Half-Life, Ch. 3

"Lunch at ten-thirty," Harper mumbled miserably to herself as she stood in line with the rest of the unfortunates who'd had their lunch scheduled this early in the day. "Whoever came up with that idiotic idea?"

The lady serving Harper her meal eyed the girl and decided she was a lunatic, or at least leaning that way. Who complained about food? "Look hun, ya gonna tell me what you wanna eat or ya gonna mumble to yourself all day?"

Harper eyed the woman with cold eyes, sizing her up. The server was of a shorter stature than Harper, but definitely more busty and a bit heavier around her middle. Her eyes were a mocking cat's green and her dyed-blond hair was piled in a bun underneath her hair net and hat. "I'm not in your line," she eventually said, deciding that being rude to the lady who could possibly touch her food was not a wise action. "I'm ordering a salad up front." With that, Harper turned and sauntered to the front of the line and punched in her key code on the registry panel.

"Same as usual, Harper?" the woman at the register asked. This lady had kind features, with salt-and-pepper-colored hair and wise blue eyes. She was always kind to Harper.

Harper smiled sweetly and replied, "Yes please, the spicy chicken salad with Italian dressing." Her food was handed to her and away she went to sit--where, exactly? Harper scanned the crowded lunchroom, trying to concentrate over the din of the fully-packed room. Was there even an empty seat anywhere?

"Looking for someone?" a voice said in her ear. Harper jumped and turned around, only to see her other guy friend, Nate, grinning at her with that silly Chesire Cat smile of his.

"Nate!" she exclaimed, putting her free hand to her chest in mock surprise. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm best at those, darling," he said with a wink. Nate then lightly took Harper's elbow and led her over to a free spot on one of the old-fashioned long tables. His fingers were so warm that Harper felt as if they were burning a hole through her arm and heading straight for her blood, to warm up her freezing heart.

The pair sat down together, next to each other to save space for whoever else might want to sit nearby. "Thanks for sitting with me, Nate," Harper said after she'd opened her salad and begun to dive into her comically red-colored chicken. "You don't have to, you know. I'm not nearly as interesting as the rest of the table." She looked over at him shyly, admiring his well-sculpted face, the cheekbones high and almost regal in their structure. Nate's lips were perfectly formed for his face, turning him into a Greek god sculpture.

Nate turned to look at her quizzically, his deep brown eyes swirling with their fathoms of questions and… a bit of pain, she could see, as she took another moment to just look at him. Then the eyes lightened, almost forcibly, and Harper felt like the connection was lost. Swiping his dark brown hair bangs back from his forehead, Nate smiled and answered her cheerily with, "You're much more interesting and more kind than all of them put together."

Harper blushed a bit and looked away, staring at her food for a moment to think. Does Nate like me at all? Last year, he… he didn't. It was obvious; I didn't even have to ask him. But… this year…

At the moment Harper was pondering her relationship with him, Nate turned and looked over at the table where they both had sat last Friday. "Uh oh, here comes trouble," he muttered to Harper, elbowing her gently in the side.

Harper stiffened and sat up straighter, her breathing shallow as her heart began to beat faster. "Is she seriously coming over here?" she whispered out of the side of her mouth, not daring to turn and look at Nate.

"Oh yeah," Nate replied back, just as quietly, also without moving. "Prepare for impact in 3, 2…"

"Hi Nate!" Harper's former best friend greeted him cheerily.

"Hi Michelle…" he replied guiltily, shooting an apologetic look Harper's way. She gave Nate a half-smile to show that she wasn't offended by his conversing with the other girl and started to eat her food.

"Why don't you come back to the table, Nate?" Michelle asked him loudly, popping her gum obnoxiously in her mouth. "It's probably boring as hell over here."

"Actually, I find the conversation with my lovely Harper ever so stimulating," Nate replied coolly. Harper felt something inside of her let out a victory yell at Nate's words. Why am I thinking that? she asked herself. Please, heart, tell me why you just freaked out at what Nate said. last time I checked, you were swooning over Kurt. Did you change sides and forget to tell me?

Michelle, meanwhile, had frozen where her stuffed-to-the-brim body stood. "So you're picking the bitch over me?"

Nate turned and stared Michelle right in her menace-filled blue eyes. "I'm picking Harper over the bitch standing in front of me trying to make me choose her over the girl who actually gives a damn about me." He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. When Nate spoke next, his voice was cold and he spoke in a monotone. "Please leave us alone now or I will be forced to call over the lunch attendant."

Michelle, however, stood there for another moment before speaking again, her voice full of angry tears, and as Harper turned to look at her, she saw the doughy face crumple in on itself and begin to turn scarlet, creating a triple chin where before there had been two, making her doubly as unattractive as before. Except for the eyes, for those crystal-clear, tear-filled blue eyes. Michelle looked straight at Harper, sending a cold chill through her veins as she spoke once more, "I'm going to make your life hell, you crush-whore bitch." With that, she turned and ran out of the cafeteria, leaving her things behind at her lunch table. Harper watched as no one looked up, no one even bothered to touch her things, leaving that task instead to the lunch attendant who was standing by the door.

Harper felt Nate's eyes on her, probing her features to find a weak spot to prod at, to try and open her up. Nate and Kurt had always gotten so close to seeing inside her, Harper knew, but she never let them inside. If she let anyone inside, she would have to tell the truth about everything, even the simplest things. Harper couldn't have that; she had a mask to keep up, a bit of a reputation to uphold as the girl who never fell apart.

"Are you okay Harper?" Nate asked her gently, laying a hand on her shoulder, burning her with his touch again.

She swallowed and nodded, unable to meet Nate's searching brown eyes. "I'm fine," she said quietly. "Just a bit scared of her. She meant her threat, you know."

Nate made a sort of tsk-ing noise and took Harper's chin gently in his hand, turning her to face him. Harper felt scared, her mind blowing everything out of proportion. Is he going to be mad at me? Can he feel the makeup on my face? Is my lip quivering? I can't cry, my makeup will run…

"You aren't really okay," he said quietly, looking Harper directly in her nearly-golden eyes, feeling himself being sucked into her, into the heart of her problems. "But I'm not going to push it. I'm going to trust that you will be okay, though. You have Trig next period, don't you?" Harper nodded slightly, the feeling of terror slowly fading from her panicked heart the longer she stared into Nate's eyes, her eyes darting all over his face. "Talk to Kurt about this. Take him to guidance if you have to. He's a great listener and I happen to know that he'd get the moon for you." With a gentle and knowing smile, Nate released Harper's chin and stood up, picking up his barely-touched tray and Harper's half-eaten salad, taking them to throw away.

The bell rang when Nate was gone and Harper hesitated for only a moment before gathering up her Trig supplies and leaving the table, shrinking in her skin to make herself small and unnoticed as she thought about her next class with Kurt, the boy who'd thought--no, said, who could read minds?--she was beautiful. Beautiful. That word felt so sweet on Harper's lips, the taste of honey in the back of her throat, that she whispered it aloud just to hear those three syllables. "Beautiful." Would Kurt still think of her as beautiful after he'd heard her story? Would he give her a chance?

Harper found herself standing outside her Trig classroom, her calculator pressing into her stomach as she stood there nervously. "I guess there's only one way to find out," she murmured to herself before taking a deep breath and walking inside.