said. “Then can you go get Harper? We go running every morning. It’s our thing.”

“No, it’s something you dumped on her once you started going to college,” Lilith said. “Once summer was over and you had to see her in the company of skinnier girls. She hates having all of those college girls she has to compete with.”

“Harper!” Richie shouted into the house.

“Not this morning Richard!” Mrs Cowie shouted back.

“And that’s that,” Lilith said, finishing her tea.

“Tell her I...”

“You love her?” Lilith smirked.

“I wish she was out here with me,” Richie said.

“Oh yeah...” Lilith said, rolling her eyes. “Much better...” Lilith shook her head.

“We’ve never L-worded yet,” Richie frowned. “I’d rather not make our first time be through an intermediary.”

“Lilith! Get that boy off my step and close the door!” Mary shouted again.

“OK Mom!” Lilith shouted back over her shoulder. She looked into Richie’s face and then past him to the street. “Zita!”

Lilith’s voice shot like a bazooka over the lawn. Richie frowned and turned. He saw Zita, Lilith’s best friend, jogging in place on the sidewalk. She waved. Zita was a short girl, athletic, black, with a pretty face, wavy shoulder length hair and a form fitting red track suit. Her perfectly white sneakers bounced up and down on the sidewalk. Her ears and nose glittered with rings and studs. Her sports bra kept her boobs from bouncing uncontrollably.

“What’s up Lil?” Zita shouted.

“Richie’s lost his running partner!” Lilith replied. “I’m tagging you in!”

“Well hurry up Richie! I gotta go fast if I want to get my last four kilometers in, shower, and still get the bus!” Zita beamed.

“Tell Harp to text me,” Richie said. “Happy birthday again, Lilith.”

“Go,” Lilith said. “I need more hydration and caffeine.” She closed the front door in Richie’s face. He shrugged and jogged across the lawn to fall into stride beside Zita.

Normally, he’d be out on the sidewalk, jogging with Harper, as Zita The Flashed by him. This time Richie was able to keep up. He hadn’t really pushed himself in the six months he had been running with Harper. Zita had much shorter legs than Richie, but she had no trouble keeping up with his pace.

What she had was much more in the tank. They ran down the subdivision, across the highway, by the little coffee shop, and planned to run back. Richie was puffing like a steam engine.

“You gonna die on me?” she asked.

“Can I buy you a coffee?” he said, hoping for a moment.

She looked at the cafe and put two fingers to her carotid. She tilted her head. “OK, but we gotta run back as soon as we’re done.”

“Sure,” Richie said. He held the door for her. He bought their coffees and they grabbed a little table in the far corner. She sat down but her heels were bouncing like she was loaded with energy.

“Thanks,” she said, sipping and fanning her lips.

“Coffee’s hot,” Richie explained.

“Really?” Zita said, eyes growing wide and smile turning aghast. “You’re so learned, wise man.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he said. “You look great.”

“Thanks. You look good too,” Zita said. “How are things with you and Harper?”

“She’s in a mood,” Richie said. He made an effort not to blame PMS. “I think she ran into someone she hated at Lil’s birthday and is using it as an excuse not to go running.”

“A cheat day every couple of months isn’t the worst,” Zita said.

“Is that what you do?” he asked.

“Fuck no!” Zita said. “But I don’t have a boyfriend. Gotta run this ass hard enough to get one.”

“And I’m taken,” Richie said, mocking himself with false confidence.

“Yeah, the good ones are always taken,” Zita said, with a moment of honesty that caught Richie off-guard.

“Damn,” Richie said. “I didn’t know girls would even want to date me, before Harper.”

“We probably wouldn’t have,” Zita said. “You needed to grow up. Get laid.”

“Well, I did that. Or at least the get laid part,” I said.

“Yeah,” Zita said, blushing. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You said that,” Richie said.

“I mean,” Zita put the cup down, “I’m finished. I’m ready to go. You wanna stay and finish off yours? I’ll probably see you with Harper tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah, no, I’m finished too,” Richie lied. He wanted to run with someone more. He tossed a two thirds full cup in the trash as he followed her out and ran with her. He faked it, until he said goodbye at the intersection before his house. He let himself huff and wheeze the rest of the way home.

“Hey brat,” Nat said, when Richie bumped into his elder sister as he staggered in their front door. Nat was two years older than him and in her junior year at college. She looked like Richie, tallish, freckled, brown haired, and approaching athletic. She was dressed in weather inappropriate cut off shorts and a white top.

“Hey homewrecker,” Richie said, picking at the thing Nat hated most about herself. She had basically no girlfriends left, because of stealing boyfriends.

