Choking on Diamonds

Twenty Nine

"Get out."

My brows pulled together in confusion as I looked to my left at Hunter, running his large hand through his curly hair. The sun was setting late after the clocks had been switched from summer, leaving the sky pink at eight. The past hour between Hunter and I had been the definition of tense, neither one of us knowing how we should be acting towards one another. On the way back from the pharmacy Hunter had pulled the eerily silent car over in the middle of a deserted forest road, leaving me more confused than ever.

"Excuse me?"

"I want to look you in the eyes when I talk to you and I can't wait any longer," he replied easily, not looking away from me for even a second as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his black jaguar. And as his door closed and I was left in silence, I realized that I really had no other choice. Reluctantly, my hand grasped the cool silver door handle as Hunter rounded the front of the car. With nerves building in my stomach, I stepped out onto the grass and closed the door behind me. "Is this all so you can kill me and you don't ruin your leather seats?"

"Like I'd be that lazy to be the last person seen with you before you disappeared. I'm not dumb you know," Hunter joked half heartedly, crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest as he looked down at me. "Which is why I can tell Kenna wasn't just talking about medication when you left the room. What did she say to you, Ki?"

My lips parted but I didn't answer, debating if I should tell Hunter the truth. His deep eyes stared down into my sapphire ones like I should have easily known the answer, ready to tell him everything but it wasn't that simple. My silence was more then enough indication for Hunt to continue. "It's obvious something changed between us in the last hour and I know it's not just because I kissed you. What did she say to you, Ki?"

He deserved a chance to defend himself, right? Innocent until proven guilty. The only problem is that seemed to be biting me in the ass a lot lately. Either way, I had a soft sport for Hunter and that pushed me to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"She said I shouldn't get emotionally involved with you because you're lying to me," the words left my mouth as confidently as they could, watching as betrayal mared Hunter's defines features.

"And you believe her?" He asked incredulously, his offense punching me in the face. "Not even once have I lied to you, Kyra." Hunter leaned forward, caging my body between his two arms on the roof of the car. He looked down at me with an intense face, like he was waiting for me to crack. Hunter's pink lips parted as I stared back at him, inside what to say. I'd never thought he had lied to me besides when he first told me David was not the father of Kenna's child, but now I didn't know what to believe.

"Kenna has lied to you on a regular basis and you know that for a fact. Are you truly doubting everything I say to you, Kyra?" His right hand lightly tipped my chin up, holding my head in place as his warm irises searched mine.

"No, I-she's my sister, Hunter. What am I supposed to say? Fuck you and your opinions because you are irrelevant to my life?" My voice cracked out of the sheer pressure of the situation, my pulse starting to race as my stomach knotted in nerves.

"You told me you wanted to kiss you, Kyra. Why?"

The question hit me like a ton of bricks, forcing me to face the reality of my life right now. I could lie to Hunter or tell him the truth and both of those options had more negatives than positives. I was stuck in a world where all I was told was lies. People only looked out for their own skins and left others to take the fall. No one in this town was innocent and they never would be. Humans are liars and even love and family couldn't protect you from the rot that is human desire. So I could lie to Hunter and become like the people that fucked my life up over and over again, the same people that got Duke killed, the same fucking people that ruined my sister's life. We only had ourselves and our peers to blame because we were all just a mix of inevitables, destined to ruin everything.