The Only Exception

three

"You're not allowed to leave with him, Drew! I am in charge." Quinn had followed us to the door and looked like she was about to physically explode as she shook with anger.

"We aren't leaving, I just have to give her the homework she missed," Hunter rolled his eyes.

He opened the front door and allowed me to step outside. He followed suit and then closed the door, hopefully stopping Quinn from yelling at us some more.

Hunter bent down to pick up his backpack which he must have set down when he heard my glass cup shatter. He then turned to face me and gently placed his hands on either side of my face. My breath caught at our close proximity, and I stared up at him quietly, unsure of what he was doing.

He slightly turned my face to the side to inspect my stitches and bruising with a caring look in his eye. "Are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded before swallowing hard. Growing up, Hunter had always made me feel giddy like a schoolgirl crush usually did, but it was different now. We were older. The boy I had once known was now a mystery to me and he made me nervous, but not in a bad way.

His calloused hands let go of my face and he swung his backpack around to open it. He pulled out a couple sheets of paper and two of his notebooks.

"This is the homework that's due tomorrow for Math and English. I took notes in both Physics and History so you can copy those down if you want and then just bring me my notebooks tomorrow."

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked down at everything he was handing me. I never expected Hunter Evans to be the academic type. I also didn't expect him to be so thoughtful and bring me all of the work I had missed.

"Oh wow, thank you so much," I spoke slowly as I took the stack. Hunter smiled down at me, our height difference being almost laughable. I was a mere 5 foot 3 while he was towering over me at 6 foot 5.

"Of course. Well, as long as you promise you're okay with that witch in there, I'll see you tomorrow," He joked and sent me a wink.

I couldn't help but let out a laugh which made him smile even harder.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. Thanks again."

I watched as Hunter climbed into his truck before making my way back inside. I pushed past a fuming Quinn who seemed to have been eavesdropping on our conversation. I went into my room and closed the door so that she wouldn't keep trying to talk to me. I leaned against it as I took in what had just happened.

I moved to sit down at my desk and set down everything Hunter gave me before grabbing my own backpack. Just as I was pulling out my notebooks, I heard my window slide open. I looked over to see Hannah crawling through. She stood up after she got in and dusted herself off.

"Hey," I smiled.

She smiled back until her eyes landed on my messed up face. Instantly, her face showed concern.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?"

I knew this conversation was coming, Hannah being the only one I could tell everything to. Even though she didn't go to my school, knowing she was in my corner always made me feel so much better.

"The usual. Nate shoved me into the lockers to impress Gemma."

"Seriously, I am going to show up to that hell hole just to beat Gemma's ass," Hannah seethed as she looked closer at my wounds. The swelling had gone down a little from me icing it which made me feel a little better about the ugly sight that was now my face.

I laughed at her words, but she didn't join me. Hannah had always been overprotective of me and it was something I loved about her.

"Don't worry. Hunter actually came right after and shoved Nate into the lockers. Then he helped me to the nurse's office," I told her, knowing she would be happy that my bullies got a small taste of their own medicine.

Hannah raised her eyebrows with a shocked smile as she went to sit on my bed. "I actually came over here because I just saw him leave your house. I was gonna ask what that was all about."

I couldn't fight the blush that was rushing to my cheeks, so I turned back towards my notebooks as I continued to talk. "He came over to check on me and to give me the homework that I missed," I explained.

Hannah gasped loudly before nearly yelling, "Oh. My. God. He totally likes you!"

I quickly shushed her and she put her hand over her mouth. I couldn't fight the positive emotions that bubbled up inside me at her words and despite the fact that I wanted her to keep talking about her theories of Hunter possibly liking me, the blonde girl just a few rooms down would not find it amusing.

"Quinn is furious about all of this. I don't want her to freak out even more. Plus, he probably just thinks of me as a little sister because we grew up together." As much as I hoped that wasn't the case, I didn't want to get my hopes up. After all, he had stopped talking to me before, there wasn't anything stopping him from doing that again. I didn't want to be totally crushed when I went back to having no one at school.

"No way, he wouldn't go out of his way to deal with Q if he just liked you as a friend. Whatever happened between them anyway?" Hannah asked, voicing the question I had been pondering for years.

"I don't know. Quinn won't tell me," I shrugged.

"Hmm maybe you'll be able to get it out of Hunter. You like him back, don't you?" Hannah smirked. I covered my face to hide my embarrassed smile. Hannah knew me way too well.

"I've always had a crush on him, but he doesn't like me so it doesn't matter!" I insisted. Growing up, I adored him, not that it was any secret to anyone. Anytime I got to tag along with him and Quinn, I was ecstatic and just wanted to be by his side the whole time. I felt a great sense of comfort with him. Maybe that was why, now, I wasn't afraid of him like everyone else was.

Hannah raised up her hands in surrender. "Fine, but I can't wait until you start dating and I can say I told you so!"

I rolled my eyes and laughed at her before turning back to my work. The two worksheets that Hunter brought over were just easy reviews from things we learned last year so I finished those in no time. I then moved on to copying Hunter's notes into my own notebooks.

Hannah's words had got me thinking though and it was getting harder to focus on my work. If Hunter did like me, or if something did happen between us, was I ready to hear where he had actually been for the last year?

"Do you think they're true?" I asked, looking back at my best friend who was sprawled across my bed, scrolling on her phone. One of the best things about our friendship was we could spend hours in absolute silence and be perfectly content.

"What?"

"The rumors about Hunter, do you think they're true? Do you think he actually went to prison?" I elaborated, my eyes meeting Hannah's dark brown ones.

Hannah thought hard for a minute, "I want to say no just because of how nice he always was, but he did get a reputation around your school. Maybe he just went down the wrong road."

I sighed as I pondered on my friend's point. Just because Hunter was nice to me, didn't mean he wasn't capable of doing the bad things that everyone said he did. I just didn't want it to be true.

My face must have given away the conflict going on in my mind because she spoke up again, "Even if he did it, it doesn't mean he isn't a good guy. People make mistakes and people have their reasoning for doing things. You're smart, Drew. Just listen to your gut. If you keep talking to him, you'll know whether he has a good heart or not."

I smiled at that. Hannah was right, I wasn't going to base my opinions of his character on the rumors or on his past. I was going to go off of what I knew now. I felt a lot better and I thanked my best friend for the advice.