Harper Green, first-chair violinist for her high school’s orchestra, walks into the auditorium for the final concert of her junior year. Dressed in concert black, her pale, freckled skin seems to glow in the stage lighting as she navigates through the different sections, her violin in hand. She’s played violin for 8 years now, and the rosewood violin seems more like an extension of her arm; the bow, her magic wand. Her mousy brown hair is pinned back behind her ears to give herself all the room she needs for that beautiful instrument to rest on her shoulder and under her chin.

During concerts like this, Harper’s mind is forever lost to the music. She can only see whoever is in the front row, usually her parents, and the other members of the orchestra around her. She is never truly aware of everything around her, even if it would change her life forever. One thing Harper doesn’t notice is the star quarterback of Millbrook High sitting at the back of the first section in a direct view of where Harper now sits.

Tripp Danvers, star football player and captain of the football team, has been trying to get Harper Green to go out with him for the better part of a year, but she has never once said yes. The young man was set to graduate this summer, and even though they had grown up together, and she was his sister’s very best friend, he wanted to take Harper Green out on the perfect date.

His sister wasn’t able to be here with him tonight, since she was out on a date with her boyfriend, Zach, and neither were any of their other friends, so Tripp was there completely by himself to support Harper and also show her that he really cared. She was more important than football would ever be, more important than anything to Tripp, and he just wanted her to know that for certain.

Harper raised her violin to rest on her shoulder, sitting up straight and glancing above her sheet music to lock eyes directly with the boy she’d been crushing on for years. Believe it or not, Harper has been in love with Tripp Danvers since middle school. So why on Earth does she keep rejecting him when he asks her out on a date?

Her reasoning comes from the fact that they had all been best friends since daycare. Their whole friend group: Tripp, Donny, Colton, Nessa, Zach, Millie, and Harper, had made a pact in the early years of their adolescence that they would never date anyone in the friend group. That was until Nessa and Colton broke that rule…and then Millie and Zach broke that rule…

Why was Harper constantly saying no?

She couldn’t answer the question before her director raised his arms and guided them to start their very first piece of the evening.

Tripp heard the first note of the music start and any chatter that had remained in that auditorium was silenced as everyone else turned to focus on the droning noise of the starting pitch roused everyone to attention. Harper lifted her bow, watching her director now for the cue to begin, and then the music seemed to flow.

It was the most amazing thing that Tripp had ever seen in his entire life. Harper became ethereal as her bow glided across the strings of her violin, creating the most tantalizingly beautiful melody, like a siren’s call beckoning Tripp forward. She flowed through each note effortlessly, each chord, each measure…everything blended together in a symphony of glorious noise. Tripp knew right then and there that this girl would be the death of him, and he welcomed the destruction with open arms. He could sit there and watch her play for the rest of his life, never once even daring to move, or to blink. She was a siren, and he a sailor on a passing ship which has suddenly come to a careening halt as the entire crew is enthralled with the beauty of her.

Harper felt like nothing could touch her here. She was floating on a cloud, weightless as the music surrounded her, calming her every nerve and carrying her from one high to the next. She was a herald from on high, spreading the message of passionate love through gliding her bow across those brand new strings that she can put in the day before.

The performance spoke of love, of tragedy, and of doom. All passion escaped into that room to fill the hearts of both Tripp and Harper, entirely lost into the pull of the music’s loving and fierce hold.

When the performance was over, Tripp took a second to come back down to reality, having felt himself slip into a trance of some sort after having her take his entire attention into another realm where she ruled over everything. It was always going to be her, and Tripp was one hundred percent certain about that fact now, and he would go insane if he didn’t just try one more time.

Just one more time. If she said no, he’d leave it alone for good. He was supposed to be going off to college in the fall anyway, it would be painless…no, it would be earth-shattering, but he would get through it. All he wanted was this beautiful angel to be in his life, and he would take his destruction at her hands in any form she was willing to give it.

As Harper descended the stairs on the side of the stage, her eyes locked with Tripp’s once again, but this time, something seemed to snap into place. Was it fate? Who knows? All Harper knew was the magnetic pull in her core as she took one step towards him, and then Tripp stood. Once he was standing there was no time to waste. Harper took off running, the remnants of passion pulling her forward until she crashed into his arms.

Tripp watched as she ran towards him, and he thought his heart might burst as she catapulted into him, and immediately melted into her as she finally kissed him.

Years of pining spoke plain and true in this embrace of the two teenagers, already feeling that distinct pull of fate. Harper knew deep down in her gut that this was exactly where she was meant to be.

***

It’s that safety that Harper Green found in the arms of her very first love that she remembers now as she sits silently in the backseat of the car. They always say that the memories of life are what flash through people’s minds as they die. Is this what he saw?

Red and blue lights flash around the small clearing in the woods just outside of Millbrook, Indiana. The lake just on the other side of those trees was a haven for this group of teens, but it had turned into the most hellish of nightmares as they witnessed their beloved quarterback, friend, love, and brother disappear into the traps of that cold, black abyss.

He was gone.

Tripp Danvers was gone.

All that remained were the memories of the young man that had stayed home another year, waiting to start college with his sister and his girlfriend, but now he would never get that chance. Harper was left all alone, locked in the backseat of the cop car as they searched for his body, but all that remained was the bracelet that Harper clutched in her hands. The matching one on her wrist.

He had lost it in the lake. The lake isn’t safe after dark.

Tripp went back into the lake for this stupid bracelet, tossing it to shore as he was taken from them.

A ‘H’ for Harper. A ‘T’ for Tripp.

All she could hear were sirens, and all she craved was music.