“Oh god, you smell like you actually worked out this morning,” Nat said, not rising to take the bait. She waved her hand in front of her nose. “You didn’t kill your girl, did you?”

“She quit so I ran with Zita,” Richie said. Nat gave him a crooked look. “It was Lilith’s idea.”

“Whatever,” Nat said. “Don’t break Harper’s heart, just because you can land a prettier girl.”

“I’m not you,” Richie said, and went up to shower as his sister drove off to campus. “Harper’s worth a lot more than one pretty girl.”

“Just don’t be an ass,” Nat said. She unlocked her car with her clicker and raced across the walkway to get to the heater. Nat wasn’t going to wait for her brother, so Richie was going to have to take a bus. He went up and got a shower.

No texts from Harper by the time he had got to school. He cut through the East building to the cafeteria. He was usually only here this early because he came with Harper, or got a ride with Nat. He hadn’t done either and so zombied to school an hour before first class anyways. He looped the dorm kids getting their breakfasts. Sometimes Harper would grab a smoothie. She wasn’t there. He bought her favorite anyways. At least it was healthy.

He cut to the cafeteria and caught sight of Caitlin, a redhead scratching her hair with the eraser of a mechanical pencil as she poured over a textbook. She was cute, dark green eyes, and a whole buckshot of freckles. Her ears weren’t pierced and she wasn’t wearing makeup. She had on an unzipped hoodie over a loose pink t-shirt. She wore black jeans.

Richie stepped up behind her, pulled his straw until the base was half in half out of his smoothie. He slurped hard. She jumped out of her seat.

“Motherfucker!” she said, laughing for a second. Her pretty face got dark as Richie sat across from her.

“Hey Cait,” he said.

“I hear Harper took the day off,” Caitlin said. “I didn’t expect to see you until after classes.”

“She took the day off?” he frowned. “I thought she just didn’t want to go running. She’s not sick, is she?”

“Not that I know of,” Caitlin said.

“You look like hell,” Richie said. “Half a smoothie?”

Caitlin accepted the cup from Richie’s hand and took a deep drink. She made to give it back. “Finish it.” he said.

“Yeah, big spender on that Burger King salary,” Caitlin said. “But thank you.”

“Yeah, no worries,” Richie said. “What’s wrong?”

“Have you been talking to Jason?” Caitlin asked. Jason had been Richie’s best friend. Caitlin had been Jason’s girlfriend through high school. It had been Caitlin who had flushed out Harper to hook up with Richie for prom. He, Harper, and Caitlin had stayed local, but Jason was a genius. He was off at MIT on a full scholarship.

“Not since January,” Richie said, frowning. “I should get a hold of him. Shit.”

“Long distance is hard,” Caitlin said.

“What happened?” Richie asked.

“I,” Caitlin sighed. “At the party on Saturday. I danced with some guy and he kissed me.”

“Oh,” Richie said. He didn’t know what to do. He saw Caitlin everyday. He wasn’t not talking to Jason, but ... They weren’t even in the same time zone.

“What would you do?” Caitlin said.

“If I went dancing and a guy kissed me?” Richie asked, trying to be aloof. Caitlin smiled.

“Hey, I know a few guys if you want to give it a try,” Caitlin said, waggling her eyebrows. “I just mean, if you fucked up, would you tell Harper?”

“Harper’s right here,” Richie said, metaphorically. He frowned. She hadn’t even come to school today because he had looked at another girl’s butt? Richie sighed. “I don’t know. If it was just the one kiss, and I regretted it, and I wasn’t going to do it again. I might not. Why hurt her?”

“That might be good advice,” Caitlin said, but she clearly disagreed. “I’m gonna see Jason again after exams. That’s only ... six weeks away. I just ... I haven’t gone forever with ... um kissing and stuff...” She trailed off as her cheeks flushed.

“I know you guys had sex,” Richie said.

“Not like I know about you and Harper!” Caitlin defended. “It’s like the only action I get is her bragging.”

“You know, before Harper,” Richie leaned forward. “I managed with just me.”

Caitlin gave Richie a flat stare. “Sure,” she said. “Look, like I said. The only action I get is vicariously through her.”

“Oh,” Richie said, leaning back and flexing. “You’re welcome.”

Caitlin laughed. “Right, thank you so much.”

“Too bad you’re friends,” Richie said. “I like you and I like Jason. I’d take you in but Harper said she’d only have a threesome with someone she liked but didn’t know.”

“She said Gabrielle Xu,” Caitlin said, referring to the pop singer. “She has terrible taste in music, fyi.”

