Harlee

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"Hey, James. Hey, Evan,"

I greeted from my place on the log that I was sitting on in between Rachel and Jasper.

She and I had met up with Jasper at the bonfire a little while ago.

My parents were over helping out with the food and preparing fireworks, so everyone could be situated before the sun went down.

Evan and James had just approached us, and I was honestly glad to see them. Jasper's face had been in his phone the entire time, and Rachel couldn't stop talking about Evan, so I was pretty much dying of boredom.

Rachel scooted further away from me to make room for Evan to sit beside her now. I scooted closer towards Jasper, so that James could sit in her old seat.

Jasper didn't move an inch.

I rolled my eyes at him.

I was so over his addiction to that device.

Hadn't he grown tired of staring at that screen yet?

"Hey," James smiled and took a seat beside me.

I smiled back. It felt nice to be civil towards him, even though we were no longer friends. It gave me a sense of peace.

Evan greeted me then took a seat beside Rachel.

"Hey," he said, smiling.

"Hi," she smiled back, shyly.

"I like your hair like that," he remarked, touching one of the black spiral

curls cascading down her back.

"Thanks," she smiled wider.

She and I had both curled our hair for the bonfire, and I'd worn the gift she'd gotten for me. My "kinda sweet, kinda savage" shirt was my favorite part of my outfit.

James noticed my new top and complimented it. "That looks nice on you; did you get it for your birthday?" he asked me.

"Yup, Rachel got it for me. And thank you," I replied, turning back toward the fire to finish roasting the marshmallow for my fifth s'more that evening.

"Your hair looks nice too." James nodded at my curls.

I gave him another polite smile.

Okay, we're on good terms, but why are you being overly nice to me?

I thought, feeling confused.

Jasper seemed to notice James' multiple compliments too because right then, he lifted his head. He narrowed his eyes at James and said,

"What's your problem, anyway? Why one minute you're a total jerk then the next you want to be best friends with her again?"

I felt annoyed at Jasper for saying that to him.

Jasper had been referring to James and my fighting at the start of the summer. But I had a feeling James would think he'd been referring to our most recent fight, which Jasper actually knew nothing about.

I didn't want James to think I was gossiping about him to Jasper.

But before I could defend him, James snapped back himself.

"Why don't you stay out of our conversation and mind your own business? I'm surprised you even noticed with your face stuck in that phone," he said angrily.

The comeback left me stunned.

James had never spoken to Jasper so aggressively.

What had gotten into him?

I didn't give Jasper a chance to throw an insult back.

"Okay, you two. That's enough," I said, waving my marshmallow spear towards each of them. James and Jasper seemed to think I was threatening them with it because they both piped down.

But Evan didn't. He looked at Jasper and said loudly, "Yeah, why do you have your face stuck in that phone? You don't see me ignoring my date the way you're ignoring yours."

My face probably turned about ten different shades of red. I couldn't believe Evan had just referred to me as Jasper's "date." I opened my mouth to set him straight, but before I could, something even more awkward happened.

Jasper threw an arm around my shoulders and said,

"I'm not ignoring her. Harlee is having a great time; aren't you, Harlee?"

I noticed he was glaring at James when he said it, although Evan had been the one he'd been talking to.

If he'd been trying to make James angry, it had totally worked. His amber eyes were burning like embers, and a dark cloud of fury washed over his face.

This time seeing James jealous didn't give me any satisfaction, though; in fact, it made me feel guilty. Now that I wasn't seeking revenge on him anymore, I didn't really need to continue hanging out with Jasper.

This could be our first and last "date."

I had already told Jasper that this was "just a hang-out, not a date," but it seemed it had gone right over his head. Given the fact, his arm was still around my shoulders.

I shrugged him off and said,

"Yeah, great. So great. Except I'm dying of thirst. I'll be right back."

I stood to my feet and hurried over towards a food tent. I needed something cool to drink before I fainted from stress. I opened up a cooler and pulled out five bottles of lemonade, one for each of us. Because clearly, I wasn't the only one who needed to cool down.

When I turned around to head back, I saw Rachel had followed me.

Concern glinted from her brown eyes as she asked me, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes and no," I replied as we started walking back over towards the log.

