gold rush [the wilds, toni shalifoe]

chapter 20

Hunter wasn't sure how to break that news to Martha either. The world was not a cheery place. She had been through enough to know that.

"I wanna see the world how she does, I think we all do."

______

"Are you worried about going home?"

Hunter looked up from where she was holding the old diet coke cans, helping Shelby pour the water from the waterfall into them. Shelby looked at her in curiosity and something that Hunter couldn't quite figure out.

"I guess a little," Hunter admitted, her voice soft as she cast a quick glance over her shoulder at Toni before looking back to Shelby with a small smile. "There's a lot of stuff waiting for me at home that I'm not looking forward too, and I've became pretty dependant on you guys. But if someone flies a plan over us and lands on the beach and tells us to het in, I'll be one of the first ones on that plane. Hudson's my home, and I want to get back to him as quickly as possible."

Shelby nodded, not sure what to reply to that. Now that she knew the truth about Riley Black, she didn't doubt that Hunter wouldn't want to go back to their school when he was still there. Besides, she knew there would be no consequences for Riley if the news was broken to the student body - his parents were just too powerful in their community to let his reputation be tarnished.

"I can handle this," Shelby muttered softly in response, Hunter nodding as she noticed the change in mood of the girl. She clearly wanted to be left alone with her thoughts again, so the Boyd twin stood up and joined Fatin's stride towards Leah who seemed to have started to obsessively pluck at her eyebrows again.

"For Martha, dangers would always come from the outside. For Leah, it's different. With her, threats come from within."

"I wouldn't do that," Fatin told Leah, sitting down on the sand to Leah's right while Hunter sat down on her left hand side. Leah looked over at them both as her hand continued to rest on her eyebrows. "The over-tweezed brow is a tough look."

They all sat in silence for a moment before Fatin looked down at Leah with a more serious expression.

"You're going dark on us again, Leah."

"This is the worst its been."

"What is, Leah?" Hunter asked, her voice soft as she turned to face the girl, cross legged in the wet sand. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she noticed the look on her friends face.

"That feeling in the pit of my stomach."

"Yeah, we all have that," Fatin told her, not quite understanding. "It's called gut-wrenching hunger."

"No..." Leah sat up as she looked between the girls frantically. "You know what I mean, it's like that feeling... that itchy fucking feeling that this place is like, touched. I know I hang on to things, but Fatin, Hunter, if I can't let go of something it usually means that I shouldn't."

Fatin reached out and grabbed Leah's wrist, slowing lowering it away from where she had began to tug at her eyebrow again. Hunter rested her hand on top of Leah's other hand, rubbing the girls back in support.

"When I was seven, I had this suicidal goldfish and we had to put mesh over the top of its bowl so it wouldn't jump out. And this one day we went to my grandmother's house in Marin. And on the way there, I became obsessed that we had forgotten the mesh, and the dread was like... insane. It's all I talked about! The mesh, the fish, and I started crying so much that my parents finally took me home."

"And?"

"The fish was fine. The mesh was on. But there was a gas leak in the basement where the dog slept. My dad found him unconscious. He was okay in the end because we found him when we did. It's like there's just a reason that I let my mind run away with me sometimes because its usually about... There's something important! And I'm feeling that right now."