The First Steps (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 1 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter Fourteen

❝no (pronounced nəʊ or as spelled), exclamation
used to give a negative response.❞

Lilly practically ran to Hunter's apartment the next day when he called her over. She wasn't sure if it was nerves or excitement, thinking about seeing him. She had convinced herself all night that she had to tell him. She realised that she had always loved him too, but repressed it because of her parents' expectations. But now, Hunter was a celebrity. This was a whole new story. Maybe her parents would let her be in love with him. She had a feeling that maybe he still felt the same about her. She had a feeling that maybe she had the right guy all along, and she was just too blind to see it.

Maybe he was going to help her clarify those thoughts.

She got to the apartment, and Hunter opened as soon as she knocked. "Hey," he said, wrapping her in a hug. "I made us some scrambled eggs."

"Thanks, love."

He cocked his eyebrow. "That's new."

"What is?"

"You never call me love. Hunt, yeah. Bud, yeah. But not love. That's new."

She blushed. "Does it bother you?"

He shrugged, smiling and winking. "Not if it doesn't bother you."

Is he flirting? thought Lilly. Gosh, that'd be nice. Wait, what? No, no, wait, dammit!

"Um... you look constipated," said Hunter, a little concerned, and she tried to make her face seem somewhat emotionless.

"Thanks for pointing that out."

He chuckled. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"We're going to have a battle," she said. "Okay, so we're gonna build pillow forts, and then we'll attack each other with paper airplanes. First one to knock over the box of Oreos on the other side wins."

"I like it!" said Hunter with enthusiasm. "Let's eat, then we'll battle."

"To the death!" yelled Lilly.

"TO THE DEATH!" yelled Hunter even louder, then laughed. "This is what twenty year olds do with their spare time."

"What, you mean most twenty year olds have lives?" asked Lilly, and Hunter laughed harder. She was proud to have made him laugh.

Shut up, Lilly.

She and Hunter ate quickly, before they halved the amount of pillows and blankets Hunter had and got to work building their forts. Both built forts worthy of kings, and soon, both had several fleets of airplanes. "I'm going to crush you and your fort," growled Hunter mockingly.

"Oh, I'd say I'll crush you first, but then I'd be psychic."

"You're so on," said Hunter, readying his first plane. "Ready... aim... fire!"

With a battle cry of, "OREOS!" Lilly fired the first plane, hitting Hunter square in the forehead. He yelled back, "COFFEE!" and managed to slightly dislodge one of her blankets with his plane. They kept at it for over an hour, laughing and screaming their battle cries as they each hit each other and their forts.

"You're going down, Lawson!"

"Not if you go down first, Hayes!" She expertly threw a plane onto one of his couch pillow walls, which she had been aiming for about three times now, and it went down.

"WALL DOWN, WALL DOWN!" yelled Hunter, frantically trying to fix it, but managing to knock down yet another wall. Lilly could see the Strawberry Oreos, She aimed carefully, but missed. By now, Hunter managed to fix the first wall, and threw a plane at one of her blanket bearings, toppling the whole thing on top of her. She made a "MMPH!" noise, and Hunter laughed hysterically. "VICTORY IS MINE!"