She politely took some of the lemonades from my hand, so I wouldn't have to carry so many. It was nice of her, but I wished she hadn't followed me. If we didn't hurry, by the time we got back, James and Jasper may have very well torn one another apart.

I picked up the pace and gestured for her to follow.

"Explain?" she asked.

"Jasper and James, it's almost as if they're fighting over me," I said.

"Did you see the way he put his arm around me a second ago?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, I saw. You seemed to be pretty uncomfortable. So you don't like Jasper as anything more than a friend?" she asked me, but her tone sounded like she already knew the answer.

"I don't even want him as that anymore," I stated, then sighed and stopped walking. Rachel stopped next to me.

"The only reason I started hanging out with him was to make James jealous," I admitted. "But now that I see how...Jasper he is I don't want to be around him anymore."

"Yeah, he seems pretty boring," Rachel observed.

"And when he's not boring, he's mean," I replied.

"Well, I have another question for you," she said, sounding hesitant.

"Yeah?" I popped open my lemonade and took a sip.

"Do you like James as more than a friend?" she asked me.

I choked mid-swallow then began coughing.

Rachel gently patted my back a few times.

I collected myself then exclaimed, "No! Why would you even ask something like that?" I looked at her incredulously.

"Sorry." She shrugged. "Just the way you talk and flirt, it seems like you have feelings for each other."

I rolled my eyes, feeling frustrated.

Yet another Jarlee shipper to set straight, I thought.

"James and I do not flirt. We're just friends. Well, we were," I told her.

"And now you're ex-friends that are secretly still in love with each other?" she smiled hopefully.

"Rachel!" I said back, becoming more exasperated.

"Okay, maybe it is my imagination, but I see something there," she stated simply then headed back over toward the fire.

I rolled my eyes again, but her words resonated with me.

Something there, she had said.

There had always been something between James and me that I'd never known how to explain.

I followed after her and handed Jasper and James a lemonade.

"Aww, thanks, Harlee; you're seriously the best," Jasper gushed at me as he set his phone on the ground.

I tried not to cringe at how disingenuous he was being just to annoy James. Sitting back down on the log, I pulled my phone from my pocket and prayed for the night to end already.

But it wasn't even close to ending.

The real drama hadn't even started yet.

James and Jasper were still fighting for my attention.

Every time one of them would talk to me, the other would either interrupt somehow or try to divert the attention back towards themself.

"Do you need help with that?" James asked me as I was putting together a kebab to roast in the fire.

The sun had gone down by now, and stars decorated the sky.

Mildly cool night air surrounded us, but the fire kept us warm.

"Oh, I've got it. But thanks, James," I told him.

He either didn't hear me or acted like he didn't because he started helping anyways. He picked up a hot dog piece off the paper plate full of bite-sized chunks of food and stuck it onto the skewer.

I reached down to put a piece of cheese on next.

James, knowing exactly how I liked my kebabs, reached for the same piece of cheese and our hands touched.

Suddenly, I felt warm inside.

Our eyes met, and I felt closer to him than I had in weeks.

Beside the fire, his face was glowing beautifully.

Fireworks had begun, but James' amber irises were a sparkling light show of their own.

Just for a moment, time felt still.

"Hot dog then cheese, you remembered that too," I said softly, moving my hand away.

James smiled at me. "Some things you just don't forget," he said.

"Right." I smiled back.

"Remember the first time we came to this together?" he asked.

"Of course, I do," I said. "Honestly, it's kind of impossible to forget anything when it comes to..." I let my voice trail off.

But James finished for me. "Us," he said.

"Yeah, we're pretty unforgettable." I nodded.

At that, Jasper looked up from his phone then set it on the ground beside his bottle of lemonade. Then he reached his hand onto my plate.

"I could help you with that, Harlee," he said and started sticking food chunks onto my skewer.

James immediately became annoyed.

"You don't even know how she likes them," he said, glaring at his enemy.

Here we go again, I thought irritably.

"Well, she can't tell me that or anything else, because you keep opening

your big mouth and interrupting stuff," Jasper said back.

