"We also need a cashier's check before we leave," I chimed in.

"Alright, that shouldn't be a problem. I'll just need two pieces of identification and a minimum of one hundred dollars opening deposit."

We both nodded our heads.

Fifteen minutes later, Asa is wrapping up everything he needed. "I'll just get these copied for you. If you'll just get your deposit ready for me. Here's the opening deposit slip. Just fill it out and I'll be back shortly." He stood and entered a room in the back.

While Callum filled out our deposit slip, I reached for my bag and pulled it up into my lap. I opened the top flap and reached toward the bottom for our cash but it wasn't there. Must be in the front zipper, I thought to myself. I unzipped the front pocket and felt around inside. Nothing. My adrenaline started pumping furiously through my veins. I stood up and tossed the insides of my bag all over the seat of my chair.

"What are you doing?" Callum asked, confused but I can't really hear him.

I rummaged through my belongings, knocking things off the sides of the chair, desperately searching for the bands of cash but there was nothing. At this point, Callum stands up realizing what's going on and frantically started searching with me. I found my bag on the floor, unzipped all the pockets, tearing my hands through every inch of every compartment. Callum took the bag from me and turned it upside down, shaking it out, like he could force the money to fall out. My hands begun to tremble and I fell to my knees on the harsh, grey carpet. My entire body shook with disbelief. I brought both hands to my mouth to stifle the sob I was getting ready to let escape but Callum startled me before I could.

"No," he said quietly. "No, it can't be. Not after how hard we worked. Please, there's no way this could be happening."

"What do we do?" I asked, shell shocked.

Callum turned towards me, as if seeing me for the first time since our discovery. He shrugged his shoulders in defeat and joined me by falling to his own knees, barely able to keep himself upright. He hung his head and I couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was my fault. I was so ashamed that I couldn't even look at his beautiful face. He's going to hate you forever for this, I though. I would. Why didn't you zip it into the bottom compartment? I asked myself.

"I'm so sorry, Callum," I barely choked out.

Abruptly, Callum stood and crossed over to me. Instinctively, I held my hands over my head, readying myself for the blow but it never came. Instead, Callum grabbed me by the shoulders and brought me to my feet. He pulled me into the tightest hug and I lost control of myself, sobbing into his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Callum," I cried.

"Shh," he said, stroking my back. "Did you really think I was going to hit you?" He asked.

I nodded in response unable to speak.

"Jesus, what kind of life did you have before me?" But it was a rhetorical question and when I opened my mouth to speak, he just shook his head and hugged me tighter.

"So sorry," I mumbled out, still shaking with sadness.

"It's not your fault, Harper. It's not your fault," he whispered. "It must have been the dude on the subway." I nodded my agreement, sniffing loudly against his chest.

Asa chooses that moment to walk into his tornado blasted office, interrupting our full blown meltdown.

"What happened?" He asked.

"We, uh, lost over five thousand in cash. It was stolen actually."

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Here," Asa said to Callum, helping him place me in Callum's chair. "Shall I call the police?" He asked.

"Please," Callum said, before bending down and gathering all my belongings into a neat pile.

I bent down next to him and helped him fold my laundry and place my stuff back into my messenger bag. The salt from my tears must have clouded my eyesight and I was having trouble controlling my trembling hands because I kept losing my grip on my toothbrush. Callum grabbed it from me and placed it in the front zipper. He closed the top flap of the bag and placed it by my chair. When he stood, he brought me up with him one more time and hugged me closely. He kissed the top of my head but instead of comforting me, it sent me reeling down a spiral of guilt and the tears flowed nonstop until the police arrived.

The police took our statements but both Callum and I knew, we were never going to see that money again. We left the bank a few hours later in utter disbelief. Callum clasped his hand tightly into mine and silently guided me toward The Hope House to wait out the night in hopes we'd get a cot. How long we stood, I don't know but I remembered suddenly being yanked from the line with a single curse from Callum. He dragged me to Central Park and sat me on a bench next to him. He dragged me closely to him, tucking me into his side much like when he introduced me to Charlie that same night. How quickly life can change. In an instant, you can lose your mother, your father, your life, your youth, your innocence, and your pride. Losing your money and possibly the best friend you've ever had seemed like too much, even for me.

