Page 54 of Seeing Harper

They heard ruffling and the sounds of a phone being dropped. “Hey! That shit’s not cool. I had you on speaker.”

“You should know better. We’ll see you whenever you happen to get there.”

“Fine. Drive back tonight. I’ll see y’all tomorrow. And I’ll be on time, too! You’ll see!” Sebastian said, trying to return to his ‘I’m cool, everything’s good’ mood.

“Want to take a bet on that?” Clay asked.

“Maybe not,” Sebastian admitted.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Clay said.

“Later! Y’all be careful. I’ll look for you along the way in case you need me to pick you up from the side of the road.”

“Why would we need that?”

“I don’t know. Just saying. I’m always helping all my people. I’m thoughtful like that.”

“Yeah. Alright, see you tomorrow,” Clay said, then ended the call and slid his phone back onto the table. He took his last bite of food and sat back, belly full, relaxing for a moment before he went home to get his stuff and tell his parents he was heading back to school. He turned his head to look at Cruz. “You believe that? He’ll never change.”

“No, he won’t. But at the moment, I’m a little more interested in your lock screen.”

“Huh?” Clay asked.

“On your phone. Your lock screen… it’s Harper.”

Clay looked at his phone sitting on the coffee table, then shrugged. “So? You know we spent the weekend together. She’s a friend.”

Cruz raised an eyebrow again. “A friend?”

“Yeah. We’ve all always been friends. You have one, too. Why’s it a big deal?” Clay asked.

“I’m pretty sure you never had a picture of me dressed like that as your lock screen. And I’m your friend, too. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I’m pretty sure you never put on a lace nightgown and sent me a picture of you in it. If you had, it might still be my lock screen,” Clay teased.

Cruz laughed. “Fair enough. Why’d she send you a picture of herself in a nightgown?”

“Because we’d just gotten home from having pizza not too long before that, and we both mentioned we like to have a midnight snack. So I sent her a picture of me having a slice of our leftovers at midnight, a few minutes later she sent one back. It was midnight, she was wearing a nightgown,” Clay answered.

“And now it’s your lock screen.”

“Yep. Makes me smile. We had fun.”

Cruz nodded. “Okay. I’m not convinced that’s all, but it sounds reasonable.”

“It is reasonable. Friends can’t have pictures of friends on their lock screens?”

“I don’t suppose this would have anything to do with the fact that you threatened everybody in your class every year of high school to stay away from her?”

“I did no such thing…”

“Yeah, you did. Did you really think that I wouldn’t hear about it because I’m two years younger than you? I was on varsity since I was a sophomore. I heard them talking about it in the locker room. And unlike Sebastian, I pay attention.”

Clay just stared at Cruz for a few moments before he lifted his hands in surrender before dropping them back to his sides as he looked away.

“It’s nothing. We’re just friends.”

“You even kind of smell like her. And horses. Spill…” Cruz said.