The Only Exception

seven

"He freaks me out," I whispered to Hunter quietly once Frank finally turned to leave.

"Who? Jack?" Hunter asked.

I shook my head, "Frank. Quinn tried to set me up with him when we all went to the mall together because I guess he has a thing for me, but he was really creepy and when he found out I liked you, he got really angry."

"Don't worry, Love. I won't let him do anything," Hunter reassured me and gently rubbed my back as he led us to class.

"I've never seen you get so feisty!" He teased as we sat down at our lab table.

"Quinn is making me really mad. She just needs to get over it!" I complained.

"I wish I knew why she hated me so much, maybe I could fix it and she would leave us alone," Hunter sighed.

I thought about his words. It wasn't weird for Quinn to be mad at someone and them have no idea what for, she did it to me all of the time. But for something so big, for Quinn to hold a grudge for years, it was weird that neither Hunter nor I had any clue what it was about.

"You guys didn't even have a fight?" I asked, scrunching my eyebrows together.

Hunter pursed his lips and looked like he was trying to think back before shaking his head, "No, just one day freshman year, she stopped talking to me. I went up to her in the hall, and she walked right by me like I wasn't there. I tried calling and texting, no response. I eventually just gave up, figured it was because she was hanging out with the jocks and cheerleaders and I wasn't on her "level" anymore."

That, unfortunately, sounded exactly like something Quinn would do. It was either that or she hated him for something that he obviously didn't know he did. I really wanted to know what it was, but either way, Quinn was taking it too far. Maybe I would ask her about it soon if I ever caught her in a good mood.

That week of school was one of the best I had ever had, until Thursday came around. Hunter texted me in the morning and told me that he had been up all night with food poisoning so he was going to stay home. I was really bummed out that I would have to face the day alone, but he invited me to come over to his house after school.

I texted my parents to make sure it was okay with them and they agreed as long as his mom would be home, which Hunter assured she would be.

The school day dragged on without him there. My classes felt twice as long and I thought lunch would be lonely, but Hunter called me and talked to me during the break which was nice. After the final bell rang, I was relieved to be done. I texted Quinn and told her I wasn't going home with her. I was just going to walk to Hunter's house because I knew there was no way she would give me a ride there.

Just as I was about to walk out the front doors of the building, I was pulled back into the hall by my backpack. Whoever it was, let my backpack go and pushed me into the lockers. My eyes widened in surprise and I looked up to see that it was Gemma and her little followers.

"Aw, looks like your boyfriend isn't here to protect you today!" She snickered as realization crossed my face. I felt dread in my stomach. I had almost made it through the day without any problems. I tried to think of ways to get out of this unscathed.

"Please just leave me alone, Gemma. Don't you have something better to do?" I asked as two of her friends held me against the locker.

"What would be better than this?" She asked as she threw a punch to my ribs. I instinctively doubled over but the two sets of hands stood me back up. I tried to fight against their grip but three against one wasn't exactly great odds.

Nobody was in the hallway anymore, so there was no one to help me. Gemma seemed to realize that as well because she didn't waste anymore time as she started throwing continuous punches to my stomach and rib area. Eventually they let me fall to the floor and all three of them took their turns kicking and punching. I held my hands up and curled into a ball, trying to avoid as much damage as possible.