Never Leave

Chapter 4

The man who she bumped in to looks down at me and me up to him. "Cass?"

"Hunter?"

"Whoa! This is the Hunter?" Lily says astonished.

"Uh yeah, that's him." I say to Lily not taking my eyes off of his. 

A smile slowly starts to grow onto his face and one on mine too. 

"How are you doing?" He asks in his deep voice. I quickly take him in.  He's wearing a pair of dark wash jeans and simple black t-shirt.

"Good, just walking around." I look over at Lily to see her glaring suspiciously at Hunter.

"Lil?" I ask her slightly shaking her shoulder. 

"Arn't you a little old to be interested in little Cassondra here?" Her face entirely straight the whole time.

"Lily!" I yell exasperated.

She turns to be with a confused look. "What?"

I look back at Hunter who seems to be enjoying this. "Well it's nice to see you are watching out for her, but I'm only 22." He says this with laughter in his voice.

"Uh, Lily? Where's Tony?" I ask realizing the little guy is no where to be seen.

"Who's Tony?" Hunter asks clearly confused.

"He's my little brother." She's turning around in a circle trying to seek him out. She looks up at Hunter, "Your tall, do you see a little kid around 8 years old with blond hair? He's wearing a red t-shirt and black basketball shorts." 

I can tell shes panicking at the moment  trying to find him. "Hey Lil, how bout you go over by the Z-shop and look for him there, and Hunter and I will go over to the candy shop and look for him over there." 

"Yeah, let's do that." She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and waves it at me."Call me if you find him." She turns and starts walking toward the way I told her to. 

I look up at Hunter. "I guess your stuck with me for the moment." I turn around and go to take a step. I turn my head to the left to see a man on a bicycle racing toward me. A hand wraps around my waist and pulls me back, pushing on my ribs, pain automatically soars through my body. 

My back crashes against Hunters chest, the pain still searing through my side. I pull away from him clutching my side with my arm. I'm slightly bent over gasping with pain. "Cass? Are you alright?" He bends down a little so that he's almost at eye level with me. His face is creased with worry, his hand on my back rubbing soothing circles.

I shake my head no, not being able to speak through the pain. He leads me over to a bench near by, having me sit down and he crouches down in front of me. He puts his hands on either side of my face making me look up at him. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm fine. Just the wind got knocked out of me. It's nothing. Let's go find Tony." I shake my head and stand up, Hunter standing up with me. I wince slightly at the pain from the irritated ribs. 

I start walking toward the candy shop with my arm still pressed tightly to my side. Hunter strides next to me not believing a single word I just said. "That wasn't nothing Cass. I want to know what's wrong."

"Uh, I fell off a trampoline the other day and landed on my side. I think I cracked one and bruised three others. I wrapped them with a ACE bandage. It's not that bad." I have to tell him a lie. I can't tell him what really happened. I cant tell anyone.

He looks like he believes the lie. "Did you get them checked out?" He asks. I don't look at him, knowing that if I do, he will see the clear lie in my eyes, so I keep looking around for Tony.

"Uh, no. It's fine." It seems as if he was going to say something but he doesn't get the chance. I spot Tony standing against the side of the candy shop looking so scared. "Tony!" I yell. His head whips around and he starts running toward me. He bumps into my legs and wraps his arms around me. I crouch down and look him over for any injury's. "You okay bud?" He shakes his head at me. "Where's Lil?" He asks.

"Probably freaking out right about now." I straighten up and pull my cell phone from my pocket and dial her number. She picks up the phone on the second ring. "Cass! Did you find him?!" 

"Yeah. He's fine. Meet us at the beach." I hear her let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. See you in a few." We hang up and I turn back to Tony and Hunter. Tony's staring up at Hunter. He looks incredibly small against Hunters huge frame. 

"Who are you?" Tony asks with his tiny hands on his hips.

Hunter laughs a little and answers his question. "I'm Cassy's friend." 

"Boyfriend?" Tony asks sincerely confused. My face goes red from embarrassment.

Hunter scratches his head and bends down to Tony height. He motions for him to come closer and whispers something in his ear. He leans back and looks at Tony. Tony shakes his head and smiles at him. 

Hunter stands back up and looks at me. "Should we get heading back to the beach?" He asks. I tilt my head to the side questioning what he said to Tony. He quirks a grin at me and just shrugs his shoulders.  

I huff. "Alright let's go Tony." 

He grabs my hand and we start walking. All of a sudden his hand is pulled out of my grasp. I turn around and see that Hunter has put him on his shoulders and Tony's laughing like no tomorrow. 

Hunter starts running down the street with Tony bouncing on his shoulders. 

I smile and shake my head as I watch Tony, my best friends little brother who I have watched grow up, and Hunter, the guy I have just met yesterday who I already have a major crush on, run down the street making the people walking by laugh with them.