Tomboy's In Love

Thank You

"Daddy," I murmured, my eyes widening. Shiz, this is bad. Very, very bad.
"What?" Hunter wondered, and I punched him in the gut.

"Get out. Please, please get out," I begged him.
"What the heck, T? I thought- what? Did I do something?" his stare was hard and intense. I shook my head.
"N-no, I just-"

"You just what, T?" Well if you let me finish my sentence, then you would know...

"My-my, sister...uh. Promise me you won't freak out?" I asked him.
"Yeah, why would I freak out?" he looked at me questioningly.
"Promise you won't ever treat her differently?" I stare at him, trying not to get angry.

"I...." I pushed him against a wall, my anger started to take over, but I also felt a sense of desperation.
"Yeah, yeah, I promise," he said to me. I stepped back.
"Okay."

Then I led him down the stairs and to the girl that I wanted to tackle but couldn't. When she saw me, she squealed and kicked.
"Hey, Chloe!" I grinned at her.

She grinned back, making excited noises, so I kissed her forehead, and hugged her while she laughed. I had seen her yesterday, but not today because I was over at Blake's house when she left to go to FSK. FSK stands for, 'for special kids'. It was basically a place that kids with special needs go to in case their parents can't be with them all day.

We've known the people who basically run it for, hmm, let's see...Chloe's whole life.

Once I had remembered that Hunter was still there, I stiffened. I turned to him, my muscles completely tense. He was smiling at me. And Chloe. He was smiling at Chloe. HOLY SHIZ, HE'S SMILING AT CHLOE, YESSSSS.

He walked over to her, bending down, so she was eye level with him.
"Chloe, huh? Let's we, I'm going to guess you're age...hm, let's see...12?" I shook my head. He was close.
"13?" he suggested.

Chloe squealed in response, and he laughed.
"I got it! First try!" Chloe laughed and so did he. I chuckled and so did my dad.

It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself...

I smiled at Chloe, and hugged my dad.
"Hi, Daddy," I muttered into his shoulder.
"Hi, Tay," he replied.

Tay was his nickname for me. It used to annoy me a lot, but I got over it, and have now come to love it.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna take Hunter- OH! Right, Daddy, this is Hunter, and Hunter, this is my dad," I soda, looking at my dad expectantly.

He was looking really socially awkward, so I grabbed his wrist and Hunter's wrist, and made them shake hands. Dad caught on, eventually.

"Hi, uh...I'm Taylor's dad, and, ah...you can call me Mr. West, and uh, yeah...." I shook my head at him.
"I'm Hunter, T's...friend?" he looked at me. I nodded my head eagerly.

"Yeah, T's friend. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. West," Hunter said, smiling at my dad.
"Yeah, you too," Daddy muttered. I sighed.

"Whale then...I'm just gonna..I'm just gonna take Hunter up here, back to my room...yeah," I said, grabbing Hunter's hand, and dragging him up the stairs, and into my room.

When we got up there, I let go of his hand, and shoved it into my pocket because of the loss of warmth. God, his hand was so big and warm. I wanted to hold it again, but that'd be weird. So shoved my hand in my pocket, and sat down at my desk.

{ Hunter }

I walked over to T, and caged her in between my arms as I placed my hands on her desk at her sides. I leaned over her, unable to control myself. My mouth was right next to her ear, and I had to work hard not to kiss it.

My breath fanned over her neck, and she visibly stiffened. She took in a deep breath, and turned around, and...hugged me.
"Thank you," she mumbled into my shoulder. Surprised, still, I wrapped my arms around her waist.
"For what?" I asked.

"For not freaking out, or treating her differently," T whispered, her voice was in pain.
"I couldn't, I can't," I whispered back, hugging her tighter.

I slowly turned my head to see her breathing rapidly. She suddenly pushed away from the hug, muttering a 'sorry', and sat back down. Her face was red, and her eyes were brimmed with almost tears.

Key word almost.

"Are...are you okay?" I asked softly. T cleared her throat.
"Yeah. Can you help me post this?" she changed the subject quickly, so I just nodded. We worked together, editing a few things here and there, so that no one could stalk T, using the video.

After we had posted it, things got pretty awkward.

When I glanced over at T, she was biting her lip, and her jaw was tense. She caught me looking and sighed.
"Do you...wanna talk about it?" I asked softly, readying myself for a 'no'.
"Sure, I guess you should know," she said, much to my surprise.

She closed her eyes.

"Chloe has been bullied. A lot. It's all because of her appearance, and her not being able to talk. I mean, she can talk, but it's hard, and her talking is a lot more limited than mine or yours. Because of her being bullied, and me being her sister, I get bullied too. It's not that that bothers me, though. It's just the fact that they're hurting my sister. They're hurting her.

"I lose my temper a lot. I know it's best to ignore them, but how can anyone expect me to do that when it's constantly happening, wherever we go? It is always happening. Always. So, when it's guys, I have a habit of pushing them, and girls, I take slightly more mercy on because they're mostly not used to such physical contact, so I just glare at them and tell them off.

"It's really tough, though. My dad says I'm really good with her, and -I'm not trying to get cocky here but- I think I'm good with her too. I'm just hit all that great with others. I'm a tomboy, and that's also another reason to bully me. Well, for the people who are have enough, or rather, cocky enough."

By the end, she was fuming, anger radiating off of her like body heat. Haha. See what I did there? Fuming? Body heat? Eh, eh? No? Okay.

T was breathing hard enough to the point in which I had a slight fear that she would explode and blood would splatter over me. Don't ask me why, but I actually thought that maybe, just maybe that would happen.

And because of that fear, that very stupid fear, I might add, I hugged T. Look, I knew that I had already hugged her, but it was more like she hugged me. This time, though, I made the first move. Not to mention, I was proud of that.

She was literally trembling with the anger that those people brought to her, but I also knew that those people brought her pain, too.

And that made me pretty mad, myself.

***
Hey, guys. Sorry it took so long. I've been writing another book, so please have some sympathy. So yeah, we know Hunter's feelings towards T. (If you hadn't caught on already.)

We also know why T was so happy Hunter didn't treat Chloe differently or badly.

Quote of the chapter: "The aching in your chest isn't just evidence of pain and sorrow. It is also evidence of happiness and bliss." - Me 😊