"You're going to leave me now, huh?" I asked him.

Callum looked at me, stunned. "What? No. Never, Harper."

"Why not?" I said, staring blankly at him. "I just lost thousands of dollars. I lost any chance of housing for yourself and possibly just made going to school impossible for you as well as myself. Why even bother?"

"Listen to me closely," Callum gritted through clenched teeth, grabbing me by the shoulders, bringing his face closely to mine. "That money was stolen. You were no more responsible for it than I was. Stop blaming yourself, Harper Bailey! Shit happens! You know that just as well as I do but it's because it happens to us so often that he have to fight just a little bit harder.

"One day, you and I are gonna' wake up and be alright. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but one day. One day. I promise you."

He brought his chest to mine and I buried my face in his neck, sobbing at the generosity of his words.

"Thank you," I whispered into his ear.

He buried his hands into my hair and kissed my neck. "No, thank you, Harper."

"For what?" I asked, tears staining the shoulder of his t-shirt.

"For giving me a reason to want to fight again."

Chapter Seven.

Tide is High Callum "So, this is where we're staying the night, I guess?" Harper asked me.

I sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry but The Hope House ran out of cots."

"I figured."

Harper snuggled closely to me on the bench, a massive yawn escaped from her delicious mouth.

"Here, lay down," I ordered her. "We have no blankets, so you'll just have to settle for me," I teased, making her blush the most attractive shade of pink on her soft skin.

She gave in to me and I laid down, my front to hers. We tangled our legs together and I wrapped my arms around her little torso. She sighed, content, and for a moment I didn't feel like the care-taking failure I really was. Laying this close to her sent an oddly warm shiver through my entire body. My feet tingled and that same thread of shocking greatness traveled up my blood stream, affecting even the roots of my hair. I shivered involuntarily and Harper mistook it for my being cold, clutching me tighter, making my heart race and a crimson heat to pool in my stomach. She burrowed her face in my neck and, unable to stop myself, I inhaled the scent of her hair.

As I watched the shadows on her face from the lamp post, I couldn't remember a time I'd ever seen anyone lovelier than Harper Bailey. She was everything I could ever want in a girl and a new fever gathered in my chest when I realized what it meant. I was falling in love with Harper Bailey. The scales were tipping fast and furious in that direction and I was slightly alarmed at how comfortable I was at the rapid descent. Falling for Harper felt like the most natural thing in the world and, God help me, I liked it. Damn the consequences.

Just as she started to drift to sleep, Harper's eyes shot wide, making me grin. "What are we going to do now, Callum?"

"Don't worry about that now. We'll figure it out tomorrow. Just sleep," I told her, wrapping her tightly against me.

She nodded and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, her breaths steadied with sleep and I felt free to spend most of the night wondering just what in the hell we were going to do. Somewhere between the fantasy of winning the lottery and desperately considering knocking over the proverbial liquor store, I fell to sleep.

"Get up!" I heard someone yelling. I realized that someone was poking me with something hard in the back. I turned around and recognized the end of a police officer's flashlight. "Did you hear me? Wake up!" The officer said.

I stumbled up and helped a sleepy Harper sit up as well. The officer shone the bulk of his light at our faces but as we shaded our eyes from the blinding brightness, he dragged the beam toward our chests.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked. "Have too much to drink tonight?"

"No, sir," a scratchy voiced Harper answered.

"No, we just didn't have a place to sleep," I offered.

The officer narrowed his eyes at us. "Why not?"

"We're homeless," I said and it felt so weird admitting it out loud.

"Run away?" He asked.

"No sir," I said. "We have no home to run from."

"Why didn't you stay at one of the city's night facilities?"

"We tried," Harper said, "but they ran out of cots."

"Have your I.D.'s?" He asked bluntly.