"Mm, she'd have to tell you, but I already know. I know way more about her than you do because we've spent way more time together," he replied, his tone smug.

He'd been doing that all night, using how much he knew about me and how much Jasper didn't to one-up him.

"I've probably spent more time with her than you have this summer. You're a fake friend," Jasper fired back.

And Jasper had been doing that all night, using the way James had been treating me as leverage against him.

Regardless, his statement about us hanging out a lot was not true. Jasper and I had only hung out twice, the time at the mall when he'd asked me out and when we'd gone to the beach.

I was about to voice this, but before I could, Jasper and James started doing something even stupider than what they were already doing.

Jasper yanked my plate towards himself and said,

"Harlee doesn't need your help, James. I do know one thing about her, and it's that she doesn't like to be treated like she's helpless."

James yanked the plate back towards himself, saying, "She doesn't mind being helped. It's YOUR help that she doesn't want, Jasper."

Jasper yanked the plate back again, and then James yanked it back harder.

Unfortunately for me, he pulled it so hard that it ended up spilling into the grass.

I sighed in exasperation.

Jasper started laughing while James began apologizing.

"I'm so sorry, Harlee," James said. "I was just trying to help."

"Way to go, James. You helped so much; her food is all over the ground now," Jasper remarked.

James ran a hand through his hair, seeming flustered.

"Forget it. I'm not even hungry anymore," I said, folding my arms and staring up at the sky.

And honestly, I wasn't.

Their immature arguing was putting a damper on my entire night.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Evan were off in couple world, ignoring all three of us. "Hey, are you cold?" Evan asked her after noticing she'd been rubbing her arms.

"Yeah, the temperature is dropping, and I forgot to bring a jacket to wear over my dress." She nodded.

"I have one in the car; I can go get it for you," he offered.

"Oh, you don't have to," Rachel smiled at his offer.

"No, it's no problem," he reassured then stood to his feet. Then he helped her up from the log. She was grinning at him as if he'd just asked for her hand in marriage.

I giggled to myself.

Those two probably would last long enough to get married, I thought jokingly.

Although I was kidding, I could honestly see them lasting. I'd never seen Evan look at a girl the way he looked at Rachel nor treat one the way he treated her. And she was equally obsessed with him as he was with her.

They started walking away from the log. But as they did, Evan's foot knocked over Jasper's nearly full bottle of lemonade causing the glass bottle to smash against his phone that was still on the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you put your feet, Evan!!" Jasper shouted, snatching his phone from the ground.

He wiped it off frantically then looked at the screen.

It was cracked.

"Ugh!" he groaned angrily.

"You're such an idiot! Why don't you watch where you're going?!" he barked at him.

Evan tried apologizing. "Sorry, I didn't mean to," he said.

"Yes, you did!" Jasper shoved him in the chest.

"You and Jamie over here have been trying to get to me all night."

At that, I stood to my feet. "Jasper, it was an accident," I said.

I knew Evan would never do something like that, and James wouldn't ever put him up to it, no matter how much they despised Jasper.

People started looking over at us, and I heard some of them, asking "Is everything alright?" but none of us answered them.

Jasper became agitated with me at that point.

"Back off, Harlee, and don't get involved; this is between me and Evan," he said to me.

"Don't talk to me like that!" I said, stomping my foot angrily.

How dare he tell me not to get involved while he was shoving my friend?

"Yeah, don't," James said, sounding furious as well.

Jasper ignored both of us and continued shoving Evan.

"What's your problem, anyway?" he yelled as he shoved him.

"Stop! Stop shoving him!" Rachel commanded, sounding scared.

When Evan fell to the ground, I knew things had gone too far.

I hurried over to try pulling Jasper away before someone seriously got hurt.

"Cut it out, Jasper!" James said, sounding furious still.

I grabbed Jasper's arm but then Jasper shoved me to the ground as well.

I fell to the ground on my bottom, and some of my curls flew over my face.

"Harlee!" Rachel cried out, running over towards me.

Stunned by what had just happened, it took me a moment to collect myself. I pushed my curls out of my face to see, yet another person had joined the fight.

James had jumped in.

And before I knew it, Jasper was the one on the ground.