“Yeah, but great taste in women,” Richie said.

“You get the tickets?” Caitlin said. “She’s still sulking thinking that the concert’s sold out.”

“Yeah, backstage,” Richie said. “And, thanks for not spoiling it.”

“Like I said,” Cailtin sighed. “The only action I get. And I’m gonna be hearing about that night for weeks.”

Richie was worried by the end of the school day. Worried and guilty. He had texted Harper on the hour as he had done since she had missed the run. He felt needy and pushy but he knew Harper wanted the attention. She hadn’t responded at all.

The guilt came from the frustrated anger. He’d also been checking out Caitlin all day. Caitlin seemed oblivious, like Caitlin didn’t know she was cute, or maybe that over-attention was just her baseline. Harper was over the moon the days she caught someone checking her out. Which was much more common than Harper believed she had any right to. But she hardly noticed it unless Richie got protective.

Richie wanted to ditch work. That was normal. Burger King at its most hectic was boring for him. Lay shit on the meat, close the bun, wrap, next. He worked 8 pm till 4 am. He wasn’t going to ditch work. Which meant he had to get half of that night’s sleep before the shift. He went straight home from chem lab.

One last text and he slept with his phone on the pillow. He wasn’t woken up prematurely. He showered, pulled on his uniform shirt and stepped into black pants he hoped were clean enough.

“Nat! Can you drop me off at--”

His sister threw her car keys into his chest. He caught them on the rebound.

“Seriously?” He asked.

“To work and home,” Nat said. “You go joy riding again? You end up dead.”

“Right,” Richie frowned. He was as good with other people’s stuff as his sister was with other people’s boyfriends. “Thanks.”

He parked in the lot across the street from the restaurant. He pulled out his phone. He dialed Harper. They’d talked on the phone once since they had started dating. They texted near constantly.

“Yo!” Lilith’s cheer answered the phone.

“Lil? Did Harper leave her phone somewhere?”

“Yeah, on the couch while she went to shower,” Lilith said.

“I’m about to go into work, tell her I called. I won’t get a break before midnight so, I hope we can put this behind us tomorrow,” I said, frowning. “Is she OK?”

“She will be once she pulls the showerhead out of her cooch,” Lilith smirked.

“Lil!” Richie laughed when he heard Lilith’s mother scolding the daughter again.

“Anyway, good, I hate being in the dark,” Richie said.

He jumped, startled, by the knuckle rapping on his window. He was shocked to see Perla. The rich girl from high school who Harper hated and who had never given Richie the time of day. She was bent over, wearing a buttoned yellow shirt. Her nametag dangled down from her breast pocket. ‘Alice’s Diner’ was stitched in on the other side of her shirt. Richie only saw the slopes of her brown breasts.

Richie rolled the window down.

“He-ey! Hi!” Perla said. She was a bright smiling Latina with very wavy long hair and yellow brown eyes. She wore pink lipstick that stood out a bit too much. “We never got to talk on Saturday.”

“Talk?” Richie said. He swallowed because his voice had cracked. “Talk about what? Where?”

“At the party,” she said. “I hadn’t seen you since high school. I thought everyone was up and gone.”

“You barely saw me at all in high school,” Richie said, guardedly. Lots of their classmates were still in town at the college, but many more were off somewhere else too. Richie hadn’t kept tabs on any of the in-crowd’s circle of friends.

She laughed a laugh manufactured to confuse Richie. She was gorgeous. She was even better from behind. Harper had been pissed Richie had checked Perla out because Why should good asses happen to bad people? Maybe, he forgave Harper a bit.

“Alice’s?” he asked.

The smile came off of Perla’s lips as she looked down. She blushed but had steel features when she met Richie’s eyes again. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting Papi to start charging rent.”

“Harsh,” Richie said. Though, he’d imagine that his father would act similarly if Richie wasn’t still in school. “Anyway, I have, uh, work in a minute.”

“Oh,” Perla’s face fell. “We should get together when we have time to catch up.” She tapped her lip and smiled. “Tomorrow! It’s a date!”

“What?” he said. She walked around his car to a new black Jetta in the spot next to him. She waved after she fastened her seatbelt.

“Fuck,” Richie said, frowning. He lifted up his phone. Still on, “Oh, shit. Sorry Lilith. I--”

“A date! With Perla?!” Harper shouted, hyperventilating. She hung up. Richie headbutted his steering wheel and heel punched it four times. He shoved his phone in the glove box. Otherwise he’d get fired by the end of the night for how often he was distracted. He slumped across the street. Traded in his sneakers for his terrible work shoes at the small cubby lockers in the breakroom.