Harper and I pulled ours out and handed them over to him. He spoke into his sleeve radio and asked the operator to check us out. When he was satisfied we weren't wanted criminals, he handed us back our I.D.'s.

"You guys can't sleep out here," he said, bringing us to our feet and escorting us from the park.

"But we have nowhere to go," Harper said.

"That's not my problem, kid. Should have thought about that before you ran away from mom and dad. Maybe their rules aren't so bad now that you're sleeping outside on a bench, are they?"

Harper began to open her mouth but I just shook my head. "Come on."

We walked away from the park, towards the city and leaned against the nearest building. We both yawned loudly and laughed at the other.

"Bless my soul! I am so tired," Harper said.

I yawned again when she did. "Careful, or we'll be trading these all night," I said.

"Where should we go?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. I walked to a nearby store and although it was closed, pressed my face against the glass and read the time on the register. "Cherry will be home at five a.m. She'd probably let us crash on her floor."

"What time is it?"

"Four."

"Should we start walking toward her place?" Harper asked.

"Why not."

We arrived at Cherry's apartment, at four fifteen and sat outside her door. We must have fallen asleep because I woke to Cherry kicking my toe. Harper stayed asleep on my shoulder.

"Dude, what's up?" She asked, her eyes full of concern.

"We got kicked out of Central Park," I whispered, careful not to wake Harper.

"When?"

"Around four," I said, unsure.

Cherry leaned her face towards mine. "Were you both sleeping there? What happened to your apartment?"

I shook my head. "We had five g's stolen on the subway. Lost all our money."

Cherry placed her hand on the top of her head and exhales loudly, like she can't believe our luck and it accidentally wakes Harper. "Crap," she said, but I'm not sure if she meant that about waking Harper or about the money, probably a little of both. "You two just can't catch a break, can you?"

Harper funnily agreed, completely unaware of our topic but immediately laid her head back onto my shoulder and fell back to sleep.

"Come on," Cherry said, opening the door. "You can take the carpet underneath my coffee table. I don't have anything softer, I'm sorry."

Cherry lived in a little studio and her fold out sofa is her bed. She had a small kitchen that doubled as her laundry and a small bathroom with a stand-up shower. It was cheap but she somehow made it look like the Taj Mahal because she was crafty like that. I balanced Harper's head against the wall and stood before picking her up and carrying her into Cherry's.

"Lay your girl down here," she said, removing the coffee table and sliding the rug nearer to the kitchen. I started to lay her down but Cherry stopped me. "Wait, let me get an old sleeping bag in my closet." She left and returned with a maroon sleeping bag, unzipping the sides as she walked. She laid it flat over the carpet and I laid Harper on top. I immediately crashed on top. "Tired?" Cherry asked the room but got no answer.

She snorted and I could hear her toss two of her sofa pillows at us. A light quilt cascaded on top of us.

"I love you, Cherry bomb."

"I love you too, Callum. Good night, baby."

Cherry turned out the lights and I was asleep before the light bulb cooled.

Later that morning, while Cherry still slept, Harper and I folded her blanket and rolled up her sleeping bag. We both took showers and because I had taken a hundred out of our stash to keep in my wallet, Thank God, I went to get breakfast for all of us while Harper dried her hair.

As I stood in line, trying to figure out if they had real cream for Harper's tea or not, I heard a tiny voice creep into my ear.

"What are you doing here?"

I turned around to see Sam standing directly behind me. Oh, dear God.

"Oh, yeah," I absently remarked. "You live in Cherry's building. I must have forgotten."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. You've been in love with me for two years, Callum Tate. You knew I lived here."

I was taken aback by her truthfulness. In fact, I had remembered that she lived in that building. I just thought she'd be at Charlie's and didn't think more beyond that.

"So, you knew," I said, staring directly ahead.

The person in front of me moved up and I followed suit as did Sam.

"Of course I knew. Everyone knew, including Charlie." That stung a little bit to hear.

"Why aren't you at Charlie's?" I asked, evading.

"He and I...Well, we've decided to see other people."