Free Harp's Song by Cassie Shine

driveway.
    Connor turns to me, “I’m sorry. You’re right … all of this is my fault, but Harp, I care about you a lot and I was so worried. You should have seen me driving from school to JJ’s … it’s a miracle I didn’t get a ticket since I was driving like a maniac.”
    “I know you worry about me, and I appreciate your concern, but you, of all people should know that I can handle a lot. I handled tonight. Everything turned out fine. But I still don’t understand why me being dressed like this made you so mad.”
    Connor shifts his eyes to look out the front windshield and then shifts them back to me. I follow his gaze as it travels down my body and back up, pausing for a second on my lips. When I do reconnect with his eyes, they are full with emotion and change from emerald to forest green and I can feel that shift come back between us. The cab of his truck fills with a buzzing tension.
    He looks at my lips again as he leans over. His hand reaching up to the back of my head and I try not to wince in pain. Our foreheads are touching and his breathing is erratic.
    “Harp,” his warm breath brushes my lips when he utters my name. Then his lips are kissing mine. I’m too stunned to do anything. I sit there feeling the warmth of his soft lips until he pulls away from me, suddenly leaving me hollow and cold. I realize I want his warmth back on me again … I bring my hands up to touch his face and pull his gaze back to mine, searching his glassy dark green eyes.
    We sit there for what feels like an eternity, letting years of friendship surround us and I can’t move. I can’t do anything but think about his lips on my lips. I look down to his mouth and back up to his eyes.
    He leans in and kisses the corner of my mouth and then he’s over my lips again, and this time I don’t sit still, I join him and feel friendship and passion. I get drunk on the total euphoria taking over my body. I move my hands into his hair pulling him closer to me. He teases my lips with his tongue and I respond opening my lips to him, causing a moan to escape from the back of my throat. I can’t get enough and I don’t want him to stop. His hand reaches the back of my head so I pull away breathing hard, and pull his hand into mine.
    “So ….” I say looking down at our hands in my lap.
    “So ….” He says back. I look up at him and see a smile pulling across his face and his eyes are a shimmering bright sea of green.
    “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that, Harp.”
    I look back down to hide the ridiculous blush that I can feel creeping up my chest, neck and face. But Connor knows me too well, and he chuckles, lifting my head with his finger under my chin.
    “Don’t hide from me, ever. You have nothing to be embarrassed about with me,” he says before tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I know we have a lot to talk about, but we’ll have to do that after Ethan and Emma leave ‘cause they are pulling in now and we need to go inside.”
    Between the kiss and the throbbing in my head, I’ve lost the ability to speak, so I nod in agreement.
    “You’re staying with me tonight, right?”
    “Um, yeah … Emma’s got my overnight bag in her car.”
    “Good, we’ll talk then.”
    Connor gets out of the truck to greet Ethan and Emma. I see Emma hold up bags from the grocery store with a giant smile on her face and I chuckle. I open my door and as I start to climb out, the ground becomes fuzzy. I shake my head to clear the cobwebs, but it doesn’t help, and I end up falling out of the truck into a pair of strong, familiar arms.
    “Hey, are you ok?”
    “Oh my God! What happened?” I hear Emma say.
    Crap. The pressure against my head must have gotten to me and now—my headache is twice as bad as it was before.
    “Take me inside, I just need some water. I need to sit down … too much stress tonight,” I manage to get out.
    “You need ice cream, it solves everything,” Emma says seriously. “Come